heh, Thats exactly what they want you to think. You're suppose to get that feeling of confusion, dread, and hopelessness. Thats what makes the game so great. So if you got stuck going one way, how about try going another way? Or doing something different? RE4 was one of the most straightforward games I've ever played. Theres very little "figuring this out" instances in the game - actually theres a few but not till way later on. If you have trouble with these type of games, then logically you would hate the Zelda games then because thats pratically 90% of what the game is - figuring stuff out to move on.
The difference, for me, is that when you play a zelda game, it starts by leading you around for a bit. It might start open ended, but they TOLD you what to do. If you choose to go pull weeds instead, that's your wasted time.
In this case. It wasn't ONE thing that put me off. It was the combination of, A Not being able to move my character around too well yet; B Not having a clue what to do; C When I did die, I was sent back to or near to the save, and had to waste time coming back down the hill. Killing the same 4 guys over and over, knowing where they were going to jump out; and finally D getting negatice reinforcement on trying to kill them in the first place, I killed a good 5-6 of them from far away with my gun, ran out of ammo and tried to kill some with my knife, and died. I repeated that and was killed again, so I then tried to find a way 'around them' and will all the options, that seemed like the most logical course. So from then on, that is what I focused on.. When I realized I'd wasted over an hour being annoyed and bored, I sent the game back.
I don't think that's unreasonable. And you all can call being confused, annoyed, and not enjoying yourself, 'fun', but I do not.
In zelda. You might not know what you are supposed to do exactly, but you always 'sorta' know what to do. You have a general idea. Either someone told you to head to some location, and you are heading in that direction (and the good level design leads you in the right path) Or, like in a dungeon, you KNOW what you need, you just don't know where to get it. It isn't going in without a clue, it is going in without a clear vision. Might be a key to a door, or an area on your map you aren't sure how to get to. Point is, you have limited good options, and ruling them out doesn't take much effort. Additionally, the combat is normally fun, or fun enough in some cases. Which I didn't feel about RE4, mainly cause I wasn't used to the controls.
this RE4 church bell thing doesn't give you a clue. So not making sure I knew to try to outlast them, I was lead astray by what I figured was supposed to be an endless stream of baddies that I would have to dodge. I had the right idea, in that I wasn't going to just kill a few and casually move forward. I was ready for that. I thought It was about WHERE I went that mattered, not how long I was in the area.
I think that is a critical oversight, one that was made worse by the level design giving me the impression that I needed to go somewhere. Normally an 'arena' fight is in an open space.
Like I said... This is all fixable with a single 'thought to myself' moment for my character. Not having that is just bad design.
If it is the only instance of bad design in the whole game, that's great. It was in the worst possible place for it though. Right up front where it would make a bad first impression.
Also. What I liked about Zelda OoT was that it entirely lacked this kind of figgure it out on your own design. With the exception of the water temple, which was hard because the whole 3D maze thing was really tough for people. After I played it 4 or 5 times, I realized exactly why. The people making it knew it too well. If you know how it works well enough it is the easiest of the dungeons to get through. Straight forward, in one cycle, it is easy. It is a pain if you get outta sync with the water levels. Then you start to think toooo out of the box and that's what got people in trouble.
Outside that minor issue, the entire game was a string of 'you are in this room, everything you need is here, figger it out.' all the integral exploration was controled, all the side exploration was completely open.
What I saw in RE4 was that ALL the exploration was open, and I was left to have to figger out what the developers made opperable and what they didn't... Can I break this window? that one? that one? ooooh That one.