Tuesday, February 24, 2009

RE4: Wii Edition, Chapter 2

I'm now through Chapter 2 on my Wii playthrough of Resident Evil 4.

By now, I think it's safe to say that the pointer controls make the game significantly easier. The traditional controls of the RE5 demo, which I played again recently, feel comparatively archaic, and I'm not sure even adding the ability to move while shooting would affect the game balance as drastically. With the Wii remote, it's possible to snipe with the handgun from ranges that are highly impractical for the analog stick and laser sight. The sniper rifle, which does not take advantage of the remote, now feels unintuitive and inaccurate by comparison. Frankly, the new controls probably make the game too easy. RE4 obviously wasn't built with motion controls in mind, but the technology is definitely something to seriously consider for future shooters.

This chapter contained probably my two favorite parts of RE4. The first, the barricade cabin, was not nearly as intense this time, largely due to the controls making things easier, and also partly because I'd already been through it before. My second favorite scene was just a short bit where I had to snipe the crazed driver of an oncoming truck. In reality, there was no precision required in shooting down the truck, but it was still an extremely cool moment that felt very organic.

The chapter also included the first real boss encounter of the game. Going in, I didn't remember much about it from my GameCube playthrough, and, playing it again, it did feel pretty weak and uninspired.

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