Vampire On Titus
Member
Recently over the summer I got deep into survival horror playing through the original Silent Hill games and loving each one of them (still need to play through 4). Super into the horror aesthetics, creepy atmosphere and adventure game design I sought out more titles. I had Dino Crisis on PSN so I booted it up on a whim. Not really intending to complete it, and just never stopped playing (great game). Never knew Dino Crisis was Shinji Mikami directed and since I enjoyed it so much, Resident Evil was a clear choice to play next.
I had some familiarity with RE1, a couple years ago I played through maybe the first hour of it emulated. I remembered a lot more of it than I expected. A testament, I think, to how memorable a game Resident Evil is.
What I didn't remember was just how ugly a game RE1 is. In a thread I made about Silent Hill I praised it's graphics as an example of retro low poly visuals being a legit aesthetic. Resident Evil is not a point for that case. The pre-rendered backgrounds are beyond barren. Lacking detail to the point of looking unfinished at times. The underground environment actually made me laugh out loud seeing it for the first time.
It says a lot that in the face of this I had a fucking blast playing RE. Also, that despite it being terribly ugly, Spencer Mansion was one of the most fun adventure environments I'd ever explored. It's just such a memorable setting. Nearly every room is unique in some way that stuck with me. I can close my eyes now and walk through every single room in RE 1's Mansion and that's not something I can say about a lot of games.
Also that super camp ass VA. Holy shit! Every cut-scene in the game is fucking hilarious. Master of unlocking and Jill Sandwich get all the love but there's some real gold toward the end of that game too.
Resident Evil 2, tho... after I finished RE2 it had solidified a spot as one of my favorite games of all time. Getting thrown right into the thick of it with the intro sequence was awesome. Its worth mentioning how much I've come to love tank control in these games. It makes navigating through a crowd of zombies exhilarating as all hell and encourages a type of very deliberate motion that I find fosters immersion when exploring in a way I really appreciate.
Resident Evil 2's opening really takes advantage of both. In the "oh shit it's on!" run through Raccoon City and the eventual (and short lived) reprieve of early RCPD exploration. Only now the visuals aren't getting in the way. The environments in 2 are a crazy leap forward. Packed with attentive detail. There's a bit of that 90's CG "too smooth" plastic-ish look to the rendering in environments but they still look really good for the most part.
Essentially RE2 took everything awesome about RE1 and made it more awesome. With the exception of Spencer Mansion being a tad more memorable. The puzzles are cooler, the design is more ambitious, way better boss fights, greater challenge, WAY better art direction (some of those bosses designs legit look cool as fuck) and the story was surprisingly good too. simple but executed with charm & really enjoyable characters. Chief Irons is such a glorious piece of shit.
The VA is generally better too but it still definitely has its moments.
I think the most fun I've had in the entire series was in RE2. Running through a several narrow openings in a crowd of zombies, getting enough room to turn around and lure them close together... then head shotting them all in a single blast right before they'd have bitten me. So cool. The RE2 shotgun is one of the best in all of gaming.
So pumped, was I... After having just found and completed a new favorite game of all time, to then play the next Resident Evil 3. Playing through Nemesis I had a great time but was also a little let down in comparison. It definitely carried enough great design over from RE2 to be a ton of fun. But RE3 is really all over the place. Trying a dozen new ideas out at once half of them working and the other half slightly dragging the game down.
The best of the many changes was probably the shift the largely more sprawling outdoor environment of Raccoon City. It doesn't breed the same type of intimate familiarity of RE1 & 2 but it's definitely memorable just because it's such a stark departure. It's also cool to get a look at what was going on outside of Leon & Claire's insular Police Department environment during the events of RE2.
Some other changes don't rate quite as high. The crafting system is pretty cool. I liked trying out different combinations on Nemesis and seeing how effective each was. But it's mostly inconsequential & slightly complicates inventory management over 1 & 2.
The quick-event-choice-decision making things were cool. Maybe it a bit gimmicky, but it's the kind of thing that helps give RE3 a distinct identity. Another somewhat inconsequential feeling addition. But I'd honestly have to replay the game to know for sure.
