Resident Evil 4 is a 2005 survival horror game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 for the GameCube. It follows Leon S. Kennedy, a US government agent on a mission to rescue the president's daughter, Ashley Graham, from a religious cult in Spain. Resident Evil 4's third-person shooter gameplay departs from that of previous Resident Evil games. From a third-person perspective, the player battles hordes of enemies, infected by a mind-controlling parasite, using weapons such as firearms and knives.
Development began in 1999 on the PlayStation 2. Resident Evil 4 underwent a lengthy development, with four proposed versions discared; the first attempt, directed by Hideki Kamiya, was retooled into Devil May Cry (2001). Eventually, series creator Shinji Mikami took directorial duties. He and fellow Capcom staff felt the Resident Evil formula had stagnated and so departed from the series' slow gameplay and fixed camera angles in favor of a more action-oriented approach.
Resident Evil 4 was announced as one of the Capcom Five, a collaboration between Capcom and Nintendo to produce five GameCube-exclusive games to boost hardware sales and demonstrate third-party support. However, Capcom announced a PlayStation 2 port two months before its January 2005 release, which soured relations between it and Nintendo for several years. Resident Evil 4 received acclaim and became one of the highest rated games of 2005, receiving numerous Game of the Year accolades. Critics praised its story, gameplay, graphics, voice acting, and characters.