Resident Evil 4/Chapter 1-1

The Path to the Village
Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the controls and check your inventory. You start the game with a pistol, a small amount of ammo, a first aid kit, and the memos “Playing Manual 1” and “Info on Ashley”.

Move forward, away from the car. You'll notice crows perched on the ground or in tree branches; if you get too close, they'll fly away from you. You can collect money or other items by shooting them before they move. You can also shoot them after they take off but it will take some expert marksmanship to hit them in flight.

Continue along the path, to the right is an old sign with the word "Pueblo". As you near a house, a cutscene will play where someone is watching you through the window.

Explore outside the house first. To the right is a truck parked on the path which blocks your way into the village. Head to the left side of the house, and you'll find a wooden box. These boxes, and occasionally barrels, appear throughout the game, coming in various sizes, and contain items or money, so be out the lookout for them. Break out your knife and attack the box to destroy it; you can shoot it as well but it's a waste of bullets. Collect the contents and return to the front of the house.

Now it's time to go inside so head into the house. As soon as you enter it, you'll start to hear someone coughing. Head toward the noise, and another cutscene will begin where you show a man a picture of Ashley. He tells you (in very rude Spanish) to get out and then attacks you with a hatchet.

As soon as the cutscene ends, equip your weapon and start firing. Remember that targeting specific areas of the body will have different effects. Make him fall to the ground by shooting his legs, then you can kick him. Stun him for a moment by blasting his face and you can also kick him. Shoot different areas for different results. The knife deals good damage this early in the game, so you can also run past him and turn around as he misses his attack, leaving himself open for a few seconds. You can also approach him and lure in an attack, back off to dodge and then knife him. It may not seem sporting, but also use the knife if he's lying on the floor but still alive; otherwise he will get up and attack and he wouldn't wait for you to get up.

When he falls, another cutscene will play. You hear the truck start up and you look out the window to see it heading down the path. There is a loud commotion and things don’t sound too good for the police officers who wouldn’t come with you. You check in with Hunnigan and report that at least some of the villagers are hostile. She advises that you to keep moving and find Ashley.

If your friend on the floor happened to drop any items, be sure to pick them up. You might try heading out through the front door, but more villagers are pressing against it. So you have to find another way. Go ahead and explore the house, and you'll find some stairs behind the fireplace; head up the stairs. Check near the top of the stair to find an ammo refill. There is a window here and if you break it you can take potshots at a villager below if you see him standing in front instead of trying to get through the door. Come back downstairs and go near the window; you'll notice a command appear on the screen which allows you just jump out. You can also jump out the window upstairs but then you land in the middle of all the villagers.

Once you're out of the house the villagers will open the front door and follow you out the downstairs window if that's the way you went. In any case there are 3 people after you and they aren't too happy about the facelift you just gave their friend. The window makes a good choke point where you can get some good shots in, but watch for a villager which might not go through the house. If they start to surround you then move to safe area where you can put your back to the wall and fire on them. They move slowly so you may also be able to run past them to get to a better position. Remember to watch your ammo and stop to reload if it starts to get low. When all three villagers are defeated the scary music will stop and you can collect any items they dropped.

If you go back to the house and explore you will find evidence that something very strange and sinister is happening to the people here. If you return to where you first began, you'll realize that you can't go back. The bridge is out, and if you look over the cliff you can see the truck and the police car at the bottom of the ravine. The only choice you have now is to move forward down the path.

Follow the path, and you'll come across a shack on the right. There are wooden boxes and an ammo refill to be found here, so please grab them. You'll also find a typewriter in here. Keep on the lookout for these typewriters, because this is how you'll save your game. Unlike past Resident Evil games, you don't need 'ink ribbons' to save, so feel free to use it as much as you want.

Leave the shack and continue down the path; there are more crows perched here. You'll come across a white wolf that managed to get himself into some trouble. Do not attack attack him, in fact if you help him you will be rewarded later on. Considering that the wolf got caught in it, you should be aware that other bear traps are in this area. There is a red marker here which generally means there is hidden danger nearby. You can deactivate the traps by shooting them or attacking with your knife. There in one to the left of a large tree next to the path which you can practice on.

Further on is another sign and to the right is an area partially enclosed by a fence. Check near the right side to find a Red Herb among the cattails.

