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Resident Evil 2 Remake
https://i.imgur.com/yXUpXwT.jpg
Look, I may have tortured six-hundred orphans to death in my secret monster laboratory, but I didnt mean to let the monsters get out! I am not the bad guy here. Annette Birkin

Man! Leon. Star of the best game, costar of the second-best game, and best part of the worst game. No wonder fans like him more than Chris RE1, CV, RE5, RE6 Redfield.

Its honestly kind of shocking how good RE2R is. If youre going to judge which game in the series is the best with zero ironic fun allowed, its RE2R, and its not even close. This is by far the spookiest game after RE1R (I love RE7, but its not even remotely scary), and it will produce some tingles in your spine. Normally, I dont like remakes. I prefer new things and some progression of the plot. But hey, sometimes remakes are good, and this is one of those times.

The premise of the game is simple: a corporation was working on monster viruses to sell for money, but one got out, and now an entire city is zombified. Leon, a rookie cop, and Claire, a random college student, must escape, prove whos responsible for this mess, save a little girl, and have sex with a hot spy, not necessarily in that order. Have you noticed how the best games are the ones with the simplest premises? Ive only mentioned it in like every single write-up. By the way, RE2 was the last game in the series until RE6 to let you choose your character at the start of the game. How strange is it that this option was dropped; I think everyone likes the idea, right? And dont you dare say that RE5 lets you choose Sheva on NG+.

I wonder whose idea it was to set a zombie game in a police station of all places. Im sure that after the first game, no one wanted another mansion (just another reason why constantly reusing its aesthetics is dumb), but a police station? It works out perfectly, but its such a bizarre decision. Surely the natural progression from the first game is a mall, an open city street with lots of shops you can go into, or a suburb with lots of houses. Did you know the worlds most famous zombie series has never once had you enter a mall? This isnt a criticism, but Ive just always thought why a police station of all things?

The exploration in RE2R is probably the second best in the series, after RE1R. Its not as complex, but it is more intuitively laid-out, which means youll always have options but are unlikely to ever really get lost. Being able to see items on the map and what keys are necessary for what doors actually makes this game a thousand times easier than RE1R, but Ill allow it. The police station is also a great environment. I dont know whose idea art museum-turned-police station is, but its brilliant. Every area has a unique aesthetic that makes it easy to remember, there are lots of just things to interact with and puzzles to solve, there are lots of dark and gooey things to find, the body horror aspects are played up the way they should be, and the creators of the game really understood how to emphasize the sense of loneliness and fallen civilization. Everything is polished to perfection

in the police station. The sewers are another story. Theyre less visually interesting because everything is just a gross sewer or a concrete computer room, theres no real exploration element in them because theres only one direction until you reach the control room, and then theres only two directions, and one of them just leads you back to the police station. The laboratory at the end is visually interesting, what with the juxtaposition between the clean science-y areas, the overgrown superplant, and the areas the zombies have taken over and turned into a nightmare zone, but it lacks the exploration element. But you know what? Fine. The laboratory is still good, just not as good, and the sewer is tolerable, I guess. Claire also gets a nice little orphanage to check out. Its solid visually and plays up the body horror stuff, but theres nothing to explore; you just go in, enter the three rooms you can enter, and thats that. Like, there absolutely should have been little kid zombies she has to shoot and feel bad about.

Juking zombies, shooting them in the knees, clearing out locations for later travel, slowly walking past lickers, blowing half your ammo on G-mutants, figuring out what route on the map to take that will avoid lickers you didnt kill the first time; its all great. Its all handled exactly like it should be. Id say the game is maybe a little too generous with ammo sometimes, I rarely felt like I was hurting for bullets even after clearing out seven or eight zombies (as Leon, I ran out of ammo once, because I didnt bring the shotgun to the first boss, as Claire, I never even came close to running out), but thats okay. I know a lot of people complain that the game cuts some enemies from the original RE2, in particular, the alligator boss fight is truncated to the point where its no longer even a real boss fight, but I dont mind.

The star of the show is Mr. X, the tyrant. For reasons no one seems able to explain, Mr. X in RE2R behaves like Nemesis does in RE3, and Nemesis in RE3R behaves like Mr. X does in RE2, which means that RE2R just has a huge advantage when it comes to comparing the two. Mr. Xs job in this game is to just show up and slowly walk toward you, never giving you room to breathe, and then punch you in the face. You can escape him, but the moment you make any noise, hes back. Running from him and avoiding lesser enemies along the way is the absolute highlight of the game. The most shocking moment to me in probably any horror game is when Mr. X just casually shows up in the save room with no fanfare, walking toward you and violating the implied safety of the area. Its perfect. The best part about him is that the developers knew to introduce him within the gameplay. Theres no big cutscene or anything; hes just there in a hallway with no explanation. The most relieved I was in the entire game was when he finally appeared in a cutscene, because it obviously meant I was done with the chase section of the game.

Its also funny how the games that have good gameplay tend to also have the best plots. Leon and Adas little back-and-forth is a million times more interesting than anything in the story-heavy games, and Leon telling Ada that she cant shoot him and her getting frustrated and realizing hes right is really fun. Claires willingness to risk her life for a girl she met five minutes ago is also completely believable. I love Annette Birkin being the most awful human being ever but still trying to defend herself when Leon accuses her, being all I didnt want to destroy the city, give me a break mannnn, its completely believable that a person would behave this way in a monster apocalypse they helped cause. I started laughing when Annette Birkin died in Claires route and the game played her up as sympathetic, though. Shes like the most detestable human being on Earth; I cant believe the game went that direction.


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Ive only seen the original and the remake.

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Ashley
Claire R

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Genos

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Ashley
Claire R

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Blue mage

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pjbasis posted...

Haven't actually played RE7 yet sadly so I can't compare them directly.

I have the option to play it with VR though, is that good for a first time experience or should I do it on replay?

I have not played it on VR, but I enjoyed it all the same on a PC.

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I did beat SoJ, thats a good comparison. The only game I bothered doing achievements for is RE4, though.

At least Sherrys part in RE2R is pretty short. I didnt mind it nearly as much.

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Moving on, RE7 also wins the best plot twist award for the series, in that it has the only plot twist thats actually good. I figured out that Grandma was really the little girl aged into a crone a few minutes before it was revealed, but its so well set-up. Her just teleporting and appearing wherever you go, saying nothing and watching you is just so unsettling. Eveline herself is a great villain; sympathetic while still being monstrous and needing to die. I do enjoy how the game tries to justify having a bioweapon shaped like a little girl, like really, come on. This is the fourth little girl in the series and the second evil one, we all know that little girls with long black hair standing at the ends of hallways is creepy, theres no need to pretend you have a real reason for it.

Unfortunately, the game loses a ton of steam once you kill Jack and Marguerite and escape the house. The chainsaw duel with Jack really would have been a fine ending to the game thats the moment when Ethan stops being a normal person and graduates to hero who no longer questions what hes seeing. After the house, though, you have a section where you switch to Mia (Ethans wife) and explore a wrecked ship, and its nowhere near as fun. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. The ship itself is a worse location conceptually. Theres a lot of creepy atmosphere to be mined from having a normal location twisted into a monster location. There are lots of implied stories in the Baker house about how they lived before it was infected with monsterism and they turned into wacky hillbillies. The ship, meanwhile, is just a ship.
2. You almost immediately learn what Eveline is and how Mia is connected to her, which means that theres nothing more to learn for the entire section. Compare this to the Baker house, where youre constantly learning new and weird things about the people living there.
3. Eveline doesnt schlock it up like Jack and never attacks you directly. Instead, she goes for the creepy little girl at the end of a hallway routine, and there are zero boss fights in the entire section.
4. Its just too damn long. Every game has a section where you play as a side character for a while, usually for around 15 minutes. This is by far the longest side character section in the series. Youll be playing as Mia for a good hour, maybe even two hours; it just didnt need to be that long.

