10 Reviews

October 26, 2005 + Over the Edge

Video Games

Gory Gaming Hit List for Halloween

GAME Resident Evil 4

DEVELOPER Capcom

PLATFORM GameCube (Playstation 2,
unreviewed)

YEAR 2005

Six years after the Racoon City in-
cident, Leon Kennedy (of RE2) is
back, and this time he has to rescue
the President's daughter. You are sent
into a foreign country, a lone govern-
ment agent, to investigate and rescue
the First Daughter, who has been kid-
napped. Different from other Resident
Evil games, you are now able-to aim
precisely and watch your enemies,
thanks to the camera that now follows
behind you, When you begin to play
the game, you can tell something is
wrong. The first house you come to has
a person inside who comes at you with
an axe. All the villagers are like this, not
quite zombie-like, but capable of tak-
ing two 9mm shots to the head, They
also work together and strategize to
better kill you. The villager you have to
watch out for the most is the one with
the chainsaw. If he comes after you and
you don't have a shotgun, run. Different
areas you travel to include a secluded
warehouse, where you must kill one of
at least 5 boss characters. The story is
much larger than just a simple kidnap-
ping, expanding further into the “some
maniac wants to rule the world!” type
plot. What evil megacomglomorate is

helping the maniac in his goals? Yep, '

Umbrella. It’s up to Leon to kill the

enemies, rescue the girl, and blow up
stuff: all in a day's work.

Graphics and Sound: The graphics
are much improved from the other two
Resident Evil games available for this
system. Everything can be seen from
every angle, and the characters are even
more detailed than those in the first
two games, One of the most impressive
scenes is when you go onto a large lake
and must battle a sea creature the size
of a small submarine. Sound like fun?
It is. The sound in the game is excellent,
with exact lip-synching and villagers
speaking a foreign language.

Gameplay: The controls are identical
to those in other Resident Evil games,
but, thanks to the camera, they feel
much better than in earlier games, The
inventory system has changed to what
you would normally see in an RPG,
having to move items around in your
pack to make space for other items.
There is even a mysterious salesman
who is willing to give you guns and
improve your existing repertoire... for
a price. Saving games still involve use
of the strategically-placed typewriters,
but there is no need to find ink ribbons
this time around.

‘The best Resident Evil game so far,
and one of the best games on any sys-
tem made to date, Resident Evil 4
should be in every video game collec-
tion... so long as you are over 17.

Rating: 5/5

GAME Silent Hill 2

DEVELOPER Konami

PLATFORM Playstation 2 (X-Box, un-
teviewed)

YEAR 2001

You play the role of James Sunder-
land, a young widower who has re-
ceived a mysterious letter from his dead
wife telling him that she is waiting in
the town of Silent Hill. Unable to be-
lieve that it is a hoax or a joke, he goes
to investigate, but something is wrong.
When James arrives at Silent Hill, he
finds the place deserted and filled with
monsters. You receive weapons ranging
from a steel pipe to a rifle, not to men-

tion the obligatory chainsaw thrown in
for good measure, as you control James
and attempt to discover what has hap-
pened to his wife. Through the game,
you run into some other characters:
Eddie, whom you meet for the first
time puking into a toilet, a small girl
who keeps running away from you, and
a strange woman name Maria who has
an uncanny resemblance to Mary, James’
dead wife. The game is filled with inter-
esting puzzles and dark, claustrophobia
inducing corridors.

Graphics and Sound: The graphics
in the game are very crisp and clear, the
lip-syncing and voice acting suited per-
fectly to the games eerie atmosphere.
The town of Silent Hill is rendered

RAY THIBEAULT
STAFF WRITER

spectacularly, though at times you find
that the ever-present gloom is just a
bit overdone. Don't worry about being
totally surprised by enemies walking
the street, though: James is equipped
with a radio that emits static whenever
there is an enemy nearby, even if you
don't know which direction they are
coming from. The sound in the game,
from echoing footsteps in the Silent
Hill hospital to the moans of attacking
mannequins, is flawlessly executed and
simply adds to an already-frightening
game,

Gameplay: For veterans of the hor-
ror-survival genre, there are no surpris-
es in control, Walk, run, shoot, activate,
and inventory are all very basic and easy
to use. You cant walk and shoot at the
same time, but you can swing the pipe
while you move. A map that can be ac-
cessed by pressing one of the buttons
keeps track of where you are and where
you need to go next, indicated by circles
for places that you must explore and
covered by an X once the puzzles in the
area are completed. The overall control
is well-suited to the game, giving you
a chance to fight the monsters but not
requiring it for the completion of the
game. Don't forget to keep your health
up, indicated in the inventory screen by
a picture in the upper left corner. The
more interference on the picture, the
lower your health.

Overall, this game delivers a grip-
ping story with engrossing puzzles and
enough action to keep things inter-
esting, Even if you've played through
the game once, you still need to play
through it again: there are four differ-
ent endings that can be reached. Good
luck staying sane!

Rating: 5/5

GAME Resident Evil Zero
DEVELOPER Capcom
PLATFORM GameCube
YEAR 2002

Taking place before the events of
the first Resident Evil, Resident Evil
Zero follows Rebecca Chambers and
an escaped military convict named
Billy. You start the game as 18 year-
old university graduate Rebecca
Chambers, who has been recruited by
S.T.A.R.S. as a medic for the Bravo
team, After being separated from the
rest of your team (of course), you run
into Billy, an incarcerated military
man whose ride crashed, allowing
him to escape. Like all Resident Evil
titles, you battle a legion of undead
people, dogs, and larger creatures, in-
cluding a giant scorpion aboard a run-
away train, As you progress through
the game, the areas also change. You
begin on a train, move to a mansion,
and later discover a hidden under-
ground lab, all of which you destroy
at the end of the game (yay explo-
sions!), Rebecca and Billy work to-
gether to solve the many puzzles and

kill che many monsters that are trying
to kill them, all the while discovering
disturbing secrets about the city's big-
gest business, Umbrella.

Graphics and Sound: Very similar
to the remake of the original, this
game has incredible graphics that
have only slight improvements on
the GameCube Resident Evil. Most
notable is that, sometimes, when you
shoot an enemy, you can see the bul-
let hole and blood begin to seep out
and trickle down either the front or
the back of the enemy, depending on
the camera angle. Moving items and
trees whizzing by in the background
when you get on top of the train are
small improvements at best.

Gameplay: Unique to this game is
the ability to swap characters at the
push of a button. Each character
has different abilities that must be
used to solve the increasingly-com-
plex puzzles. Billy, being larger and
stronger, is able to push items that
Rebecca can't, while Rebecca has the
ability to mix herbs and chemicals.
‘The two of them must work together
to get out of this predicament alive,
and can swap items and give each
other simple commands, such as to
stay behind or not attack. Saving still
requires you to find ink ribbons anda
typewriter (why not a computer and
a floppy disk?).

If you enjoy the Resident Evil series
and are looking to discover as much
as possible about the Umbrella con-
spiracy and T-virus cover up, this is
a game to get. Just don't expect any-
thing to blow you away compared to
others in the franchise.

Rating: 4.5/5