Resident Evil 4 (Hands On) (GameCube) Preview

The version we played was absolutely stuffed full of blood and gore, more so than any other RE title we have ever played. It starts off when the Secret Service drop you off on a mission to rescue the president's daughter. You move into a town, and are promptly stalked by a mass army of the un-dead, including on very vicious bastard who stumbles about wielding a chainsaw menacingly. If he gets anywhere near you he takes a swipe at your head and it is curtains, and a whole lot of blood.

The game looks excellent, everything is very detailed, and of course it is in full 3D. Whilst it is still lacking quite a bit of polish it looks stunning and holds all the graphical mastery we have come to expect from RE over the years and especially on the GameCube. The tension from previous titles is all present and correct, if you run out of ammo there is nowhere to hide, you are chased down, perused and generally hounded until you die, or find more ammo and kill off your stumbling brain-hungry foes.

The camera angle looks over the shoulder of Leon, who is perfectly rendered and looks absolutely stunning (in a purely graphical sense). Animation is fluid and the whole game moves along at a fine pace. Due to the new camera view the old thing of 'not quite know what is coming' has been removed quite a bit, but with the gamers viewpoint being so close to Leon, your view of what is behind you is little to none, meaning that you will surely have to watch your back a lot throughout this game.

The game controls are wonderfully simple and easy to use (horrah!). A is the basic action button; an icon appears on your screen when you need to use the action button for something, like opening a box or suchlike. Hold down R to ready your weapon, and hit A to fire, whilst the B button makes you run; something you will be doing a lot of in this game.

Whilst we did say the controls are wonderfully simple and easy to use, there are still some niggles. Movement can be awkward, it can be quite constricted and it can also be frustrating, but it doesn't stop the fact that it is a million times better than the old stationary-camera style.