The pinnacle of the Resident Evil series. A timeless masterpiece that changed the franchise by introducing the over the shoulder camera and shifting the focus toward action while reducing the emphasis on puzzles, which was a win for me.
That said, I almost dropped the game because of its awful controls. Once I switched to mouse and keyboard, though, the experience became much better. Despite being released in 2005, the game has aged remarkably well. It has everything a great game should have, along with an incredible amount of charm and personality.
For once, you're not confined to a single location. Instead, you explore an entire village, a massive castle, and an island, each introducing new enemies that speak Spanish and offering a unique atmosphere. Every boss fight feels different and memorable. Even though the game leans much more into action than horror, there were still several moments that genuinely creeped me out, whether because of the atmosphere or the occasional jump scare. I absolutely hated those traps.
The only part I felt neutral about was Ashley. Her voice became annoying after a while. "LEON!!!" is something I'll never forget. Her AI also shows its age. There were plenty of moments where she would take the worst possible path or simply stand still when I didn't tell her to. The castle was especially frustrating, particularly the catapult section, where she somehow managed to die almost every single time. As for technical issues, I only encountered two crashes while trying to reload a save, but nothing beyond that.
This game is a classic for a reason. It clearly takes inspiration from other games, like the radio communication style from Metal Gear, but it also introduced so many ideas of its own that it ended up influencing an entire generation of action games. If Resident Evil 4 were released today with modern graphics and a few quality of life improvements, I genuinely believe it would still be considered one of the best games on the market.
