Nostalgic Tuesday | Resident Evil 4 on PS2 Emulator | Kentzz reviews [ENG]

Survival/horror games come in a number of various types. But developer Capcom is making their extra scary. Tecmo's photography, influenced by the Lethal Frame sequence, is more subtle, startling, and surprising to the player at least-expected moments. Nightmare Monsters are cool, but they had more gore than scares.

Among the survival/horror games, there's a series where everybody is searching for inspiration. It's the series that made the genre into a viable platform for developers, and it's the series gamers searching for the right thing to do when they hear "boo!" – Resident Evil.

Once exclusive to PS1, exclusive to Dreamcast, and most recently exclusive to GameCube, Resident Evil slowly made its way back to PlayStation. A modified version of CODE Veronica was released for PS2 around one year after its Dreamcast debut. Likewise, Resident Evil 4 has been upgraded to PS2, adding the best of GameCube's best action game to Sony's console, excluding a few major graphics.

Redefined for a different camera view, Resident Evil 4 looks like a third or third camera. The first-person shooter. Don't be fooled, the gameplay is true to its origins. The penalty is not part of this grim universe, nor should you sprint back and forth. Up with ease, man. The character's movement is based on the original game. You still have to hold a button to run and hold another one to draw your pistol. This time drawing your weapon lets you target and pinpoint the precise location you want to fire, a genius improvement that makes the game so creepier. When the enemy closes, filling the screen with their hideous faces, the game lets you realize like you're the one that's being targeted, not Leon.

Resident Evil 4 is a game with great surprises, the first of which takes place after the first battle. New weapons, including more efficient shotguns and an incredible sniper rifle, sound like a fantasy come true when you figure out why the game gives them: to wipe out thousands of dangerous new creatures that have been born. The serpent of the first Resident Evil was just the beginning. Boss fights take place more often and this time around provide a larger edge of the scale.

The most famous opponents are dazed citizens. You'd actually think they were zombies if Capcom hadn't told us otherwise. They wanted us to know that it wasn't some dumb T-Virus that turned people into flesh-hungry monsters. These guys aren't very hungry. Chances are you're not going to see them bite into a single human, live or dead person. Their eyes are as dark as night, but some of them have a red tint. Glow that makes you wonder what's going on inside their brains. They're not going to find out exactly what they are until the end, but I can assure you that they're smarter, quicker, and hit a lot harder. They're holding guns, breaking down doors, run up the ladders and do whatever it takes to get to you.

The most terrifying adversary is a chainsaw massacre that takes several hits to destroy. Grab your shotgun (found a few seconds before the first massacre arrives!) And any grenades you have and brace yourself for one of the most horrifying fights you've ever had in a game of survival/horror. You hear him approaching, you'll see him coming, and that's what makes him so terrifying. Handgun shots are not going to deter him. Flame grenades destroy most of the enemy but only harm the slaughter. That beautiful shotgun of yours would have gone through five or six rounds before he goes down and stays down.

Having played through the GameCube version, I knew exactly what was going to happen and I prepared myself accordingly. I cornered myself in the back wall of a house, waited for the massacre, and threatened his non-zombie buddies, then attacked with all I had. It was very successful. Not for the first time, I had to be killed five or six times before I came up with a good plan.

Following this fierce combat is the discovery that, in addition to getting the guns in the old way, you can buy them from a masked dealer. It's not known why the vendor helps or how he gets in and out of the place without getting killed. Each vendor position is illuminated with two blue torches, a visual that becomes a joyful, calming moment every time you see them. Handguns, shotguns, grenade weapons, sniper rifles – these are the basics. In the first half of the campaign, you'll be able to gain a TMP (two dual-wheel machine guns), a mine thrower, and a very powerful pistol.

None of these things are inexpensive. Upgrades can be deemed the most expensive thing in the game because you're going to expend most of your cash on them. To gain money, you must first capture and exchange expensive items, or destroy enemies, and hope they leave a few bits of gold behind. Any of them don't. In my experience with the PS2 and GameCube models, about 60 to 70 percent of the enemies left behind herbs, ammonia, or gold. They're all incredibly significant. I can't tell you how many times I've died when I didn't have enough bullets to keep fighting. The knife comes normal, but it's not going to protect you from a pack of angry non-zombies.

Leon Kennedy, the rookie cop we encountered in Resident Evil 2, is back as the chief. Character for his second term in the series. He was commissioned to save the daughter of the President. The plot goes up and down from there, with some intriguing moments and others that are very confused and don't do much to progress the series. You're going to run into some old friends, including Ada Wong, who has additional playable missions in this update. More frequently than not, the conversation is cheesy and/or loses integrity. Towards the end of Leon's journey, a few items happen that set the tone for Resident Evil 5, but at this point, there is no knowing where the plot is going to come next. One thing you should be sure of is that the memory can be buried, but it's never really dead.