I've associated so many moments of Alfred Coleman and Chase Young being hilarious with Sig bc they have the same energy that now Sig almost sounds like a mix of them in my head. It's a little cursed but also kind of fitting ngl

I got into Resident Evil too, currently watching a playthrough of RE2 Remake. Player being a huge Leon simp is hilarious but showing the guys what he had to deal with in his respective games is way funnier.

They just play the remake in front of the guys and the reactions all the Links make, especially ones who had to deal with ReDeads, would be so beautiful. Imagine the horror to absolute disgust as a Licker or Birkin Monster shows up.

Wind: I thought the monsters from Twilight's era are terrifying!

Time: *realizes the shit he dealt with in Termina could've been way worse if Majora possessed Skull Kid saw this*

Only Mecha is unfazed cause he probably played the games before. First would also be shaken but not that bad. Courage and Koridai fainted however as the scare from Mr X in the jail scene got them. Fierce is unfazed, maybe a smidge disgusted since he haven't seen such horror for a long time.

It's definitely not helping with their nightmares that's for sure PUIOHDEPIUFHFEU Especially with the realistic graphics! It probably fucks with their heads seeing stuff look so real yet so fake so a few of them are certainly having night terrors.

Mecha while having Player is probably reminded of the gore he's both inflicted and faced from Fazbear entertainment so he doesn't even flinch, which only unsettles everyone more <333

It’s genuinely pretty fascinating how differently people can interact with the various types of horror media. Like , my mom hates horror novels because they freak her out too much, but I devour them like I’m starving.

However, when it comes to horror movies, I had a lot of problems with it until fairly recently. I used to be completely unable to sit down and watch them, but over the past few years, something seems to have changed. I can now watch Mr. Jason Voorhees murder a bunch of unlikable teenagers and feel little but a vague sense of amusement. However, I am still very much a big scaredy bitch baby and I startle at every jumpscare.

However, I cannot watch The Exorcist. I cannot watch any of the Insidious movies. I cannot watch Smile. And I have no clue why.

Horror games are a completely different ballpark, though. I’m somehow entirely unafraid and quaking in me fuckin’ boots simultaneously. It’s easier if it’s co-op, like Lethal Company, but for single player games, I’m either 100% fine or I’m shitting my pants.

For example, I can play Roblox Doors solo. I have no problems with this, even if I do generally start out playing in co-op. I jump, but I’m fine.

I cannot play Radient Residents solo. I have tried. I have cried.

Roblox games aside, I’ve recently started playing a through Resident Evil 4 (2005), a game I watched a playthrough of when I was around 14. Back then, I thought this game was the shit. It was so cool and not scary at all - why would it be scary?

I’m 19 now. I was partially right. The game is not that scary. I still twitch at every noise (as said, I am a big scaredy bitch baby).

Thinking about it, I think the reason behind it is the way my brain visualizes things. With a book, the scene isn’t too horrifying unless I take the time and make the effort to picture it in full detail. The monster is only as horrifying as I imagine it to be. Horror movies take that padding away. They show exactly what’s happening, no room for interpretation (usually, anyway), no place to hide from the terror. Games give back some of that wiggle room, though.

If you’re just good enough, skilled enough, lucky enough, well.

You might just be able to stop the scary thing from ever happening.

And I think that’s why I can’t watch what I read, but I can play what I watch.

The Alien series gets a big ol pass though. The xenomorphs are really hot.

thoughts on Bela///Donna?

What a lovely can of worms you've placed in my inbox, dear nonnie. I cannot wait to open it and lose followers (regardless of what I actually say).

Since this is, uh, a subject of some debate among RE8 fans, I will be inputting my thoughts on the idea of the ship (and the possible controversy), as opposed to doing HCs or something for it (which I recognize might be what you were asking for, despite the excessive /s).

This is all based on my playthroughs of the game, as well as what I've managed to double check on the fandom/wiki for it. I know that a lot of people who read fanfic for the game haven't actually played it, likely having been lured in by Tall Vampire Milf, and so I hope that some people will be open to a reminder of, like, canon vs fanon? I've mentioned in a previous post that there's a lot of details for RE8 that are not made clear, and I feel the need to reiterate that in this post. Capcom left a lot of stuff up to people's imaginations, or kind of just hinted at in game or in concept art.

But more importantly, regardless of what game we're talking about, regardless of the conclusion I come to (and the one you come to) at the end of this post, I want to say that I absolutely understand the need/desire to have your own perspective/take on the characters from the game, as well as their dynamics. If a ship makes you uncomfortable because you see the characters as being family members, it's totally okay. Block the ship tag, or filter it out when you look through fandom stuff, don't follow people who post for it, etc, etc.

If you think of characters as being family-family (like, not just "we got married and are now a family" but, like, "we're siblings/parent and child") and still ship them? uh. sorry, bruv, maybe think of hitting that unfollow button. No, seriously, hit that unfollow button. This blog is anti-incest, thank you very much.

The last thing I'll say before putting it under a read-more (for both length and major RE8 spoilers) is that I recognize that I might have missed something, either in game or developers talking about things on social media, and so if you read through this and go "god, J, you're such a dumbass for forgetting *critical piece of media*" or even just "okay but have you seen *small but meaningful piece of media*?" please. Just. Please. Tell me. Link me to that shit. I WANT to know if I'm wrong. I've literally avoided talking about this for as long as I could in order to TRY and make sure I have all the context I need.

With that said, let's examine what context we are given for Alcina Dimitrescu, Bela Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, and their relations to each other. I will be leaving my personal thoughts on Bela///Donna at the very end of this, as somewhat of a conclusion, somewhat of just a "hey, this is what you technically asked me about".

Firstly, let me begin by explaining what I consider to be the 3 tiers of "canon"

In-Game/Direct: The highest, truest tier, the definitive canon. This is everything that takes place in game, excluding certain hallucination scenes (ex: Mia was not really in House Beneviento, but we can infer some things from what Donna made Ethan hallucinate about). Things either happen, or are directly stated by characters. There's some wiggle room for dialogue, as characters can lie, but overall we, as the audience, assume we are being told the truth. At the very least, games usually eventually make it clear when a character has been dishonest. Examples of Direct Canon include the following: Ethan is infected with the mold, Lady Dimitrescu drinks blood, Heisenberg wears sunglasses, Mother Miranda can shapeshift.

Concept Art/Developer's Notes/Indirect: Mid-tier and debatable, the "we think, but we're not sure" of canon. Resident Evil: Village contains lots of concept art that the players can browse through, all of which include notes from the developers about the game, characters, environments, and story. Sometimes the notes make something "direct", but oftentimes they do not specify whether the listed idea is still canon or if it was removed during development. This tier also includes information that is implied/can be inferred from tier 1 information, but is not directly stated. Examples of Indirect Canon include the following: Donna's mother died by suicide, Moreau was going to have his lover fused to his back, Duke was originally a fifth lord, Heisenberg was going to have a twin. As you can see, not all of the concept art ideas made it into the final version of the game, so it can be hard when some information seems like it might still be true (such as the matter of Donna's parents).

Fanon/"False": Sometimes collective ideas in a fandom become so widespread that people start interpreting them as actual canon. Sometimes it gets hard to remember what's just obscure lore and what's fanon. When we get a piece of fiction as overall vague as a lot of Resident Evil: Village is, there's bound to be some confusion over time. That's one of the main reasons I waited to talk about Bela////Donna until after I had recently replayed relevant sections of the game, as I wanted to remind myself of what we're actually told. Examples of False Canon are difficult to pinpoint, but might include things like: Hufflepuffs are good at finding things? The Avengers got along for awhile and all had their own rooms in the tower? There's a number scale for the danger level of ghosts in Danny Phantom?

For this post, I will be limiting the majority of my notes to the first two levels of canon, and will do my best to mark them as such. Now... let us... begin.

Alcina Dimitrescu:

Born no later than 1914, Alcina Dimitrescu was 44 years old when she was granted the Cadou by Mother Miranda. (1st Tier: Canon. Source: A note in the castle basement from a servant is dated 1958, and mentions both Alcina and her children. Secondly, Miranda's experiment notes state that Alcina was the 181st subject, and was given the Cadou at age 44. By doing math, we can then determine the earliest Alcina could have been born.)

Alcina refers to the other Lords as her family once without any disdain (when Ethan first arrives at the castle and is caught, Alcina says "you've escaped my little brother"). In a private journal (located near where she threw the infamous vanity) she insults the other Lords, and expresses anger that she is "treated like a sister to them". She argues with Heisenberg without any hesitation, and seems honest in her hatred of him (per Maggie Robertson's wunderbar performance). (1st Tier/2nd Tier: Canon with a sprinkle of interpretation for the last line)

Alcina openly refers to Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela as her daughters, and wrote in her experiment journal that she felt instantly connected to them (as mother and daughters). (1st Tier: Canon).

Bela Dimitrescu:

Likely born in the 1930's or 1940's, in order to be an adult by 1958 (the first dated appearance of the Dimitrescu daughters). (2nd Tier: Based on inference)

Dialogue shows that all three of the daughters do love their mother, and reinforces the bond Alcina's journal mentions. (1st Tier: Canon)

We are not given any information about how Bela feels about the other Lords, or even what she knows about them. Once can assume that she shares the ideas of her mother, either because Alcina tells her things directly, or because Bela (who is eager to please her mother) picks up on them over time. (2nd Tier: Based on inference)

Donna Beneviento:

No idea when she was born. If you've read one of my recent posts, then you know that it's almost entirely a matter of 2nd and 3rd tier canon.

Of the four lords, Donna seems to have the most story within the 2nd tier, and has very, very little in the 1st tier. Duke says she's somewhat isolated, and that her "playmates" never leave the house. Miranda's notes state that Donna is mentally ill, and the gardener's diary states/implies (bit of both) that Donna has severe social anxiety. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly canon)

Supposedly, her parents committed suicide while she was still a child. This is indicated in concept art/the attached developer's notes. However, the only part that's also directly stated in game is that her parents (specifically her father) died while she was young. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly canon)

While Donna only has one voice line in the game (and it's sad), Angie talks a fair bit. Angie seems to disapprove of the other Lords, or at the very least enjoys mocking them, as well as enjoys watching them fight with each other. As Angie is connected to Donna, and Donna has some level of control over her, one can assume that the two have similar (if not the same) opinions. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly Canon)

Donna was adopted by Mother Miranda as an adult. It's unclear exactly how old Donna was, or what exactly Miranda did as her "mother", just that Donna was excited about it. (1st Tier: Canon)

Other Relevant Information:

Heisenberg refers to the other Lords as his siblings a minimum of 1 time. Similarly to Alcina, however, he openly insults them and seems to hate them. He just, you know, hates Mother Miranda the most. (1st Tier: Canon)

Mother Miranda does not actually give a shit about the four Lords, intended for them to die before the ceremony, and has been manipulating them for her own gain this entire time. Her notes and dialogue make it clear that she only cares about getting Eva back. Somehow mother of the year and worst mother ever. At the same time. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly Canon)

It's unclear who treats Alcina "like a sister" to the other Lords. Were there cut lines of dialogue that cemented the idea of them being a "family"? Did Miranda call them a "family" as part of pretending she cared about them? I've done my best to dig around, but there's very little in game that treats them as a family of any sort.

