One of the games I'm looking forward to most is Resident Evil 4. After a series of simple ports and a remake, Gamecube fanatics finally get their own, exclusive Resident Evil. One thing about this title is different from all the others: you don't fight zombies but humans from flesh and blood.

We started in a dark wood; my mission was to save the president's daughter. Why the inhabitants of the village turned against me wasn't really clear as the sound was turned off... anyway, they were prepared to do whatever it takes to get rid of me.

The controls are quite easy to use: walk with the control stick, draw weapon with R, shoot with A and run with B. Also there's the typical Resident Evil inventory that we're known with from the previous parts. The only downpoint is the shooting. You don't have a cursor for easy aiming, you need to do that with a laser beam at the top of your weapon. Sometimes you'll really have to stare at the screen to find the aiming light point.

Luckily the people are slow so you've got plenty of time to kill them from far away. This only can be done if they're still a bit "curious". If they're raging after you've f.i. just shot one of them, they'll start charging at you with whatever they have that can be used to kill you.
They may look like primitive farmers but they are clever. One moment I was walking around in the woods, checking out a little cabin (after having shot the inhabitants in the head) but soon I was surrounded by 2 people who came to kick my butt. Also when shooting from a distance, your enemies will be looking around until they find you and once they have there's no stopping them: they'll chase you even in the woods.

The graphics are really magnificent. Even while the demo version we got to play was at the level it should be, things are already extremely realistic and beautiful in such a way you'll get cold shivers on your back. The color brown does tend to have the upper hand and this makes things to look even more gruesome and dark.
Also the environments are very interactive. Shooting a wall will leave a bullet mark and bird that get shot will die instantly. Truly great.

The A-button isn't only for shooting but also other things and in fact it's the most important button in the game. All actions are being done with A: jump out of a window, kick a door, crash a stairs, etc. This gives the idea that everything is precisely scripted but still I didn't care as it was done so wonderfully. Only the freedom bothers me a bit as there isn't any. You can break in a house here and there but most of the time you'll need to take the exact same route over and over.

When taking a look at the preview-version it sems like the game is almost finished. There were hardly any bugs left that we found but the release date of 2005 does suspect that things are still not entirely how the devs want them to be. In any case, this game will be added to my collection the moment it gets released !