Head back to the main path, and go forward a little. Keep on the lookout for flashing red lights on the trees. These red lights indicate that a tripwire mine has been set-up, and if you cross it, you won't like the results. There are two tripwire mines here and a bear trap between them, but there is a safe route on the left. You can shoot the explosives or tripwire to set off a mine from a distance.

Just after this you'll come across another friendly village resident. Defeat him as with the other villagers but you get style points (not actually a thing) if you can lure him into one of the tripwires.

Further along the path, you'll find another cabin with a green herb and wooden boxes. On your way out of that cabin check the wall for more evidence that the village has turned violently insane. At about this time more villagers will notice you and start coming down the path. Continue across the bridge where a number of villagers will spot you, but run away, probably so they can ambush you later on.

Continuing past the bridge, you'll come across one last shack and a villager is waiting for you inside. An ammo refill and more boxes are here as well.

Just ahead is a large gate to the next area, but it's a good idea to go back to the typewriter and save your game again before going on.

The Village
On the other side of the gate there is a cutscene where Hunnigan provides you with a basic playing guide. (This is a Continue point.) Read through it if you want, then continue down the path.

Continue down the path; a command to 'Look' will appear when you reach a certain tree. It's not necessary to look, but you can scout the area and watch the villagers go about their daily business. There is a bonfire in the middle of the street and you can see the fate of one of the police officers that refused to come with you.

Now comes one of the most intense parts of the game, a difficult battle which will test the limits of the fighting skills you've learned so far. It will take some practice plus some trial and error to find the best tactics to fit your playing style. Often the best approach depends on what you have in your inventory, so which random items you've found up to this point comes into play. There are too many variables to cover every possible contingency here, but we've tried to include the most likely possibilities.

There are several givens to keep in mind. First, no matter what you do, eventually some villager will sound the alarm and you face a tough battle for which you are woefully ill equipped. Second, once the alarm has been sounded there will be guards posted at the exits and if they spot you then you will be in deeper trouble. Even if you do manage to reach a gate it will be locked. Third, you need to trigger the next cut scene and survive the new battle that follows. Fortunately this will end after a certain period of time or when you have defeated enough villagers, whichever comes first.

One approach is to just walk into the village. The villagers will continue to ignore you until someone spots you and they start to attack. This is risky since you will be outnumbered from the start. Keep moving so the villagers don't gang up on you and use a grenade if you get cornered.

Another approach is to take the side paths left and right to collect additional items before the battle starts. This requires stealth so the villagers won’t see you; time your movements so the villagers are facing away from you when you’re in the open. Go to the right to find a shack with boxes, and to the left to find an herb on some logs and a house where you can break in through the window and get goodies inside. Once the alarm is raised you can stick with the stealth approach by staying on the side paths and taking the villagers on one at a time when you can.

Either way, you don't have a lot of ammunition and healing items and the villagers almost never seem to stop coming. There are supplies in most of the buildings though and more scattered around the area. Ducking into a building is a good way to provide yourself with some temporary cover and bottleneck your attackers since they can only come through a door or window one at a time. The villagers don't move very fast so you can often get out of range by running around various obstacles. If you circle around a building through the side paths then you may be able to come up on a lone villager and pick them off. If you're out in the open you may have a hatchet thrown at you by a villager on a rooftop. Keep moving to dodge these and shoot the villagers off the roof when you can.

When you have killed a certain number of villagers, there is a short cutscene where reinforcements arrive. This is actually good news since this means the battle is nearly over, you just have to survive long enough or get enough of a body count. Use the same tactics for this round; you don’t have to defeat every villager, which is probably impossible anyway, so take your time.

One building to be aware of in particular is the two story house on the left side of the street; it has a red bin in front and a small fence surrounding the entrance. Inside, on the upper floor, you can find the Shotgun which will be very handy when you're fighting multiple enemies at the same time. The problem is that entering the building triggers a cutscene showing the appearance of one of the deadliest enemies in the game, Dr. Salvador, a chainsaw wielding maniac who is extremely tough to kill and will decapitate you in one swipe if he gets close enough. If you do manage to kill him though, you get a whopping 10000 PTAS which will very useful when you meet the Merchant. Note that you can trigger the cutscene either before or after the cutscene where reinforcements arrive.

