HSH28 wrote:Suffocate Peon wrote:ican'tbelievrinks said resident evil4noooooooo
Its a less ridiculous game to hate than Half Life 2.
Anyway.
This seems innocuous until you think about it. Resident Evil 4 elevates itself into another echelon of amazingess. Hating it is not understandable in any regard. I can think of lots of acclaimed tv shows or music or films that I think is understandable if some people don't like them because they might want something from them that they don't deliver. But even then...if something is that well made, even if it's not to your personal taste, you can enjoy it. Or you can enjoy some aspects of it that are the best of its kind. 3 reasons why someone might not like RE4: no strafe/run while shooting, no quick weapon change, not like old Resident Evil.
It's abnormally consistently original and amazing in its set pieces, art direction, enemies, weapons, and attention to detail. And it's pacing. You can start the game for the second time and play up to the lake boss and it wouldn't feel like 2 hours worth of game because each section segues into the next with no padding or transitional passages of play, or irritating puzzles or difficulty spikes or aimless trekking. Half-Life 2 has all of those things. It's hopeless at creating set pieces that surprise and are exciting and original. Attack helicopters are not that. More spider things that jump at you are not that. Resident Evil 4 creates places and then somehow is able to take you to new unexpected areas while you journey through them. Its enemies belong to their environments. I hate how lazy Half-Life 2 is with that. RE4 is linear, but doesn't feel so because you occasionally backtrack and take different routes. Those first few hours are so so perfect, like its director had gone through every single space that you walk through and really thought about whether it added anything. Half-Life 2 has plenty of pointless corridors and alleyways and grey dull rooms and brown boxes. It does it to break up play. In RE4, they thought; we need to do the same, you need variety, you need to feel like you're collecting and building up your supplies so when you reach incredible enemies you feel like you've got a chance. So it's entirely worthwhile. And they still thought; this isn't quite enough, lets sometimes surprise them with a snake that jumps at them, that if they're able to kill will give them more money. Half-Life 2 is grueling and horrible, but people like lots of action so mistake this for being exciting. Only the Japanese could have made RE4 as good as it is, because only they would be so humble as to think sections of brilliant gameplay could be improved upon. It doesn't need to be that good that often, it doesn't need an ending credits as classy as that, it doesn't need the best upon completion bonus mode ever, it doesn't need to personalize the El Gigantes when they're introduced later on in the game. But all those things elevate it to a place that is untouchable. It's a game where everything in your line of sight is there to be shot at but they manage to contextualize the enemies and turn them into individuals who have a personality and home. They think it adds something for you to see the El Gigante be introduced by being pulled in by a bunch of men who can't handle it's power. Rather than it just standing there hopelessly, waiting for you to attack it. In a game as silly as it is, it means something to the purpose of playing the thing if you believe everything in the game existed before you came along. It always always puts you in a place and then introduces the enemy.
Half-Life 2 is as awful as it is because it's a game made by people who view themselves as geniuses who see it upon themselves to deliver to gamers a masterclass in game design. Lets do commentaries so we can tell everyone how we ached over the decision of whether that dull generic character should wear an orange coat or a purple coat and miss the fact he's still dull and generic. If they're not in a position to make great games then it's unfair to hate what they produce, but the admiration for them puts them on some kind of pedestal as developers who can do anything they want. And then we get THAT.
edit: probably unhealthy levels of love for RE4