Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive

First, let's look at the premise of Resident Evil 4, how the game plays and where it belongs. For the uninitiated, the Resident Evil franchise is the definitive series of survival horror games. Being accosted by an endless wave of walking corpses with an unhealthy appetite for brains pretty much defines the survival horror genre. Unlike previous Resident Evil games' mindless zombies, however, most of the stock enemies of RE4 look like normal folk. It's therefore a real departure for the series, although many of the old plot elements are still in place. I'll try not to spoil the game's plot too much, but I think I can get away with telling that the new zombies are Ganados, humans infected with "Plaga parasites" that make them unquestioningly obidient and may cause horrible metamorphoses. Ganados retain their basic mental faculties like speech and motor skills, although they act pretty far off the wall, growling and shouting aggressively, not to mention showing a constant desire to kill outsiders. At the will of their master, they open doors, climb over fences and navigate stairs and ladders to get to you, they throw axes and sticks of dynamite at you, use traps, any available weapons or their bare hands to try to harm you, and generally act in a violent and unpleasant manner.

This villager's unstoppable prowl was stopped by an immovable object. Glitches like this are fairly uncommon in the game, though

I have to admit that it is unsettling to see a mob of angry villagers getting closer and closer, brandishing their pitchforks and axes, oblivious of pain and personal harm. Leon does collect a variety of firearms during the course of the game to keep the Ganados at bay, but he can only aim and shoot when standing still, and the entranced villagers are pretty hard to stop. Other foes Leon encounters later in the game only get worse. You'll often find yourself fighting the mob off using Leon's knife, kicking them away to get a bit of breathing space, or shaking your controller stick frantically to free yourself from an enemy's throttling grip. Yes, I said controller. I'll get back to that in a bit.

Understatement of the year.

There is another reason to dive into melee with the Ganados, rather than keeping your distance and taking potshots. One of the defining features of the Resident Evil series is the scarcity of ammunition and equipment, and the subsequent scrounging for gear. RE4 is no exception: get ready to smash dozens upon dozens of boxes for the ammo, healing herbs and other items hidden inside. If you skimp out on the scrounging, you'll have a tough time fighting hand to hand (also foot to face) with the hundreds of Ganados coming at you. There are very few opportunities to avoid conflict in this game, which is really a shame: even though you can sneak behind the backs of a few villagers here and there, in the end you'll usually have to fight them. You can barricade yourself in a house to get tactical advantage and avoid getting surrounded by a large mob, shoot through wooden doors and use flash grenades to disorient enemies, but for the most part the action is very straightforward.