Resident Evil 4 journal entry 1

To this day I can't believe I have never beaten this game, and frankly I don't know why. In fact I've actually made it past the first couple hours. I enjoy the combat, the gun play being very tense and satisfying, the level design is memorable, sure the story is laughable but that does not make a bad game. And so I have made it my goal to finally experience this game from start to finish in all its gory glory. Writing my experiences in bits and analyzing the individual chapters of the game. As of right now I am on Chapter 3-1.

Basic Overview and Chapter 1:
Your mission is simple, you play as Leon Kennedy and you must find the presidents daughter who has last been seen in a remote village in Spain. Like any good game that allows for character development, the game arms you with a simply handgun, some ammo and first aid. It is up to the player find/buy any additional weapons and upgrades from then on. Money is not abundant, giving each purchase significant weight, discouraging the play from buying every upgrade and 10 first aid kits. Although money is dropped from enemies, finding high value treasures is vital, these are often hidden behind puzzles or alternative path, encouraging the player to explore every nook and cranny if they want to purchase the maximum amount of items. RE4 has the rare ability to make you feel stronger and more bad-ass as you upgrade Leon, yet the game's difficulty curve and pacing never lets the game get any easier relying on the player to get better. This might change later in the game but as of chapter 3-1 the pacing is perfect.
Let me just get this out of the way, and this is not hyperbole. Resident Evil 4 has without a doubt the best first 30 minutes of any game every made. It does not hold your hand, the game says, here's how you aim and fire now I'm going to throw a mob of enemies at you, good luck. The encounter at the village throws you in the middle of an attack from all sides, introduces a chain saw mini boss, lets you figure out, through trial and error and all of panicking, how to get yourself out of this mess. Some gamers may not like this spike in difficulty but that's what makes the beginning so great, if your adrenaline isn't pumping then the game is failing at being an action game.
The game as some AI issues where you can pick off enemies at a distance without attracting much attention. To keep the tension the game will respawn enemies on some areas to counter the player simply taking his time, pistol snipping everything. These respawns can be hit or miss. A successful example would be when the player is going through a swamp, after a few enemies die more villagers come from the front entrance, getting the player from the flank. This is smart because it forces the player to move forward and he is surrounded from both sides, it makes for a very thrilling experience. A example where the respawn system failed would be chapter 1-2 where the player is in a mining hole and has to get two pieces of a medallion to form a key. A few enemies can't see you unless you get close but when you do, a mob will respawn in the back of the mine, the player is not surrounded so he can easily run to a corner and pick off the enemies in from of him, it becomes very tedious and I had to repeat getting detected, running to a good spot and picking everyone off, about 4 times. I did not have this problem ever again though.
Chapter one ends with a boss of massive proportions, know as El Lago. The fight itself is not all that challenging, but its just so much bigger than anything you have encountered in the game thus far. On top of all this, you are literally attached to the boss by a rope on a boat, there is no escape, you can not run, you have to kill it. And when you do, there is definitely a high level of satisfaction from killing a monster of such scale.
to be continued.....