If you do trigger the cutscene then do not panic, as doing so will make it worse and make you less reactive when Dr. Salvador appears. Run up the stairs and pick up the Shotgun (hanging on the wall at the top of the stairs), a grenade (in a glass cabinet to left of this), and shotgun shell refill (lying on the bed). While you near, you might knock down the ladder at the window to slow the villagers down a bit. Jump out the upstairs window onto the roof of the building next door. If there are villagers waiting at the window already then stun them first. Then turn right to reach a ledge surrounding the upper floor; follow this around the corner and make your stand there. The villagers will be bottlenecked on the ledge so you can fight them relatively easily. Choose your weapon according to the situation since you may need the more powerful ammunition later. So stick with your pistol if there are only one or two villagers coming at you, but switch to shotgun or grenade if there are more or if Dr. Salvador appears. If things start to get bad here you can always jump off the roof to escape. Dr. Salvador seem to be invulnerable on the ground, so always wait until he gets up before shooting at him.

Another place to make a stand is in the building across the street from this. Once inside you can move a dresser in front of the door to barricade it. There is a locked door here which you can break open by kicking it a few times. With the barricade in place you can shoot a hole in the door and continue to fire at villagers collecting around it. When the villagers break through fall back to the inside room and shoot the villagers as they try to get through the door. There is no back way out of this building though so if you run out of shotgun shells it will be difficult to escape.

Alternatively, don't barricade the door, but shoot it to create a hole, then equip the knife, wait for villagers to approach and then slash them through the hole. You shouldn't sustain any damage, at least until the door breaks down from the stress. This probably won't be effective against Dr. Salvador so don't use this method if he's on the loose.

The path south is another possible place to bottleneck the villagers. It's not as narrow as a doorway but it will force them together enough so the shotgun should get most of them in one shot. You can retreat to the shack or dash around the villagers if they get to be too much.

You might think that hiding in the bell tower would be a good tactic, but if you try it the villagers will get there hands on Molotov cocktails and make things very hot for you up there.

There are two ladders in this area, one to the second floor of the large house and another to the roof of the house next door. These can be knocked down to keep villagers from climbing up, but they will always put it back after a while so it really only slows them down. You can also attack the villagers with a knife as they reach the top and are defenseless, but watch out for villagers coming from behind you if you try this since they can still use the other ladder.

Eventually, assuming you're still alive, a cutscene will abruptly end all the chaos. A bell rings and the villagers say something about having to go to prayers, then they all disappear into a small building on the east side. (Apparently getting to church on time is more important than a little thing like murdering an outsider.) Hunnigan checks in and you tell her about finding the dead police officer. She tells you to follow the path near the tower; this is the northeast path on the map.

After the cutscene, search the village and all the items in the area that you missed earlier. There are no longer any enemies around, so take your time and enjoy the scenery. Here is a full list, some of which has been covered above.
 * Boxes in the building in the southwest corner.
 * Green herb on the woodpile next to the northwest path
 * Box on a table next to the north path, always contains a Red herb
 * Handgun ammo on a shelf in the building northwest of the bonfire
 * Boxes and a barrel in the same building
 * Handgun ammo on the first floor of the building northeast of the bonfire
 * Barrels on the same floor
 * Shotgun on the wall near the top of the stairs, second floor of the same building.
 * Grenade in a glass cabinet on the same floor
 * Shotgun shells on the bed on the same floor
 * Spinel on the roof ledge of the same building
 * Barrel in the building southeast of the bonfire
 * Box and barrel behind the locked door in the same building
 * Box in a building in the northeast corner.
 * Handgun ammo in the building south of the path going northeast out of the village
 * The Alert Order in the same building
 * Shotgun shell on a table at the top of the tower
 * Green herb in a wall on the east side of the building southeast of the bonfire
 * Handgun ammo in a wall across the street from this
 * Box on a table in the south courtyard, always contains a Yellow herb
 * Red herb on a wagon in the courtyard
 * An occasional egg

The Alert Order is from Mendez, the village chief. It mentions something about a prisoner being held in a farmhouse, so apparently you're on the right track. Once you have all the items, follow the path northeast to a large door and go through. The south gate and the door to building where all the villagers went are both locked.

The Farm
As soon as you reach the open area, there will be a shack directly to the left; find a barrel and a typewriter. Definitely save after the previous battle. This area is nearly deserted but there are lots of goodies to find, some of which require some skill and/or cleverness. There are chickens here so keep an eye out for eggs which seem to appear randomly.

