Picked up Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition at the weekend. I’d heard of the series before but not played any of the games (at this point your either thinking ‘philistine’ or ‘oh, he’s blogging about a computer game, I’m off’’ but don’t go yet, you’ll miss the Zombies!). You play Leon, a secret service agent assigned to protect the President’s daughter. In the time honoured tradition of video game plot lines she’s kidnapped the day before you start work, leaving the agents who botched up behind in comfy Washington while you start day 1 at the new job by traipsing off to [insert random eastern European country name here] where there’s been reported sightings of her.
Arriving at the village she was spotted in, you discover the locals are somewhat less than friendly, in the sense that they hurl knives in your general direction and charge at you with chainsaws. So far, so East London. It’s when you shoot them in the head and they keep getting up you start to worry.
I’ve not got very far into it so I’ve no idea where the plot takes you, but I have, after much painstaking research, discovered the game kicks ass (if you’re wondering how I can do painstaking research but not get far into the plot, it’s called dying. A lot).
You move Leon around using the nunchuck. If you don’t know what that is, ha-ha you don’t have a Wii. Fix this immediately. Anyway, you move Leon around until you see something you want to shoot, or something sees you and the OMINOUS MUSIC OF DOOM kicks in. It’s at this point, you pull the trigger on the Wiimote (B button) to switch to gun mode, and aim the Wiimote at the screen. The downside of gun mode is that you can’t move, the upside is this means you can point the Wiimote right at the edge of the screen and not turn around, giving you phenomenal accuracy. So, you line up the Wiimote with an oncoming zombie’s head and press A. Then sit back and relax as your gun blasts the zombie’s head off. Ahhhhhh. Sadly, the relaxation period is short lived, as Mr. Zombie has brought the wife, the neighbours and the local Millwall football supporters along with him, and they don’t like the fact their friend/husband/bloke they drink down the pub with has just had his block knocked off. Begin the onslaught.
You get a range of different weapons to play with (all hail the shotgun) and items to pick up, some of which you can combine in fun experiments; there’s mini puzzles to solve; lots of cut scenes; and several sequences where you have to shake the Wiimote like a loon to, for example, outrun a boulder. This last element is particularly great, as you’re already unnerved from fighting one zombie horde when suddenly you have to do real exercise, which gets your adrenaline pumping, just in time to face another zombie horde.
Play at night, in the dark, with no one else in the house. Then seek therapy.
