When I played Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube for the first time about a year ago, I was blown away by the graphics, controls and overall story. Being mostly a first-person horror fan (i.e. Doom 3, F.E.A.R.) this was my first crack at a third-person horror game that I’ve played for an extended amount of time. I must say this is a great game, but why Capcom… why did you not try with this port? The controls make it almost impossible to play, and with the same texture detail and scaled-down graphics as the PS2, I have to keep asking myself, why even buy it for the PC at all when you can get it for $10 or $15 at your local GameStop used for your console?

If you aren’t familiar with the storyline, you play as Leon Kennedy, a man on a mission to save the U.S. president's daughter. As your journey begins, you are shoved right into the action as you find a small town of zombified inhabitants and you will begin blowing heads off within the first five to ten minutes. The game is hardly ever a bore with new environments, weapons, enemies and plot details, Resident Evil plays out like a twisted tale from the perfect horror movie.

One wonderful detail of the PC version is that it includes all the extra content the PS2 version received. There are new chapters, weapons and some minor unlockable content that help to keep things fresh and give the hardcore crowd a run for their money. I applaud Capcom for including the wonderful bonus.

But this is where the review gets sticky and I become brutally honest: the game’s controls are horrendous. Borderline impossible to beat while using the default configuration is not a far-fetched statement. Capcom didn’t include any mouse support whatsoever, which leaves us with a slew of keyboard commands that are ridiculous in that you need about 15 fingers to play. To play properly you have to master W,A,S,D, the arrow keys, the number keys, your inventory key, your map key, as well as hitting combinations of ctrl, and shift ctrl etc. etc. are a must. Simply put, if you don’t have a gamepad, either go buy one or don’t buy this game at all. It is simply in vain to try and use the keyboard.

The sound and music on the other hand is stupendous! All of the wonderful music is back in the PC version and really adds to the overall feel of tension and scare. The blood splatter and meat-ripping sounds offer a wonderful “splat” and “thump” as you hack, slash, and blast your way through zombified baddies.

As for the graphics, some things look a little better, but for the most part it is PS2/GameCube graphics. You can’t turn on anti-aliasing, you can’t turn up the texture detail and as far as I saw most of the objects in the game didn’t scale up well to the resolution I had set (which was almost max).

If Capcom would have put even a little work into this port it would have been a “must-have” game, but as is, I can’t really recommend it without buying a controller.

Gameplay: 5.0
Same award-winning gameplay is at the heart of this PC re-hash. Simply one of the top horror games of the past 5 years, but you can hardly play it with a keyboard.

Graphics: 5.0
Basically the same as the PS2/Gamecube’s.

Sound: 8.4
Creepy, eerie and tense music and sounds offer a great overall feel.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Fairly difficult with some spots getting really tricky.

Concept: 7.1
Wonderful third-person gameplay. Lots of action, hardly ever feels boring (except when you can’t aim accurately because of the controls).

Overall: (without Ggamepad) 6.9
As my duty of reviewing the games in the state they come out of the box, I can’t give a higher score with the lack of mouse support even though the story, pacing, and puzzles are great.