As each Lord ruled their own section of the region, they don't have any mentions of interacting with each other outside of meetings with Mother Miranda. None of the notes for any Lord (and their relevant experiments) mention what the others are doing. In game, their environments are very separate, very well divided, though this is likely as much for gameplay as it is for story.

Conclusion:

I do not not believe there is enough in game evidence to suggest that Alcina and Donna consider themselves to be siblings. There's the possibility for a large age gap, Alcina was a fair bit older than Donna when she met Miranda, Donna is a social recluse whose closest bonds were with dead blood relatives and dolls, Alcina openly dislikes (if not hates) the other Lords, they seemingly lived very separate and distanced lives, and Mother Miranda does not enforce the idea of "family". Furthermore, the sheer contrast between how Alcina interacts with/speaks of the other Lords compared to how she interacts with/speaks of her daughters says a lot about her feelings. Even if Heisenberg takes the brunt of her anger, Alcina never once says anything remotely positive about anyone other than Miranda and her daughters.

As Alcina/Bela and Donna are not blood-relatives, the definition of what would count as "incest" does vary depending on who you ask. Personally, I do count non-blood relations as potentially incestuous. For example: Alcina "dating" one of her daughters would be incest, regardless of the fact that she's a mutated human and her daughters are weird swarms of flies.

Now, I do understand how popular the idea of the four Lords being a real, chaotic but still close family is. And as I mentioned above, it's totally valid to not like the Bela///Donna ship, whether it's because you think they're family or some other reason. I don't personally see them that way, even in my definitely-not-canon stories.

Do I personally ship Bela///Donna? Nope. Have I liked art for the ship? Admittedly yes, even if I thought some of it was, like, maiden x Bela because Donna didn't have her veil and I'm a DUMBASS who doesn't always remember to read tags. Would I ever write for it? Yeah, probably, assuming I didn't miss anything in game/that I don't eventually change my mind.

Top Games Played in 2020

It’s that time again folks! 

1) Dragon Age Inqusition : Where to start with this absolute gem… Bought this after hearing about it repeatedly on the Playstation Youtube channel and it has been my best purchase of 2020. Got my best friend into playing it too, we’re both obsessed and still playing it. I would easily put it alongside my favourite game ever - Skyrim. It has such a vast world, hundreds of different storylines which have multiple choices to have not just different outcomes for the quest but for the whole game. You can romance numerous characters of different races, including ones of the same sex (a win for the gays and has some of the best romance scenes in any video game I’ve ever seen!), you own a castle which you can decorate, kill dragons, completely customize your character and others, you have magical powers, go back in time, take part in a war - I could literally rant about this game forever! PLEASE GO BUY IT!!

2) Resident Evil 2 : Ohmygod I was so nervous this would not live up to the previous games of Resi Evil considering it is a remake but holy shit I was wrong! It is horrifyingly but absolutely incredible! Mr T please leave me alone I’m begging you. It’s even better when you unlock the missile launcher and you can say bye bye zombies BOOM. So close to the platinum!

3) Horizon Zero Dawn : Still very early in this game but it quickly climbed up this list from its graphics alone. A very beautiful looking game, the big boy robots are terrifying though - however when you unlock a specific ability you can start riding them into battle - v fun! 

4) The Suicide of Rachel Foster : You’ll finish this game easily but it’ll leave you with one word - damn. A psychology horror where you spend the entire game alone in a huge resort house, but shit gets weird quick. I’m not gonna spoil it, the twists definitely make this game one to play - it would make a fantastic film! Really like the option of a second playthrough giving you a different ending. Traumatised me.

5) The Walking Dead Complete Franchise : Bloody love these games! Not counting the first season in this as I played that years ago but still incredible. My rating of the seasons is as follows (from best to worse): Final season, 1st season, 2nd season, Michonne, 400 days and season 3 (sorrynotsorry). Clem is my child and must be protected, I’m so glad she survived everything, still miss Lee. Final season hyped up the pressure by having every one of your interactions affect AJ somehow and LOUIS!! Protect him.

6) The Outer Worlds : Nearly finished this and 10/10 would recommend! Imagine Fallout and Bioshock combined, fantastic. First video game I’ve seen that not only has an asexual character but has a storyline based on it - and she ends up with a woman! (another win for the gays!)

7) Coffee Talk : Such a cute small game! You run a coffee shop and literally just make drinks for the characters. It’s very story based but if you just want something calm to pretend 2020 didn’t happen, I’d recommend.

8) Don’t Knock Twice : Okay for such a short game it ABSOLUTELY nails tension building like some longer horrors can’t manage! If you like horror, play it! I was still terrified on my 2nd playthrough

9) Sherlock Holmes The Devil’s Daughter : Loved the previous Sherlock games and it is v similar to the others except Sherlock has a kid. (well Moriarty’s kid) the final mission in particular was badass and stressful as hell, if you like crime solving games - just buy it

10) Layers of Fear 2 : Now it was not as good as the first game, and honestly the plot didn’t make much sense but just from how scary this was, especially the chase scenes it makes the list! The first two chapters were the best, for ultimate scares play with headphones on and no lights

SPECIAL MENTION:  Fortnite : If I didn’t include this my best friend would kill me. This is definitely her game of the year and we’ve spent many hours playing it! We are actually pretty good too so if any of y’all want a match on Playstation hit me up - we will destroy you

That’s all folks! Happy New Years and let’s hope 2021 treats us better

I can’t think of a title so this post is just a small opinion I got during my playthrough of Re3remake, about Jill. We know every character in Resident evil would totally sacrifice themselves for their friends/partners.. but I want to talk my mind about Jill in particular. Re3 re-imagine did  a fantastic job on showing the strength and characteristics of Jill Valentine, expanding what were expressed in the original Resident evil 3.  Like if you get on her good side, you’ll have the guarantee she will place her trust in you. Jill also values “comrade” and “partners” highly.  She’s wary of strangers but doesn’t hesitate in reaching out to someone she already knew (Brad, Kendo).  At the start of Re3 when Carlos  (jokingly or not) called Jill “partner”,   she immediately snapped at him “not your partner”. But once Jill saw Carlos was not the bad guy, she reached out to help him  and even sounded apologetic that she was rude earlier.

Jill also used  the “partners” argument  to push Chris to  go and finish his work with Wesker in resident evil 5 . And because of that, in my opinion , the betrayal of Wesker in Re1  also had a big impact on her and  was a personal thing to her as much as Chris. In resident evil 1, in the scene when Jill confronted Barry,  we could only get the good ending if we gave Barry his gun back , that  makes me think that even when she was suspecting Barry, she was still putting her trust in him and betting on it. I’m kind of upset they didn’t include the ending with Barry in the remake because I see Barry’s returning as an apology act for his (sort of) betrayal in Resident evil 1.  “It’s on me and the guys” is also a nice touch that Jill was loved by everyone in the RPD because at the time she was in suspension, there was only Brad who was the last member of STARS left. We can see in resident evil 1, Enrico wasn’t as doubtful of  Jill as of Chris.

 in the opening of Re3 remake, we see Jill seeing herself transform into zombie and in panic , she grabs the gun  trying to point it to her head. The dream is  cut off at the gun shot, so we don’t know if she has been success in shooting herself or not, but I’d like to think she hasn’t, as when Jill wakes up from the nightmare, she comments “It gets worse every night”, meaning she’s been dreaming about it a lot, and this is the first time that she was able to pull the trigger.

That leads me to my very personal head canon that JILL encountered the crimson head Forest in the mansion  and  WASN’T ABLE  TO KILL HIM  . No one, included Chris, was able to put a bullet into his head to end his misery , he just chased them through the length of Re1 and could only meet his end with the mansion’s explosion. That put a heavy weight in her heart and it reflected in her nightmare throughout Re3  re-imagine. She’s been being chased by her once comrade in her nightmares and a literal monster in reality when everything around her is crumbling in destruction. She was helpless in saving herself turning into the monster she’d been dreading  in the beginning;

she wasn’t able to shoot Carlos to save him and herself in the hospital nightmare but during the course of Re3, she’s been able to overcome her fear as she defeated Nemesis and was able to shoot Nicholai to save Carlos, and herself this time, though she could not do it for everyone in the city because Nicholai had to be a jerk and broke the syringe, ending in a completely note for her story in Re3.

I’d love to see more of Jill’s stories in the future as the re-imagine has done a very good job about going depth in her personality. Please make that rumor about next CG movie about Jill come true Capcom

PLAYING: Resident Evil 7

I know I'm about 3 years late to the party, but I was hesitant to trust that Capcom could get back in touch with their Survival Horror roots.

My very regrettable mistake...

So: Resident Evil for PS1/Saturn was great!

Cinematic Storytelling: The game could be completed in under 2 hours (if you knew what you were doing). So that means you're not spending days to get through a feature-film level story (unlike SOME games). It makes the plot and characters a more crucial part of the experience.

Puzzles: Sure, the puzzles are little wacky: like clicking buttons under pictures in chronological order or you get attacked by well-trained zombie birds. But it made the game more than moving from point-a-to-b. It's about exploring and understanding your environment. Speaking of which...

The Environment: The Mansion (and it's other areas) was a character unto itself. It had secrets and a past. And since the game wasn't designed as a series of sequential levels, you really get to know the environment.

Zombies: Zombies were not the mainstream success they are now. Hell, Vampires were just barely getting attention through Interview the Vampire. I became obsessed with zombies and bought all 3 major films in existence.

Such a different time...

Anyway, the point, RE1 was great, RE2 was better, RE: Code Veronica was pretty good, and RE4 is stupid.

Well...not stupid, but it completely changed Resident Evil, and not for the better. While folks loved RE4, it really was the start of a new franchise, which RE5 and RE6 followed. And that's fine--except they sacrificed what Resident Evil was to make way for this new product.

Succinct, mystery-driven storytelling was replaced with nonsensical twist and turns that did little to grow the overall world or its characters. They just stretched contrived cliffhangers across overlong campaigns of mass murder.

Puzzles, as best i can remember, were sacrificed for challenge rooms filled with enemies while the player looked for the exit switch.

