Instead, you’re meant to use the environment to funnel enemies and control their approach — as you would during an actual zombie apocalypse. By controlling how and where you’re vulnerable, you avoid spray-and-pray style tactics and limit waste. It’s a small addition, but it’s a brand of environmental puzzle solving that has a stunning amount of depth, especially given how hokey everything else is. At the same time, it’s a clear nod to players that the designers know what they’re doing. It’s all a big, masterfully crafted joke with a wink to the audience. Games like this don’t get made anymore, at least not in the same way.
Resident Evil 4’s approach to environmental combat has been picked apart and repackaged in just about every modern action game imaginable from Gears of War to Call of Duty. But they miss the essentials, the tactical depth that made that kind of combat meaningful. Even Resident Evil 5 and 6 didn’t quite get it. More recent action games are all so self-serious that after some stunning flourishes, they botch the landing.