So I got the Chicago typewriter last night...very therepeutic.

I just got this game over the weekend and am not enjoying it as much as I thought I'd be. I see a lot of folks comment on this game being easy but I'm having some trouble with it. I'm at the point just after rescuing the presidents' daughter and my experience so far has been a lot of frustration with how many damn bullets it takes to drop an enemy, how aiming at the head seems to have no effect on getting an actual 'headshot', those stupid bear traps, and those stupid press A to do something or press other buttons to dodge moments. The game has it's moments, but so far I really just haven't enjoyed it like I have playing all the other RE games.

Shoot 'em in the lower leg, and when they drop to their knees, take 'em out with a kick or a suplex. Try to group as many of them together as possible, and then toss a grenade at 'em--that'll work too. Doing both should save you quite a bit of ammo.

SteelWill, try to play the Mercenary mini-game. It makes you a much better player because you are constantly under pressure and must move and shoot fast. I love the Merc game, it makes the regular very easy once you master this mode.

Uh, he hasn't beaten the game yet, so he doesn't have access to Mercenaries.

Are you upgrading your weapons and making sure to search for treasure (and sell the treasure you have)? I can't say I ever noticed the enemies taking an unusually long time to die, personally. Sure, it's not like you can drop them with a single headshot, but they're supposed to be stronger than the average human. Also, when you're facing a villager whose parasite is showing (when they've got that tentacled thing where their head was), you can only damage them with a headshot. Shooting them anywhere else on the body has zero effect when they're in that state. You can also use a flash grenade to kill any exposed parasites instantly.

Don't remember there being that many beartraps in the game, either. Sure, there are a few spots where they hid them a bit, but they tend to be pretty obvious most of the time. If it makes you feel any better, the bear traps pretty much disappear once you get past the beginning of the game.

I think the most important thing for gettting through this game the first time is finding and spending money wisely.

1. Get the treasure maps. They will pay for themselves and get you guns that will solve your problem. Also be sure to combine your treasure items for more cash.

2. Don't waste all your money on buying and upgrading the wrong guns. Buy and upgrade the Red 9 and the Striker. Buy, but don't bother upgrading the bolt action rifle (save your money for the semi-auto). Just use the regular shotgun until you can buy the Striker. Find the Broken Butterfly and upgrade it. The four keepers are without question the Red 9, Striker, Semi-Auto Rifle, and the Broken Butterfly.

3. This is personal preference, but I hardly ever used grenades. They are worth too much money and I'd rather have them contribute to better weapons. I did use flash grenades every now and then though...they're not worth much and are handy.

I'm speaking for the GC version...not sure what changes were made for the PS2.

Also meant to tell you that the annoying "press to dodge" situations only get worse...much much worse...the only thing I disliked about the game.

Yep. The first time I played, I think I went back and started over a couple of times because I missed things entirely, or didn't maximize out things by combining them and whatever. (Oh, and shoot all of the blue medallions--all fifteen of them, rather than the required ten or whatever it is. The free pistol you'll get (Punisher?) will also have a free upgrade.)

For me, with the exception of the semi-auto rifle, it was pretty much the exact opposite! I liked the Blacktail, the Riot Gun, the Killer7 (although expensive and used infrequently, it packs a mighty wallop), and the semi-auto Rifle.

I like the regular grenades for when you've got a bunch of guys around you, and the flash grenades are great for the "sprouts," but the incendiary grenades are worthless. I'd always have a huge stockpile of those by the end of the game.

The Red 9 is more powerful and shoots only slightly slower. Only downside is that it takes up more space.

The Striker holds many more shells (up to 100) and has a wider spread, which is great for clearing crowds (part of the reason I never used regular grenades...plus they are worth $2K)

While the Killer7 is better in every other regard, its maximum power is 35...the broken butterfly maxes at 50! Now THAT is a wallop...plus it's free if you can find it.

No argument here...don't bother with the scope though.

Striker clears any crowd

Incendiaries are worth $1K and regular grenades are worth $2K...too valuable to use unless you have to...almost always sold them.

I agree that there are some hurdles to overcome at the beginning. To make it more fun and easier look up online faqs on the treasures and what guns are worth upgrading and getting. I fully agree on the Red9, Striker, SemiAuto Rifle, and broken butterfly. Stick with those and don't bother with the TMP or anything else. It is definately difficult to get in the groove but once you find it and settle it will get much more comfortable.

Remember to conserve ammo in the beginning. Use the shotgun only if you need it and shoot villagers in the head to kick them, then use the knife to slice them up if you can. Remember to use the knife on the boxes and any bear traps to further conserve. In the castle shoot them in the knees to make them drop and run up to them and use the suplex. The biggest hurdle for me was the beginning of the castle stages. Difficulty ramps up and weapons aren't maxed out yet. It is all about technique.

But don't worry about it, it will get better and a lot more fun once you adjust your playing style.

Fair enough. I did say, though, that those were what I liked. They're not necessarily the best for everybody or every situation.

Here's an interesting weapons summary someone did for GameFAQs, with pretty-detailed comparisons between all of them:

Link

And, for what it's worth, he's agreed with you for pretty much all of the main weapons. I'll give them a second chance the next time I play through, I suppose--but I still like the ones I mentioned, and think they're pretty good and versatile to use for much of the game.

