Resident Evil 4 was FUN, with the big F. Just wait until you shoot one of the zombie spaniards, and a tentacle monster comes out where his head used to be. That's cool. Sad thing is that I didn't saw any tentacle monsters bursting out of zombie chest's.
The mythical troll's found in this game, are obviously trolls from LOTR movies, which gives the game that Peter Jackson feeling. Sure, video games ripped off LOTR more shamelessly around that time. But just taking down one of those beasties is a feat in itself, almost like taking down Bowser. Speaking of which, Ashley really reminded me of Princess Peach. Remember in Super Mario Brothers that famous line ''Our Princess is in another castle''? Well, that line is not found in RE4, but in terms of how many times she dies, it will make to scratch your eyes out because of anger. We really had a guilty pleasure just taking her out in different ways.
Design of RE4 was clearly inspired by Hitman 2. Sure, there is no stealth, and there is a fantastical element at play in RE4, but since you are killing these innocent spaniard zombies indiscriminately, you will wonder, where is the bald head and signature black suit.
One other inspiration is Diablo, with it's RPG-like loot system, with enemies dropping chests. Resident Evil 6 could've continued the RPG-like system of RE4, but we are all happy how it turned out.
RE4 actually is almost the same as the old RE's, only in a modern package. Play it. And it's one of our top games, only a little bit behind Donkey Kong Country.