Despite this, I do like the salt mine portion that finishes the game. Its short, sweet, and has a point: by this point, Ethans been through so much that hes not running away, and he just blows through a million monsters so he can stop Eveline once and for all. Unfortunately, it culminates in what Im going to say is the lamest final boss fight of the series. Im not even sure if it is a final boss fight. Injecting Eveline and her dying would have been a perfectly good ending, but instead she turns into a giant face in the wall and tries to eat you while you shoot her and dont move from where youre standing. If ever there was a Resident Evil game that did not need a big stupid epic final boss fight, its this one. Or just extend the part where youre fighting the little girl, and she never transforms into her city-destroying form or whatever.

I guess I should mention the DLC. Its good! The Chris DLC isnt great in terms of gameplay, youre just running around and shooting monsters, but what I like about it is that it feels like just a day in the life of Chris Redfield. The Bakers were an almost insurmountable force to Ethan, and he barely escaped with his life. But to Chris? This is a speedbump. Lucas Baker is too much for Ethan, but to veteran monster hunter Chris Redfield, its a two-hour diversion at most. I really enjoy how Chris just gets irritated with Lucas, but never takes him seriously as a threat, and how Lucas craps his pants when he realizes Chris survived all of his stupid traps.

The Joe DLC is also fun. Its a neat idea conceptually to be the stupidest man in the world, armed with no information, trying to save your niece as you punch your way through a swamp full of monsters. I mean, theres a ton about it that doesnt make sense (Joe lives near his family, but he apparently isnt infected by the mold, so what, he didnt see them for three years? Jack has returned as a zombie monster with intelligence, so whats the deal with that psychic dream he has with Ethan?), but its still a fun bit of side content to wrap up Zoes story.

This game has a lot of flaws, and everything after you leave the house is kind of lame, but make no mistake: its still really good. It takes the series back to its roots while progressing and adding new ideas, which sounds contradictory, but still works for some bizarre reason. Who knows!

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Resident Evil 7
https://i.imgur.com/qeEYh8O.jpg
Hold on a second, sir, let me radio this in. Dispatch, this is Deputy Black Guy. Im by the creepy redneck house, the one where all the residents have gray skin and yellow eyes and the entire place smells like mold. Yeah, the one where the son has a history of violence and is located in the center of where all those tourists and homeless people disappeared. Theres a city-slicker guy inside of the house whos acting crazy and begging for help. Im requesting backup, Im not entering until we have more cops here, I dont want a hillbilly to decapitate me with a shovel or something. That cop at the beginning of the game

I was really torn between putting RE1R and RE7 on top. I will say immediately that RE1R is the more well-crafted, classier title. RE7 is a lot sloppier, sort of like my CV vs RE0 comparison. RE1s probably better from an objective perspective, and if you have it above RE7 (or even on the top of your list), thats fine. But RE7 has one thing RE1R doesnt have: hilarious zombie rednecks.

Every so often, a series gets so off-track that the only hope for it is to just ignore everything except the basic premise. Someone intelligent said No epic plots, no one trying to destroy the world, no unlockable nurse costumes, none of that. Small scale, intimate, helpless, scary. Only one innocent person dies in the entire game. Thats what were going for now. Do you remember when I said that playing RE1 and then RE6 would make no sense unless youd played the games in-between? Now Im imagining your only knowledge of RE being RE6, then playing RE7. Did you know that until 7, every single Resident Evil game starred a character from the first two games? Add to that the fact that until 8, the only characters in the entire series not from the first two games to appear more than once are Hunnigan and Kirk. Remember Kirk? Man, what a guy. Definitely the highlight of RE5.

So, the premise of this game is this: youre a normal dude trapped in a creepy redneck house, and the residents have turned into monsters and want to kill you. You might even say that these residents are evil. This is the games greatest strength: the characters. The protagonist, Ethan, works as a normal guy who slowly turns into a badass, Evil Dead-style (there are multiple Evil Dead references in the game). Ethan is the perfect just a normal guy character in the series, in fact. But the real stars of the show are the residents themselves. Jack Baker is just so wonderful hes just this crazy unstoppable monster who shoots himself in the head to freak you out, and is just the redneckiest redneck whose neck was ever red. Every moment hes on the screen is gold. Let me make this crystal clear: whenever Jack is not on the screen, Im asking myself, When will Jack show up next? His wife Marguerite flipping between sweet and crazy is great, and having a weird gross womb that births killer wasps is disgusting and amazing, and Lucas being just a genuinely reprehensible person using his engineering talents for evil makes you want to kill him so badly. What really works about them is that you can tell how they were before they were infected with monsterism and how they still behave similarly, but have been turned into unhinged murderous hillbillies. Its obvious via the environmental storytelling even before the game spells it out for you. You can also detect how their family has fallen so far from grace, what with their enormous estate thats falling apart and the implied Confederate officer in their heritage. And yeah, Zoe. Never has a character been so sympathetic whose voice actress could not keep up a consistent accent. The only character I would say is a misfire is Mia. Youre free to disagree, but I didnt love her the way the game seems to expect you to. I do enjoy how, if you choose to save Zoe, Mia returns as a monster screaming I CANT BELIEVE YOU CHOSE HERRRRR.

Gameplay-wise, making us play as a normal guy from a first-person perspective was a brilliant decision. Can you imagine this game as a third-person shooter or with tank controls? It would be a completely different monster. My only real complaint about the actual gameplay is the low enemy variety. There are only four normal enemies: zombie guys, zombie guys with knife arms, zombie guys who jump at you, and fat zombie guys who vomit at you. Like, cmon, there shouldve been evil alligators that explode out of the walls, mutated turtles that are immune to attacks when they pull into their shells, zombie hillbillies whose arms are now shotguns, that sort of thing.

I can say this: the Molded feel a bit well, we have to have enemies. They have no place in the story except as a reason for the Bakers to be kidnapping people, theyre completely boring and uninspired as far as monster designs go, and they dont really add anything to the game except targets to blow ammo on. I understand that you cant make an entire game where the only enemies are the three Bakers, but the Molded are a weak link in the game.


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Genisys has some funny-bad moments, Dark Fate is the best-made of the post-2 movies but is really bad. Dont remember 3 and 4 well.

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We might be able to centralize the North American B8ers, but I don't think we could get the Asian or European B8ers to join us unless someone is a professional pilot.

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For no reason, I decided to rank the games by how important they are to the overall plot of Resident Evil and see if any conclusions can be drawn about them.

RE5
RE3 (but only because of the city's destruction)
RE1
RE:CV
Rev 2
RE2
RE4
RE6
Rev 1
RE0
My conclusion: there is no pattern here and this is a waste of time.

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https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/politics/robert-trump-dead/index.html

Unclear what as of right now.

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Nanis23 posted...

RE3R barely even cared about backstories and subplots or whatever which is why that game sucks so much

Excuse me, do you not remember the epic backstory of Doctor Guy being mean to a nurse once?

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Haha, I didnt know people loved Lisa Trevor so much. I love her too, but I didnt realize she was one of the big things in the game people remember.

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davidponte posted...

I love everything about RE1R except playing it because it turns out I actually dislike horror as a genre for the most part because I'm a baby who gets scared and who also thinks fear does not equal fun.

Yeah, its interesting how RE1R is sort of the only actually scary game in this horror series.

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Nanis23 posted...