A case can certaintly be made for the Killer7. It is better (smaller, fires faster, reloads faster, handles better, cheaper to upgrade) through most of the game...and 35 is plenty powerful for the vast majority of enemies. But a 50 firepower Broken Butterfly is a beautiful thing to behold when you fight some of the real bastards toward the end.

The Striker just saves loads of ammo. I like to back into a corner and let the not-zombies bunch up and get real close...waiting to see their war face...and then hit em en masse with the Striker.

I'm pretty deliberate like that, and I didn't purposefully do a single suplex. Lots of defensive kicks though.

Well, I finally got ahold of a used copy of this, and to be honest, my first impressions aren't that good. The graphics don't really seem all that great (although, they are blown up to 90 inches with my projector). And I just really seem to suck at it. I just barely made it past the first savepoint. I wander in to the village, and get attacked by way too many bad guys to handle. Then I reload, and try to sneak around the outside of the village, and then wind up trapped inside this small 2 story house, and again, get attacked by way too many bad guys to handle.

It seems like I'm just not doing the thing the designers of this game wanted me to do at this point, and I suppose I could just do trial and error until I figure out what that is, or read the walkthrough online, but I figure if the whole game is going to be like that, then I'm not even going to bother. How's that for a bad attitude? I sure wish there was an easy mode.

Most people die a few times in that first big fight in the village. It's a doozy, both due to the mob of enemies and the fact that you've only got a pistol at this point.

A few things to keep in mind:

-You won't get as many goodies for it, but don't go into the two story house until after the fight is over. Going in there triggers the appearance of the chainsaw-weilding guy, who can be tough when you're still learning the game. There's another chainsaw guy hanging out at the end of a long path to the left of the tower, so don't go down there, either, or he'll start chasing you around.

- Shoot carefully. As with most games, a head shot will do the most damage to an enemy, but it won't always kill them outright, and since they'll be staggering around after the first hit, successive hits are harder to land. However, if you stagger them with a shot to the face, you can walk up to them and press the action button (there'll be a prompt at the bottom of the screen) to do a spin kick. This will do a good amount of damage and knock away any enemies that are near you at the time, giving you a chance to find a better position. Alternately, you can aim for the legs. Hitting an enemy in the legs won't do a whole lot of damage, but it does knock them down for a decent length of time.

- Keep moving. There aren't a whole lot of places in the village where you can just sit and shoot them as they come at you. The buidlings have windows that they'll climb through, and most of the areas around the sides have multiple ways to access them.

As far as the scenario goes, you have to kill a certain amount of enemies before they'll stop coming, so it's basically just run and gun for now. You'll know when it's over.

That is one of two or three really overwhelming spots in the game and in the later ones, you tend to have better weapons.

For that spot, I like to head into the village and take the first path to the right. Done casually, you won't set off the bad guys. There's a little hut up there with some variety of grenade and an herb. Now you are in a small open area with only one small path for them to come after you. Go down and take a cheap head shot to "activate" the villagers and then back up the path while taking leg shots. If you can get 5-6 of them bunched up with leg shots, use the grenade.

No chainsaws and it's awfully hard for them to surround you.

I didn't even know the chainsaw guys *could* show up in the village until I read it somewhere.

Give it time. The next time you get hit in waves like that, you'll have some weapons.

Edit to add: Any time you see a dude with a hatchet, take him out first because he'll probably throw it.

The beauty of this game is actually quite the opposite. You can basically take any approach you want to. Some might be better than others but it really depends on your style.

Stick with it. You really will get much better at it. It can be tough learning your fighting style but once you get it it is great.

Hardest part of the game, hands down. Don't worry, it made me put it off for about a month before trying again.

When you first enter the village run and enter the house next to the barn with the cow. Quickly shoot at the door till you made a hole, next bring out your knife and start slashing madly at the villagers thru the hole don't forget to pickup any pestos or ammo they drop and repeat. I found this tip very helpful for me and save me from wasting a lot of ammo.

That doesn't sound very interesting at all...but it's probably effective. I never considered it, but it probably works just about anywhere where there's a door...

I dunno...just feels cheap.

Well I found the tip somewhere in GameFaqs RE4 message board and I would'nt know nothing about that tip if I have'nt read it. But, I only gave this tip because I thought it might have help out joeblow69 and other who needed some help badly.

At least I did'nt give any tip for the cause I haven't any.

No worries. Didn't mean criticize...I just find that taking advantage of the AI to that degree takes some of the joy out of it for me.

He may be talking about the huge room in the castle where you've got to cover Ashley while she's raising the platforms to jump across.

I also think he is talking about the castle room. That whole room is tough (and fun). Another tough area is

I think the opening village gang attack only seems so hard because it is so early in the game, you aren't all that comfortable with the controls, and your weapons are weak. On subsequent playthoughs it wasn't all that hard.

I finally beat the game on professional mode. It's much harder because the enemies don't drop much money or ammo so you don't get to upgrade your weapons as quickly.

That being said, I really enjoyed playing through the game the second time through on the harder level. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be mainly due to the fact that I had a better feel as to how to kill the enemies.

As for some of my more difficult fights:



When is RE5 going to be released?