I hate Resident Evil 4. I do not care that it was rated Game of the Year. To me, that just indicates the majority of people have bad taste in games.
Its storyline is pathetic. Basically, it involves a government agent on a mission to save the president's daughter from a group of terrorists plotting to dominate the world. That formula has been done to death in fictional works. It does not make for an interesting plot, either. If anything, those types of stories are boring and enough to put any intelligent person to sleep. Me? I would rather get absorbed into a story that is intriguing and mind stimulating, such as Silent Hill 2 or Tales of the Abyss.
Most of its characters are awful. Leon is a standard bad-arse with a cocky attitude and cheesy lines. There are characters who are able to pull off the bad-arse role well, such as Dante Sparda from Devil May Cry and Leon Magnus (yeah, another Leon XD) from Tales of Destiny. However, Leon utterly fails at doing this. He is nothing more than a walking cliche without any real character depth. I prefer characters who are actually well rounded and three-dimensional, not ones who are stereotypical cardboard cut-outs.
Ashley is a weak willed damsel-in-distress. She cannot do anything for herself and constantly whines for Leon to rescue her. I think most people will agree that she is a horrible character, though.
Krauser was a standard muscle bound meat-head pumped on steroids. He has to be one of the most unoriginal characters I have ever seen. I actually prefer him over the likes of Wesker (who is just a lousy villain in general), but he is still two-dimensional and stale, which there is no excuse for. Furthermore, his backstory was vague and poorly developed. I did not understand what had happened to him or the motivations behind his actions.
Saddler was a standard cult leader who wanted to conquer the world. He had a boring personality and was severally lacking in character depth. His final form was also unoriginal.
And Mendez (the village chief)? He did not have any character at all. That left a bitter taste in my mouth.
So, the only characters who I do like from the game are Ada, Luis, and Salazar. Only three charactes, huh? That is quite telling of how poor this game's character cast is.
The enemies in the game are piss easy. The Ganados are very predictable in their movements and actions. It is not difficult to outsmart them, which takes away from the game's fun factor. I like challenges, which RE4 fails to provide. Say what you will about the zombies, but they were smarter than the Ganados. They were unpredictable and knew how to surround one from all angles. You would not believe the number of times I have been eaten by the zombies in this series. But the Ganados? I was never once killed by them.
The over-the-shoulder camera is annoying. It allows one to see enemies coming directly at him or her. In the old Resident Evil games, the camera angles were great, since they ensured that one did not know where enemies were. This further enhanced the suspense and horror that Resident Evil is famous for. The over-the-shoulder camera takes away that suspense and horror, which greatly decreases Resident Evil 4's fear factor.
Since Resident Evil 5 is going to be similar to Resident Evil 4, I will not be purchasing it. I think that Capcom has ruined the series by changing it from a survival horror series to an action adventure one. Shame, too. Growing up, I liked the Resident Evil series. To see that it has taken such a bad turn upsets me.