RE1R is a masterpiece in game design

You know what, yes, this is a simpler way to put it. RE1R is probably the most flawless game in the series. I can't really think of anything about it I would change.

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Resident Evil 1 Remake
https://i.imgur.com/GG04PT8.jpg
Let me quickly explain my backstory and motives here: I was the worlds smartest scientist working for Umbrella, but I was also an elite police officer, but I was also planning to betray Umbrella, but Umbrella wanted me to kill you, but I wanted to do that anyway, but I only really care about this monster I created, but it was created in a laboratory I never actually worked in, and I dont know why I created the monster in the first place. You get all that? Dont even get me started on how RE0 and RE5 complicate this. Albert Wesker

For years and years, when people said the remake, it was understood that they meant this game. Why? Because it is the definitive video game remake, the one by which all lesser remakes must be judged. It is both slavishly loyal to the original and so innovative that its a completely unique experience. It walks the line in a way that I think literally no other remake, video game or otherwise, ever will.

In fact, its hard to even talk about what RE1R does right, because the answer is everything. I know the tank controls are slow and awkward, but thats the entire point of them. The game is intended to be slow and awkward. Items are placed so youll always have enough to scrape by, but not enough to go wild. Ink ribbons create a constant sense of dread and make every save feel consequential. The pace of the game is painfully slow, which works in a horror setting. The puzzles are actually puzzles. And the addition of Crimson Heads basically alters the entire way youll play the game, turning every encounter with a zombie into a series of deliberate, considered choices you have to make both in advance and on the fly. No other game in the series really focuses on is this enemy worth killing the way RE1R does. And while the mansion itself is laid out so that youll always have room to explore, it also ensures that youll generally get funneled toward your next destination and be unlikely to get completely frustrated. It's strange, too. People remember RE1R as a nonlinear exploration game, but thats only sort of true? Even the aesthetics are completely unique within the series (except for RE0). Most of the series has pretty vibrant colors for horror games, but everything in RE1R is muted. You can see it in the image I posted up above.

Compared to what came later, RE1s story is charmingly simple. Cops investigate cannibals, but the cannibals are zombies, and they were accidentally made by a corporation that wants the cops dead to cover it all up. Its insane to play this game after what came later. The mansion being built by a crazy nobleman is almost like a joke? Its a one-second handwave to explain why there are stupid puzzles everywhere, it was something no one actually cared about. Same with Wesker, whos just some guy. Its amazing how a one-second joke evolved in subsequent games. I cant actually call this games story good, by the way, but it hits the beats it needs to for you to care: a weird conspiracy that makes no, Barry being tragically forced into betraying his friends, etc.

The characters are terrible, barely sketched-out, and incredibly stupid, and the dialogue is stilted and weird. Thats the point. To this day, I dont know whether I prefer the original voice acting or the new voice acting. The original is just peak 90s no one cares translation, where a Japanese guy who didnt speak English did the translation, and the VAs were clearly given no direction. The remake has actual direction and better recording quality, but the dialogue and delivery are still always off, like the characters all have some kind of mental disorder, or like it was written by an alien whod observed humans for a while but still hadnt mastered the concepts of emotion or friendship. And everyone always has this weird, vacant expression on their faces, its wonderful. This has to have been intentional, but I dont know to what end.

This is a minor point, but it shows so much care and attention: every single STARS member, even the unimportant ones who die in one second, wears a different, unrelated outfit. Jill is the only one dressed even somewhat like a cop. Every room in the entire mansion has a completely unique look, even the unimportant hallways that you dont think about twice. The purpose of these things is to establish not only an easy way to tell everything apart, but also a little thing I like to call environmental storytelling. And this isnt some hot take or anything, but it is worth repeating: RE1R looks ten years ahead of its time. It makes me wonder what a prerendered background + tank control game would look like today. Would it just be straight-up photorealistic?

Theres honestly nothing to even add to this. RE1R is just a game that does everything right. For people who like the exploration and actually trying to be scary elements of the series, it tends to be their favorite. Thats another thing I can give RE1R; the zombies have great gurgling and moaning noises. None of the other games really match it in that regard.

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Blob

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Tor

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Also, it's funny how much more discussion RE5 prompted than the other games. I guess it was the first game to drop that people actually played and remember.

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Nanis23 posted...

Rev2 is fantastic gameplay wise
All the medals, the countdown and invisible modes made this game have so much replayability as well

I can imagine it being good to replay. I didnt get many of the collectibles, I was just playing through it.

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I can imagine Netflix not wanting to film potentially 3+ seasons where the characters start out 12, given how there can be years between seasons.

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I actually did enjoy that moment with Barry, yeah. Partly because he could just leave, but he wants to settle the score anyway. Its just perfect.

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Ashley
claire R

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It was also a good decision to make our main characters Claire and Barry. By this point, Leon, Chris, Jill, and Ada have turned into anime characters and are basically incapable of starring in small, intimate horror stories. Claire, Barry, and Rebecca are the most normal people of the main cast, making them the right choice for a low-stakes horror story. What does it say about Resident Evil that most of its cast is incapable of being in horror stories?

Dont get me wrong, though, there are some problems here. What was Alex Weskers plan when she wakes up as a little girl? Like, assuming everything went perfectly. Did she plan to trap herself in the body of a ten year-old on an island full of monsters trying to kill her? Why is Claire terrible with the little girl when she is literally the only person in the world who has experience rescuing little girls in monster apocalypses, but Moira, the punk rock chick who curses nonstop, is super good with her? How does Moira notice that a guys monster bracelet say hes not scared of monsters, but fail to notice that the little girls bracelet says shes secretly a monster? And for Gods sake, Barry, the little girl constantly acts suspiciously and has psychic powers and you just do not question anything ever, what is wrong with you?

There is one thing I want to say about this story, though. I know that Resident Evil has always referenced previous games, but normally thats in the gameplay. Every game has a section where you use a crank, for instance, theres always a helicopter that gets downed, theres always a vehicle that you escape from the secret monster lab on, etc. Rev 2, though, does this with the story itself, which Im not sure I like? This games story is 100% just assembled from previous games stories. Dont believe me? Here we go:

• Someone good with guns must take care of a little girl whos infected with monsterism and has secret ties to the bad guys: RE2
• The little girl is cornered by a monster whos about to kill her, but lets her go when it realizes who she is, then becomes obsessed with her: RE2
• Claire is kidnapped and brought to a monster island, radios for help, someone from RE1 comes to rescue her, and he must retrace her steps in order to find her: CV
• Someone comes to a destitute European village, pretends theyre going to give the people there jobs in the nearby mine, and secretly infects them with monsterism: RE4
• The main characters are infected with monsterism and need to find the cure before they turn: RE4
• Wesker declares that he/she will become a god, then defines god as either a guy with scythes growing out of his arms or a helpless fifth-grader: RE5

Im not saying that Rev 2 is bad because of this, but points for Rev 1, it does try to do something different with the story. Also, Revelations 1 lives up to the title; there are revelations in that game.

The core of gameplay is mostly what you expect from a post-4 game, where you kill every enemy you see and ammo is barely a concern, except for one thing. The game has some backtracking and exploration and is making token efforts to be like a classic RE, but you cant look at the map. You only have a minimap showing the area like thirty feet around yourself. You never get the ability to look at the entire map at once. This was such a baffling move that I thought I was doing something wrong and had to look up whether or not theres a map button on GameFAQs. I cant even begin to guess what the logic here is. Is it that the devs were worried that maps would be difficult to integrate into multiplayer mode?

