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I thought the game effectively maintained tension throughout. In the beginning you'd be relatively low on firepower, and every battle is tactical and intense. Right after getting into the castle, when Leon becomes a one-man army, the game throws more inventive set-pieces and enemies at you, preventing you from abusing your stats in rote combat. The castle is like a bottleneck, holding you back from plowing through the rest of the game. When the island comes in, the arcadey pump-up feel kicks in, and the ending of the game becomes cathartic run and gun. It's very well-paced.

I did think the difficulty levels were badly managed, however. Professional is not all that much harder than Normal, and New Game++ does not have a corresponding raise in enemy stats. I wanted more of the original, first-time-through-the-village feel, so I did a Pro run without using the Merchant. That was a perfect recreation of classic Resident Evil.

Also I just finished a playthrough without using any healing items, but it wasn't as gratifying. Almost all of my 200+ deaths were from being hit by random projectiles, and almost all of them occured in the same room.
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The longer you play this game, the worse it gets.

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Children of Men mostly reminded me of Half Life 2. Children of Men does stuff like extended, uninterrupted takes to immerse you in the movie, and Half Life 2 does stuff like first person scripted events to continue its grip on the player. (Also the sets and the overall dystopia were really similar.)
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Regarding RE4, a glitch was discovered that speeds up Leon's animations 1.5X. You equip the Striker (it must be the Striker) and aim, but load up the inventory BEFORE your laser sight appears, and then you pick any other weapon in the inventory and return to the game. Leon does everything way faster, including running, reloading moving backwards. The effect ends if you open a door, kick somebody or do a quick turn.
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One other thing. For a while I wondered why that RE4 lost some of its power after the village. Now I've realized; there were no video-gamey puzzles in the village. The village was believable. It's only when the castle comes around that you start finding animal ornaments, riding ziplines and watching treasure chests materialize out of thin air. The game definitely lost some of its impact in that lava room with the dragons. That room was like a parade of survival horror nonsense. It should have been ported to Killer7 and used as another piece of satire.
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The longer you play this game, the worse it gets.

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