I can't agree with people saying RE4 is somehow less of a survival horror game.
The atmosphere in RE games is what's important, the dimly lit corridors of RE1 all the way up to the dimly lit environments in RE6. But, RE4 had an amazing atmosphere, amazing to the point that I'd consider it the best conceived environment in any RE game. Spanish farmer folk gone all evil, with that farm setting, rotting stuff, putrid smells, dusty old buildings. The atmosphere in RE4 is just genius - because it's like real farms. Farmers are sometimes sick fuckers who will think nothing of leaving rotting food lying around, or even just letting the pigs consume any dead pigs, that sort of thing happens. I was at a farm once where the last seasons strawberries were still sitting out, these things were practically climbing out the tubs on their own. So for me RE4 has the most believable setting, because every farm has something unpleasant hidden in the corner, RE4 shows us that.
It might have really amped up the action, but at it's heart RE4 is still a survival horror, it's just that it becomes more aparant later into the game - on the surface, the first couple hours gameplay don't really give that away. I'd say that RE5 is the one that went too far away from the RE formula, that was just tedious that game.
The atmosphere in RE games is what's important, the dimly lit corridors of RE1 all the way up to the dimly lit environments in RE6. But, RE4 had an amazing atmosphere, amazing to the point that I'd consider it the best conceived environment in any RE game. Spanish farmer folk gone all evil, with that farm setting, rotting stuff, putrid smells, dusty old buildings. The atmosphere in RE4 is just genius - because it's like real farms. Farmers are sometimes sick fuckers who will think nothing of leaving rotting food lying around, or even just letting the pigs consume any dead pigs, that sort of thing happens. I was at a farm once where the last seasons strawberries were still sitting out, these things were practically climbing out the tubs on their own. So for me RE4 has the most believable setting, because every farm has something unpleasant hidden in the corner, RE4 shows us that.
It might have really amped up the action, but at it's heart RE4 is still a survival horror, it's just that it becomes more aparant later into the game - on the surface, the first couple hours gameplay don't really give that away. I'd say that RE5 is the one that went too far away from the RE formula, that was just tedious that game.