I never had the impression that Leon is particularly superhuman in RE4: controls are limited to a degree which means your flexibility is limited as well, you are always outnumbered and have to decide in mere miliseconds what to shoot and even regular enemies could cause not only huge damage but kill you almost in an instant if you don't take care.
These elements cause a lot of stressful situations that keep you on the edge and create a new thrilling kind of horror. You are constantly under pressure of trying to survive, listening to enemies screaming around you while trying to kill you in the most gruesome ways (those death animations are something you don't want to see again after seeing them once which pushes you even further) and very often you have to fight in very small and narrow locations. Add the constant feel of paranoia which I mentioned above (and which makes the village at the beginning one of the best gaming levels of all time) and you've got yourself a horror game that uses unusual methods to create pressure on the player.
Just thinking about being in this small ass room with a fucking Wolverine-type enemy which suddenly awakes and tries to rip you apart or trying to escape from that black regenerator enemy that looks like the most badass and evil being ever gives me the chills. Resident Evil 4 is through and through a horror game, especially on your first playthrough and those on higher difficulties. People always use the "But it's a action game"-card because they belong to that huuuuuge ass group of people that critisizes a game for what it is not instead for praising it for what it is. You want oldschool RE? Play the oldschool RE games, buy that "HD remake" and have fun with your sea of crushed black. True RE fans should be thankful for Mikami pushing not only their favorite IP but an entire genre to new heights nobody even imagined before.
Now, RE6 is a different story: that is superhuman territory. Player characters can jump around like fucking basketballs in rooms construed with mattresses and have a huge amount of possibilities how to kill the enemies. That's the point: RE6 always looked to be about killing while RE4 always looked to be about actually surviving.
These are just my two cents though. I know a lot of people don't see RE4 as horror game, but to me the game uses new ways of creating tense moments that no horror game tried before. Heck, look at how so many First-Person horror games use a lot of darkness and all those cheap tricks to create a horror atmosphere.. just my opinion.
These elements cause a lot of stressful situations that keep you on the edge and create a new thrilling kind of horror. You are constantly under pressure of trying to survive, listening to enemies screaming around you while trying to kill you in the most gruesome ways (those death animations are something you don't want to see again after seeing them once which pushes you even further) and very often you have to fight in very small and narrow locations. Add the constant feel of paranoia which I mentioned above (and which makes the village at the beginning one of the best gaming levels of all time) and you've got yourself a horror game that uses unusual methods to create pressure on the player.
Just thinking about being in this small ass room with a fucking Wolverine-type enemy which suddenly awakes and tries to rip you apart or trying to escape from that black regenerator enemy that looks like the most badass and evil being ever gives me the chills. Resident Evil 4 is through and through a horror game, especially on your first playthrough and those on higher difficulties. People always use the "But it's a action game"-card because they belong to that huuuuuge ass group of people that critisizes a game for what it is not instead for praising it for what it is. You want oldschool RE? Play the oldschool RE games, buy that "HD remake" and have fun with your sea of crushed black. True RE fans should be thankful for Mikami pushing not only their favorite IP but an entire genre to new heights nobody even imagined before.
Now, RE6 is a different story: that is superhuman territory. Player characters can jump around like fucking basketballs in rooms construed with mattresses and have a huge amount of possibilities how to kill the enemies. That's the point: RE6 always looked to be about killing while RE4 always looked to be about actually surviving.
These are just my two cents though. I know a lot of people don't see RE4 as horror game, but to me the game uses new ways of creating tense moments that no horror game tried before. Heck, look at how so many First-Person horror games use a lot of darkness and all those cheap tricks to create a horror atmosphere.. just my opinion.