The environment, as great as the graphics were, simply became battle zones meant to offer shallow context to the bloodbath gameplay. RE4 did have a strong aesthetic, but you don't get to know each room and hall like you do in the classics. Nothing but well-dressed strangers to high-five as you pass by.

And what happened to the Zombies. I mean, they still had zombies--but they weren't zombies. Whatever. Resident Evil has always had a diverse set of monsters. They didn't have to sacrifice zombies...

All this to say, Resident Evil 7 is awesome!

The opening was a little cheesy with poorly synced dialog and a helicopter shot of Louisiana swampland I'm sure they stole from True Detective stock footage.

But once I took over the character, I was hooked. The game looks great on my phone and TV via Stadia. I enjoyed walking through the woods and house, looking at every little detail the artists meticulously placed.

I've seen most of a playthrough on Youtube (though I was distracted). So I kind of knew what to expect. It's way more intense when you play. Having dialog and cutscenes playout without leaving the first person camera is great at making you feel "there". So all that goes down and I end up in the house for dinner.

Watching this bit on YouTube, I was a little turned off by the obvious Chainsaw Massacre connections: but original RE was heavily influenced by horror films, why not this? (I also have a better understanding of this family cause I know some things.)

Once I gained control, roaming around the kitchen/dining/living room area was great. I was seeing hints to future puzzles, scavenging for supplies, and finding notes giving clues to events that were happening. Very Resident Evil.

I struggled a bit trying to get away from Jack. Since they gave me a hiding spot, I assumed stealth was gonna be a major component. Nope. Not really. Eventually I get to the save room (A SAVE ROOM!!) and then on to the garage fight.

I wasted all my ammo when I probably just needed to grab the car keys. Lesson learned. Jack trying to run me over was kind of crazy, and maybe a little laughable since I was just swiping at him with a pocket knife for five minutes.

After that, more of the house opens up. It's insanely huge and illogically designed. While it creates some great hallways, and helps the designers break the home up into controllable sections: there's no house build like this: wtf...

Going into the basement reminded me of RE2. The molded, I think, are people the family has kidnapped and infected with something. Some change and some don't. Know they've turned into very lethal zombie-esque creatures. Since they're infected people stumbling about, I'm gonna say they've rekindled the zombie. Kinda.

To fight these guys, I've resorted to my pocket knife. Saves ammo. I basically dance around them like I did guards in Thief, wacking where I can. Eventually I chop off their hands, often without taking damage. But the crab guy in the incinerator required a shotgun blast.

One of the fights, he cut off my leg and I was crawling around. I thought it was a scripted scene (I mean, I lost my arm already). Nope. You're supposed to pick it up and reattach it. Ah-well.

Jack wandering around the new area was frustrating. It seemed I could never lose him, so wasted a lot of health and ammo stunning him. His boss fight was pretty rough. I nearly gave up. It took some time getting used to the chainsaw. Right as I was about to switch to easy, I had a near perfect run and defeated him. My wife laughed at the way I was squirming on the couch trying to get a hit in without being cut in half!

Made it to the old house with the bugs. This went way faster. It reminded me of the guard house from RE1, which also had giant wasps. Without Jack or molded zombies, it was actually really easy to explore the house and solve its secrets. Once the old lady showed up, I thought I could lure her away from the exit room. She didn't buy it, so I just ran past her.

When it came to her boss fight, it reminded me a lot of Laughing Octopus in Metal Gear Solid. Which that boss was practically a horror movie in of itself. I thought the flame thrower was gonna be the way to go, but a guide suggested focusing on her belly. And I kept running out of fuel, then being harassed by flies. So I opted for the shotgun and had a successful run.

About a year and a half ago, I played through the original RE as Chris. I remember there was a point about a third of the way through that I had about seven rounds of pistol ammo, and a single green herb--yet several zombies stood in my way. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. But then, I unlocked the shotgun and the game became a breeze. Suddenly I had too much ammo, and too many healing items!

That has kind of happened here. I'm doing well on healing items (though I've used up my shotgun). Still, I feel confident sprinting around and doing quick searches of spaces. I don't even fight the molded much anymore.

Getting into Zoe's trailer was interesting, but you can interact with her bra. I thought that was kind of pervy. I'm guessing Zoe is a part of the family? I imagine she's some how the source.

I think it's great they keep putting the grandma in different places without explanation. The way she looks at you sometimes is creepy...

I'm not a huge fan of the VHS flashbacks. Often, they have you play areas you've either already played or will play. While it's inspired some game ideas of my own, it just feels like a cheap gimmick to get more playtime.

Anyway, this really does feel like a reboot of Resident Evil. It's capturing the strong environmental storytelling of the originals, and making it more about the horror, less about the action. I'm actually getting into the plot and mystery. I look forward to getting my answers.

The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, interlude three

I just finished watching all of the Resident Evil movies I could get my hands on. When I told people I was doing this as the last part of my great year-long playthrough, they all let out groans and said something along the lines of, “Ugh, don’t you wanna end on a good note?” Undaunted by these words and fueled by my ability to tolerate crappy cinema, I moved forward, courageously making it through nine of these suckers...which, to be fair, ranged from surprisingly enjoyable to just as terrible as everyone warned me about. 

Before I begin, it’s important to note that we’re dealing with two separate film series here. There’s director Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil Hollywood films, which are the ones that most people know about. Then there are three Japanese-made CG movies that are canon and co-exist alongside the stories of the games. The Anderson movies are...mostly ass. The Japanese ones are okay. 

Let us start with the ass first. 

Resident Evil - The first RE film came out in 2002, which means that what little CG it has is laughably dated and it’s refreshingly small-scale when compared to its sequels. The movie’s a fan fiction remix of some themes from Resident Evil 1, except with none of the characters from the games present. Instead, we have Paul W.S. Anderson’s wife Milla Jovovich taking center stage as Alice, the former head of Umbrella security in a secret base called the Hive that goes to hell when some dude tries to steal viruses. The entirety of the action takes place in the Hive, and we get a surprisingly tiny number of monsters, with just your garden variety zombies, a few Cerberus and a single Licker showing up. Even though she does run up a wall and kick a Cerberus in the face, Alice is at her most realistic here (she turns into a dual wielding mutant with the ability to make the camera go into slow-motion whenever she wants in all the other films), there’s a nifty laser grid scene that all the sequels keep referencing when they want you to feel nostalgic, and the Hive’s sentient AI, the Red Queen, is compelling enough that Capcom eventually stuck her in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Aside from this movie being full of British actors who do REALLY awful American accents, sounding like they all have mouths full of sausages, Paul W.S. Anderson’s first take on Resident Evil is probably the most watchable one he made. 

Resident Evil: Apocalypse - Okay, this one is watchable too, but in more of a popcorn-munching “lol, this shit is dumb” way. It steals the general plot of Resident Evils 2 and 3, with Raccoon City getting infected, but ups the cheese by a hundred. Alice is now a thirteen-year-old boy’s version of a BADAZZ woman, with lots of guns and a bare midriff, and she teams up with Jill Valentine, who resembles her game self in looks but not exactly in personality. Together, they’ve gotta escape Raccoon City along with Carlos Oliveira, who is possibly the only character from the games who is done a great service in these Anderson movies, which make him much more likable even if they couldn’t find an actual Hispanic actor to portray him and had to settle for an Israeli instead. Oh, and Nemesis shows up, because one of the dudes from the first movie who accompanied Alice into the Hive gets experimented on and turned into what honestly looks like someone’s Halloween costume. The writers commit a cardinal sin at the end of the flick by humanizing him, having him suddenly remember his TRUE SELF and help the good guys, but aside from that screw-up I admit that I had a goofy grin on my face throughout several parts of this movie. After Nemesis blows up the Raccoon City station and murmurs his one line of dialogue- “STARRRRRSSSS” - I even kinda felt like clapping. So yeah, Apocalpyse is idiotic fun.

Resident Evil: Extinction - Here’s where the movies stop being mildly entertaining and become varying degrees of either “meh” or just plain bad. Extinction’s biggest problem is that it makes the weird decision of having the entire PLANET be wiped nearly completely clean by Umbrella’s virus, giving the franchise the most generic setting imaginable for a zombie flick - a post-apocalyptic world. And even though this film features Claire Redfield and actually has Alice fight a Tyrant that looks the part, I feel that by turning the environment into Mad Max the filmmakers missed the entire point of the franchise. Resident Evil isn’t really about a “what if” scenario with mankind dying and zombies taking over the world. Instead, it’s about how humanity manages to cope in a time where zombies are used by corporations for terrorism purposes - hence the franchise’s “bio-organic weapon” catch-phrase for its creatures. It’s about how brave people live on in an era that just happens to feature biopunk monsters as a deadly fact of life. It’s about the evil that resides within a world that is pretty shitty, but hasn’t completely gone to shit. By turning the whole planet into the same ol’ zombie playground that we see in most popular fiction starring these workman-like horror tropes, Extinction - which probably thought it was upping the stakes - instead just feels sorta dull, and anyone who views the film today is probably going to see it as a weaker version of The Walking Dead. Oh, and it ends with Alice discovering clones of herself, which will only serve to screw with the loose continuity of these movies as they go on. 

Resident Evil: Afterlife - This one starts with Alice’s clones raiding the Umbrella facility in Tokyo, and the whole sequence - which feels like it should be the finale - is reduced to a few minutes of special effects in the beginning. (This is foreshadowing for the next two films, which both end with hints of giant, climatic battles that mostly happen off-screen, if at all.) The first thing that I noticed when watching this was how slow-mo kicked in every five minutes and how the camera seemed to linger on bullets, and I eventually remembered that this film was released during Hollywood’s obsession with 3D during the early 2010s. This explains Afterlife’s IN-YOUR-FACE-IN-THREE-DIMENSIONS action scenes, which are initially pretty in a music video sort of way but become overdone and tiresome as the movie goes on, kinda like a Zack Snyder film. (I place Paul W.S. Anderson in the same “style over substance” category of director as both Zack Snyder and Michael Bay, by the way.) Anyway, Afterlife deals with Alice teaming up with more survivors to try to find a secret ship haven free of zombies. Along the way she runs into Chris Redfield, who looks more like a janitor than the jacked BSAA agent that he is in the games, and Chris and Claire Redfield have a quick sibling reunion and fight Wesker in a scene with choreography shamelessly stolen from Resident Evil 5. It’s pandering fan service and sort of diverting, but ultimately none of it matters. Chris disappears after this movie and is never seen again, and Afterlife is more interesting as a specimen of 2010 3D excess than it is as an actual narrative.