Then comes the bad stuff... The dodging mechanic is ass. It only works well when fighting Nemesis. In typical encounters it does more harm than good because you dodge with the same buttons you shoot with. It fucked me over a good few times during RE3. Rolling me into a random inopportune position. Or refusing to actually let me fire my weapon while enemies got repeated swipes at me.
There's also interactive objects in the environment. You can shoot an explosive barrel or a crane carrying heavy planks to kill a bunch of enemies and save ammo. It'd be fine if shooting the objects wasn't at odds with the auto aim prioritizing shooting zombies. There were definitely a couple times I lined up an environmental shot and waited for the zombies to approach. Only for the game to start firing at the enemies I clearly wasn't aimed at and fucking it all up.
Also the story & characters are really kinda dull compared to RE2, outside of a few stand out moments, and that's a shame. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time with RE3, there's still that enjoyable Resident Evil core and the unique Raccoon City environment. I appreciate that it took so many chances even they didn't all work out too well.
Oh yeah, adding the quick turn was pretty cool.
Code Veronica is awesome. Right from the intro cut-scene I knew this shit was gonna be magical... lmfao. Code Veronica is definitely where RE went ultra left field, doubling down on RE1's camp. I'd struggle to say Resident Evil was ever "grounded" but it definitely wasn't this. This as in, being chased around a massive castle by a lunatic aristocrat who's both in love with & pretending to be his sister. Matrix ass reincarnated Wesker and the melodramatic Canadian mess that is Steve. Jesus Christ, that miraculously forced ass romance with Claire & Steve!!! The part where Steve spaces out staring at Claire and smashes a crane into pipes holding poison gas. It came out of fucking nowhere!!! I was fucking dying. God tier.
It bothered me a bit initially that this was the direct story sequel to RE2. Since I found 2's story legit enjoyable. But after a while I let it go and embraced the camp and it was beautiful.
The game itself dialed back a lot of the RE3 changes I didn't particularly care for. Making it more fun overall to play. There's some odd downgraded aspects,though. The animation is actually a fair bit shittier than RE2 & 3 despite Code Veronica being a Dreamcast game. Claire's running & walking cycle's are pretty stiff looking. And she awkwardly snaps into place whenever you climb steps.
The real time environments make the camera angle transitions a lot smoother, which is appreciated. But a lot of environment detail was sacrificed in ditching the pre-rendered backgrounds. Really, Code Veronica for the most part just stuck with a winning formula. But the bat shit insanity in the game gives it so much personality. There's a mountain of gold here. Definitely a game I'm gonna replay with friends some time soon.
REmake is a game that I'd overheard the hype on for a looong time. The minimal experience I did have with the game gave me the impression that it would be phenomenal. So I intended to save it for last in my RE stint.
Resident Evil 02 is one of a very few experiences where massively high expectations are not only met, but subsequently trounced. It's sooo fucking good. The environments are gorgeous. Much effort was taken to eliminate the typically "static" feel of pre-rendered environments. Swinging chandeliers, dancing candle flames, lightning flashes illuminating dim corridors. It adds so much to the atmosphere.
And it's the atmosphere of REmake that is 2nd to none in the series. I'll never forget an early moment, slowly creeping through that dark hallway in the mansion's west wing. The one leading to the stairwell with those crows and the bird cage. It's not a very blatantly eventful moment but the camera angles, lighting and sound design made it a remarkably tense one that I constantly think back on.
There are so many stand-out moments and additions. How they fleshed out the outdoor and underground environments is amazing. That cabin, man... that fucking cabin. I love how the game trolls you, subverting expectations from the original RE. "Thought you solved that piano puzzle, did you!?" The only bad thing about the game is that it's no longer funky looking and weird enough to enjoy the moments of sub-par VA. It doesn't come up too much at all, but when it does it is a total mood killer. Wesker is especially shit. I don't know how that early "Jill, no!" made it in to the game.
At the end of it the Resident Evil series had another blatant classic. A masterpiece. I go keep going back and forth between REmake and RE2 as my favorite in the series. After REmake being so awesome I couldn't get enough. So I decided to check out the other GameCube RE game, Resident Evil 0.
