Plot: What’s it about?
Resident Evil 4 is one of the best video games ever created and now, you can experience it through the Live Arcade. Resident Evil 4 HD boosts the visuals, adds in all the extra content, and lets you experience this masterpiece on your X-Box 360, all for under twenty bucks. To call this a must own release is an understatement, as this is one of the greatest games of all time in a definitive incarnation, at an affordable price. The story of Resident Evil 4 is well known of course, as Leon Kennedy tries to protect the president’s daughter in the midst of a mysterious, violent situation. The game was an evolution for the franchise and would be an inspiration to countless games that followed. But as we all know, sometimes even great games can lose their luster, so does Resident Evil 4 hold up?
In short, of course it does. The game is still a blast to experience and while there are several versions of Resident Evil 4 out there, this is the one you’ll want in your collection. The visuals have been given a slight boost, with enhanced resolution and some new lighting techniques. This isn’t a revelation over the Wii release, but it does give us the best looking Resident Evil 4 to date, so fans will be quite pleased. I happen to love the 360’s controller, so I couldn’t wait to see how Resident Evil 4 handled here. The default control scheme is not ideal, but you can switch to a mode that lines up controls with the set-up from Resident Evil 5. This makes the game much easier to navigate and for me, the best handling edition of Resident Evil 4. The only downside is that as a download title, it requires some serious hard drive space, but that is a minor sacrifice to experience such an awesome game.
In addition to the Resident Evil 4 campaign we all know and love and the improved visuals, Resident Evil 4 HD also gives us the Operation Aida and Separate Ways side missions, the Mercenaries mode, and of course, those wonderful unlockables. If you plan to rack up all the achievement points (a full 1000 gamer score is up for grabs) and conquer Professional mode, you’ll want to tinker around and unlock some bonus elements. The armor for your escort is priceless and of course, infinite ammo always comes in handy in a Resident Evil game. Resident Evil 4 remains one of the most fun, influential games of recent years. Even after you’ve beaten it, you’ll want to do another run for collectibles or just to experience it all one more time. Resident Evil 4 HD is the definitive release of this video game classic, so it earns our highest recommendation.
Video: How does it look?
As I said above, Resident Evil 4 has never looked this good. The improved resolution isn’t a game changer, but it is obvious and adds to the visuals. The game looks terrific here and keeps pace with a lot of current titles, which is impressive. So for fans, another indicator that this is the definitive Resident Evil 4 experience.
Audio: How does it sound?
The sound design is as good as ever, with effective music and good overall atmosphere. I couldn’t detect much of a difference between this and the Wii version in the sound design area however. That isn’t bad news per se, as the game still sounds good and no errors surface that I could pick up on. So not a step up like the visuals, but the game is still well handled.
Supplements: What are the extras?
N/A