Right next to the building is a well filled with a disgusting looking liquid. Dangling above that liquid is a necklace, but if you shoot it down now, it'll fall into the liquid and lose most of its value. Instead, shoot out the support holding up wooden lid to have it close shut. Now you can shoot the item and collect the Pearl Pendant. Note that shooting may alert the few villagers in the area so keep an eye out for an attack. Be sure not to open the well once the lid is down as it will be impossible to close it again.

To the northwest is a field with cows and a stable next to it; there is a villager in each. Check inside the stable barn for barrels, then check behind the shack north of the stable for another barrel.

So the south is a fenced in area. There is a tree inside this area with a blue piece of paper hanging from it. It's “About the Blue Medallions” and has information about an additional objective that you should complete. There are 15 blue medallions  scattered throughout this area (the farm) and the cemetery (later in the game). Shoot 10 or more to get a earn a special item. If you take a look at your map, you'll notice that many blue dots have appeared on it; those are places where you'll find a blue medallion to shoot.

Next to the fenced in area is a barn, watch for a villager working behind it and another working inside. Yet another will come in through the window once he hears the commotion you're making. You'll find lots of items on the first floor of this building, and there are items hiding inside a few of the small cabinets. Head up the ladder to find another villager working; show him that you appreciate his hard work. Check the cabinet for another item.

Hop out of the window to find yourself on a balcony outside of the building. If you walk straight ahead, you'll find a small gap between the fence/rails. You can jump down here and collect the Beer stein. Head through the doorway and push the shelf to get out of that area. Return to the balcony once again, run toward the end of it, and jump down. Immediately turn around, and you'll find a shack. Head around it to find the entrance and collect the items waiting inside. Go back, up the ladder, and jump down from the middle of the balcony. Continue down the main path to reach the gate and go through the gate to a new area. This is a Continue point.

Beyond the Farm
Now comes a short cutscene followed by little test of your dexterity as villagers roll a giant boulder after you and you must escape Indiana Jones style. Keep pressing the button shown on the screen repeatedly to out run the boulder. (Which button to press depends on the version of the game.) After some running, another set of button combinations will appear on the screen; make sure that you press the correct ones or you won't like the result. (In this case the game chooses randomly from a set of combinations that depend on the version of the game.) This is the first of several tests like this and it may take a few tries to get the hang of it.

Once you've dodged the rock, it'll disappear and break into pieces, allowing you to continue through the dark tunnel. While walking through the tunnel, make sure to keep your eyes near the ceiling. You'll see a number of sparkling items; shoot them down and collect them to get spinels. Bats come out when you disturb them but just ignore them.

The red signpost and the change in music when you reach the other end should warn you there is danger and sure enough a villager will be waiting and will most likely throw a live stick of dynamite at you. Keep an eye out for when they light a fuse and be sure to be out of range before the bomb lands. A quick way to rid yourself of the villager, if you can manage it, is be to just shoot the stick of dynamite; it will blow up and take the villager along with it. Fortunately he tends to throw even if you’re out of range so you can snipe him in relative safety.

Go left to the small shack. Another villager with dynamite awaits you on the other side of it, and there is a tripwire and a bear trap inside the shack. Check the inside of the shack to find some items. Head back to the end of the tunnel.

There is a large house straight ahead. Go around the right side, watching for bear traps in the weeds, and stop once you reach the corner. There are some villagers within the house, and just around the corner is an open window where they can jump out. Go near the window, and make sure all the villagers know you are there. There is a villager with dynamite inside the house, and if he sees you, he'll throw the dynamite at you. Unfortunately for him, he'll most likely throw it inside the house, and as a result, kill himself and hopefully the other villagers. Get rid of anyone left, and then jump through the window and pick up any items left behind. Leave the house via the way you came in (the window).

Run north-east to find yourself at another large house. Check the right side for a box. Directly behind you is a tree, look in the branches to see what looks like a bird nest and shoot it down to get a treasure. You can combine that treasure with the Beer stein to increase it's overall value. Now go to the front door, shoot out the lock, and head inside.

Head through the house, watching for tripwires and picking up any items along the way. Sooner or later, you'll reach an area that seems like a dead end. There is a bookshelf in one of the corners, and you need to push it out of the way to get into the next room. You should be hearing a banging noise coming from a cabinet in the far corner. Check this to get a cutscene.

A man falls out of the cabinet bound and gagged. You start to untie him but before your conversation goes anywhere villagers enter, including a giant who seems to be in charge. You try to disable him with a high kick but he easily deflects it and knocks you out.