Resident Evil 0 makes me so sad. Even right now having just pulled screens from 0 for this thread... I feel like I should like it so much more than I do. Just looking it the game it appears to be another REmake tier entry into the series. It's not.
RE0 starts of so strong, too... The train sequence is easily the highlight of the game. The double decker train itself is a unique locale for the series. The early going mystery of Billy is fairly intriguing. There's that cool ass part where you're walking across the top of the train car during a storm. Introduction to the bad-ass save room music. The whole thing culminates in a tense partner puzzle where you rush to opposite ends of the train car to activate an emergency break.
It's a shame that essentially everything after that is either dull in comparison to the rest of the series or just frustrating. For most of the game you're exploring a low rent retread of Spencer Mansion. Which I guess makes sense given that 0 also takes place an Arklay Mountains Umbrella facility. But it means the game has no distinct personality to speak of. Compounded by the extra weak story that's neither goofy enough to be fun like RE1/CVX or actually good enough to engage with like RE2 or REmake. Also that room with the dumb ass giant chessboard like it's a Wu-Tang music video.
Everything good about RE0 is done better in the other games and all it's changes to the formula I'd much rather do without. Having to constantly manage a 2nd character is too often a nuisance. Zero is one of the most resource scarce RE games I've played. To avoid wasting few precious resources I found myself having to manually walk each character separately through environments so the dumb AI wouldn't get caught up by enemies. Effectively doubling the walking distance for many parts of the game.
Playing Resident Evil 0 was kind of a sour note to go out on. Toward the end of the game I was playing it while listening to podcasts lol. Something I'd have never even thought to do playing through the other games. Not an entirely terrible game but a significant step down for the series.
Now having played most of the main entries; Resident Evil is among my favorite game series'. Many truly great games and two stand out classics. Well... actually three, but I wasn't late to RE4. Not bad at all. I'm kinda surprised there hasn't been a kickstarter retro revival project for old-school Survival Horror in the vein of Yooka-Layle or Bloodstained. Searching around for one I only found 1st person horror games that look like either Amnesia or P.T (some of them looked cool to be fair). But at least there's the forthcoming RE2 remake that I'm now extremely excited for. I really hope that's good. Seriously.
Still not burned out on Survival Horror yet, maybe I'll see whats up with Fatal Frame next.
I had some familiarity with RE1, a couple years ago I played through maybe the first hour of it emulated. I remembered a lot more of it than I expected. A testament, I think, to how memorable a game Resident Evil is.
What I didn't remember was just how ugly a game RE1 is. In a thread I made about Silent Hill I praised it's graphics as an example of retro low poly visuals being a legit aesthetic. Resident Evil is not a point for that case. The pre-rendered backgrounds are beyond barren. Lacking detail to the point of looking unfinished at times. The underground environment actually made me laugh out loud seeing it for the first time.
It says a lot that in the face of this I had a fucking blast playing RE. Also, that despite it being terribly ugly, Spencer Mansion was one of the most fun adventure environments I'd ever explored. It's just such a memorable setting. Nearly every room is unique in some way that stuck with me. I can close my eyes now and walk through every single room in RE 1's Mansion and that's not something I can say about a lot of games.
Also that super camp ass VA. Holy shit! Every cut-scene in the game is fucking hilarious. Master of unlocking and Jill Sandwich get all the love but there's some real gold toward the end of that game too.
Resident Evil 2, tho... after I finished RE2 it had solidified a spot as one of my favorite games of all time. Getting thrown right into the thick of it with the intro sequence was awesome. Its worth mentioning how much I've come to love tank control in these games. It makes navigating through a crowd of zombies exhilarating as all hell and encourages a type of very deliberate motion that I find fosters immersion when exploring in a way I really appreciate.
Resident Evil 2's opening really takes advantage of both. In the "oh shit it's on!" run through Raccoon City and the eventual (and short lived) reprieve of early RCPD exploration. Only now the visuals aren't getting in the way. The environments in 2 are a crazy leap forward. Packed with attentive detail. There's a bit of that 90's CG "too smooth" plastic-ish look to the rendering in environments but they still look really good for the most part.
