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From Nintendo Power (thanks to marques11 from the IGN boards):
A New Evil
The Umbrella Corporation is no more. "It's the only thing that makes sense, if you think about it," explains Resident Evil 4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayshi. "Why would the U.S. government allow a company that developed the T-virus, and in the end forced them to destroy an entire city, to continue to exist? They wouldn't. Hence the rationale for Umbrella going away after RE3." With the series' primary source of evil dissolved, gamers are about to embark on Capcom's new chapter in Survival Horror -- one in which the dangers they'll face are unfamiliar and the terror they'll experience is unexpected. Fear of the unknown, as you'll discover later this year, runs far deeper than fear of any zombie.
The Source of Fear
Leon S. Kennedy, the heroic Raccoon City police officer from Resident Evil 2, is now under the employ of the president of the United States. As a special agent, Leon has been tasked with finding the president's abducted daughter, Ashley. His search leads to a secluded village in the European countryside, where he's attacked inexplicably by the town's crazed residents. Brandishing weapons, working in unison and moving much faster than the walking dead, his adversaries are clearly something other than zombies. But what's causing their homicidal madness? "If I told you right now, it would kind of ruin the game," says Kobayashi. "It's nothing spiritual, though. They're not ghosts or magical or anything fantastic. It's something based in the real world." When asked why they decompose into a puddle and evaporate when you defeat them, he adds, "I'll give you a hint: the creatures are called Ganado, which means 'livestock' in Spanish." Whatever their origins, the Ganado conjure a much different atmosphere from their flesh-eating predecessors. "One of the reasons we decided to change the enemies in the game is that zombies have become boring," opines Kobayashi. "They walk slow. We wanted more action. These new enemies are much smarter. They can dodge your attacks, surround you, and tend to come at you with large, pointy objects. They give you a lot less room to breathe." And as unsettling as the agonized groans of approaching zombies could be, the way the Ganado shout at each other unintelligibly as they coordinate their plan of attack is downright bone-chilling. Kobayashi concurs: "The audio aspect is very important in a horror game. Without the right sounds, you really risk losing the scare factor." The village itself also contributes to RE4's amplified ability to terrify you. As Kobayashi points out, "If you're in a very small, cramped passageway (as in the previous Resident Evil games), you know that enemies are only going to come from behind or in front, not from the right or left because there are walls there. Being able to be attacked from all angles brings about a certain amount of additional fear or tension that is only available in that type of setting." He adds that, though it's much larger than what we've seen so far, the village isn't the only setting in the game. Your investigation will also lead you to the enormous castle pictured in some of the screenshots, as well as to a lake, a forest and a cave.
Protecting the Innocent
When you finally do find Ashley (about halfway through the game), it'll be your duty to protect her. The Ganado will be trying to abduct her constantly, and if one manages to grab her, you'll have to give chase and shoot him (without accidentally hitting Ashley, of course.) Fortunately, the president's daughter demonstrates the same impressive AI as your enemies. If a Ganado approaches her from behind and you raise your weapon, she'll duck to give you a clear shot. The young woman isn't always so cooperative, however. Kobayashi describes her as a snob who tends to get herself into trouble. To help her out of jams, the game features a variety of context-sensitive actions. If Ashley falls from a window for instance, you can catch her by pressing the A Button. You'll use the same button to hoist her over high obstacles, kick enemies and even run away from a giant boulder a la Indiana Jones. And to keep you on your toes, not all of the actions are restricted to the A Button. During a battle with a gigantic troll, you'll have to press the L and R Buttons simultaneously to duck under its club (the buttons will flash across the screen to warn you.) It's a clever system that allows the developers to throw all sorts of situations at the player without over-complicating the controls.
Survival Horror Reborn
As you've probably discerned by gawking at the screen shots, Resident Evil 4 is one fantastic-looking game. The sky-high polygon counts and masterful texture work create a gritty aesthetic that draws you in and doesn't let go. What still shots can't convey, though, is how amazing the game looks in motion (visit nintendo.com to see jaw-dropping video footage and read the complete text of the Kobayashi interview.) As day turns to night (the game features real-time environmental changes), flames flicker and cast a realistic glow on their surroundings. When you fire a rocket launcher at the castle, the resultant explosion scatters debris convincingly and leaves a gaping hole in the wall. As Kobayashi boasts, "The RE4 team did the Resident Evil remake and helped with RE Zero. They're all veterans, and through those two games, they learned how to use the GameCube Hardware to its fullest. That little box has a lot of power." Though the game is shaping up to be a AAA title, it hasn't been an easy road for Kobayashi and his team. "This is something I haven't told anybody yet because it's kind of embarrassing," says the producer. "We originally showed a video about Resident Evil 4 to get everyone excited in November 2002. That was the initial unveiling to the press in Japan. Afterward, we decided to totally scratch all of that work and start over. Then we had a new video at E3. And guess what? We scratched that as well. The third time we tried remaking it, we didn't show it to anybody. We had a promotional video, but we had to scratch that as well. So this new style is actually the fourth time we have tried recreating it because we just could not get it to the level that we wanted." When asked at which stage Shinji Mikami, the series' creator, decided to take over as director, Kobayashi responds, "It was the fourth version. He said, 'Enough of this crap! I'm gonna fix this!' Right from the start, we wanted to do something new and innovative for the series, so Mikami issued an order to the team: 'I want to totally re-create how the polygons, the camera, everything looks.' But, every time the staff tried to do it without his direction, they only came out with little minor changes. Nothing major. Perhaps they were too afraid to take this series that he created and totally change it. But anyway, he stepped in and showed what he wanted." "But there are rules of engagement that you have to follow when changing a game," Kobayashi adds. "With Resident Evil, there are certain things that we couldn't change. We knew changing them would alienate the fans. Basically, what makes the series so special is that it was based on a virus. A virus isn't like a ghost, it isn't like magic... it's something that exists in the modern day. Everyone can get sick and it can do something strange to your body. This is something that is very close to all of us. It's very real. It's found in the real word. Even though the T-virus and zombies don't appear in Resident Evil 4, there's still that element that the enemy is something that is very real. So it feels not so much like fantasy. It feels more like it could actually happen in the present day." The end result is very distinctly Resident Evil, yet somehow it feels like a whole new experience. The determination of Kobayashi's team has paid off with a bloodcurdling new direction for the genre. Your nightmare begins this winter.