Resident Evil: Retribution - Retribution amps the pandering fan service that Afterlife dabbled in to new levels. Ada Wong is here, played by Li Bingbing but dubbed by her original voice actress, Sally Cahill, probably because Li’s English isn’t that great. Leon Kennedy and Barry frickin’ Burton show up, both looking pretty much like their in-game counterparts. Even Michelle Rodriguez and a few other faces from Paul W.S. Anderson’s first Resident Evil flick make an appearance, thanks to the fact that this movie has clones up the wazoo and uses them to handwave away any series inconsistencies you could think of. So you’re got fan service for the people who like the games and fan service for the folks who liked the first movie, and on top of it all the film has the extreme 3D that its predecessor possessed and a buttload of battles because it all takes place in a giant Umbrella simulation facility full of stuff that can easily be wrecked. By now the plot to these things has gotten more scrambled than my eggs in the morning, but I will say that thanks to its inclusion of classic characters, Retribution is more or less tolerable. There’s even a bit of characterization this time around, thanks to a little hearing-impaired clone girl who Alice takes under her wing and begins to care for, and the movie ends on an okay cliffhanger in a Washington DC under siege, promising epic things to come in the next movie. Unfortunately... Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - I really did not enjoy The Final Chapter for a myriad of reasons. First of all, the Washington battle promised at the end of Retribution never happens. Instead, we fast forward to several months later, when Alice is (big surprise) the only survivor, and EVERYONE she was with in the last flick - Ada, Leon, the little deaf girl - is gone and never mentioned ever again. Wesker, who Alice was working with in Retribution, is back to being a bad guy for poorly explained reasons. Another bad scientist dude that Alice killed in Extinction also returns for even worse reasons, because supposedly Alice only offed his clone three movies ago. But wait, this “real” bad scientist dude is also revealed to be a clone as the TRUE bad scientist dude shows up in the movie’s last act! AND THE ULTIMATE TWIST (look away now if you actually care about spoilers) is that Alice is HERSELF a clone of the original daughter of the Umbrella corporation’s founder who died of a degenerative disease and served as the basis for the Red Queen AI. The idiotic thing is that this daughter was said to be the progeny of Dr. Charles Ashford in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, but this movie retcons her to be the spawn of Dr. James Marcus. The Final Chapter, in fact, screws with continuity to a degree I have rarely seen before in a long-running film franchise. Yeah, the framework tying this series together got weird as soon as clones were introduced, but previously it seemed that Paul W.S. Anderson at least cared about his own messy fan fiction. Here? It’s like he forgot what he’d spent the last 15 years building up to and ended on one sloppy fart. If this weren’t bad enough, The Final Chapter is edited in that god awful “shaky cam, lots of fast cuts” way that I hate. In fact, I counted something like twenty cuts in a scene of a few seconds when Alice is attacked by a creature, which means that this film won’t just baffle you with its disregard for continuity - it’ll give you a headache too. 

Resident Evil: Degeneration - After watching an array of live-action flicks that took random Resident Evil threads and mashed them together with the elegance of a splattered turd, it did feel good to switch things up and move to the CG movies that were actually put out by Capcom. This 2008 offering takes place in between Resident Evils 4 and 5, stars Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, and deals with a virus breakout in an airport and some of the pharmaceutical company backstabbing that occurred in the aftermath of Umbrella’s destruction. It’s all stuff that feels like it could have come from a lesser gaiden game - perhaps in the same vein as the first Revelations title - and it kinda gives off that “so-so anime movie” vibe, especially because the dubbing always sounds a tad off. Nevertheless, Degeneration’s still a breath of fresh air compared to the Anderson series, and there’s a nice gag where Claire’s searching for a weapon in the airport, someone hands her a physical umbrella, and she looks at it and is like, “Hm, didn’t see this coming.” (Lollerskates.) The main issue I have with Degeneration is how “plasticky” everyone looks - it’s hard to realize how far computer animation has advanced in the last decade until you look at Degeneration’s stiff visuals and compare them to the other CG films. Also, Leon’s characterization is terrible. He’s meant to be a super serious badass, I guess, but he mostly just looks like someone rammed a Samurai Edge up his sphincter. I prefer my Leon Kennedy to be the “Don’t worry Ashley, I’m comin’ for ya!” version from Resident Evil 4, or at least a dude with a little sass to him. The guy in Degeneration is about as interesting as a board.  Resident Evil: Damnation - Damnation is a noticeable step above Degeneration, both in computer animation, which really got better from 2008 to 2012, and in all-around presentation. The dubbing’s still somewhat wonky with that same anime movie vibe, but the characterization is on point, and Leon, who’s taking center stage once more, is just like his RE6 self. Speaking of RE6, this movie channels that game’s themes of international terrorism with a plot that involves rebels in a made-up Eastern European country using Lickers and Las Plagas in an effort to fight for their freedom, only to learn that lo and behold, the nefarious female president who’s seized control of their nation has her own B.O.W.s - in the form of Tyrants - at her disposal. Leon’s caught in the middle of this mess and ends up befriending some of the rebels, and Ada Wong’s also infiltrated the country to manipulate the president. Ada and Leon’s interactions are as insubstantial as they’ve been in pretty much every game that isn’t the recent RE2make, but we do get a cool fight between Ada and the president, who for some reason knows substantial knife fu. There’s an even better battle between Tyrants and Lickers in a city hall square, and Leon gets throw against pillars, regularly takes hits that would kill a normal person and pilots a tank alongside one of the rebels who looks a lot like Chris Redfield but isn’t Chris Redfield. This dude serves as the film’s sympathetic character - a guy torn from his peaceful existence thanks to political wrangling and is tricked into using B.O.W.s to try to achieve a brighter future. It ends with the fella severely injured but learning how to live and move forward in a world infected with nefarious bioweapons, which is the very theme that the Anderson flicks ditched around movie number three. So good work for side-stepping previous failures and recognizing what Resident Evil is all about, Damnation. 

Resident Evil: Vendetta - If Degeneration’s a so-so anime movie, and Damnation a good anime movie, then Vendetta is just a good movie in general, with no “anime” distinction needed. The dubbing’s finally pretty decent, for one, and the story takes place in between RE6 and RE7, teaming Leon and Chris Redfield up with - HOLY CRAP - Rebecca Chambers, who’s been AWOL since Resident Evil Zero. They’ve gotta stop an arms dealer from bio-nuking New York and doing nasty things to Rebecca, who resembles his dead wife, and along the way Leon pilots a motorcycle on the freeway with his feet while shooting at Cerebrus with his hands. Nearly all of the movie’s considerable action segments are punctuated with rapid fire John Wick-style gunplay, and it works. It’s like the folks who made this film realized that the coolest part of Resident Evil 6 was the point where Leon and Chris point their guns at each other for a few seconds before deciding that they need to put their differences aside and cooperate, and even though you could conceivably fault Vendetta for leaning heavily towards the “action” side of Resident Evil rather than the “horror” side, it’s a well-paced film that finally gives us a substantial interaction between two series mainstays beyond the one minute they shared with each other in RE6. Also, people are still posting GIFs from Vendetta’s action sequences all across Tumblr and forums whenever arguments break out over whether Chris or Leon is TEH COoLER Resident Evil protagonist, so Capcom obviously did something right. If we get another computer animated film, I imagine it’ll lean more heavily towards horror since that’s where the series has gone recently...but hopefully the path of improvement that we’ve seen from Degeneration to Damnation to Vendetta won’t be broken. 

And with that, whew, I’m done with RE movies, at least until the rumored Hollywood reboot that’s supposedly drawing inspiration from Resident Evil 7 comes out. (It can’t be worse than The Final Chapter, I suppose.) I can’t say that my friends were wrong when they warned me that half of these would be shite, but I also can’t say that I ended on a bad note, because Vendetta was pretty good.

After all this, my grand playthrough and consumption of all Resident Evil media is about to finish Next post I make will be a last look at the franchise as a whole...and what a year’s worth of zombie headshots taught me.  All screencaps taken by me. 

Lone Survivor: The Directors Cut

Developer: Jasper Bryne Publisher: Superflat Games Rrp: £11.39 (Steam) and £11.69 (Gog.com)  Released: 24th April 2012 Available on: Gog.com and Steam Played Using: Keyboard Approximate game length: 4 to 5 hours per playthrough How long has it been? Days? Weeks? You're not sure anymore, what you are sure of is that the world outside isn't safe. Things wander the halls that were once human but now... who knows what they are now. But what little food you had is rapidly dwindling, eventually you have to venture out into the murky black. Survival horror games seem to have all but disappeared, it's actually a bit strange how that happened really. Resident Evil had its supporters as did Silent Hill, and there were plenty of other titles that, while they didn't have the budget of their larger cousins, still were good in their own right like Fatal Frame. And then they all just vanished, sure they weren't major money spinners but they weren't flops by any stretch of the imagination. Thankfully the independent games scene is more than happy to pick up the pieces and keep the survival horror genre alive. Lone Survivor is one such title that takes the idea of survival horror and really runs with it.

The first thing to keep in mind about Lone Survivor is that there is more than one way to progress in this game and that the choices you make will change the events that occur and the ending you receive (of which I believe there are five but I only managed to get three). It's clear that the developer has a very firm grasp on what makes a good horror. Sure you can go the 'rivers of blood' route, but one of the most effective ways to build up horror and tension is to take something mundane, twist it slightly and build up from there. This instils into the player a sense of unease that can be hard to shake, something that this game does that to great effect, especially with its backgrounds (which are hand-painted).

Sound also plays a very important role in building up the sense of dread, discordant noises occur around you (especially if you're using headphones as the game suggests) and the noise that occurs when the monsters are nearby... I dislike that noise. Not because it's scary but because it feels uncomfortable to listen to. What makes this game different from most other survival horrors is that the survival element of it is actually quite strong. Your protagonist will ask for food and sleep, denying him these won't kill him but the longer he goes without it the more his mental health with suffer which affects his perception.

While the game handles the horror aspect well I have to say I'm not a fan of its control scheme. It's entirely controlled through the keyboard with no controller support. Ordinarily this wouldn't be such an issue for me but I found the key placement to be quite awkward, specifically the controls surrounding interacting with the environment. Yeah, this game is definitely worth the price of admission. I really like the fact that you can't quite be sure that the protagonist is the good guy and there is a constant question of how much of this is really happening. If you're looking for a good survival horror with a bit of a twist then this might just scratch that itch. If this appeals to you perhaps try; The Silent Hill Series The Evil Within Lisa

Digital Thoughts - Koudelka - PS1

A mysterious woman arrives on horseback to a seemingly abandoned mansion which turns out to be haunted! Looking for clues, what she steps into is much deeper than anyone could ever imagine. Along the way she finds two others who just like her, are more than what they seem.

Graphically, Koudelka looks quite good. Each pre-rendered background is detailed and truly keeps to the horror atheistic. Character models are PS1 style polygonal but are animated incredibly well.

