Let me start off by saying this is not your typical Resident Evil experience. Wonderously lush backgrounds, interactive areas, perfectly rendered characters with facial expressions that make sense; Resident Evil 4 has it all. Gone are the prerendered backgrounds of old. Sure, I always thought they looked good, but what we have here is a very different story. Well, to give you an idea, the cut-scenes could be CGI or they could be in-game. The in-game graphics look so amazing, it’s impossible to tell.

Characters are rendered with impeccable details, from Leon Kennedy and the players he meets along the way, down to the lowliest, crazed villager. Detail to spare is the mantra for Resident Evil 4. The backgrounds are appropriately dark and brooding and fit the mood perfectly, no matter what area you happen to be in.

Sound effects have always been a strong suit for the Resident Evil series and Resident Evil 4 is no exception. Spooky sounds abound at every turn, and ambient music serves to keep you on edge constantly. As the game takes place somewhere in Europe, you’ll hear a good bit of Spanish being spoken (or shall I say, shouted at you) during the game. Also, you won’t find much of the traditional Resident Evil cheeze here, either. The dialogue is well-written and enjoyable. Top notch in these departments.

Ok, you got me. Top notch in every department, actually. The perfect score really says it all. But let me expound. Resident Evil 4 is a very different game than all of its predecessors. I, for one, am not a big fan of change, when I like what’s been done in the past. However, the Capcom team took a great thing and made it worlds better.

Let me start off with a bit of storyline. Leon Kennedy, from Resident Evil 2, is back and better than ever. He is now a member of an elite government team, and he has been sent to Europe to locate the President’s kidnapped daughter, Ashley Graham, and return her to her father. Of course, the group who kidnapped Ashley will stop at nothing to prevent Leon from accomplishing his task.

Along the way, he’ll meet up with a whole new set of baddies. He thought he had it rough with slow-moving zombies. These are fast-moving European villagers with axes and sling blades and rakes, for God’s sake! And they don’t like outsiders. And they really don’t like Leon. To help you help Leon find Ashley, the developers have given you a few treats. Let me explain.

First of all, gone is the traditional survival horror control. You now have control of Leon (and Ashley at different points of the game) and he goes where you tell him to go. The control scheme will now make sense to those that don’t dig survival horror. It’s a much more fluid system. Second, Leon can use the new hit zone aiming system and shoot specific parts of people’s bodies. This rates really high on the cool factor. Shoot a guy in the eye and he grabs his eye and shakes his head. Go for the leg and he hops around appropriately. And so on. You can even shoot the weapons from their hands and also hit a blade in mid-air to save your own skin. Did I mention these guys are fast and well-armed? You’ll have quite a fight on your hands at numerous points in the game. They play dirty.

There is never a shortage of weaponry or ammo, either. Leon always has his trusty knife, just in case, but ample ammunition is provided to you throughout your trials. One wonderful new introduction into the game is the appearance of a merchant at different points in the game. You can purchase cool stuff like health spray, new and improved weapons, protective gear, and a bigger box to keep your stuff in. How do you get the money for all these goodies? Well, as you kill folks along the way, you collect money. You can also find it by breaking boxes and different things like that in the environment. There are also treasures to acquire by killing certain enemies and searching high and low. Combine them with other treasures for higher values and sell them to the merchant for cashola. This money can also be used to upgrade your weapons in a big way. By the end of the game, your pistol can be so tricked out, it’s ridiculous. Good stuff indeed. Oh, and don’t shoot the merchant, no matter how tempting it may seem. Even just for fun. Even just in his foot. He will die and be gone forever in that section of the game and you will be sorry. I was. :(

Let me introduce you to another wonderful addition to this game. The action buttons. At certain points in the game, a sequence will initiate and you’ll be required to press certain buttons to pass the area. Sort of like a twitchy finger fest. This is such an innovation for the series and a terrific one at that. It catches you by surprise and requires you to act fast.

Hours and hours of gameplay await you in Resident Evil 4. Once you have completed the first run through, you will unlock a harder difficulty along with two “mini-games.” One is a cool little adventure and the other is basically an unnerving target practice on steroids. I’ll leave it at that. Unlock them yourself and have even more hours of Resident Evil fun!

Resident Evil 4 balances perfect gameplay with a completely even amount of difficulty. Yes, the game is hard. But it is such a fun hard! This game will challenge you, it will frighten you, and it will make you stay up for hours on end playing. Once you have beaten the game, you will unlock the Professional setting. Play it again for even more challenge. As I mentioned before, the mini-games are there as well. They are both tough in their own right. Good and challenging for sure.

Gone is the crappy camera. Yay! You are never left in a position where you can’t see around a corner and the like. I never felt frustrated with the game. Control is spot-on and will please those who have steered clear of survival horror in the past, yet it does so without alienating those hardcore survival horror fans of old. Instead of feeling like I had been cheated by the radical changes in the game (much like I did with the last iteration of Tomb Raider... shudder), instead it was like a breath of fresh air. Capcom has taken a wonderful series and breathed new life into it. I am hungry for the next installment of Resident Evil and my GameCube isn’t even cold from this one.

I could go on and on about the nuances of this new interpretation of the RE series, but the simple fact of the matter is this – it’s new and fresh and different from any Resident Evil you’ve ever played before. Lovers of action, survival horror, and even RPGs can get behind this game. I played it through to the end without stopping and was truly sad when the experience was over. Buy this game and you will not be disappointed. The 100% score speaks for itself.