Every now and then a game comes along that within the first minute of playing it you know it's going to be something truly special. To say that Resident Evil 4 is the greatest thing to happen to survival-horror games since it's creation is a bold statement and one that can be backed up by the quality of the game at hand. Resident Evil 4 is the end all, be all that the genre has strived for since its inception and is a fond love letter not just to fans of action or survival-horror but to people that simply like to play games.

Resident Evil 4 begins as Leon S. Kennedy, now a government agent, is in Spain on a mission to rescue the President's daughter. He arrives at a small village with his escort of two Spanish police officers and begins his investigation. Within moments things go wrong as Leon discovers that the villagers are no longer truly human, the two police officers are killed and the bridge you crossed to enter the village has been destroyed. Your only option is to press forward and uncover the truth regarding these villagers and to find the President's young daughter.

The first encounter you come across the game shows you just how fantastic Resident Evil 4's gameplay is. You don't have quite the maneuverability of many other action game characters like Ryu Hayabusa, but Leon moves much more fluidly than characters in most other horror games. When it's time for combat to take center-stage you press one button to aim and another to fire. The weapons you use have a laser sight for precision aiming. This allows you to shoot weapons thrown at you or out of an enemy's hand as it prepares to throw it your way or you can shoot an enemy in the legs to make it stumble to name a few examples.

The enemies in Resident Evil 4 aren't zombies per se. They're far more human if that term can be applied and are referred to as the Los Ganados. They'll swarm you, ambush you, and use tactics that zombies typically do not. For instance, if you're bunkered in a home that has two floors and are on the second one, they will distract you with enemies bringing ladders up to each of the windows to come in while others will break in through the bottom and flank you from the other side. The Los Ganados are simply spectacular foes to fight and as a surprise treat you'll find more gruesome foes as the game progresses.

Though the Los Ganados are spectacular foes to fight and killing them leads to the most disgustingly pleasing blood baths you can imagine it's Resident Evil 4's bosses that truly shine. Every boss with the exception of the pushover final boss is a joy to battle with. Their size, design and overall gruesome nature make them awe-inspiring. They are a cinematic delight as they often take up the screen and demand your attention because at any one moment they can kill you. There are other bosses that simply aren't that large, but a foe your size and more powerful than you, chasing you through tight corridors or waiting to fight you on the rooftops actually provides a different and more refreshing perspective than simply having each boss become larger than the other. These more intimate battles are actually spine tingling on a personal level as the enemy nears you and can rip your head off at eye level.

The boss designs are ridiculous. There is no other way to say it. They are visually appealing and disturbing all at once. You'll find one grab you only to have his entire body detach as you see his skeletal portions with every useless chunk of flesh being discarded. Another is a monstrous beast covered in bumps and warts, crawling as its juices are left behind in its wake. The amount of effort put into designing these foes pays off as Resident Evil 4 not only has some of the greatest boss designs but also some of the greatest boss fights ever.

The game also comes with a game mode called Mercenaries. This is a spectacular mode that works with the Resident Evil 4 engine and is surprisingly reminiscent of the new Horde-type game modes found in games like Gears of War, Halo and Call of Duty. Unlike those newer modes you will go through Mercenaries alone and are tasked with surviving waves of the Los Ganados for as long as you can. Every character you can select has a different set of weapons and health supplies that you can use so each character will have a different strategy for survival. It starts out easily enough with regular villagers chasing after you but as shielded foes rush towards you like a wall and a dual chainsaw freak is screaming in the distance your survival instincts will kick in as you maneuver around the game's various maps.

Frenetic action and giant boss battles aside, where Resident Evil 4 succeeds, as a survival-horror game isn't so much that it's a frightening game, though there are moments where you will be scared, but its haunting atmosphere. Resident Evil 4 will send chills through your spine as its atmosphere takes center stage against seemingly impossible odds as you go off in search of the President's daughter. The game has the right feel to it, it does have it's action go to the forefront as it's greatest strength but it never lets the action get in the way of the atmosphere and the mood. The two combine together to make Resident Evil 4 one of the most masterful games ever made and an example of how to do the genre justice without abandoning what makes it a survival-horror game.

As a GameCube release Resident Evil 4 features some of the best graphics ever for its time. The character models are startling close in design to human beings showing the Capcom team's artistic talent. On a technical level Resident Evil 4 is the greatest looking game released on the GameCube but it's spooky artistry comes together with those technically proficient graphics to make an experience that is wholly absorbing.

The sound effects in Resident Evil 4 are, again, the best the GameCube has ever been treated to. Enemies will mutter in Spanish phrases such as, "Morir es vivir!" and so on as they go about the game. Some foes shriek in the darkness. Animals leave out cries that are reminiscent of a land lost in death as crow wings flutter about in the background. Most importantly, when your bullets hit flesh it sounds painful. It's the sound that makes your weapons seem powerful, but your enemies even more so than any gun you have. Every footstep crackles, every bullet explodes out of the barrel, every enemy sounds imposing, every hit sounds painful and it is this attention to sound that makes Resident Evil 4 such a wonderful game.

The music ties together this haunting feel with the spectacular effects. There aren't any out of place pieces. The music for major setpiece battles ramps up in the intensity but for the most part the music is muted and lets the atmosphere further engulf you in the experience.

Resident Evil 4 is a lengthy adventure and is more than worth the $50 price tag it originally came with. These days you can find it at a significantly lower price on the GameCube, PlayStation 2 or Wii. However, regardless of price, console generation, controls, and so on, you will be lost in Resident Evil 4's game world for at least twenty hours and you will be compelled to play through it again, either on harder difficulties or with all of your previous items in tow for the second go around. The game is truly fantastic and is well worth a purchase today for those who have never played it if only to see how it's influenced games like Dead Space and Gears of War in different ways.

Whether you're a fan of Resident Evil, the survival-horror genre, action games, adventure games or simply good games, Resident Evil 4 has all the bases covered. This is the kind of game that comes along once in a console-generation and it needs to be experienced. It's a bold statement to call a game one of the all time greatest ever made but I can make that claim with Resident Evil 4 and have no reservations about it.

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