Resident Evil 4

my first RE game! it took me too long to finish it but i enjoyed it a lot. i haven't played a lot of survival horror so i don't have a lot to compare it to. took me about 18 hours to finish.

combat is insanely amazing. it felt slow at first but once i got better it was so satisfying. and the mechanics surrounding it (like the shop, treasures, resource management) work really well together. i loved that combat was chaotic and fast-paced sometimes, but also slow and strategic sometimes. in general, the pacing of the game is really on point. another amazing thing: the boss encounters! i've never seen bosses so interesting before, i was so impressed.

to some negative things: i wasn't into the characters tbh (even though i loved the story and setting!). maybe it's my fault for not playing the other games. i liked Leon and i'm okay with the mainly silent protagonist, but i felt like Ashley and Louis could've been a bit more interesting (or talked a bit more?). also, i actually didn't like the final boss :( it felt a bit too easy and not even that interesting compared to all the others.

i'm still digesting this game so i might edit the review later. overall, i stayed for the mechanics, not so much the story and characters, which actually says a lot about how good the gameplay is. while not my GOTY by any means, it felt like a polished, complete game and that feels so refreshing nowadays.

Playing a finished, polished, and amazing game in modern gaming is truly refreshing since we are used to playing trash nowadays.

Resident Evil 4 feels like a natural evolution of RE2, something RE3 could not do. Here, the gameplay feels solid and versatile. Parrying, evading, and new shooting mechanics are essential to encourage players to be aggressive, but not reckless, since good ammo management is necessary to not find yourself in difficult situations. The guns are well-balanced, which naturally makes every build unique and personal. One example is the crossbow. I think most people don't like it but it helped me so much to save ammo. In hard encounters, I always had ammo cuz of it. Being precise is well rewarded here as well. The level design invites you to know the map pretty well so you can't get caught easily and search for the best positions to kill the enemies - that are varied, requiring you to use different weapons to be efficient.

The story has the same level of quality. Characters are fun and being around them makes the game enjoyable. I loved Ashley's persona and, because of that, protecting her was not tedious. Quite the opposite. Leon and Ada had both shown a maturation from the last game, which was explored in this campaign. I loved Krauser either, for some reason. His end was amazing. Also, the mystery involving the place was an amazing tool to make us interested until the end. Cutscenes and acting were top level - and speaking in graphics...

Man, playing a 2023 game at launch when it is optimized and has amazing graphics feels almost supernatural at this point. I only had frame drops in only 2 moments - and it was reasonable. Otherwise, the game ran amazingly on my Ryzen 1600 and RTX 2060. Ultra settings (except for textures) at 1080p 60fps. I simply love this engine. Also, since I played RE 2 and 3 recently, I can assure you that the graphics are way better. Thanks, Devs for that. This game deserves our money. Hands down.