Developer: Capcom Production Released: 2005 Platform: GameCube, Playstation 2, PC, Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 Resident Evil 4 shook up Capcom's franchise thoroughly, forever changing its direction. Regardless of whether or not you consider this to have been a good thing, Resident Evil 4 itself is unequivocally a masterpiece of video game design. Resident Evil 4 gets rid of the traditional shambling, rotting zombies seen in previous games. Instead, protagonist Leon S. Kennedy is pitted against a multitude of local villagers that have been infected by a mysterious virus, turning them into mindless, violent beings. The game is primarily remembered for its glorious boss fights and high levels of action, but it's still a tense zombie survival game at heart. Unfortunately, the following games have since gone even further down the action route, losing a lot of what made the series special in the first place. Regardless, Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic compromise that perfectly blends survival horror with third-person shooting.
