10 Best No. 4's In Gaming History

It couldn't be anything else.

We've talked a lot in this article about how these games influenced their franchises, but Resident Evil 4 influenced an entire console generation. Damn near every action game in the Xbox360/PS3 era paid homage to/blatantly stole from Resident Evil 4, copying everything from RE4's revolutionary over-the-shoulder camera to its use of Quick Time Events.

Sadly, many of those same copycats failed to recapture RE4's lightning in a bottle. QTEs, for example, are often derided as a deservedly forgotten game mechanic because developers strewed them about haphazardly in misguided attempts at player engagement. But if any of those attempts had managed to come close to the nail-biting tension of RE4's QTE-driven knife fight, they would be remembered a lot more fondly.

If you want further proof of RE 4's brilliance, check out the discourse surrounding the upcoming remake. Before Capcom assuaged fears with the latest (stunning) trailer, the general opinion was: why try to improve upon perfection? Because while the original Resident Evil trilogy may have aged with all the grace of an early 2000s D-Lister, RE 4 remains cracking fun to this day.

Resident Evil 4's romp through possessed villages, creepy cults and Napoleonic terrors is still a wildly entertaining ride, and even now you can see how an entire generation of developers were inspired by Capcom's greatest game.