If there’s one thing to take note of before playing this game, it’s to never drop the controller or even blink during cutscenes because a context sensitive event could occur and missing it can result in Leon lying dead on the floor. One of my favorite moments in the game is when I entered a scripted action sequence/cutscene which involved some hand to hand combat with a knife againt the villain Krauser. In the Wii version, you primarily use waggle to overcome this sequence and it’s far more satisfying than the time sensitive button presses of the previous iterations. Unfortunately, this and the game’s new aiming function are the only real gameplay changes made on the Wii. It’s a subtle use of the Wii-mote but nothing groundbreaking in any sense.

In all honesty, the only thing that breaks up the incredible pacing of the game are the portions which have you escorting Ashley throughout many of the game’s dangerous scenarios. I could never remember a game when they’ve ever been an experience I like to go through over again and nothing is different in this case. Sure, the escort scenarios may not be as frustrating in RE4 as in other games but that doesn’t mean they’re any fun.

No need to be conservative
Conserving ammunition, ink ribbons, and healing medicines have often played a big part of the survival horror aspect of past Resident Evil games. You had to make each shot count and at times completely avoid enemies altogether, running by them to conserve the limited ammo the game gives you. Also, you were forced to limit the amount of times you could save your game, because the ink ribbons used to save your progress on the typewriters found throughout the games were limited, as were the healing medicines such as green and red herbs.

There’s no denying that these limits placed on us could often become incredibly frustrating. If you by chance would encounter an enemy that required a specific weapon to defeat and you had no ammo for it, you’d often be forced to restart the game from an earlier segment and conserve your items in order to get passed this enemy later on. While this may have put emphasis on being a conservative player, it could become annoying to the point where you would just want to give up on the game because of the frustration felt from going through events over and over again. Luckily for those of us who found this conservation aspect of the past games frustration, Resident Evil 4 throws it all away.

There is no limit on ammunition or healing medicines and you can save your game an unlimited amount of times. Because of this, there is no need to make multiple saves in RE4 in case you screw up and waste certain items that you may have needed, because it’s very likely that you’ll come across them again later on since the games enemies often drop ammo and healing herbs when killed. Additionally, there are large number of checkpoints included in the game, so you don’t necessarily have to start from your last save point if you’re killed, that is unless you turn the game off. Of course, you must still attempt on making each bullet you fire hit its mark because later on in the game ammo isn’t as easy to come across as in the game’s earlier segments. There had been many times where I had no ammo for multiple weapons in my possession, but often enough, once you’re ammo is depleted, an enemy conveniently drops what you need at the last moment.

Now, in order to acquire newer and more powerful weapons in the game, you don’t come across them as you would in previous Resident Evil games. Instead, you buy them from a merchant who is often found in the same room where a typewriter is located, or very nearby. Not only does this merchant sell you new weapons, but he also allows you to upgrade each weapon’s firepower, reload speed, and capacity. It’s very much like "leveling up" in an RPG sense but it costs money in RE4, opposed to experience points in RPGs.

I’m quite fond of the inclusion on the merchant in RE4, although I have to admit that his existence makes very little sense. The whole area is infested with bloodthirsty creatures that practically kill every living thing that isn’t one of their own and this merchant just so happens to freely roam around these areas. It’d be wise not to think about this much because RE4 is indeed a videogame. It’s not a written rule that videogames have to be ultra-realistic to be fun and RE4 is undeniably fun and addictive. Adding to the fact are these shooting range mini-games that the merchant hosts and a number of them are included throughout the game and reward players with items.