Essentially RE2 took everything awesome about RE1 and made it more awesome. With the exception of Spencer Mansion being a tad more memorable. The puzzles are cooler, the design is more ambitious, way better boss fights, greater challenge, WAY better art direction (some of those bosses designs legit look cool as fuck) and the story was surprisingly good too. simple but executed with charm & really enjoyable characters. Chief Irons is such a glorious piece of shit.
The VA is generally better too but it still definitely has its moments.
ADDAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I think the most fun I've had in the entire series was in RE2. Running through a several narrow openings in a crowd of zombies, getting enough room to turn around and lure them close together... then head shotting them all in a single blast right before they'd have bitten me. So cool. The RE2 shotgun is one of the best in all of gaming.
So pumped, was I... After having just found and completed a new favorite game of all time, to then play the next Resident Evil 3. Playing through Nemesis I had a great time but was also a little let down in comparison. It definitely carried enough great design over from RE2 to be a ton of fun. But RE3 is really all over the place. Trying a dozen new ideas out at once half of them working and the other half slightly dragging the game down.
The best of the many changes was probably the shift the largely more sprawling outdoor environment of Raccoon City. It doesn't breed the same type of intimate familiarity of RE1 & 2 but it's definitely memorable just because it's such a stark departure. It's also cool to get a look at what was going on outside of Leon & Claire's insular Police Department environment during the events of RE2.
Some other changes don't rate quite as high. The crafting system is pretty cool. I liked trying out different combinations on Nemesis and seeing how effective each was. But it's mostly inconsequential & slightly complicates inventory management over 1 & 2.
The quick-event-choice-decision making things were cool. Maybe it a bit gimmicky, but it's the kind of thing that helps give RE3 a distinct identity. Another somewhat inconsequential feeling addition. But I'd honestly have to replay the game to know for sure.
Then comes the bad stuff... The dodging mechanic is ass. It only works well when fighting Nemesis. In typical encounters it does more harm than good because you dodge with the same buttons you shoot with. It fucked me over a good few times during RE3. Rolling me into a random inopportune position. Or refusing to actually let me fire my weapon while enemies got repeated swipes at me.
There's also interactive objects in the environment. You can shoot an explosive barrel or a crane carrying heavy planks to kill a bunch of enemies and save ammo. It'd be fine if shooting the objects wasn't at odds with the auto aim prioritizing shooting zombies. There were definitely a couple times I lined up an environmental shot and waited for the zombies to approach. Only for the game to start firing at the enemies I clearly wasn't aimed at and fucking it all up.
Also the story & characters are really kinda dull compared to RE2, outside of a few stand out moments, and that's a shame. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time with RE3, there's still that enjoyable Resident Evil core and the unique Raccoon City environment. I appreciate that it took so many chances even they didn't all work out too well.
Oh yeah, adding the quick turn was pretty cool.
Code Veronica is awesome. Right from the intro cut-scene I knew this shit was gonna be magical... lmfao. Code Veronica is definitely where RE went ultra left field, doubling down on RE1's camp. I'd struggle to say Resident Evil was ever "grounded" but it definitely wasn't this. This as in, being chased around a massive castle by a lunatic aristocrat who's both in love with & pretending to be his sister. Matrix ass reincarnated Wesker and the melodramatic Canadian mess that is Steve. Jesus Christ, that miraculously forced ass romance with Claire & Steve!!! The part where Steve spaces out staring at Claire and smashes a crane into pipes holding poison gas. It came out of fucking nowhere!!! I was fucking dying. God tier.
It bothered me a bit initially that this was the direct story sequel to RE2. Since I found 2's story legit enjoyable. But after a while I let it go and embraced the camp and it was beautiful.
The game itself dialed back a lot of the RE3 changes I didn't particularly care for. Making it more fun overall to play. There's some odd downgraded aspects,though. The animation is actually a fair bit shittier than RE2 & 3 despite Code Veronica being a Dreamcast game. Claire's running & walking cycle's are pretty stiff looking. And she awkwardly snaps into place whenever you climb steps.