Speaking of multiplayer mode

• Partnerless games: 1, 2, 3, CV, 4
• Partner Games: 0, 5, 6, Rev, Rev 2

By this point in the series, there are as many games with partners as there are without, and, at least in single-player mode, every single one of them is worse for the system except maybe Rev 2. Rev 2 is the first partner game where its sort of justified and okay. Claire and Barry use guns, the little girl can see invisible enemies (so you have to use her to detect them, switch to Barry, and shoot where you remember seeing them), and Moira owns a flashlight and can look for hidden items? Okay, well, at least the little girl/Barry dynamic works well.

My point is that instead of using 5/6/Revs system of having two equally skilled monster hunters, Rev 2 goes back to RE0 and gives us two characters with different skills for you to switch between at will and overcome obstacles. This is why Rev 2 can function as a horror game, while 5, 6, and Rev cant: the only way to have a scary game where you have a partner with you is if your partner is helpless, thus making things harder for you.

Last thing I want to say: in previous games, Chris, Jill, Leon, Ada, and Sherry have all knowingly traveled hundreds of miles to go on monster adventures armed with nothing but pistols and knives. Barry travels hundreds of miles to go on a monster adventure, and brings a pistol, magnum, and assault rifle. I respect that.

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Resident Evil: Revelations 2
https://i.imgur.com/EmcH0Fb.jpg
Terr- doesnt have to end with -orist! Actual Game Dialogue

I debated quite a bit about Rev 2 or RE5 on top. Not to spoil things, but what it comes down to is this: RE5 is more fun because its dumb and kind of bad, but Rev 2 is a better, more-crafted game.

I knew absolutely nothing about this game going in. I was afraid it would be another Revelations, but to my surprise, its actually good? I guess the story with this game is that it was going to be a 3DS game, but at the last second, they decided it would be a console release. The result is that there are few clear giveaways of the games origins (awkward door animations designed to hide loading times for inferior hardware, slightly odd controls, etc), but for the most part, it feels like a complete package

So, the plot of the game is told in what Im going to say a weird way? There are four episodes, each of which has two halves. The first half is Claire and Moira (Barrys daughter) trying to escape from a monster island, and the second half is Barry teaming up with a psychic little girl to retrace their steps six months later as he tries to find what happened to them. Ill say immediately that this is a really effective storytelling device the first time. After that, not so much. I think it would have been better to have way more frequent switches between the sections, where like Barry finds a building, the little girl is like I saw Moira here six months ago, and then youre suddenly in Claire mode, and this happens like ten or eleven times instead of four. But so be it, this is what weve got.

In true Resident Evil fashion, the plot of the game is both charmingly simple and needlessly complicated. Alex Wesker, the sister of Albert Wesker, wants to put her mind into a little girl to live forever and take over the world (because theres no one in the world with more power than elementary school students), so she kidnaps Claire Redfield and Moira Burton because uh Anyway, Claire and Moira adventure through Weskers monster island, Wesker kills herself after implanting her mind into the little girl, but whoops, she does it wrong, and now the original Wesker is a freaky monster obsessed with her mind-clone. Claire escapes, but Moira doesnt, so six months later, Barry goes to find her. He meets the little girl, who isnt yet mind-controlled because the procedure went wrong, they rescue Moira, kill Wesker, and he adopts her even though hes known her for like six hours, max. But then plot twist, she gets mind-controlled in the ending anyway, setting us up for a sequel that wasnt made.

If youre going to make a Resident Evil that continues with the metaplot about Umbrella and Wesker, this is as good a job as anyone could possibly do. The legacy of Umbrella, Spencer, and Albert Wesker are referenced by Alex Wesker, whos constantly talking about how she understands her brother, but apparently does not have stupid epic plans to destroy the world like he did. The Umbrella lore part is also kept in the background; its important only in that she was created by Spencer, and no new stupid revelations are made about, say, 19th century noblemen. References are made to the RE5 and Rev 1 in a way that isnt obnoxious, even though they dont really affect the plot in any meaningful way. Admittedly, Alex Wesker herself is kind of boring. The most interesting thing about her is that, for no reason, she looks like a young Hillary Clinton and dresses in white pantsuits, exactly like her. I dont know if that was intentional? Very odd creative choices. I absolutely love how Barry only refers to her as She-Wesker, like he is only able to view her as an extension of her brother. I can imagine Barry loathing Wesker, regretting that he was uninvolved in his death, and seeing this as an opportunity to at least kill a Wesker. I also like how he declares hell put the whole goddamn family in the ground, so there you have it. In canon, Barry travels to Eastern Europe after this and murders Jake Muller after this game ends, and thats why Jake never appears again.

The atmosphere is nearly perfect. Its not quite on the level of something like RE1R, RE2R, or RE7, but youre in like this gross post-industrial Soviet hellhole where everything is rotting and rusty and falling apart. Its a great new type of setting we havent seen before in one of these games. The little girl has a doll, Alex Wesker is obsessed with her, so she becomes obsessed with dolls and decorates her lair with pieces of them, its great. Theres also an appropriate amount of blood and gore everywhere, and the game even has actual use of downtime between monster fights, where you wander around and nothing is happening but its still spooky. Its like someone took all of the things that werent in Resident Evil of the time and included them again.

The game even manages to have an actual theme, which is kind of shocking for a Resident Evil game. The whole game is predicated around fear the virus turns you into a monster if you feel too afraid, Alex Weskers plan goes wrong because she feels fear when she tries to kill herself, etc. Theres even some good humor here, Im the kind of guy who loves automated messages that tell employees If you are currently in an affected area, you are now authorized to panic. And the idea of a virus that turns you into a monster if you get too scared is brilliant. I dont think it was used particularly well in the game, theres never a moment where like Claire or Moira is like ahh I have to calm down or else Ill monsterfy, which is weird because its such an obvious move for the plot to make. Instead, they just learn not to be scared, and they arent scared for the rest of the game.

Unlike me. I was terrified by the games opening cutscene. It opens with an advertisement for TerraSave, an anti-bioterrorism organization that will obviously be evil, and Claire and Moira at a fancy party in a city. Theres a lot of talk about how they need to combat bioterrorism, and I was certain that this would turn into another epic plot. But once the atrocious cutscene is over, the atmosphere becomes creepy and intimate, exactly like horror should be, and the world-shaking epic plots are kept in the extreme background. Want to know something interesting? The setup to this game (Claire is kidnapped and brought to a secret monster island) is almost identical to Code Veronica. The reason why Rev 2 works and CV doesnt is all in the execution. CV quickly puts you into bloodless gray hallways and featureless snowy locations. Rev 2 quickly puts you into a torture prison/laboratory where theres blood and gore everywhere.

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colliding posted...

God, this actually makes me want to play RE5 again, which is a feeling I thought I'd never have. It's on the Switch now, so maybe? Am I doing this?

It's an okay game that has its moments. I don't regret playing it. The partner AI will make you want to strangle her, though.

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Ocelot

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Snake5555555555 posted...

Yeah if you're ever up to play it again just examine the first door behind you when the scenario starts about 3 or so times and it will change.

I may try this, thank you. Does it still have classic tank controls?

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pjbasis posted...

This is kind of ridiculous. The RE4 system would be MUCH slower and completely pointless in RE5. Fiddling around with a 64x40 square with huge items trying to make every last square work is much slower than 9 boxes. There isn't even any quick-switching in RE4. Ultimately you can carry basically the same amount of stuff anyways. RE4's system worked fine in a slower single player game, but in a co-op action title it would be terrible.

I will admit that this is true, but I was thinking about RE5 only as a single-player experience. As a single-player experience, it's not even less work, because you still have to manage Sheva's inventory.

Inviso posted...

If you were responding to anyone else, I'd just take this at face value. But with LMS, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.

