You are in another country looking for a kidnapped girl. Your sources tell you she is near a rural village and then it’s time to start your detective work. After you are dropped of by the local law enforcement the first course of action is to walk—uninvited—into the first house you see. Inside is an average enough looking guy chilling in front of his rustic fireplace and you question him in English. He doesn’t appear to understand you and responds defensively in Spanish..
You do not leave, So he attacks you. You, in turn, shoot him (multiple times) until he’s dead. Of course, now it’s time to search for weapons to steal and to kill all his angry villager friends outside. The villagers vengefully kill the local law enforcement that dropped you off and then come after you in full force. After you off about 20 of them, the church bells ring and they piously leave your murderous ass outside to attend mass.
Does this sound like an odd beginning to one of the best Wii games out there?
The introduction to Resident Evil 4 is gruesome horror at its best, and that is not the problem. The “Zombie” familiar in Resident Evil games past is a monster that no one would blame you for hacking and slashing away at, but the monsters in R.E. 4 aren’t zombies. They instead seem to be dumb villagers, and I kinda felt bad for being in that guy’s house and killing him like that. I mean, I was totally in the wrong. Right? I broke into a house, killed a guy, and then stole all of his things. This sequence of events leads me to ask the question…what game am I playing?
It’s time for someone to yell, “It’s only a game!” and I agree with that someone, but a game for who? The rating for this game is “M 17+”. So, who is this game for? Adults and near-adults. Well, I am
an adult, but is it too much to ask for a zombie game that doesn’t evoke a moral dilemma within the first 5 minutes? Or, if it does, it should be one that is a conscious decision and allows me the choice to be a nice guy or a jerk about it.
As the game progresses, you find out that all these villagers are infected by a mind control parasite, but this does not stop your character from killing them. When you are informed there is a cure out there somewhere, does the character stop to think: “hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have been so rash in killing all those hapless villagers.” Or, maybe: “could I have saved all those people?”
I’m in my twenties and our generation is the first to have totally grown up with video games. When I was a child 8-bit and 2D was all I needed, but as I got older I craved, and received, the graphics, the co-op, the complex RTS numbers, and the storylines that make an impact (Aeris, we miss you).
If the R.E. series has the gusto to take the zombies up a notch, do something amazing with the controls (Wiimote), and have nothing lacking in graphics, how can I not expect moral dilemmas to be addressed, and how can you not expect a choice in dealing with them?