The real time environments make the camera angle transitions a lot smoother, which is appreciated. But a lot of environment detail was sacrificed in ditching the pre-rendered backgrounds. Really, Code Veronica for the most part just stuck with a winning formula. But the bat shit insanity in the game gives it so much personality. There's a mountain of gold here. Definitely a game I'm gonna replay with friends some time soon.
REmake is a game that I'd overheard the hype on for a looong time. The minimal experience I did have with the game gave me the impression that it would be phenomenal. So I intended to save it for last in my RE stint.
Resident Evil 02 is one of a very few experiences where massively high expectations are not only met, but subsequently trounced. It's sooo fucking good. The environments are gorgeous. Much effort was taken to eliminate the typically "static" feel of pre-rendered environments. Swinging chandeliers, dancing candle flames, lightning flashes illuminating dim corridors. It adds so much to the atmosphere.
And it's the atmosphere of REmake that is 2nd to none in the series. I'll never forget an early moment, slowly creeping through that dark hallway in the mansion's west wing. The one leading to the stairwell with those crows and the bird cage. It's not a very blatantly eventful moment but the camera angles, lighting and sound design made it a remarkably tense one that I constantly think back on.
There are so many stand-out moments and additions. How they fleshed out the outdoor and underground environments is amazing. That cabin, man... that fucking cabin. I love how the game trolls you, subverting expectations from the original RE. "Thought you solved that piano puzzle, did you!?" The only bad thing about the game is that it's no longer funky looking and weird enough to enjoy the moments of sub-par VA. It doesn't come up too much at all, but when it does it is a total mood killer. Wesker is especially shit. I don't know how that early "Jill, no!" made it in to the game.
At the end of it the Resident Evil series had another blatant classic. A masterpiece. I go keep going back and forth between REmake and RE2 as my favorite in the series. After REmake being so awesome I couldn't get enough. So I decided to check out the other GameCube RE game, Resident Evil 0.
Resident Evil 0 makes me so sad. Even right now having just pulled screens from 0 for this thread... I feel like I should like it so much more than I do. Just looking it the game it appears to be another REmake tier entry into the series. It's not.
RE0 starts of so strong, too... The train sequence is easily the highlight of the game. The double decker train itself is a unique locale for the series. The early going mystery of Billy is fairly intriguing. There's that cool ass part where you're walking across the top of the train car during a storm. Introduction to the bad-ass save room music. The whole thing culminates in a tense partner puzzle where you rush to opposite ends of the train car to activate an emergency break.
It's a shame that essentially everything after that is either dull in comparison to the rest of the series or just frustrating. For most of the game you're exploring a low rent retread of Spencer Mansion. Which I guess makes sense given that 0 also takes place an Arklay Mountains Umbrella facility. But it means the game has no distinct personality to speak of. Compounded by the extra weak story that's neither goofy enough to be fun like RE1/CVX or actually good enough to engage with like RE2 or REmake. Also that room with the dumb ass giant chessboard like it's a Wu-Tang music video.
Everything good about RE0 is done better in the other games and all it's changes to the formula I'd much rather do without. Having to constantly manage a 2nd character is too often a nuisance. Zero is one of the most resource scarce RE games I've played. To avoid wasting few precious resources I found myself having to manually walk each character separately through environments so the dumb AI wouldn't get caught up by enemies. Effectively doubling the walking distance for many parts of the game.
Playing Resident Evil 0 was kind of a sour note to go out on. Toward the end of the game I was playing it while listening to podcasts lol. Something I'd have never even thought to do playing through the other games. Not an entirely terrible game but a significant step down for the series.
Now having played most of the main entries; Resident Evil is among my favorite game series'. Many truly great games and two stand out classics. Well... actually three, but I wasn't late to RE4. Not bad at all. I'm kinda surprised there hasn't been a kickstarter retro revival project for old-school Survival Horror in the vein of Yooka-Layle or Bloodstained. Searching around for one I only found 1st person horror games that look like either Amnesia or P.T (some of them looked cool to be fair). But at least there's the forthcoming RE2 remake that I'm now extremely excited for. I really hope that's good. Seriously.
Still not burned out on Survival Horror yet, maybe I'll see whats up with Fatal Frame next.