Each cut scene is awesome and helped convey the plot greatly. I was surprised at the smoothness.

Weapons look good, spells are colorful, animated and powerful. I particularly enjoyed the Earth, Fire, Water and Ice spells.

Much like Resident Evil, most of the game has you running through each area from room to room. Certain puzzles will show up needing keys, secret codes and switches. Random battles are apparent and while they aren’t too frequent, the battle system is a bit slow for my liking.

Each character gets their turn and can attack, move, cast magic, or use an item. You can move and then act, or act and then move. Initially the difficulty is quite high. Enemies dish out far more damage that you can handle and items are limited.

Speaking of items, Koudelka has an interesting mechanic: Weapons can break if used too much. There are no stores, but you can obtain new weapons, armor and accessories through random drops. This means that favorite sword you found may break and leave you literally empty handed in battle! Magic spells can be leveled up with repeated use as well.

Hiroki Kikuta, has crafted some fantastic tunes. He happens to also be the composer for the Secret of Mana series, and his style is very apparent in the battle tracks. Most of the music tracks are ambient pieces or small tracks that accompany the CGI cut scenes.

“Waterfall”, is the main battle theme and the boss theme “Incantation Again” are two fantastic tracks that build upon each other. Each has a strong drum beat that pulses with a slight horror element that puts you into an uneasy feeling. “Patience and “Kiss Twice” are the two final battle themes which I absolutely loved. These sound straight out of a Secret of Mana game and while not super fitting for the boss in which you fight, the quality and melody of these tracks are top notch.

Koudelka is a short RPG averaging around 14 hours or so - maybe 20 if you enjoy grinding. There isn’t much to do after beating the game as it kicks you back to the main screen upon defeating the final boss. That being sad, multiple playthroughs could be enjoyable as you might customize each the party members differently and have them use alternate weapons and spells.

Koudelka was great! It was short, sweet, and full of many surprises. The animation alone had me so impressed - especially for a PS1 game. The characters came alive with the skilled voice acting and custscenes that truly drew me in. I cared for Edward, James and Koudelka and wanted to know their backstory and reason to be. Sure, the battles were slow and at times difficult for no reason, but the story is what kept me coming back for more. I was eager to see the end. It was a perfect pallet cleanser. Part Resident Evil, Part RPG, Part Horror game. It’s a game much different than what I have played before. Being a precursor to the Shadow Hearts series, I had to play it. I can’t wait to see what Shadow Hearts will be like!

Shattered Memories and the fears in your ears

Utilizing sound to create a continuing state of terror

Final yr I began a brand new custom the place round Halloween, I’d escape my assortment of Wii video games and play what I contemplate to be the best horror sport in my assortment. Whereas I would not say I am the largest horror fan — and possibly that is why my favourite sport within the style is taken into account by most to be the least scary within the sequence — I do have a number of horror titles tucked away in storage. There’s a few the Resident Evils, Everlasting Darkness, ZombiU and a handful of others. They’re all nice video games, all scary in their very own approach, however none of them have caught with me, have festered into the very cloth of my being, like Silent Hill: Shattered Reminiscences has.

Launched for the Wii again in 2009, Silent Hill: Shattered Reminiscences is the second Silent Hill sport from Climax Studios. The sport went by way of a number of completely different iterations earlier than author/director Sam Barlow landed on the idea discovered within the remaining bundle. As an alternative of making an attempt to additional increase the mythos of Silent Hill, Barlow would supply avid gamers an alternate tackle the primary sport within the title, re-imagining the way it performs, the way it appears, and who the characters are. The story would nonetheless function Harry Mason on the lookout for his daughter Cheryl, however now his journey could be intercut with persona quizzes that give form to the trail at hand. Solutions right here, in addition to interactions on the planet, alter Mason’s search. Typically in little methods, like whenever you colour a home within the remedy session and the following scene incorporates a home painted within the colours you selected; different occasions in greater methods, like whenever you leap by way of the required hoops to get entry to the Good Ol’ Days Bar close to the start of the sport, as a substitute of the Diner 52 restaurant.

All of that is well-known by now, as is the twist ending. I’ve performed by way of Shattered Reminiscences 4 occasions, and regardless of the Ice World segments and Uncooked Shocks by no means providing up the scares they need to, I nonetheless discover my physique crawling with goosebumps each time I pop it in. How is it sport the place I do know every thing that is going to occur and when it occurs is ready to nonetheless spook me out after practically ten years? Throughout this most up-to-date journey to Silent Hill, I discovered the key to its scares lies in its sound.

Whereas the general scariness of the horror parts present in Shattered Reminiscences is up for debate, one factor even detractors can agree on is how excessive the manufacturing values are. For a Wii title from 2009, this sport appears and sounds wonderful. Its cutscenes are nicely animated, Silent Hill is ripe with particulars in each room or hallway you enter, and the sound and music consistently push Mason, and gamers, backwards and forwards between the road that separates dream from nightmare. I can perceive the complaints concerning the Ice World missing precise frights, as a substitute selecting a sort of overwhelming panic that comes with being misplaced in a maze, however when you actually need to really feel terror on this title, simply stroll round within the “actual” world for some time and take a take heed to the sound pulsating out of your audio system.

Early within the sport, Mason will get use of a smartphone that has a frighteningly small inside storage capability. The earpiece to the cellphone is represented by the speaker on the Wii distant. Once you place or take a name, the sound comes out of the speaker (clearly, that is completely different with the PSP and PS2 ports, however I do not personal these so I do not care). There are cellphone numbers scattered all through the linear path Mason walks and characters he meets alongside the way in which will message him every so often. The cellphone additionally picks up on imprinted recollections scattered concerning the land, and that is the place Shattered Reminiscences can chill you to the bone.

The imprinted recollections give form to the world of Silent Hill by detailing its residents and the horrible issues they do. There’s the woman who’s drugged and generally dies — relying in your decisions — the safety guard looking for a troubled younger teen, the creep who turns into irate when the highschool scholar he is sleeping with seems to be an of-age prostitute, and lots of conversations that spotlight Mason’s relationship along with his ex-wife and daughter. Whereas generally humorous, these recollections and the messages related to them paint a grim image of life in Silent Hill, one the place its residents are merciless, its girls are handled like whores, and its youngsters are sometimes the bane of their dad and mom’ existence.

Gamers are notified of a close-by reminiscence by a screech of Mason’s cellphone that grows louder the nearer they get to it. Now, let me make one factor clear: none of those recollections are scary. There’s nothing that is going to leap out at you. Probably the most scary factor that’ll occur is an image will fall or a ball will mysteriously bounce. I do know that going into every subsequent playthrough, and but that screech, that high-pitched howl from my Wii distant speaker, has my arm hair standing on edge and goosebumps overlaying my pores and skin the longer it goes on. 

This is not a response to annoyance. The one annoying a part of Shattered Reminiscences is the paparazzi portion of the varsity chapter. It is precise concern. Although I do know the one time I’ll face off in opposition to Uncooked Shocks is within the Ice World, the screech of a nearing reminiscence is nearly unbearably petrifying, a noise that dominates every thing else popping out of your audio system. There’s music, nevertheless it’s used sparsely. The sound results do the heavy lifting right here. The sound of Mason’s sneakers within the snow, the chilling wind of this limitless winter day, the howl of the Uncooked Shocks after they spot me, the cryptic interjections of Cheryl’s voice all through the sport; that’s how Shattered Reminiscences achieves scares. It isn’t by way of monsters or fight or operating away, it is the moments of abrupt audial assault that curls the toes and brings on the heebie-jeebies.

Even on my fourth playthrough of the sport, these cases nonetheless handle to shake my soul. Even when the concern I really feel instantly subsides, in these moments of absolute terror, as I frantically seek for the reason for this caterwauling, I really feel an immense unease that pushes me to the purpose of tears. I am not truly going to cry, however that mad hunt for the supply of this sound is an excruciating pressure that rattles me excess of any leap scare ever may.

There are various nice examples of how efficient this sound impact is, however two moments stand out to me most. The primary occurs early within the sport. Mason is deserted by Cybil after a automobile trip and units off on his personal. He comes throughout a ranger’s station and ventures into the woods out again. This part is a superb instance of all the parts of manufacturing coming collectively to create one thing terrifying. The forest is darkish and eerie, and the sunshine of his flashlight does not do a lot to dispel this overarching feeling of doom as he heads additional into the bushes. The sound of Mason’s ft stomping by way of the snow retains Akira Yamaoka’s otherworldly soundtrack to a minimal. There’s a path to observe, one that can lead him to a lake, however enterprise off the trail and the screech of a close-by reminiscence begins to emanate. Relying on which route he begins from, the supply of the sound will not be simple to search out. 

A great chunk of recollections you may come throughout in Shattered Reminiscences may be rapidly recognized. This isn’t certainly one of them. It may be simple to stroll proper previous it, and as you do, the howl of the Wii distant grows extra high-pitched. It eases off as you progress away from the goal, however returns full throttle whenever you flip round and head again within the route of this unknown entity. It’s the unusual gathering sticks that make a peculiar shadow whenever you shine your flashlight on them? May or not it’s this tree with the names of a number of women carved into it?

You search — or I suppose I search as that is me recounting my final playthrough — however you may’t discover the supply. Your pores and skin begins to the crawl because the screech mocks you want Poe’s titular raven. The hair on the again of your neck stands erect and also you begin to fidget and panic, questioning, “Why? Why will not this finish?” You backtrack your steps time and again, practically being pushed mad by the sound of this hidden reminiscence. It is virtually overwhelming you till all of a sudden, like the nice and cozy embrace of a mom’s hug, the concern exits your physique as you stumble throughout a wreath tied to a tree. It flaps within the wind for a second. The screeching stops and Mason’s cellphone will get a brand new message, dredging up a very darkish reminiscence. A younger boy is planning to affix his brother quickly. About 100 yards from that wreath, you discover out what occurred to the boy’s youthful sibling.

The second second happens later within the story. Mason is misplaced in Toluca Mall, wandering by way of the deserted shops of this closed down procuring middle. He calls a safety quantity and the individual on the opposite finish of the road tells him there’s an exit in Cine-Actual, a single display screen theater positioned within the mall. Although the remainder of the mall is draped in darkness, the neon lights of the marque are illuminated as Mason approaches it. Contained in the foyer, there are busted Galaga, Contra, and Rush’n Assault arcade cupboards, in addition to posters for the film that adjustments relying in your solutions for Dr. Kaufmann. As soon as he begins up the steps to the display screen, the screech of his cellphone beings to sound. It grows louder as he approaches the theater, drowning out the noise of every thing else as soon as he begins strolling the aisles.