I was being sincere.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Yeah Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Ash Williams clearly took a level in badass after surviving Alien/The Terminator/The Evil Dead.

I guess it would probably be because what can you do with a horror protagonist after they survive a monster adventure except to become stronger?

pjbasis posted...

YES! I do think RE5's cutscenes are amazing in this regard. I think Resident Evil should be more like this than RE4. Everyone should be super serious and dramatic, with just a little cool thrown in. RE4 feels more like Devil May Cry with the unflappable protagonist and constant one-up banter. (Which is still amazing of course, and it does help 4 have it's own identity, but it's a very different kind of corny)

I'll talk about the RE4-DMC connection when I reach RE4, but I agree that RE is probably at its best when the characters are trying to be sincere but are just reacting to things like they have mental problems.

Snake5555555555 posted...

There's a fun easter egg where you can even do old-school camera angles in LiN, for the mansion portion! LiN is one of my favorite little pieces of RE content, and surprisingly important too, it led to Rev 2 after all. It gets pretty intense on the hardest difficulties too since the Guardians actually roam the mansion. I just appreciate the miracle of including an intimate little horror side-adventure in their mostly bombastic action game.

I had no idea they roam the mansion or that you can use fixed camera angles, that's actually a really impressive bonus.

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

The shift to action is hardly out of the ordinary for the horror genre: see Alien, Evil Dead, Terminator.

You know, that's true, and I never thought about it before. I wonder what causes this.

Snake5555555555 posted...

RE5 rules. That is all.

I debated a bit about whether to put it above the next entry.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Oh since I didn't see you mention it, did you play any of the DLC for RE5? Specifically Lost in Nightmares?

Yeah, I played them both. The Jill/Josh one is unremarkable except for the fact that Josh survives the entire game, which I didn't expect. LiN is more interesting. This one time, reusing the mansion is okay, and it wins some points for actually trying to be scary. I enjoyed the completely unnecessary door opening animations, that was a fun callback. I realize there was no way to include the actual strategy element of room clearing in this game, so the mansion just being puzzles for most of it is a good compromise. I didn't enjoy the basement part where you have to fight those monsters without weapons, though. I know it had to end with Wesker, but I'm not a fan of his anime powers. Still, a solid bit of DLC, probably one of the highlights of the game.


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Last gameplay thing of note how crazy is it that this is the last game in the series with even partial tank controls? After this, you can move and shoot and move in any direction. This game doesnt just end the Umbrella storyline, it ends the even remotely classic Resident Evil feeling storyline.

You know whats weird? I kept getting MGS4 flashbacks when playing this game. They both start in a third world desert village thats super overexposed, theyre both trying to make weird political statements about first world countries exploiting third world countries but have nothing meaningful to say other than exploitation bad, they both end on a ship full of endless bad guys, they both have the main characters grand return to the spotlight since the first game, they both have a villain with sunglasses whos served by a bunch of minions with vaguely racist accents, they both have an unnecessary amount of weapons you can buy, and they both should have been the end of a big mid-90s video game series.

I cant really criticize the plot, because its not trying to be serious or scary at all. Still, Ill take a midget dressed as a Napoleon in charge of a zombie castle any day.

For all the comparisons to RE4, RE5 does have one card to play that trumps it: funny-bad moments. The second the game starts, Sheva says the word partner, the camera zooms in on Chris stupid mouth-breathing face, and we have a flashback to a grave that says JILL VALENTINE with no context. Thats one of the funniest things Ive ever seen. Throughout the game, Chris also proves that hes the dumbest person on the planet. There are moments where hes like Tell me where Jill is, mysterious masked woman who looks exactly like Jill!, or where he goes I wonder whos conducting this evil monster research, it surely cant be Tricell, the company that has its logos all over this evil monster laboratory. Later, theres a computer screen that talks about Jill and is like when we injected her with monsterism, her hair turned blonde, and theres just zero explanation for why that would even happen. Wesker mind controls her by implanting a robot spider into her boobs so that the player will have to mash a button in order to grope it off. Chris groping Jills breasts is a boss fight. Chris just straight-up shoves his hand right onto her boobs and pulls with all his strength. The fight isnt even Jill; its Jills boobs. I remember when Super Princess Peach came out, people were like Isnt it kind of demeaning for a heroine to fight by using her emotions to cry and stuff? Peachs got nothing on this. And, yeah, the boulder. That stupid boulder was the Resident Evil meme until the Chris trying to force other men to have sex with his sister meme came along. Ill give this to Chris: he doesnt have much charisma, but he is super memeable.

If youre willing to accept RE5 purely on its own terms, and not think of it as horror title at all, then its okay. Its fine. It still has some of RE4s charm and personality, and it still has some gas in the tank. RE5 misses the complete package, but its an okay game that wraps up the Wesker/Umbrella storyline in a satisfying way.

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Resident Evil 5
https://i.imgur.com/43jsdzO.jpg
Why yes, I am a white man entering African temples to steal ancient artifacts and kill the locals while they wear witch doctor masks, throw spears at me, and do the limbo, why do you ask? Chris Redfield

In case you dont know, heres the plot: Chris Redfield goes to Africa to stop series main villain Wesker and rescue his best friend Jill, whos being mind-controlled by a robot boob spider. Wesker is like lol Im gonna destroy the world and Chris says Nuh-uh and punches a boulder, then Wesker double-explodes.

Before I even begin to talk about RE5, I want to say this: the biggest differences between RE1-3 and the games after isnt the gameplay, its the villains and the scope. In RE1-3, the villain is just a faceless corporation that wants to make money, and the scope is just a medical experiment that got out of control. The first three games are basically about a science company that has inadequate safety precautions, and the villains (Wesker, Irons, and Nicholai) are a guy sent in to cover up Umbrellas actions, a guy whos lost his mind in the apocalypse, and a guy trying to retrieve the research before its destruction. Do you get what Im saying here? Let me spell it out: the villain is just maaaan. Its just mortals meddling in that which they were not meant to know and the inevitable results of that. Annette Birkin whining that she didnt intend to destroy a city so please dont bully her you guys is a million times more human and real than anything after RE3. And I say that as someone who likes Resident Evils schlocky aspects.

After RE3, the scope becomes epic. Youre no longer just a survivor or a cop; youre a counterterrorist or a government agent trying to stop a crazy plan. Youre no longer exploring a building or a city; youre traipsing around the entire world and going to wacky foreign lands. The villains are no longer corporate goons or corrupt cops. Theyre bioterrorists, clones, ancient European nobility, cult leaders, or evil politicians. Destroying cities is no longer an accident; its a goal unto itself.

Anyway, I brought all of that up because RE5 is where things go completely off the rails. 0, CV, and 4 also have villains with grandiose plans, but RE5 is where the series fully casts off its roots and embraces the idea of action schlock. RE5 is not a horror game. CV still thinks its a horror game, at least, but RE5 is not even attempting to be scary or have body horror stuff. And I sort of have to congratulate Capcom for this decision? Someone clearly understood that an epic plot about Wesker trying to destroy the world and Chris Redfield working for a giant antiterrorism organization is not scary. Someone understood that having a partner with you the entire game and teaming up with nameless soldiers makes the game feel like Gears of War or something, and decided to just roll with that.

But on the other hand, as a game about Soldier Man trying to stop Monster Man, its also kind of lame? There are moments in the game where Chris is like Man, HQ just doesnt value the lives of us common grunts, and Im like This is just Gears of War with monsters. Does Gears of War even have monsters already? I dont know, this is just what I assume Gears of War is like. My point is this: RE5 is actually an okay game, but its the least Resident Evil-y of the entire series.

