Alright as most will know Capcom showed off a playable version of Resident Evil 4 last January 28th in Las Vegas. But info of what happened on that day has not been coming as all press were put under NDA till mid-March, expect for American magazine Game Informer who have the exclusive rights to release the info. But coincidently enough on Friday the 13th in February subscribers to the mag received their early issues and quickly scans and info quickly spread across the web faster than the T-Virus through Raccoon City.

 

Now not only has this game changed dramatically from previous titles it has also changed from what little we knew of it before this “unveiling”. How so you ask? Well in all previous released screens and videos including the video from E3 2003 the game was placed in Europe with Leon S. Kennedy striking at the heart of Umbrella HQ. This has now changed much to the shock of many RE fans worldwide. Now what we know of the story is that it takes place in 2004 (all previous RE games were based in 1998) and still features Leon but this time he is a special agent whose protecting the Presidents daughter who then gets kidnapped and Leon ends up in a Village in an un-named South American country. If that isn't enough of a change for you then how's this. RE4 will (apparently) contain NO Umbrella Corporation who have already apparently been taken down and therefore there will also be no zombies.

So instead of a village of the undead Leon will be faced with a village of regular people… well except for the fact they are under some sort of trance and want Leon dead, brandishing various farming tools with which to do it. Axes, scythes, pitchforks and even one crazy mofo with a chainsaw. But what could these otherwise peaceful villagers in a blood thirsty trance out for poor Leon's head? Perhaps Umbrella isn't as dead we are lead to believe?

 

Ok enough of that lets move on to the gameplay. One change that will be welcomed is that the door animations used to conceal loading times (and create some suspense) are no more as RE4 will support a progressive scan. Many expected the familiar control system to be gone also but reports state that it is still there, but with the new camera system this might not be bad as some would think. Gone and forgotten are the days of the classic RE horror fixed camera angels. Instead you have three angels to choose from. A first-person view and two third person views, one being behind Leon and the other just over his shoulder with Leon taking up most of the bottom left corner of the screen. Which brings me to the next thing. RE4 can only be played in “widescreen” (16:9) so for those of us who are not blessed with wide screen TVs we'll have to view the game in “letterbox”. It's not really known as to why this is but one possible reason is to give you a much wider view of your surroundings.

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Another feature common in past RE games that is gone here is the use of FMV, yes that's right there will be no movie scenes here using FMV instead all will be cut-scenes meaning they use the in-game graphics. But lets be honest looking at the screen shots the in-game graphics look like FMV anyway how much more could they be improved by? Thrust me if you haven't seen the leaked screens yet when you finally do you will agree that this is by far the best looking game ever.

 

Now as for control wise we will see the “A” button become “context sensitive” meaning if will allow you do a number of different things depending on the objects or area around you. For instance in one of the leaked screens we saw Leon climb a ladder to escape the bloody thirsty villagers then when at the top utilising the A button allows Leon to push the ladder down preventing the villagers from following him. Also as far as shooting goes no longer will you be limited to a horizontal aiming range. Now you can aim wherever you want and utilise this the enemies have “hit zones”. Meaning shoot one in the foot and it will begin to limp or fall over depending on whether they were walking or running and this should slow them down from then on (assuming you don't continue shooting for the kill). Speaking of the villagers again since these are not mindless zombies they do have some intelligence. Don't be surprised to find they have laid traps for you or if they realise their not gonna get close enough to you to use their weapons seeing as you have guns and all they'll start to throw their weapons at you. Luckily though if you are quick enough you can shoot these out of the air to protect yourself. Or even sneakily lead you into a waiting ambush.

 

What else have we learned? Oh yes not only will Leon have access to numerous weapons ranging from the good old handgun to a sniper riffle to explosive grenades. But also Leon will have vehicles to use. We saw a screen of him in a boat clutching a spear apparently chasing some giant water creature and the promise of a number of other vehicles but with no mention of what they might be but I'd put good money on some sort of car.

Speaking of giant creatures, a few of the screens showed one of the games early bosses. A massive giant taller than every building in the village who could pick Leon up and throw him away or just simply stand on him like a bug. One wonders why does Leon even try to shoot it? Surely the bullet would be like a mosquito bite to such a beast.

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-My Theories-

Ok that's really the end of the preview but there are still a few things that I would like to look at with regards to the changes in the story. But let me just say that these are just my “theories” and are not to be taken literal as what will happen, but just what “might” happen as imagined by my messed up head.

 

Firstly the biggest shocker to me was the exclusion Umbrella and Zombies. For me the main draw of the Resident Evil games was the story. I loved the mystery, the characters the struggle against the power mad Umbrella. Hell Capcom even went to make RE:Zero to give more background on the story and fill in some gaps. Now all of a sudden it's six years later and Umbrella are no more? How, who, when? Personally I felt this was a slap in the face, Umbrella is gone and we didn't even get to play a game when it happens. How can this possibly be Resident Evil when it isn't a progression of the “unfinished” story? How could they make all those past games seemingly building up to great final battle in Umbrella HQ only to move the story to something new without finishing the current path?

But then after I took a few days to think it over I began to think of a few things that I feel might lead to Umbrella being in the game and it being the natural progression of story that it should be (in my opinion). Firstly since when did Capcom reveal the whole story before the game is released? Never, all we know is the background to the start of the game who knows what could happen next.

 

Then I got to thinking about the villagers. What's this about them being in a “trance”? Who could be controlling them? Maybe Umbrella. But if it's Umbrella then how come they are not zombies, I hear you ask. Well does anyone know what Umbrella's goal was with their virus research?

The following is taken from “Weskers Report II” “Try to imagine the following: If a person who was heavily infected (the disease had spread all throughout their body) could actually stand and walk around? And, without knowing it, was in direct contact with other people of their own accord…

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What if the RNA of the Virus could alter the person's genetic code? And if through that, a person was able to carry the virus without dying?”

That might sound like the T-Virus to you which, yes is what the T did and what it was intended to do. But what it wasn't intended to do was lower the intelligence and allow the body to decompose of the infected like it did. Do you see where I'm going here? What if Umbrella made it “look” like they were destroyed so that they could stop people from trying to take them down and messing up their plans. Moved to a secret lab in South America and perfected their dream virus and infected a village with it. A virus that did everything T did but allowed its victims to retain their intelligence, wits and remain “human” looking and most importantly controllable and able to take orders, orders like “Hey see that stranger he messed up some of our Raccoon City plans a few years ago, kill him”. Actually the trait of the infected being controllable and able to understand orders was a trait of the “Nemesis” parasite perhaps Umbrella have perfected the T-Virus and found a way of combining it with the Nemesis parasite?

 

So the zombies aren't necessarily gone, the villagers may in fact be “super zombies” and who knows maybe there'll still be regular zombies later on in the game. Now remember this is all just speculation from my head because I basically think too much about “RE mythology” and thought I'd just toss this in for the laugh. Would be great if I was right though.

A second possibility I just came up with is that they are being controlled by “the cloud”. Remember in the previous RE4 videos, the first contained a “cloud” that stalked Leon, the second (E3 2003) contain what became known as the “Chain Zombie” but if you watch that video closely when Leon shoots the “Chain Zombie” you see the bullets pass through it like it was smoke so it could have been the cloud also. This lead to people coming up with the theory that this “cloud” could enter and control inanimate objects such as dolls or even dead animals and control them. Just because it seems the story concepts of those videos may have been scrapped does not mean this Cloud creature has been. What if it is still part of the plan and can also control living beings, such as the villagers?

We'll just have to sit back, relax and wait out the year till the game finally sees the light of day…or should that be the dark of night?