In contrast to the occasion within the woods, and a lot of the different imprinted recollections, there isn’t a drastic seek for the supply of this sound. It is fairly apparent it may be the display screen, and but as a result of that is so completely different from previous occurrences, it is capable of generate the identical stage of trepidation because the hunt by way of the woods. As a result of when the noise lastly breaks and the reminiscence seems, it is not some small rustle of the wind or a paper falling off a wall. A shot of Mason or Cheryl is blasted throughout the display screen, relying in your psych analysis solutions. Seeing a terrified or probably drugged Cheryl is upsetting, however the picture that completely will get underneath my pores and skin is that of Mason, sporting a most unsettling grin for the digital camera. It is the kind of picture that will look regular if zoomed out however is totally disturbing as a two-tone close-up.

These are simply two however in actuality Silent Hill: Shattered Reminiscences is full of moments like these, moments that do not go for outright scares however relatively construct a pressure that grows extra terrifying the longer it lasts. It is a fully terrible sound, however the way in which it coaxes gamers into these little hunts for items of a puzzle that give form to Mason and the city of Silent Hill is extremely efficient. It makes what are largely unimportant bits of backstory resoundingly pressing as this sound may absolutely drive an individual mad the longer it goes on and louder it will get.

This essay actually solely scratches the floor on the brilliance of this sport and I may simply write one other 3000 phrases on the inspiring Ice World section after discovering the grownup Dhalia, or chasing the younger woman by way of the Tunnel of Love, however I’ll have to save lots of these for subsequent yr’s playthrough. If you need extra on Silent Hill: Shattered Reminiscences, try Stephen Turner’s piece on it from his retrospective on the sequence.

You’re logged out. Login | Join

        from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/shattered-memories-and-the-fears-in-your-ears/

Resident Evil 3 Review — A Jill Royale With Cheese

March 30, 2020 11:00 AM EST

Resident Evil 3 is an excellent remake of a fan favorite game that features great action gameplay, jaw-dropping visuals, and not enough Carlos.

The Resident Evil franchise has long been one of my favorite series in gaming. I vividly remember staying up late into the night, devouring the Resident Evil remake on GameCube. More than anything, the original game’s lore stuck with me, so I quickly went out and bought all of the S.D. Perry novels based on the games. I was so into the story of Resident Evil that when the first movie came out, I begged my mom to rent it. She finally relented, on the condition that I didn’t let my brother watch. So, he sat in the other room and I just described the movie to him. The obsession was real.

Anyways, because I came to the series relatively late and never owned a PlayStation One, the two series entries that always evaded me were Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Granted, I knew the basic story from the novelizations, but never got the chance to play them myself. So, when Capcom announced the Resident Evil 2 remake a few years ago, I was ecstatic to finally play the games that had evaded me for so long. Fortunately, Resident Evil 2’s remake was a masterclass in how to update an old classic for modern audiences and would have been my Game of the Year in 2019 if not for the sublime Judgment.

With the success of RE2, it was a surprise to literally no one when Capcom revealed they would remake Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Both games are fan-favorites that deserved the update and, after seeing what the team did with Mr. X, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we needed to witness how the stalking mechanics would evolve with Nemesis. But, given the totality with which the RE team knocked RE2’s remake out of the park, how could they possibly hope to top it with RE3?

“[Resident Evil 3] is an absolute must-play.”

Well, the short answer is that they didn’t. Now, don’t take that to mean Resident Evil 3 is a bad remake. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. However, while many of the designer’s decisions help to make the game better, there were enough niggles that kept the RE3 from completely surpassing its predecessor. That said, this game is an absolute must-play whether you’re a fan of the series or not.

The first thing that really stands out to me is the visuals. It’s not just that RE3 looks beautiful (and it does), it’s the detail Capcom has put into everything. I mean sure, Jill’s model is absolutely stunning, but what I really want to talk about is a blink-and-miss-it moment at the very start of the game.

After the opening cutscene, you wake up inside Jill Valentine’s apartment. On one wall of her apartment, she’s filled this massive board with clippings, notes, and connections about Umbrella Corp. Imagine the conspiracy board from the Pepe Silvia scene from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but with zombies and secret buildings owned by a pharmaceutical company. Next to the board, there’s an oscillating fan that’s been left on, presumably to beat that late September heat. As the fan moves back and forth, you notice that when it points toward the board, all the notes and string sway in the breeze. I’m not an expert on oscillating fans in video games, so, while I’m sure others have done it before, this was the first time I’ve seen it.

Either way, the point is that Capcom’s attention to detail is incredible. Here, they’ve taken a minuscule detail that most people likely won’t notice and made sure that it feels as lifelike as possible. That focus on detail in the graphics and animation is apparent throughout the entire game. From the viscera you see on each and every zombie to how they’ve altered Nemesis’ design to make him look like even more of a barely contained monstrosity, RE3 nails just about everything it goes for visually. And you cannot convince me that they didn’t give Carlos Oliveria that doofy haircut for any other reason than to show off their top-notch hairtech. The RE engine is a powerhouse and Resident Evil 3 is my favorite example of it so far.

But this beauty pageant winner doesn’t lack substance. In fact, in a few ways, the gameplay actually feels better than the RE2 Remake, depending on what you’re looking for. For the most part, if you’ve played RE2, you know what you’re getting. RE3 is, at its core, a survival horror game with a heavy emphasis on mitigating danger over mowing down zombies. Instead of clearing a room by killing everything, it’s much more effective to pick and choose who and where you shoot. If you can blow off a zombie’s leg, you force them to crawl. These even slower moving zombies are much easier to deal with and avoid than their still walking brethren. Even some of the larger, more deadly monsters you face are often easier to avoid than kill outright.

However, Capcom has given you a new move in your arsenal that makes avoiding enemies much easier. Like the original Resident Evil 3 game, the remake lets you execute a perfect dodge as enemies close in. Compared to the original though, this version’s dodge is much more cinematic. As far as I could tell, the game doesn’t really tell you how to do it, so the first time I pulled one off, my jaw hit the floor. It’s such an action movie-esque move that completely changes the game. Instead of feeling constrained by both the enemies and the environment, you feel like you can make it past anything. Of course, the move does take some practice to truly master, but once you have it down, you’ll be dodging Nemesis and all his undead friends on your way to victory.

For some people, this is going to be a net positive. You absolutely feel like the baddest chick in town every time you perfect dodge past a string of enemies while Nemesis is breathing down your neck. That said, for me, it takes away a lot of what made the RE2 remake so scary. Sure, you can dodge enemies in that game once you get the controls down, but it never felt as easy as it does in RE3. And, unfortunately, I think the improved dodging takes away from the game’s main antagonist.

“I never really felt in true danger when facing (Nemesis).”

In RE2, Mr. X felt menacing. His constant presence in the police station filled me with dread. Nemesis, on the other hand, feels more like a nuisance. I never really felt in true danger when facing him. So, while his presence in the game is absolutely more explosive, and his threat isn’t simply contained to one area, I didn’t think he was as effective an enemy as Mr. X. His design is phenomenal and the way he can arrive nearly anywhere is incredible, but your increased moveset makes him feel like a lesser version of what he could be.

One big thing RE3 does better than RE2 is how tight the campaign is. Playing through two separate campaigns for Claire and Leon always felt a little weird. Their playthroughs are supposed to be happening at the same time, but it never really feels like that’s the case. RE3 ditches the multiple playthroughs and gives you one streamlined campaign. Given the way it’s structured, Capcom could have easily made a campaign centered around Carlos and filled the game out with filler missions. Instead, they’ve built a cohesive, action-packed journey that incorporates both characters flawlessly. Obviously, the focus is mainly on Jill, but Carlos’ sections feel absolutely vital to the story.

And, if you want to play through the game multiple times, Capcom gives you plenty of reasons to do so. Not only are there unlockable difficulties, but you earn points through completing challenges. You can use the points to buy new equipment and costumes to use in your next playthrough. It’s a fun system with some cool rewards that led to me jumping back into the campaign right after finishing to see how fast I could blow through the whole game again.

Speaking of Carlos, what a joy his sections are. While Jill feels incredibly powerful with her new perfect dodge skill, Carlos is an absolute war machine. He starts the game with an assault rifle (Jill also starts with this on Assisted difficulty), which literally cuts zombies down to size in seconds. Remember earlier where we talked about how effective shooting off a zombie’s legs is? Well, Carlos can do that to a room of zombies like it’s nothing. He also has his own version of the perfect dodge where he literally punches a zombie in the face to knock it away.

If you thought Jill’s move was cool, you haven’t seen anything yet. Plus, Carlos’ mission takes you to a fun area that is full of callbacks to past Resident Evil games. To say more, would be spoiler-y and I don’t want to ruin the moment for you. I would’ve liked to play with Carlos for another section or two, but what we do have is a treat.

That all being said, by making the game a tighter narrative, you lose a little bit of what made RE2 special to me. There was something my brain loved about being stuck inside a building and having to carefully plan my route through the police station to make sure I was getting everything I needed in the most efficient manner. That’s not really necessary in Resident Evil 3. It very much feels like a linear carnival ride with much less backtracking. For some, that’s going to be a big positive. Personally, I think you lose a little bit of the Metroidvania-esque fun that was present in RE2.

“Capcom’s attention to detail is incredible.”

I also felt like there were several holes in the plot that just don’t make sense. Some of them are super minor but still took me out of the experience. For instance, in multiple encounters with Nemesis, he’s shown how easily he can just bust through a brick wall. Like, it’s nothing for him to just ram his way through solid concrete. But then there’s a section where you’re running away from him and narrowly dart through a giant metal door.

As you lock it behind you, Jill breathes a sigh of relief because he can’t get you. However, the wall surrounding the heavy-duty door is made of brick. And it’s not like this is a safe room. That I understand. This is just another room that Nemesis could easily chase you into, but he doesn’t. Obviously, it doesn’t really matter, but it completely took me out of the game. Why would something that he’d already shown would never stop him, randomly stop him now?

Some of the holes are much weirder to me. There’s a second U.B.C.S. operative working with Carlos named Tyrell Patrick. Every time you go to a new infested zone with Tyrell, he refuses to tackle the mission with you. He’s always sitting back and claiming he needs to do computer stuff. In RE2, when you meet Marvin, it makes sense that he can’t go with you. He can barely move due to a zombie bite.

As far as I can tell, Tyrell is completely able-bodied. There are zero reasons that he wouldn’t just go with you and lower the zombie threat for both of you. You could even explain it away by having him go search another wing of the building you’re in. Instead, he’s just playing Ski Free or something while you’re risking your life fighting zombies. Again, do things like this really matter? Not really, but they’re totally immersion breaking and I don’t remember them happening nearly as much in RE2.

