Ashley Graham IS THE BEST!!!!

Resident Evil 4 in my opinion is still one of the greatest games of all time. Some people want to argue that it has aged, but I would have to disagree. Most of the time when I hear people say that its aged its usually about the controls, but even then I went years without playing and even though it took a minute to remember the controls still feel great to control.

However that's not the subject I want to get into today. There will be plenty of time to talk about my undying love for Resident Evil 4 in another article. No today i want to take on a topic that everyone seems to have an opinion so lets get to it.

So escort missions, oh boy they can be something. At there very best they can be a mission that is inoffensive and doesn't drag time worse than a sloth during rush hour traffic, however they can also be an exercise in determining "how long will it take for my patience to wear thin?". For example the Dead Rising series is one of my favorite video game series, well at least up too Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, I mean 3 is okay and the less said about 4 the better. Regardless of all of that though, while I do love the first game even I have to point how brain dead the A.I can be at times and how frustrating it can be to lead them around the map. with them getting stuck in corners, to being slow as hell, to not even listening to you and just standing around like there isn't a horde of zombies about to munch on them like a buffet. sure you don't have to rescue them, but ignoring the moral implications of that, that's also a lot of experience points you're missing out on. even with all those problems though Dead Rising is still an enjoyable game even with the problems that come with escorting the survivors. One of the worst examples though is Eileen from Silent Hill 4, cause while i think the game is good, i am still critical about some of the decisions made for that game like for example Eileen being horribly injured and only being able to hobble around and which ending you get being determined by how injured she gets, so you better get rid of those enemies in the area or you're screwed. Some people would argue that there are no good escort missions but I actually disagree with that.

I have seen so many lists that either put Ashley at either the top of the list or at least close to it, saying that she is the worst escort mission and for the life of me I don't understand why. I can understand how you might not like how she was written, her presence in the story, her being a damsel in distress. I can understand people's arguments with those cliches and storytelling, but to say that she is a bad escort mission is just incorrect. Truly as a mechanic within the game she is a near-perfect escort mission.

Now some of you will still want to argue against that but let me explain. You ever notice in the game that Ashley is always behind you? No matter what is going on she stays behind Leon the entire time. Why is this? So she doesn't get in the way of your shots, which is a big problem with some other escort missions in video games, however, in Resident Evil 4 she never gets in your way at all. Let us say she somehow does end up in front of you, she ducks out of the way when your aiming, seriously in terms of escort missions you have to go out of your way to kill her, which is really morbid to think about now that I'm typing this. Anyway to get back on topic, when you move, she moves, there's no waiting for her to catch up, the only reason you'd have to wait is if you told her to wait where she is and then to follow you which she does quickly anyway. Which lead into my next statement about how she follows your commands, which she does well, some people complain about the castle but honestly you could just tell her to wait at the entrance while you take out the enemies. Also just to add, in a few instances you can tell her to hide in a couple of places.

A lot of people seem to complain about Ashley in mission 3-1, the beginning of the castle section has many challenges to overcome and some of the memorable moments of the game. To this day I still remember the red cloak ganado shouting and then a giant fireball coming down at you, but people complain about Ashley in this entire section and it never makes any sense to me. At the beginning of that horde you can tell her to wait at the entrance while you take everyone down, sure there may be one or two of them that'll try and go after Ashley but you can snipe them down before they even have a chance at doing so. There's also the garrador fight which I don't understand why anyone brings here downstairs to that, leave here upstairs and take care of him when you go down. Then there's the corridor fight as shown above, like I said before she follows close behind you, you can tell her to wait in a somewhat safe location and not to mention if she does get grabbed in one of the rare occurrences that, that might happen all you got to do is is shoot their legs and they drop and she immediately rushes back to you. Not to mention she's not there with you all the time.

The only section you can have a debate on is the crank section where Ashley has to turn the cranks to get the platforms above the water, cause of the enemies coming after her and you but even then I have some issues with that.

1. By this point in the game you should have a decent sniper rifle and shotgun. So crowd control shouldn't be and issue.

2. Again shoot them in the leg to drop her.

3. There's only ever 2 or 3 enemies coming after you on the ground so there shouldn't be an issue.

4. The sniper rifle is great for head shots.

Honestly I'm not judging anyones play style at all, but it does feel like some people don't take the proper advantages that they have within the game itself. Like I said before, I understand people character critiques or problems they have, but to say she's a bad escort mission is just incorrect. Also for the people who say she's annoying I guarantee that if I mentioned the names FI or tingle, that statement would be taken back. If you want my honest opinion, I think video games should learn from Resident Evil 4 when it comes to escort missions because they do it the best.

(Thank you for reading my article and I hope you all have a pleasant day or evening.)