The Teardown Analysis of Resident Evil 4

By Louis Chan

Resident Evil 4 (2005) is a great success even today, which is not just because of the reform of its uses of the camera but also the redesigned mechanics, systems, and brilliant level designs. It added a lot of new features at that time and distinguished itself from its previous games in the franchise, different from the 'fixed camera' in the early games which is difficult for the player to aim and shoot, the camera in RE4 serves gameplay and aesthetic well in various aspects. Especially the freely controlled camera with 'quick turnaround' brings new gameplay experiences with puzzle-solving and combat; moreover, the close over the shoulder view provides an intimate relationship between the player and the controlling characters, even taking their roles, which cannot be done in previous Resident Evil games. The experience was so unique back in 2005 that even successfully derived a new genre blending the elements of horror and action shooting together as survival horror third-person shooter game.

The core experience of RE4 tries to provide is to let the player enjoy the story and characters' interactions through cinematic cutscenes, with horror and survival experience by making the areas and enemies ahead full of unpredictability, so that the player will stay frightened, fear the environment, and always prepared for dangers, and thrilling combats that require the player to keep learning and use what they acquired. As the areas and enemies keep changing along the campaign, the tactics adopted must change as well to proceed forward. Also, the player has to be careful with their surroundings and manage their resources all the time because the environment is full of danger, and the player's resources are not abundant, barely sufficient with reasonable use. Therefore, thinking, planning, and finding their own combat pace are important.

I personally find it difficult to get bored or tired of playing RE4, and that is a credit to the dynamic difficulty system. The game will regulate the amount of supply, wave of enemies, their aggressiveness, attack patterns, and damages based on the player's skill: how many damages they were taken, frequency of their deaths, shooting accuracy, etc. That helps to prevent repetitive gameplay experiences and is able to provide an adaptive learning curve.

Character System

Resource management is an important part of gameplay in RE4, which is visualized by allocating the inventory. The storing space is in the form of grids, and each item occupies different amount of girds, so, the player has to evaluate the importance of items, choose to keep or discard, and some slight puzzle-solving by turning the weapons to fit the space.

Combat System

When the player tries to aim and shoot, Leon cannot move, which increased the risk of being under attack to force the player to think and plan their combat pace. Also, there are different weapons with updates and accessories, and recovery combinations to encourage the player to try different strategies. The different means of attack also helped with that since the amount of ammo in the game is not rich, the player must reasonably allocate the combat resource they have to survive in the game. Therefore, a melee attack system with no consumption is introduced to combine with ranged weapons that start swaying after aiming for too long to help with (force) pace-planning.

The enemy design in RE4 helps with the core experience as well. They are 'smart' and that is expressed by keep approaching the player in different ways: open doors, build up ladders, break obstacles, use items, attack from range/melee, dodge bullets, and they normally come as a wave to stress the player into defensive play. However, certain enemies have corresponding means of attack that can counter them (flash, freeze, flame, specific weapons, etc.) so that the player can win the combat by fighting strategically.

The combat system that can hook the player successfully must be a credit to the system of reactive ammunition drop:

enemies will disgorge ammunition pick-ups for weapons the player possesses in their inventory or the ones they used in the combat as replenishment. Ammunition drop for weapons not carried is reduced, or even eliminated

Game/Core Loop

The player will open up new areas as they advance the plots. When they first reach a new area, without any knowledge about traps, environment, or ability of enemies, it is mostly to explore it first to help with tone understanding and mechanics, then some cinematic cutscenes will be played before they encounter combats, puzzle-solving, and they will find safe areas (checkpoints, The Merchant). Lastly, cutscenes before the boss fight as an introduction and during the boss fight to increase the combat tension. The precisely controlled timing when looping those elements created immersive pacing that the player will fall into the 'flow' naturally.

During the exploration in RE4, there are a bunch of items that can be found as rewards to be positive reinforcement, also, it is an important part of puzzle-solving since the player needs to find clues, hints, and key items that are scattered in the environment. In the combat part, the player needs to master the combat system, acquire mechanics, and most importantly, not be too focused on shooting and missed the quick time events (QTE) prompt, which is precious and extremely beneficial to combat. Last but not least, as the progression system of RE4, The Merchant can really relieve the tension when he appears in the middle of the level since that means the player is safe and he has a resource flow that functions as a shop to turn the player's effort into their strength.

Story

The story is full of suspense because all the mysteries are set upfront by throwing questions to the player without any answers as foreshadowing, and the truth is being revealed bit by bit as the plot advance. This kind of narrative leaves the player hanging, and they will be immersed in the game world and eager to know what happens next or what is the explanation for the incomprehensible scenarios as they cannot see the whole just yet. That creates tension, letting them know what they are supposed to do (purpose of play) but meanwhile worry about the things that are waiting ahead.

Apart from that, the mature use of cinematic narrative in RE4 also has wonderful effects on modulating dramatic tension, the camera moves, and movie-like cutscenes that have implicit camera languages are engaging and able to set a certain ambiance to arouse the player's emotion and create memorable moments. Also, the narrative conveyed through the conversations and interactions between characters makes them empathetic and strengthens the relationship between the player and them.

The emotional expression through the story that involved the player's gameplay, characters' behaviors, speech, performance in cutscenes, etc. in this game is just in place to immerse the player into the game world and rise the degree of verisimilitude to a new level.

Level Design

The level design of RE4 is one of the well-designed elements that make this game significant since all the levels fulfil the core experience, fit the learning curve, and create emotions in the player by making them alone for most of the time and weak when facing crowded aggressive enemies with different means of attack. Also, to maintain the sinister ambiance and to always provide a sense of terror, the levels are cramped and narrowed, most of the areas are enclosed, even during boss fights. Therefore, the player will keep feeling nervous and have a sense of survival. Yet, as the player gets more familiar with the mechanics, enemies, environments, and the more upgrade of their weapons, they might feel empowered, which is conflicted with the core experience. And that is when enemies and bosses are introduced to evoke emotions.

As the player propels, the 'novelty' of the enemies and the level of threat increase as well. That is revealed as the enemies with familiar looks as the ones that previously appeared, but the unpredictable transformation turned them into new types and intimidating enemies that require different tactics, and their amount, health, and strength vary, which magnificently make areas feel different from each other, keep refreshing player's gameplay experience but being able to stick with the intended experience: there will always be enemies that overpower the player and the experience will always be challenging. Apart from that, most of the areas are cramped, lots of corners are placed and most of the time the player can't see the enemies but can only hear their sounds, so, the player won't know when they will encounter them. The sense of unpredictability helps evoke emotions too.

The application of dynamic difficulty in levels can easily maintain the player in 'flow' because the dynamic supply feeds and the spawn of enemies can pace with the player's skill level to adjust the gameplay experience so that the player can have the sense of challenging but not too overwhelmed to feel frustrated.