So, usually, this is the point where I would wrap everything up and give you my final thoughts. I’ll do that shortly, but I think it’s important to talk about one more thing. It was oddly surreal to play this game while we’re living in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing cutscenes of people rioting in the streets and watching a city deal with a large-scale outbreak felt a little too real at times. Obviously, we aren’t in those stages yet (and hopefully never will be); however, I still needed to take a few breaks during my playthrough just to ease my mind.

If you’re someone who is struggling with your mental health during the ongoing pandemic, I would just caution you to know going in that RE3 can hit a little too close to the real world at times. I still think the game is worth your time. I just wouldn’t fault you for waiting a few months before you try it out.

It’s also important to quickly talk about Resident Evil Resistance, the free multiplayer mode included with Resident Evil 3. Basically, this is an asymmetrical mode. One player takes on the role of the “Mastermind” while the four other players are various survivors. The Mastermind’s goal is to stop the survivors from progressing through all three stages of the game within the time limit. They move through the environment by switching between different security cameras and can use different abilities to slow down the survivors. Masterminds have access to everything from normal zombies to several traps to super-powered bioweapons. They can also jump into their minions, taking control of the fight against the survivors.

The survivors, on the other hand, are trying to solve puzzles and shoot through the hordes on their way to victory. As mentioned, the whole thing is timed, so you need to move quickly to win. You lose and gain time in numerous ways though, so, while speed is key, you also have to play smart. Currently, there are six different survivors, though Capcom has already confirmed that Jill is coming to the mode later. Personally, I’ve played most of my games as either Valerie or my boy Martin Sandwich. Each character has their own set of skills. For instance, Valerie has a ping that lets her mark items and threats and a free health spray. Martin, on the other hand, uses his engineering skills to build mines and flashbangs.

Because the mode relies on players working with strangers, it can be a bit frustrating at times. It’s also currently very difficult to get into games; however, that problem will hopefully iron itself out when the game launches. That said, I do not come to Resident Evil games for this kind of thing. It was a fun distraction for a few hours, but probably not something I’ll be jumping back into. That isn’t to say the mode isn’t worth your time. There’s plenty to do, and it would not surprise me if Resistance built up a solid community in the coming months.

And Capcom has earned a bit of leeway given their recent track record. Even if Resistance isn’t a complete hit out of the box, the game definitely feels like something they could continue building out over the summer. I’m certainly willing to give Capcom some time to see how they support Resistance going forward.

“I would absolutely recommend Resident Evil 3 and would not be surprised if a sizable portion of the fandom ends up preferring this remake.”

With that out of the way, I found Resident Evil 3 to be a bit of a tough nut to properly rate in a review sense. The game is an absolute treat to play with action-packed sequences, tense exploration, and a few genuine scares. As mentioned above, I was having so much fun playing it, I immediately jumped back in and started again. However, from a survival horror standpoint, the game takes a significant step back from Resident Evil 2. But really, when you think about it from a thematic standpoint, that totally makes sense. In RE2 you’re playing as either a rookie cop or a civilian. Jill Valentine is the Master of Lockpicking and a battle-hardened member of S.T.A.R.S. It makes complete sense for her to have a few extra zombie fighting tricks up her sleeve.

So, while I probably prefer RE2 ever so slightly, most of that just comes from Mr. X and the police station just being one of my favorite sections of video gaming in years. I would absolutely recommend Resident Evil 3 and would not be surprised if a sizable portion of the fandom ends up preferring this remake. After all, it’s hard to top the excitement that comes with jumping back into the shoes of Jill. Regardless of which you may like more, it is so refreshing to see the Resident Evil franchise come back in such a big way. Here’s hoping Capcom can continue the momentum with whatever comes next.

March 30, 2020 11:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/resident-evil-3-review-a-jill-royale-with-cheese/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=resident-evil-3-review-a-jill-royale-with-cheese

New Post has been published on PC Invasion

New Post has been published on http://bit.ly/2k8qYaO

Resident Evil 7 biohazard Review

I have spent an awful lot of time trying to work out what the hell Resident Evil 7 (or Resident Evil 7 biohazard to give it its full, weirdly formatted name, which I will never use again) actually is. It’s obviously not an isometric tank-control game like Resi 1 to 3, but neither is it a full-on blast-fest like Resi 4 to 6. Despite what you may have thought from pre-release videos, it’s also not an Outlast-ish stealth horror game. It’s something rather unique.

The best way I can think of pigeonholing it is to say that Resident Evil 7 is what I imagine Resident Evil 1 would’ve been like had it been made today, with no preconceived notions of how the series should be. It’s routinely creepy and has more than a few jumpscares, but it’s also got a fair bit of combat. That combat never feels particularly comfortable, though, because you’re almost always low on ammo and health items, and you’ll have to do a fair bit of inventory management to make sure you’re carrying what you need yet still have room for any other goodies you might find. All of which, I think, sums up both Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 7 quite nicely.

Also, you collect weirdly themed keys and solve highly implausible puzzles to continue on, but I think that’s true of almost every survival horror game since Alone in the Dark. It also has a sense of humour about this: “Who builds this shit?” asks the protagonist after a ludicrous shadow puzzle – and later on, you might stumble across a building contract for that very shadow-operated door. A brief bit of levity in something that’s unrelenting gory, grotesque, and dark.

This should set the tone nicely, I think.

Key difference number one is that, while other Resi games tend to cast you as some sort of staggering badass (from world’s-greatest-rookie Leon Kennedy to Chris Redfield, the only man to have smuggled watermelons in his biceps), Resident Evil 7 puts you in the shoes of some random nobody.

Protagonist Ethan’s wife Mia disappeared, and three years later, he receives an email from her asking him to come and get her. Said email leads him to a dilapidated rural estate… and then things go more than a little wrong. Fast-forward a little way past a couple of shocking scenes, and Ethan is desperately fleeing the murderous, nigh-immortal family that live there and really want to introduce him to the horrors within.

This is probably the stuff you’ve seen, but – while the family are your fiercest foes – they’re not particularly common threats. Most of the time they only patrol set areas or will only appear during fixed encounters, and they’re not usually too hard to escape as long as you keep your wits about you. This does absolutely nothing to make Resi 7 less scary.

Well, that doesn’t look foreboding at all.

About half of the fear factor is the atmosphere. The rotting house is a seriously eerie place to explore, especially with the excellent use of shadows (I jumped at my own shadow more often than I’d like to admit) and sound design, with all sorts of ambient creaking present to freak you out when you’re exploring somewhere new. It never really made me so scared I had to pause and Alt-Tab away, but it also never left me feeling entirely content to proceed. Thankfully, there’s no battery hunting for your flashlight or anything like that. Ethan apparently knows how to buy a torch with a running time of more than two minutes.

The other half of it is the sheer discomfort the gameplay mechanics create. Finding a room containing a save point and a stockpile of ammunition would be good, if it weren’t for the deep-seated (and usually painfully accurate) sense that things are about to get a bit rough. Beating a boss should be a moment of relief, except that it usually tanks your health and ammo and means you’re going to have to limp carefully through the next section.

The Molded are your regular enemies (and the only ones you can outright kill with your weapons) but – despite their freaky looks – they stop being particularly unnerving fairly quickly.

It probably says something that, even when you’re armed to the teeth, you still never feel comfortable until pretty much the very end of the game. It doesn’t take too long before you’ve got a bevy of weapons – a shotgun, a flamethrower, a fucking grenade launcher – but you still worry about what’s around the next corner, simply because of how frail you are and how little ammo you have. Yes, you could kill that horrible oozing monster by exploding it with a flame round, but then you’ll have one less flame round for the future. Risk multiple handgun shots to the head while backing off? Maybe try some knife-to-face combat? Good luck.

Backwards movement is slow and ponderous, and in traditional Resi fashion the only in-depth indication of your health is whether the little ECG reading on your wrist (should you have it) is green, yellow, or red. All of this, again, smacks of classic Resident Evil. And no, the game will not pause when you go into your inventory to mix up a healing item.

All of that said, combat is arguably one of the game’s weakest points up until much later, when you can finally cut loose a little and wreak some havoc. The wonderfully satisfying shotguns aside, few of the weapons feel particularly effective against the regular enemies, and there’s very little feedback as to whether or not you’re doing much damage. Enemy design is also a little weak, as there are only about four different types of foe throughout the entire game, and none of them are particularly unique.

In the end, I reasoned that David Cameron had put worse things down a pig’s throat, so…

Combat isn’t regular enough to become infuriating, though, and actually looking forward to the combat would lessen the horror a little, so – while I’m not convinced this is a deliberate design choice – it turns out it works alright. Desperately pumping round after round into a seemingly implacable foe as it lurches towards you works very, very well to ratchet up the tension of every encounter, and taking on one of the Bakers with weapons is about as effective as fending off the Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation. There are many, many cases where discretion is the better part of valour.

Slightly less fitting are some of the boss battles. The initial ones are clever and manic set-piece encounters, but then things disappointingly amble towards dull bullet sponges. There are some nice ideas present in these, too, but spamming out shotgun rounds and grenade launcher blasts is far less exciting than… well, let’s not spoil too much.

I’m going to say it again, though: that sounds an awful lot like Resident Evil. Maybe not for the best reasons, but hey.

I have no idea if this “tip” is trolling or not. This popped up after a death in which I did lose my leg (and found it as an interactive item) and I did die of blood loss, but it felt a lot more like an extended death scene than anything.

But Resident Evil 7 isn’t content to merely ape its legendary predecessors and adds some devilish twists of its own, of which one of the best is the VHS system. As you explore the Baker House, you’ll come across video tapes recorded by other ill-fated visitors, and these little playable slices tend to have a strong bearing on your immediate future. Some might give you a hint on where to find a key item, but (and I’m very cautious of spoilers here) one of the game’s most beautiful and elegant brain-teasers revolves around a bit of clever thinking based on what you saw in a video. It’s the sort of puzzle I’d expect from a top-tier adventure, and does not involve sliding any bookcases or rotating any statues.

I also like that Resi 7 isn’t just a linear trek through areas, and instead offers up a hub and a fair amount of (interesting) back-tracking. Once you’ve finished the first “area” and gained access to further parts of the estate, you’ll still have left various sections of that first bit unexplored because you lack the items needed to access them. Some of these are entirely optional (and there are a lot of entirely missable secrets tucked away; rushing will leave you far less equipped than you’d think), while others are required for progression. It helps make the estate feel more like a location than a series of corridors and rooms, and I approve greatly.

Hiding from and sneaking around the Bakers – and, inevitably, getting jumpscared by the bastards – are easily the most tense moments throughout.