Gameplay-wise, the game is frustrating to talk about. The basics of the game are basically unchanged from RE4, but now you have more weapons to choose between, which, yeah, makes the core shooting and choosing weapons element the best in the series. Leaving in the partial tank controls was a good decision because it makes every decision you make in the moment-to-moment matter, as opposed to RE6, where you can ninja around while shooting. And you know what? Ill say it: the bosses in this game as better than RE4s. This game has the strongest lineup of bosses in the entire series, at least as bosses, not as characters.

So yeah, this should be the best game, at least as a shooter, in the entire series. But the levels arent as well-designed as RE4s, theres a bizarre emphasis on cover shooting (this game was made at the height of the CoD/Battlefield/GoW era, I assume thats where this came from), and the game limits you to carrying nine items at a time instead of using RE4s perfect inventory system (goddamn, is there anything RE4 doesnt do well?), which means youre constantly slowly down to manage your inventory and your partners inventory. Its nowhere near as bad as RE0 in that respect, though.

Speaking of partners, this is the game that cursed the series with them (I dont really count RE0 in the same way). Sheva. Jesus Christ, Sheva. Persona 3 party members have nothing on her as far as AI goes. Did you know her AI is programmed to never use grenades and to always use the handgun if its possible? Sheva will unload her handgun into an invincible boss, run to break some crates, grab more handgun ammo, and shoot the boss with useless handgun bullets again instead of using a more expensive gun that will actually work.

So yeah, as far as gameplay goes, this game is so difficult to judge. Its exactly like MGSV in that way the core of the gameplay is perfect, easily the best in the series, but everything around it is not built to make that core shine. It got the most important thing right, but it got everything else wrong.

And yeah, even if you want to compliment the game, every single good idea in it is ripped off from RE4. The game opens with a village of infected people trying to kill you and you have to survive until a time limit runs out, there are guys with chainsaws Its like, the line between reference and ripoff is a fuzzy one, but Im going with ripoff here. RE5 could have invented its own memorable moments, and it sort of does, but I compare it to RE4 so much because its leaning so hard on RE4. And let me just say this: Chris has maybe 10% of Leons charisma. Sheva has no personality beyond nice. The other characters arent worth talking about except for Wesker, who, in complete fairness, is sufficiently compelling and wacky to carry the game. Hes really the only main villain in the series who gets memed. Like, who else do we even have? Annette Birkin, Nicholai, Alexia, Leech Queen, Saddler, Simmons, Eveline, Lansdale, and Alex?


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banananor posted...

my friend was trying to look up how to re-install the game after his ps4 got wiped. is that even possible?

Not legally, at least.

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Good thing it never got removed from Steam and is still playable today.

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Xiahou Shake posted...

Chris looking like Chris again (albeit WIDER) was one of the most exciting things about the Village trailer!

He actually looks like he gained some weight, which is funny if they intended it.

Snake5555555555 posted...

https://1drv.ms/x/s!AuizEczRvCHkiHLuXEUvAjkV7cjY?e=5CDglZ

Canon is colored, and there's some helpful links for the more obscure stuff.

Holy crap, gonna take me a while to read through this, thanks!

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FFDragon posted...

Oh hey I just found out that someone revived the series timeline finally (as of March, and for the first time since RE5 came out).

http://residentevilpodcast.com/timeline/

It's only 2700 pages nbd

This is way too much to read, is this really just someone describing the events of the backstory and games?

colliding posted...

My favorite Chris is actually MvC3 Chris. Super fun character to play.

In RE proper, I like him in the original and REmake, but to me Jill is more iconic due to character design and campaign .Code Veronica feels like Claire's game, aside from the ending. RE5 is obviously a Chris game; it also sucks 6 is ensemble and Chris's chapter is somewhere between second-best or second-worst, depending on if you're an optimist or a pessimist. I still don't quite understand what Capcom's plan with Chris is in VII and Village. He's just boring.

I played MvC3, but I remember nothing about it except that Galactus is the final boss.

As for whose design is more memorable, Jill or Chris, it's tough. RE1 and RE3 Jill are the two best, but all of Jill's other appearances (especially RE5) are mediocre at best, and I'd say her RE3R design is weak simply because it's more realistic and therefore boring. RE5/6/Rev Chris is still rock solid. I actually think one of RE5's better decisions was to turn Chris into a gorilla. RE7 Chris is an abomination. The story there is that they couldn't use the established version of Chris in a mocap game because it looks too cartoonish next to realistic faces, but the guy they hired to mocap Chris looks nothing like Chris, which is just confusing as hell.

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FFDragon posted...

Best thing about RE3R is that it's the best Jill we've had in forever.

colliding posted...

Rumor has it that 2&3 remake were originally supposed to come out as one game. Rumor also has it that 3 was meant to be DLC for 2. Either way, there's really no reason why RE3make couldn't have been as good as RE2make (aside from the fact that OG3 isn't really that great anyway). But here's where Capcom could've tried a little harder.

Also, I'm with you. Jill should be the co-face of RE with Leon (screw Chris). RE5 ruined her forever.

• Chris Games: RE1, CV, RE5, RE6, Rev, RE7, RE8
• Jill Games: RE1, RE3, RE5, Rev
• Leon Games: RE2, RE4, RE6
• Claire Games: RE2, CV, Rev 2
• Ada Games: RE2, RE4, RE6

The numbers change a little if we include non-canon appearances like Mercs, but only to be even more in Chris' favor. It's strange to think that, one, every recurring character in the series is from the first two games besides Hunnigan, and two, that Chris is in as many games as any two of the other major characters put together. And hell, one of Jill's games only exists because it was easy to make after a Leon/Claire game. Is Chris anyone's favorite character? Are there Chris fanboys I don't know about?

Best thing about Revelations, I guess, is that it's a more dignified way for Jill to go out than RE5.

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Resident Evil 3 Remake
https://i.imgur.com/URxrDXI.jpg
The gun shop makes new pistols by taking old work and slapping on a few new assets? Haha, who would ever be stupid enough to buy that? Jill Valentine

Everyone agrees that RE3R is significantly worse than RE2R, but its hard to really nail down why, because the actual gameplay is virtually identical. Ill tell you why: exploration and sense of danger.

If you dont know, the original RE3 was rushed out in a year by reusing assets from RE2, to the point where something like 70% of the game is reused. So, RE3 is kind of a bad, lazy game buoyed up by a single brilliant idea: a super monster that chases you through the game, who just cannot be stopped. I cant imagine how RE3 would be remembered if Nemesis wasnt in it. Youll be trying to carefully maneuver through two or three zombies when Nemesis just casually shows up and shoots a rocket at you, forcing you to take a chance and run through the zombies without taking your time. You run through a door to escape him, assuming that he cant open doors because no enemy in the series up to this point can but then he just casually walks through the door and shoots you in the face. Nemesis is an excuse to get the most possible mileage out of RE2s game assets, but it actually is a brilliant way to challenge the player in its own right.

RE3R has that sense of immediate, unexpected danger happen once, during the early game in the streets, and then never again. After that, Nemesis is reduced to a series of chase sequences and boss fights, destroying the element of casually showing up and ruining your careful planning that makes him fun in the original game. To emphasize the point: there is a huge difference between a powerful enemy unexpectedly showing up in normal gameplay and you having to react to his presence, and a boss who shows up at specific times for a planned fight in a controlled arena.

RE3R also really ratchets down the exploration and decision-making aspects that make RE2R fun. Theres an intolerably long introduction where Jill and Brad go through the city, its like twenty minutes before the game lets you start exploring. Compare that to RE2R, where the introduction takes like two minutes in a gas station, and you can skip all of the cutscenes if you want to, and then youre free.

