Board 8 > Anagram ranks and discusses the Resident Evil series with too-long writeups

(+) Yeah! (+)

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

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Anagram posted...

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

I've read some of it and yeah it is that to some extent but it's crazy in-depth.

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Is there a RE timeline out there thats just a timeline?

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Resident Evil Wikia's one is fine. There are some excellent ones on Youtube though by Suggestive Gaming & GamerThumbTV, the latter includes some non-canon stuff technically but he fits it all together extremely well. It's my favorite overall since I tend to include non-canon stuff in my timeline playthroughs too.

I've also got a personal one if you're interested!

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Snake5555555555 posted...

I've also got a personal one if you're interested!

Go for it.

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

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

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....Thats way more in depth than I expected! Looks like that took some time.

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Xiahou Shake posted...

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

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

Snake5555555555 posted...

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

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

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

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It definitely took some time! The hardest part is parsing out where everything fits in the RC incident especially. I do actually want to go even more in depth there and better fit the RE2 scenarios together eventually.

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Only Resident Evil games are beaten are original 2 and 4.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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RE5 rules. That is all.

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

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Anagram posted...

I assume thats where this came from), and the game limits you to carrying nine items at a time instead of using RE4s perfect inventory system (goddamn, is there anything RE4 doesnt do well?), which means youre constantly slowly down to manage your inventory and your partners inventory.

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

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

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

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

Snake5555555555 posted...

RE5 rules. That is all.

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

Snake5555555555 posted...

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

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


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Anagram posted...

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

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

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Anagram posted...

For all the comparisons to RE4, RE5 does have one card to play that trumps it: funny-bad moments.

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

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

Anagram posted...

The shift to action is hardly out of the ordinary for the horror genre: see Alien, Evil Dead, Terminator.
You know, that's true, and I never thought about it before. I wonder what causes this.

Probably because after one encounter we know what the threat is and how to deal with it pretty easily. Though interestingly it doesn't occurs as much in the slasher or torture porn genres since their villains are the stars by default, characters rarely recur, and they are basically designed to be unstoppable in the first place (except by the final girl of course).

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

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>Enter to see list
>Code Veronica is considered the worst
>Topic list

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pjbasis posted...

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

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

Inviso posted...

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

I was being sincere.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

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

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

pjbasis posted...

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

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

Snake5555555555 posted...

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

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

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Anagram posted...

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

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

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Snake5555555555 posted...

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

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

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Anagram posted...

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

It does! Pretty easily since RE5 is still technically built around them.

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I can't really imagine shooting like that unless it also does old school auto aiming

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Shooting is admittedly clunky but it's not like you do much in the mansion part anyway. Guardians are way too tough to take down with bullets even in regular third-person.

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

It's a good game why not!

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colliding posted...

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

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

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Its also true I've never played the game single player since my first time through.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of multiplayer mode

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

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

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

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

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That was a fantastic write-up for Rev 2! Revelations 2 is probably my favorite RE media of the past decade. That ending with Barry going "I have this!" gave me the chills the first time through and still does now! It just touches on great fan-service moments & call backs like that without being overly obnoxious about it. It also has one of the best uses of alternate endings with one of the best character arcs in the series.

I hope Village follows up on some of the plot threads here as is rumored. It hasn't been that long since Rev 2 released so I don't know if it's totally abandoned just yet, I just hope it isn't.

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

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

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Nanis23 posted...

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

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

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

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It just has an interesting place in the series. Used to be Capcom's highest-selling game, has a lot of divided opinions, it's really canon heavy, went even more towards an action direction than RE4, has a lot of memes attached to it. There's just a lot to unpack with it!

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You will give me an EGG!

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Tag, great write-ups so far!

I love me some RE5. Played with someone else, it's one of my favourite experiences in gaming. Even alone, it's in my weird top 3 along with RE4 and RE2R.

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RE5 is a legit top game of the ps3/360 generation

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Oh so people like RE5 now?
It's one of those games that people didn't like back in the day (like Metroid Fusion)
Glad that changed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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RE1R is a masterpiece in game design

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Nanis23 posted...

RE1R is a masterpiece in game design

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

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Favorite game of all time!

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

The tank controls are a part of that but I think you can play without them and even then I couldn't get into it. RE2R is also pretty 'scary' but it feels more like a third person shooter which made it easier for me to digest.

The original RE1 is on my top 100 games list despite me never finishing it myself because I sat with my uncle while he played it and got to enjoy it that way.

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RE1R is one of the most perfect games ever made IMO. It's borderline unbelievable how well it works as a remake or as a video game period - survival horror had never been better. I used to think it wouldn't ever be better again but RE2R came close enough that I've had to reassess that opinion. Just thinking about the game makes me happy!

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