It’s also not a game that overstays its welcome. Depending on how much exploring you do, you can probably expect your first runthrough to be somewhere between the 6-10 hour mark. That might seem a little short, but throughout that time it doesn’t feel like it’s boring or repeating itself; it routinely offers new twists and ideas and feels fresh throughout. I’m hungry for more, but with a sense of satisfaction rather than “What, that’s it?” and I’m planning a second playthrough already.

Another thing that Resident Evil 7 handles wonderfully is in the way it ties into the larger Resident Evil mythos. It’s playable entirely as a stand-alone experience, and for most of the game it feels that way, but pay attention and you’ll see both little call-backs and the ways in which this actually slots into the rest of that fictional world. It does a damn good job of keeping most of this (and, indeed, the mystery of just what the fuck is going on) behind the curtains and merely hinted at for quite some time, though.

On a technical note, I stand by what I wrote earlier. I suffered two crashes during play, which isn’t entirely unexpected when taking lots of high-res screenshots and alt-tabbing regularly. I did also lower the shadow quality to Medium to make the framerate a little more stable, and yes, the inventory is still kind of shit on mouse and keyboard… but that aside, it works wonderfully well on PC. Some slightly rough texture work, but the overall effect is damn bloody good, and it both plays and controls wonderfully. The only thing I might take issue with is that the “use” prompts can be a little finicky, requiring you to stand in very particular places and face a very particular spot to trigger them.

But that’s all boring complain-y stuff, and while Resident Evil 7 has its issues, it’s actually better than I’d hoped. It’s tense and thrilling, varied, well-paced, and seems to be the revitalising shot in the arm the series needed. It’s far from the scariest of games I’ve played (it creeped me out, but I played it at night, for crying out loud) but it’s still a bloody good time.

The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, part thirteen

When I first began my Resident Evil series playthrough about eleven months ago, I didn’t expect it to end with a brand new game, let alone a remake of the excellent Resident Evil 2. But here we are, and RE2make came out about a week ago. Snobby purists will tell you that it lacks fixed camera angles and this is an awful thing, but honestly, RE2make’s probably the first stand-out video game release of 2019, and the positive praise that it’s gotten from the press is well warranted. 

I imagine that if I’d played RE2 back in 1998 when it was new, this re-imagining is how I would have remembered the game over the passing years. Leon and Claire are back in action with hyper-realistic faces thanks to the top tier RE Engine developed for Resident Evil 7, and the Racoon Police Department, surrounding city streets and underground labyrinths of the original game have been laboriously re-created from the pre-rendered backgrounds of yesteryear, with Capcom even pulling in scrapped beta material from Resident Evil 1.5 (like the gun range in the police department) to make a product that’s trying its darnedest to be the ultimate version of the seminal survival horror sequel.

On that note, the dev team should be praised for how well they brought the right gameplay bits together. The shooting is good, the exploration creepy, and the enemies have several new tricks up their sleeves. Zombies are tougher to deal with than they’ve ever been, with headshots no longer a reliable way of blasting them to oblivion. They’ll lurch and moan and take five rounds to the cranium, and it seems that the universal agreed-upon strategy for handling this new breed of shambler is to aim at their legs and kneecaps, making them fall to the ground. Tree zombies show up near the finale and serve as one of the most dangerous new breeds of B.O.W., capable of one-shotting you if you get too close. And then there’s the T-103 Tyrant, AKA Mr. X, who’s become an amusing (and slightly annoying) meme as Twitter rants and raves about how aggressive he is at stalking you throughout the game. He not only wears a suave fedora (that you can shoot off for an achievement), but has ominous footsteps punctuated by a pulsating theme that always kicks in at an inconvenient moment to let you know that X GONNA GIVE IT TO YA. 

Perhaps more of a nice surprise than these elements, however, is the game’s writing, which isn’t as skilled as what we saw in Resident Evil 7 but still elevates concepts that were hinted at in RE2 but held back by the Playstation’s technical limitations and a small script. In the original, we all assumed that Raccoon City Police Chief Irons was a corrupt dude with a strange fetish for taxidermy, but here it’s clearly spelled out, with journal entries detailing how the guy actually gets off on slicing open beasts and soon moved from animals to people. On a less morbid note, RE2′s Sherry Birkin was a cute but mostly vapid child who didn’t bat much of an eye when her mother died, but here she’s a brave little survivor who has to escape from Chief Irons’ creepy orphanage (in a scene highly reminiscent of the “hide from the Bakers” moments of RE7) and cries legit tears when her mom collapses in front of her. And Ada Wong, a character that I’ve frankly found to be a walking femme fatal trope in RE4 and RE6, is actually presented as a legitimately interesting mercenary rather than just a pretty face. You can almost see moments during her interactions with Leon - the sweet, naive rookie cop on his first day who really wants to do some good in a damned city - where this gal just might feel for him instead of simply being a wannabe Catwoman who ends up stringing him along for twenty something years.

With this much quality stuff in the mix, does RE2make surpass the original? I think for some people it might, though for me it hits the same high bar as its predecessor, but doesn’t quite clear it. The remixed score, for one, is far too atmospheric and minimal for my tastes despite a few standout tracks - like the Mr. X music - and the game seems to realize this by offering DLC where you can switch to classic background tunes in certain spots, an opportunity that I easily took advantage of. There are also a handful of annoying puzzles in expanded areas that I could’ve done without, like a bit in the sewers where you have to collect a bunch of chess-shaped spark plugs to proceed. Finally, RE2make sometimes feels like a title that’s clearly standing on the shoulders of giants, and perhaps the reason for this is because even with its angular 32-bit graphics and temporarily odd control scheme, the classic RE2 is still a really damn good experience that established core foundations for the franchise. We’re not dealing with RE1 here, which was a great but relatively simplistic game that saw its concepts fantastically evolved by the first REmake. We’re talking about a 1998 classic that’s still a tough act to beat for any follow-up which isn’t radically different in a fresh way (for example, RE7), and with that in mind, a remake was probably never going to exceed the original. I will say that RE2make comes damn close though, and frankly I would be thrilled to see future re-imaginings of important games hit the same level of quality that Capcom managed to achieve here. (I’m looking at you, Final Fantasy VII Remake...)

This may be the last Resident Evil game I’m tackling in this playthrough, by the way, but I’m not quite done blogging about the series yet. I still have to plow through the RE movies (oh lord), and then, at the very end of it all, I’ll do a post talking about the sum total of my experiences and what I learned along the way. We’re not quite at the blood-soaked end yet...but we’re almost there.

All screenshots taken by me. For more, check out this Twitter thread showing my step-by-step progress through the game.

The horrific Resident Evil series playthrough, part one In my last post on Sweet Home, I mentioned that I wanted to try playing through the Resident Evils over the next few months. I wasn’t kidding. My goal is to beat the main games in the series, the Resident Evil 1 remake and the bigger side stories (that means Code Veronica, Zero, and Revelations 1 and 2). Once I’m done, I may check out some of the other spin-offs like Gaiden or Survivor, and it’s highly likely that I’m going to even dip my fingers into the pile of Resident Evil movies and books. It’s a big undertaking, but you can follow my mission on here, Twitter or on ResetERA, where a lot of good people are chiming in with tips as I tackle this series blind. Because really, aside from knowing the basics about characters like Jill Valentine and messing around with Resident Evil 1 for a bit many years ago, I’m a noob to the franchise. (Which is why I want to fix this glaring gap in my gaming knowledge!)

So, let’s get started with RE1, because before all of the famous sequels and barely related American film franchise, there was just this - a game that came out in 1996 and was supposed to be a remake of Sweet Home. In development, it morphed into something else - a tale of special task force members stuck in a mansion filled with mutated humans, animals and other artificial lifeforms created by the nefarious Umbrella corporation, which really makes the Japanese title of “Biohazard” much more appropriate. But the subtle connections to its Famicom forebearer are still there, and with everything from an intentionally restrictive item management system to door transitions to an overall sense of dread permeating both titles, Resident Evil 1 truly is the carrier of the DNA that Sweet Home created. 

RE1 also forged its own lineage, however - one of pre-rendered backgrounds, ever-shifting camera angles and “tank” controls, where your character can’t move and turn at the same time. All of these would become staples of the survivor horror genre until the mid 2000s, and today, they’re cited as barriers of entry by many people who are trying to go back to the earlier titles from newer, more accessible games. It’s gotten to the point where a Google search for “where should I begin with the Resident Evil series” turns up endless pages of message board threads urging people to start with the Resident Evil 1 remake rather than the original. 

I intentionally chose not to take that route, since I want to understand the evolution of this series, and the only way to do that is by experiencing a 1996 game with low-poly graphics and voice acting that was silly back then and seems even sillier today. But beneath that exterior, I was pleased to find, was an experience that still imbued me with fright as I wandered through the first few rooms of the mansion, low on ammo and listening hard for the dull moan of nearby shambling enemies. I jumped when the Hellhounds burst from the window, even though I knew they were coming from a million screenshots showing that iconic scene. I gritted my teeth when Yawn the giant snake choked the life out of me in the library, then yelled “TAKE THAT, YOU SHIT,” after I came back with acid rounds and melted him. I puzzled over my inventory screen in nervousness, trying to figure out how I was going to make my ammo last for the final bosses in the underground lab, and when I took down Tyrant with a rocket launcher, I cheered. 

Oh, and a sigh of relief always came to my lips when I stumbled into a save room and was greeted by the gentle tones of this wonderful theme.

The proof is in the pudding. Despite Resident Evil 1′s age, it’s still very capable of delivering memorable moments, and while it took some time to acclimate, I eventually found it hard to imagine exploring the Spencer Mansion without tank controls or cinematic camera angles. A 1996 interview with game director Shinji Mikami, published when RE1 was still new and RE2 was still in production, reveals that Mikami strongly believed that “if we made [Resident Evil] with full polygons and a free-floating camera, the elements of fear would be lost.” He added that the careful nature of the game’s presentation was the “best way to produce a true feeling of tension,” and I agree. There’s an infamous bit of pre-production art out there showing RE1 in a first-person view, but I’m glad that the dev team ultimately went another route. Back then, a first-person Resident Evil would very likely have been considered another Doom clone, and I’m not sure if the fear that the first game inspired would have been present, at least in the same way. 

Thankfully, RE1 became a third-person experience somewhat akin to a highly elaborate stage play, where everything about the gameplay - from the camera to the enemy placement to the careful positioning needed to navigate Jill and Chris - forced the player to make highly deliberate decisions that couldn’t be walked back upon, just like how everything done in a stage play is final. And that gameplay philosophy of forcing a player to make irreversible decisions and react on their consequences is at the heart of survival horror. 

Onwards to the sequel, because more zombies await.  

All screenshots taken by me. For more, check out this Twitter thread showing my step-by-step progress through the game.