I Seem to Have Misplaced My Spine
filed on Thursday, March 10, 2005 at 3:13:21 AM CST

Not since Half Life have I sat in front of a game and had a jumpy reaction to it.  Until now.  And now, I'm jumping constantly.  Resident Evil 4 has gotten to me.  It got to me within the first few moments of the game.  And it's stuck with me.

First, I admit, I'm a bit late to the Resident Evil series.  Not so much because of anything other than never really getting around to it.  I had always heard good things about the game though, so when the first of the movies came out, I went to see it because I wanted to see what the story was all about.  I have to say, I was impressed with both Resident Evil movies, though the first one struck more as horror while the second one was more like action.

Recently I was looking through an issue of Play, and saw some pictures of RE4.  I was instantly intrigued.  Okay, I'll admit, part of it was because Leon Kennedy is probably one of the "hottest" rendered characters in a video game to date.  No, I don't drool over video games, but you know, he's cute.  As graphics and reality start to blend, and the "sprites" we move around screen become more and more human-like, I expect I'll find more video game characters cute.  I won't hate him because he's beautiful though... he was just drawn that way.

So, I recently got my Cube back, and have been looking forward to playing Metroid Prime: Echoes.  However, I want to replay Metroid Prime first.  I was telling my boss about this at work, and he says he's got a couple of games I should try out.  Skies of Arcadia Legends, and RE4.  I brought home RE4 and started to play it Monday night.  I lost four hours of my life, and I'm not sure where they went.  I'm pretty sure they were sucked into the world I was thrust in.

Those of you who can't stand gore... avoid the game.  Me, I'm usually squeamish, but for some reason, I can make it through horror.  Still, I'm sort of anticipating the moment when RE4 causes me to cover my ears as I watch a cut scene (yes, I cover my ears during scary movies, not my eyes... somehow, not hearing the movie makes it okay to see the people get slaughtered in front of me).

Starting out, they give you the background of the story.  You're playing Leon Kennedy, in search of the President's daughter who has been kidnapped (probably because the evil Umbrella Corporation lost all its governmental contracts after the Racoon City incident).  Driving through some creepy forested countryside with a couple of policia, you get dropped outside of a creepy village to where the daughter's been traced.  They drop you off, and you start walking toward the village.

The wind is blowing.  There is fog wafting softly through the air.  Leaves rustling.  And you walk slowly, cautiously toward the first house.  You walk inside, and you see a scene reminiscent of the only thing in The Blair Witch Project that scared me.  A man with his back toward you, ignoring you.  I could only think of how this creepy man was about to turn around and lunge at me.  Sure enough, after a brief cut scene, he does.  You shoot at him, and I'll be damned if the way he reacts to the bullets isn't creepy in and of itself.  It's that movie-style zombie-jerk that tells you this guy isn't exactly alive, but not quite dead yet (and certainly, if you don't lodge a couple more bullets into him, he's going to get up and go for a walk now, right over your corpse).

You kill him off, and then investigate his creepy little house, hearing people get dropped off right outside.  Me, I go upstairs, stand by a window, and notice that it gives me the option to jump out.  What the hell... out I go.  And land in the middle of aforementioned people who had just been dropped off.

It only progresses from there.  Everything from the soundtrack, to the dark, dreery, haunting countryside, on through the strange noises about you, and the terror-inspiring melody that plays to remind you that there's something after you... it's all just very, very creepy.  Particularly when you're sitting there, you hear the music, but you can't yet see what it is that's trying to kill you, and you're looking around frantically trying to figure out where it is.  And then you hear a creepy moan, and you swing around, and the man standing behind you strikes you with his scythe.

Or perhaps it's just wandering through the little village that has a burning pyre with a poor soul in the middle of it.  Maybe it's the guy with the chainsaw that quite graphically removed my head from my shoulders.  Perhaps it's the whole damned thing.

All I know is that I'm only in the third part of the first chapter, having just made it past the eerie creature in the boggish lake, and witnessed Leon's first major reaction to whatever "blood" that they injected him with when he was caught earlier on in the game.  And I'm hooked.  And just a wee bit terrorized.  The story is compelling, and so far rather well thought out.  The gameplay is awesome.  It's basically a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter that at times makes you feel like you need to be stealthy, and at other times, makes you feel like you're never going to make it through the swarm of zombie-like villagers that are coming after you.

I can't wait to see how it all turns out.  It's like a good book.  Only much, much more involving.  Awesome hardly begins to describe the game, so if you've got a system that can run it, get it.  If you have the stomach for it.  Oh, and a spare spine.  I've found that mine's literally tingled itself out of my body, I've found myself creeped out that often.  In short... I'm loving this game.