While I'm mostly into niche games, I'm not beyond trying out what the typical folks hail as "the best there is". Of course, after playing them, I often end up totally disagreeing with the pedestal sentiments.
Case in point is Biohazard 4. It drew praise for being a pioneer of several innovative gaming concepts that inevitably spawned countless imitators. While I agree that the atmosphere works, a lot of the gameplay elements were whacked.
Got the game via PSN download about two years ago during a price-down promo to commemorate the launch of Biohazard 6.
Having no experience with the earlier titles (since I'm not too fond of the clunky reverse and camera-dependent control scheme), this was nonetheless my first official foray into the Biohazard world. Note that this is also the first Biohazard game to not feature any zombies, as the enemies here are European villagers possessed by a bio-engineered parasite and are working under a cult. Again, the pioneering effort was strong with this one, and it showed a lot of promise.
Needless to say, things didn't go as well as I'd hoped.
Even while playing on Amateur difficulty, I found myself stuck in several compromising situations with barely any supplies. The Ganados (the aforementioned infected villagers) were total bullet sponges and QTEs abound every so often, happening during FMVs and a couple of exploration points with additional boss harassment. I abandoned my first real run halfway and restarted, clearing Amateur by the barest minimum. Even so, having gained some experience with the whole thing, I wanted to end it with no regrets. However, the last trophy for the PS3 version aptly called "A Heart Of Steel", requires a complete run of Professional difficulty.
I was appalled to find that the only way to gain access to said difficulty is to do a full vanilla run on Normal. and after it unlocks, you also have to go through it again the same way. It seemed like none of the tangible enhancements for clearing prior would carry over at all.
I called it quits at the time since it was a severely tiring (not to mention tiresome) experience.
Fast forward to 2014, roughly 3 days ago. I decided to go at it again, but not before doing my homework:
First off, I found that the the puny handgun is almost never used for the kill; its primary function is to stun the Ganado to follow up with a knockdown blow, then finishing with several frantic knife swipes. Why several? Because the knife is also weak. That's pretty much regular enemy battles in a nutshell until you bump into a certain cloaked gunrunner...
Not only was it actually fun to play as Ada, it provided what I needed to get the job done.
Full QTE Duel Cutscene, Exploration Harassment, More QTE during the actually playable boss fight... Krauser made me dread having to go through the game a couple more times...
14 hours of checkpoint scumming, save reloading and lucky scrimmage games later, I got what I wanted. Of course, it wasn't a smooth run, QTEs with instant-death consequences were the primary roadblocks. In retrospect, Professional Mode's only real alteration is the increased durability of regular enemies and bosses as well as damage received from them (Ashley would probably go down in one hit without the armor). Other than that, everything is pretty much the same.
Glad to finally see a new post in this blog! XD
ReplyDeleteResident Evil 4 sure brought back memories for me since I've played all the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and Wii versions.
The two main innovations of this game are probably the over-the-shoulder perspective and context-sensitive action (not the QTE ^^;)
I remember Gears Of War for Xbox 360 is the first game that majorly rips-off this game ^^;
But yep, it is as you said, the handgun is to stun the enemies so that you can kick them ^^; it can feel like a routine after a while... Probably the most interesting thing is to figure out who to shoot first (the ones who are running toward you or can throw stuffs lol)
And the game kinda feels like it keeps trying to reduce your supplies, and when you're indeed running out of supplies, the enemies start dropping more of them, lol.
I actually like this game more than Resident Evil 5 (which I platinum'ed 100% including multiplayer modes) and 6 :p probably because I'm a fan of the cool young Leon in 4 (they made him look old in 6 -.-;)
I quite like the attache case system in this game as well, which they forego in the sequels.
Back when I played Gamecube version, I often feel frustrated and would stop playing as well. By Playstation 2 version I got used to it. Wii version's aiming made it tad easy though ^^; (I even played additional playthroughs using different hands to train my ambidexterity - I think that's what's cool about Wii)
You might also want to check out this old Japanese man in his 70s, a retired newspaper reporter, Shiro Suzuki, who is a bad-ass at this game ^^ http://youtu.be/SiMfAFQ1ah0
lol, this post is nothing more than frustration-airing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't totally hate the game per se, I'll never play it vanilla ever again. The Laser and Tommy Gun (Chicago Typewriter) are now permanent fixtures in my inventory.
When it comes to games that I can never really be good at, my credo is to just take full advantage of stuff that makes it more manageable. Hence the hiatus and planning.
I didn't mention it in the main post, but I'm also guilty of planting a rocket launcher round on a couple of bosses (it's either because I can't deal with them properly or I was anticipating an event down the road where my supplies would be put to better use).
That's pretty much how it goes. Might pick it up again when I feel like it, but sans the resource management and VIP babysitting.
Dig the video by the way. ^_^
Well, me too in terms of using everything that the game gives me ^^ it's hard to tell whether we're inflicting damage to some of the bosses in this game with normal weapons anyway ^^;
ReplyDeleteHe's been an ambassador to Biohazard series ever since lol.