Yot’s an interesting quirk of video game history is that one of the best horror titles of all time debuted on the Nintendo GameCube, a toy-like console best known for the cuter titles in the Zelda and Animal Crossing series. But in 2002, Capcom revealed five exclusives to boost the beleaguered platform, and among them was Resident Evil 4, technically the 13th title in the franchise, which upon its release three years later would be considered its zenith. It was an exciting new opportunity for the survival horror genre.
Not that you’d be able to guess any of this from the game’s extraordinarily simple setup. Six years after the fall of the Umbrella Corporation, burning cop Leon Kennedy has been sent on a mission to recover the kidnapped daughter of the president of the United States, who has been spotted in a small town in rural Spain. For some reason best known to the Secret Service, he will enter alone.
However, starting from this B-movie premise, it radically challenged the conventions of the Resident Evil series and the survival horror genre itself. By moving the action away from the bleak, rainy Midwest of Raccoon City and into the Spanish countryside, Capcom thrust Resi fans (and León himself) into completely unfamiliar environments. This sense of dislocation continued when the traditional lumbering zombies (clearly inspired by George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead trilogy) were replaced by brutally fast, axe-wielding country folk, infected with parasites by evil aristocrats in a gothic castle These lively creatures were much more in line with the infected maniacs depicted in Danny Boyle’s modern version of the zombie film, 28 Days Later, surely an influence on Resi 4 director Shinji Mikami. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the dark Lovecraftian horror Dagon, which is actually set in Spain, have also been proposed by fans as possible inspirations.
In interviews, producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi said that the game’s theme was “fear of groups.” Throwing swarms of Ganados at the player instead of small groups of zombies increased the pressure and caused many moments of pure panic. The game’s rudimentary AI allowed enemies to surround the player instead of mindlessly stumbling directly towards them.
But most importantly, Resi 4 moved the player’s line of sight downward from a floating third-person perspective to an intense over-the-shoulder point of view. This made it easier to aim at enemies compared to the frustratingly obtuse early Resident Evil games, but more importantly it accentuated the sense of embodiment and proximity. The action feels raw, the teeth and ax blades are frighteningly close. Mikami has since said that he never realized this would be such a revolutionary feature, but it inspired an entire generation of fighting adventures, including Gears of War (and the 2018 God of War reboot).
Elsewhere, Dead Space designer Ben Wanat has referred to EA’s cosmic horror shooter like “Resident Evil 4 in space”, and to the designer of The Last of Us, Ricky Cambier has talked about its ambition to recreate the tension of Resi 4. And when you look at it now, the sense of interdependence between Leon and Ashley certainly foreshadows the vulnerable relationship between Joel and Ellie.
The new shoulder camera, with greater emphasis on action and gunfights, altered the entire pace of the Resi experience. There were still tense minutes of silence as you explored the dank, corpse-filled corrals and castle grounds. But then there were bloody sieges as waves of monstrous warriors attacked you through muddy streets and murky industrial tunnels. The staged encounters have become the stuff of legend: from the mad dogs lurking in the ornate garden maze to the giant snake beast in the lake, the game has an exciting collection of boss enemies to contend with. Surprisingly, even inventory management is fondly remembered, with players obsessively repacking their briefcase to fit more items purchased from the shadow merchant.
In 2023, Capcom released a wonderfully updated version, introducing a new generation to the exciting delights of Grand Guignol. But let’s go back to the original and it will still work. Every once in a while, a video game comes along that fans love, but designers love more, and these games end up altering the focus of the entire industry. Super Mario 64 was one, Doom was another. To that list we must surely add Resident Evil 4.