Wii Review: Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

Review by: Pierst179

Resident Evil 4 was the biggest success among all games of Capcom’s famous thriller series. Perhaps because of its outstanding graphics, that even one generation later still look as sharp and overwhelming as they can be, which made every single dark corner, locked door and unexplored forsaken house even more real and for a game like Resident Evil that’s one characteristic that is definitely necessary.

It seems very reasonable that such an amazing game united with the Wii’s inventive controls would compel developers to produce a remake that would keep all of the original game’s prowess. Resident Evil 4 Wii edition is exactly that, a classic game compiled with new controls and a few extras for those who had only played the Gamecube edition.

The storyline is kind of different from all previous games, although you will still have to deal with a virus that has been infecting people. Instead of exploring Raccoon City and its outskirts while blasting some zombies Leon S. Kennedy will set to a remote Spanish village to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the president of the United States, what seemed like a piece of cake because what problems would you encounter in such a small village, turns out to be an ordeal in which you will find infected villagers that are really willing to stop you.

The game plays very different from its predecessors. In all past Resident Evil games you had to get used to that unpredictable camera that could not be controlled by any means, that camera did help when it comes to hiding enemies who are just around the corner waiting for you to pass or inside a room that you can’t see inside unless you actually enter it, but I must confess I was a little bit annoyed by that since you have to change the way you control your character every time the cameras shift.

This time around you will have a third person vision exactly behind Leon and whoever you are playing with. You can aim by simply pointing your Wiimote at the screen, which will make your accuracy skyrocket because it is much smoother than trying to headshot an enemy with an analog stick. In spite of that fact, the game’s difficulty is still enough to make you get killed around 70 times during your first playthrough.

Another fact that makes this game’s gameplay so awesome is that during part of the game you will play as a pair, you will control Leon while Ashley the president’s daughter follows you, in most games she would probably make you mad by standing in front of you when she is not supposed to, get stuck in walls or run towards enemies just to get killed, but in this game it doesn’t happen. You can control what she will do just by pressing a button, you can tell her to either follow you or to wait so that you don’t get annoyed, just don’t forget her.

One would quickly assume that the game is not quite scary as usual due to the fact that the zombies are nowhere to be found, but do not believe that. The Spaniards, despite not being as ugly as zombies, will make you pretty tense this is all made possible because of the game’s atmospheric graphics and sound that match so beautifully.

The graphics are impressive, obviously they don’t deserve to be called perfect since this is a last gen game and the graphics have not been improved, but anyway they still work quite well, especially because we are talking about a game produced for the Wii that is not such a powerful system. The main characters are all amazing, they look very real, and so does the scenarios that won’t actually vary much as you go through the game. The same can’t be said about the enemies, bosses aside, the Spaniards aren’t quite polished models but that can be understood since too polished enemies at the screen at the same time would cause massive frame rate problems. The cutscenes are also damn cool. The music is also very nice, if you agree with me that in a game like this one the music’s goal is to make you feel creepy whenever you are walking in a dark hallway or exploring a dark sewer then you will have no complaints here. It can be noticed when you are inside a house entering different rooms and then all of a sudden a strange music starts playing, you sure get scared and start exploring the place in a more careful way knowing that you are going to have some problems.

The sound effects are very close to real, the gunshot sound, thunders, squeaking stairs, box breaking and many other sounds. Voice acting is also done with perfection, the actors are good and their voices match the movements of the character’s mouths, the Spaniards scream whenever they see you, they call for help and warm other villagers that there is a “Forastero!” in the village.

Besides the regular adventure there are also a bundle of nice extras that are unlocked once you beat the game for the first time, those extras were available on the PS2 version of the game but were excluded from the GC version probably due to lack of space in the Mini-DVDs. So, for those who have been following Nintendo and didn’t play the PS2 version, such as me, will enjoy those extras for a long while and that’s just another reason to buy this game.

The extras are Assignment Ada, Separate Ways and The Mercenaries. The first two are missions to be completed as Ada it is interesting to play both since they will fill some voids that were left in the regular adventure’s story. While the latter is a mini-game where you can select from 5 different characters, 4 of them are unlockacle, in this mini you will find yourself in a scenario where you have got to kill as many enemies as you can in a certain amount of time.

Besides that you can also replay the whole adventure in a more challenging difficulty, you can also buy new guns from the merchants. All that considered Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition is a game with loads of replay value, perhaps one of the most “replayable” games ever.

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition is a definite must buy for Wii owners that like this genre. It has amazing graphics, great gameplay and tons of extras. It is a good game for either people who have already tried one of the last gen versions and are allured by the Wii’s controls being used in a shooter or people who have never played it.