Unlike rookie cop Leon and normal civilian Claire, Jill is an elite cop and ex-military woman, so I can accept it as sensible that the game has way more combat and an emphasis on fighting instead of running. But like, without the element of Nemesis showing up randomly and shooting you in the face, this is no longer really a survival-horror game, its just an action-horror game. Hell, the game even seems to misunderstand how action geography works. In RE3, the streets Jill has to navigate are tiny, there are lots of alleyways that make it difficult to dodge around zombies. In RE3R, the streets are usually wide and open and you can put a million miles between yourself and the nearest zombie. And yes this also happens in RE4, where the areas Leon traverses are gigantic and allow him to freely move around a lot, but the difference there is that Leon cant shoot and move at the same time. Every decision you make as Leon is significant. Jill is mobile, heavily armed, and has a dodge move, so without Nemesis there to punch you in the head, theres basically no more moment-to-moment decision making or even a need at all for the careful route planning.

The only times when you do have appropriately small hallways is when the game directly reuses assets from RE2R. And yeah, its worth saying that RE3R reuses a ton of assets from RE2R, which I guess is true to the spirit of the original. I think the only area in this game not at least partially reused is a zombie hospital, which I will admit is fun and cool and makes sense, but its all the game has to offer.

The game is also much shorter than RE2R, and yet inexplicably doesnt have any of the additional content RE2R has. There are no Ghost Survivor or HUNK modes here. The only additional mode is the multiplayer, which, in full honesty, I havent touched, but Im sure I wouldnt enjoy. Even the unlockables are pathetic. Jill has two bonus costumes, both of which are paid DLC, and Carlos single bonus costume is literally just his classic hair on his new body, with nothing else changed. The original Resident Evil 3 has seven bonus costumes, and none of them are paid DLC. I also havent touched the hard mode, but people tell me its horribly unbalanced. So yeah gameplay-wise, this base of this game is okay-to-fine, but all of the areas and scenarios around you are tweaked from RE2R to be a little worse in every way.

Thats not to say the game is without redeeming qualities, however. The combat itself is good and crunchy and flows well, Carlos is delightful, and the boss fights with Nemesis are better than the boss fights in RE2R. I like how the Umbrella Security guys are played up as sketchy and potentially evil, but then they turn out to all be completely on the level except for Nicolai. And hey, the long introduction actually does one thing well that the original did not: Brad Vickers. In RE1, hes a coward who abandons his friends to zombies, then saves them at the last second. In RE3, hes randomly killed by Nemesis. In RE3R, though, hes written so that he just will not abandon Jill again and redeems himself by saving her. One of the very few story moments in all of Resident Evil that genuinely works is Brad, having been bitten by a zombie, asking Jill if theyre still a team, and her not hesitating to say always. But like, thats a one-minute scene in a five-hour game.

Overall? RE3R is the definition of okay. Its not good, its not bad, its okay. Poor Jill. I like her well enough, Id be happy to see more of her. She doesnt deserve her fate. People think of her as one of the major characters of the series, but she just got completely sidelined. Her only appearances after this are Revelations, where shes billed as the main character but has no presence in the plot, and RE5, where shes not at her most dignified. Even in RE6, a game with seven playable characters, she doesnt appear. I dont think she would have ever appeared again after Revelations but for RE3R being so easy for Capcom to fart out.

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Just started an RE4 professional run. Nothing is more infuriating than defeating the chainsaw guy just before the bell rings, causing all of the stuff the Ganados drop to despawn.

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Super Smash Brothers Melee

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Inviso posted...

Also, please do not delete or edit save posts.

Sorry, won't do it again.

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Raiden, I'll trade for Ashley.

Ashley G
Maya

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You know what, I can see being more impressed at the game's hardware ambitions, that is fair. I don't think it would have affected my ranking, but it's true that by 3DS standards, this must have been incredible.

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I can forgive load times, but the previously on sections I will never understand. Those are just so bizarre. I had to look up if the game was released episodically, but since it wasnt, I have no explanation for them.

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Started: July 6, 2005

Do you want to know the thing about post-4 Resident Evil that completely misses the mark? Its the BSAA. Oh sure, Ill grant that after Raccoon City, an international organization forming to fight monsters makes sense. Ill even concede that its realistic in a good way. But heres the issue: being part of a large organization isnt scary. Having hundreds of soldiers and infinite resources isnt scary. RE5 is the game that introduces the BSAA, and it understands that the concept is at odds with horror, so it just doesnt even try to be scary. Revelations includes the BSAA, youre constantly calling headquarters like its 24 or something, but its still trying to be spooky and have jump scares and body horror stuff. Either be a dumb monster shooter game where youre part of the BSAA, or be about normal people getting trapped in monster apocalypses, but you cant be both.

I guess Ill close this section by complimenting the only story-ish thing in the game I kind of liked: the first boss. Theres a guy whos been half-mutated into a fish monster, but hes not all the way there yet, and hes desperately calling mayday for help. When you find him, hes like Dont shoot, Im still human even as he attacks you because hes just too far gone to understand whats happening. Thats a cool, creepy idea, but its completely mishandled. That needed to be a cutscene, where like Jill reaches out a hand and is like Dont worry, dude, we can still help you, and then he attacks. Instead, Jill does not hesitate to shoot a partly-human monster, and she does not reflect on the horror and tragedy of this at all.

Im going to just give the game a pass on any gameplay problems that are the result of originally being a 3DS game, and just talk about the stuff unrelated to that. But yes I do think this game should be congratulated. This is the very best you could possibly do in translating Resident Evil to a handheld system. Its not perfect, but its the best that could have been done.

The biggest problem of this game is that it seems to think its a survival-horror game? Youre on this huge, elaborate ship, you have to wind through hallways and find key items, there are safe rooms, etc. But youre showered in ammo, so theres no rationing aspect, the carrying items aspect is reduced to you only being able to carry three weapons at once, and all other items dont take up slots, the game uses autosaves, so the idea of safe rooms is pointless, and you always have a very clear goal, so theres never a moment where you need to really examine the map and figure out where you havent been yet.

There is also no purpose in backtracking and exploration. The game still lets you, but you dont really get new items to open up wacky new locations or anything. I found some shotgun ammo by going backwards once. You eventually get a cardkey that opens up some safes with mildly useful items in them, but thats in like the last hour of the game, and its the only significant time when you have any incentive to go exploring. When I got that cardkey, I was more annoyed than excited, because I just did not want to have to backtrack over the entire ship to use it. Bizarrely, the window between getting the cardkey and the ship sinking (spoilers) is like five minutes of gameplay, so I really feel like this was the most token effort imaginable. And dont even get me started on the scanning system in the game you get a Metroid Prime-esque scanning device that you need to use in every single room to scout for hidden items, which completely kills the flow of gameplay.

However, I have to say: its actually a good thing that there is no exploration element to the game, because good ****ing luck understanding a 3D map where every room is an unlabeled gray block. Was this map better on the 3DS? Because this is the literal worst map in any video game Ive ever played, it is completely unusable. Even worse, every room in the game is either a gray hallway or a gold hallway, so figuring out where you are relative to anything else is a nightmare. The game is like lol the ship was designed by the same guy who designed the mansion in the first game, so half of the ship just looks like the mansion again. I am so tired of the mansions aesthetics at this point, weve had it now in RE1, CV, 0, 5, and Rev, and only one of those games is good.

There are two things about the gameplay I can recommend. The first is that the game is only 7 hours long; it doesnt waste your time at all. I respect that. The second is the weapon variety and upgrade system. Throughout the game, you find little upgrades like +20% damage or whatever, and you can slot them into the fifteen or so weapons you find. You know what? Thats the best and most interesting weapon customization feature in the series.

