” If the Resident Evil 4 AI could be bottled up and sold to competing developers the gaming world would be so much better for it.”

If the Resident Evil 4 AI could be bottled up and sold to competing developers the gaming world would be so much better for it. Sure the zombies make the occasional dash towards you, but it’s forgiven since they do it with style. They’ll climb ladders, hop over fences, smash through windows and throw grenades at you on the way. The brilliant use of the environment also tests the player’s nerve. You can climb ladders and even knock the ladder away once you reach the top, but i'll be damned if them smart zombies wont pick up the ladder, place it back and climb right back up at you. The feeling of panic you get when you notice a ladder being placed back as hands behind you crash though a window easily surpasses those dogs that jumped though the window in Resident Evil (In actual fact that very scene is honoured in Resident Evil 4, only far more menacingly). And these are not scripted scenes either, in fact we were pleasantly surprised to see the AI doing most of the work during the whole of the game.

Scattered around the levels you’ll bump into local traders who’ll love to relinquish you of your hard earned cash that you have picked up. Here you’ll be able to purchase new weapons and upgrades for the weapons you already own. With all these extra goodies lying about (or brought with the currency you find) you will need to get your inventory case pretty organised to fit everything in. Anything that cannot be squeezed into the inventory slots will eventually have to be abandoned or used. Paying homage to the previous titles, Resident Evil 4 keeps the usual grid system with every item taking up a certain amount of space. As the game progresses and the items become more specialised, you’ll be able to purchase bigger storage cases from the traders to compensate.

Any horticulturists amongst us will be glad to see the green, yellow and red herbs making reappearances, albeit hidden in crates or scattered around the nooks and crannies of the level. Green herbs alone will only increase the health bar a little but the right combination of green, yellow and red will completely fill up your health and also increase the bar a little into the bargain. It doesn’t take a mastermind to work out the correct mixtures, but learning when to use the herbs, and in what order does. Later on the stakes increase further as you’ll also be responsible for other people, only you can deal out the herbs and it will be up to you to decide who gets that last green herb in your inventory.

The only problems we could spot would probably not even be deemed problems by some. It would have been nice to have had a strafe option as sometimes the camera can act awkwardly during some intense firefights. Also some players may have appreciated a quick weapon switch, since the time is suspended when you are sorting out items or changing weapons, this feature would not have hurt the action. Apart from that Resident Evil 4 is worth every bit of that 99% score.

" this is one game you simply can’t miss out on.."

It took a long time before the series repeated the brilliance of the original title but Capcom have done it, and done it with style. Resident Evil has reclaimed the throne from not only the survival horror genre but it's possibly even become ‘the’ quintessential Gamecube game in the process. Totally flawless on the Cube, this is one game you simply can’t miss out on.