I guess I can give the game this: the absolute most basic premise of monsters on a cruise ship is good. Youve got this decadent modern setting full of rich jerks, but thats also isolated from the rest of the world. Heres how you do it: Jill Valentine goes on a cruise for a vacation, when monsters. She has no weapons, but she has to fight like monsterified rich people who are in bikinis and swim trunks, she needs to go down into the dank crew-only hallways and fight monsters who are muttering things like Can I offer you a drink misssssssss argh, she needs to whack a slot machine in the casino to spit out coins at a monster so she can get away, she sneaks through the buffet and sees a monster chef has replaced all of the food with human innards, etc. Obviously, Im making this comedic, but the important part is that if you set a game in a wacky location, you play up the elements of that location. RE1 plays up the things you associate with mansions, RE2 plays up the things you associate with police stations, etc. The fact that this game is set on a cruise ship never really comes up. The only time in the game where the cruise ship matters is when you have to play slots in the casino. This is such a missed opportunity that it makes me angry.

Overall, yeah, this is a bad game. It is playable, though, and it doesnt waste your time like RE0 and CV do, so I appreciate it a lot more than them. Its Its like, have you ever watched Jurassic Park 2 and 3? 2 is still trying to be this epic tale, whereas 3 is just a random stupid adventure, so 3 is kind of easier to accept on its own terms even though its worse from an objective perspective. Rev feels like a random stupid adventure Jill and Chris go on, so its easier to let it slide. Also, at least the series has stopped being about Umbrella. Yep. Surely the next games, Rev 2 and RE7, wont bring back Umbrella for no reason, nosiree.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

Resident Evil: Revelations
https://i.imgur.com/IqdkGYh.jpg
Im Federal Agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life. Jill Valentine

To me, Revelations as a title implies the game will reveal a dark secret about whats happened up to this point. Spoilers, but the titular revelations are about people and organizations we never met until this game. But if you want to learn more about series mainstays like Parker, Jessica, Raymond, Norman, Morgan, Keith, and Quint, have I got the game for you!

I guess what I can respect about Revelations is that its the only game that goes all-in on the idea of bioterrorism. People talk about bioterrorism in 5, 6, 7, and Rev 2, but its always in the background and isnt really the focal point this time, it actually is. This is the only game in the series with an actual, honest-to-God bioterrorist in it: one guy. The problem is that the game decides to explore this concept in the strangest way possible: by making it exactly like 24. And Im not joking when I say that. I am going to list all of the ways this game is like 24:

• The game is constantly telling you the time, as if you care that its 9:08 PM, and takes place over a short timeframe.
• There is constant cutting between locations and flashbacks. You never stay with a particular group of people longer than about an hour.
• There are constantly cutscenes where you see BSAA headquarters (the monster-hunting organization), and it looks and sounds exactly like CTU from 24. Theres even an older guy walking around next to glowing blue computer screens giving orders to computer nerds. A big emphasis is placed on showing the BSAA as a large organization exactly like CTU.
• The game is split into twelve episodes, each of which ends with a cliffhanger thats immediately resolved in the next chapter: someone is about to die, a gunshot rings out, something like that.
• At the start of each new chapter (so eleven times), theres a recap of previous events where a main character narrates, like youre watching 24. This is probably the most inexplicable aspect of the entire game. Some of the episodes are like twenty minutes long, so youre getting a recap of what just happened. There are cutscenes in MGS4 that last longer than two consecutive episodes in Rev, meaning youll watch three recaps of things that just happened in the time it takes Snake to talk to Naomi.
• The plot has almost nothing to do with monsters and is entirely about government guys and conspiracies. Like, the monsters are used as a weapon, but it could have just as easily been mustard gas. Rev isnt the only game where this happens (RE5 is guilty to some extent of having irrelevant monsters), but its the most blatant about it.
• There are constantly government guys betraying you, terrorists, and people saying things like We cant win unless we get our hands dirty.
• The game ends with white text on black background saying what happened to each character in turn, as if this was a spy drama or something.
• The game ends with a ton of unresolved sequel bait, especially Rachael, Raymond, and Jessicas fates.

The plot of this story is presented by means of flashbacks and cutaways and isnt in chronological order, but heres the gist: the American director of counterbioterrorism says I am going to secretly fund bioterrorists in their bid to destroy the ocean because then I can get more funding for my agency, and Ill also destroy a city lol. Our heroes go to investigate the terrorists and eventually figure out whats happening. And thats basically it? There are a lot of 24-esque plot twists about betrayals and whatever, but none of them matter that much. Its incredibly strange how this games story progresses. Its the most predictable and stupid thing ever, which is what you expect from Resident Evil, but it seems to think its genuinely a clever story, and it has a huge emphasis on cutscenes and plot? If you were surprised by any of the plot twists in this game, I can only assume that you are an alien who has never seen any of our Earthling TV shows before.

I dont even know where to begin unpacking this games story. Im just going to list random things that bothered me about it:

• Literally the very first thing in the game, literally the first thirty seconds, is Jill, the Master of Unlocking, shooting a lock to open it.
• Jill and Chris, our supposed main characters, have no consequence to the story. This is a story about Parker, Raymond, Jessica, Grinder, Jackass, and Norman. The fact that Jill and Chris are here is important only in that they are experienced agents who can survive monster attacks. Compare this to any other game with recurring protagonists, where the fact that were playing as Jill/Chris/Leon/Claire/Rebecca/Sherry/Ada/Barry is actually important and it feels like an extension of what happened in previous games. When you get styled on by CV, RE0, and RE6, theres something seriously wrong with you. Like, I want this to be crystal clear: if you replaced Jill and Chris with new characters, it would change nothing, and the game would no longer have any connection to Resident Evil as a franchise.
• Theres a character named Rachael who dies in the first ten minutes of the game. We have never met Rachael before. She gets exactly one line before she dies, and its something to the effect of oh no. She becomes a major recurring boss, and the game presents her like this tragic monster you should feel sorry for. She sings, she taunts you, etc. But the audience has no ****ing idea who this woman is. Did Rachael like to sing when she was still human? Was she playful or serious? I have no idea! I have no idea how much the monsterism changed her personality, which makes her taunting personality as a monster impossible to gauge. Excuse me, game, Im trying to reflect upon the Shakespearean tragedy that is this womans needless death and the hubris of man as it constantly creates new monster viruses. Could you please include her in one of the seventeen flashback sequences so I can feel something about her death? Thank you.
• A major element of the game is the terrorist agency Veltro, which wants to blow up the ocean or whatever. But they have no motive beyond rah we hate the world. For such a major part of the game, we the audience have no idea what they want.
• The game makes nonstop Dantes Inferno and Hamlet references, as if anyone besides me who plays Resident Evil games has read those.
• One of the biggest issues is that the game cannot pick a location and stick with it. As you play through the cruise ship and try to be scared, the game switches perspectives to a dude in a skyscraper in the middle of the day, or two people trekking through the mountains, or something like that. And good luck trying to be spooked in general. This is the least bloody monster apocalypse ever. Almost every surface in the ship is completely clean, theres only blood in a few locations, and there is no gore at all. CV has the excuse of being the first fully 3D game; Rev does not.
• The lamest aspect of this game is the monsters. I dont even know what theyre called, theyre just fish guys who act like zombies (to the point where Jill even calls one a zombie at one point). Never have the monsters felt more like an afterthought than in this game. Someone just said We cant use zombies after RE4 introduced not!zombies; this game is set on a ship, so lets use fish guys.

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005

Bane

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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005