I've spoken a bit about C:VX in my previous review of the Resident
Evil franchise, but to quickly recap it is definitely my second favorite in the
franchise, right behind the Gamecube remake at number one (and before the
remake came out, it was my favorite). Over the years I've played through
this game dozens of times, and even though I've never done a no-damage speedrun
or anything like that, I think I've come pretty close to mastering it. But
things weren't always this way.
In the late 90's Resident Evil was in its prime. With three
critically acclaimed games down (and one stinker), the
franchise was poised to expand at the turn of the century. And that it did when
Resident Evil made the jump to 128-bit technology on the Sega Dreamcast in
early 2000 with Code: Veronica. As a fan of the series from the very beginning,
I marveled at screenshots I saw in gaming magazines. I wanted to play it quite
badly, but there was only one problem- I didn't own a Dreamcast, nor did I even
know anybody who did. I had to wait almost two whole years before I could play
it, only after it was ported to the Playstation 2 as Resident Evil Code:
Veronica X, a sort of remastered edition with new cutscenes and content.
Anyway, I played the hell out of it. I beat it from start to
finish, played a little bit of the extra content, then beat it again, and
again. By the fourth time, I had decided that I wanted to go after the big
prize- the infinite rocket launcher bonus item, only obtainable after beating
the game with an 'A' ranking. How does one achieve an A ranking, you ask?
Well...
Every Resident Evil game had it's own standards for
achieving an A rank, usually centered around beating the game under a certain
time limit and keeping saves to a minimum, usually one or two. But C:VX took
this a step further. The conditions to obtain an A are as follows:
-Beat the game in under 4 hours and 30 minutes.
-No saves at all.
-No deaths/retries.
-No use of instant healing first-aid spray items.
-Complete a brief optional mission.
Doesn't sound too difficult, right? Well this is quite a
long game, in comparison to other RE games to that point. I probably saved over
20 times my first time through, dying at many different points along the way.
This would be a challenge.
Part of the problem is just general fatigue as you go
through. There's more than enough time granted to you to beat the game; if you
know exactly where to go and what to do, it can be completed in under 4 hours.
However, sitting still for that long without losing your will to play was a bit
of a problem for a spastic kid like me. And boredom aside there was needing to
eat along the way, getting up to use the bathroom, homework that needed to be
squared away first, parents distracting you who didn't know you needed to make every second
count - it felt as though the planets needed to align for your
one perfect run. I needed to block out an ideal period of time to do it. I
remember having to pick a day where I could set aside at least 4 and a half
hours to do so, then planning a strategy for an optimal run. I wrote down the
solution to every puzzle in a long list so I wouldn't have to take time reading
texts or analyzing clues. I did a trial run through to maximize my time spent,
charting every path along the way that led to an optimal route. After many
preparations, I was ready. I set my four and a half hours aside, waited for the
clock to be an even 12 noon, and was off.
There are basically 8 major sections of the game which I
break up as follows:
The prison
The palace
The military training facility
Return to the prison
Return to the palace/the airport
The antarctic base
Return to the military training facility as Chris ----->
MIDWAY POINT
The antarctic base as Chris
The first half of the game you play as Claire Redfield, and
once you hit the midway point you switch to playing as her brother Chris. Chris' opening sequence was like an adrenaline rush- you knew that
once you got there, you were halfway through. Even the music that plays during his opening cutscene is inspiring. However, you also knew that Chris'
part of the game starts getting harder and harder, all the way up to the end.
Once you saw this opening shot, you knew you were halfway there.
There are several points in the game where you can screw up
badly, and while most of them are in Chris' portion, Claire has a few points in
her own. For example, during the boss fight right before the midpoint with the
"Nosferatu" boss, you have to perfectly land 8 shots with a sniper
rifle on the monster's exposed heart in order to kill it. If you miss even one,
you have to rely on pumping it full of whatever bullets you have left in order
to take it down. This requires you to play a bit conservatively beforehand,
stocking up as much handgun bullets you have for Claire's handgun (which you
should have upgraded to a burst-fire at this point). If you didn't you might
be screwed, since you pretty much had to leave all of your other guns behind
for Chris to pick up later. On top of that, the boss shoots out a purple gas
which, if you are hit enough times by, causes Claire to become poisoned. If you
are poisoned at this point, you'll need to retrieve a serum later on as Chris,
which eats up about 5 minutes of time. Not that big of a deal, but when you're
rushing through at nearly the end of the game, 5 minutes can seem like an
eternity.
The idea is to land 8 shots directly on the monster's exposed heart. Doesn't sound too hard, but the first person sniper rifle controls are kinda wonky and you have to be careful not to get to close to him or he'll smack the crap out of you with his tentacles. However, get too far away and you won't be able to see him. In all my years of playing, I've never once landed all 8 shots on his heart.
If you run out of sniper rifle bullets, you'll have to resort to shooting him with whatever other ammo you have left. You also have to be very careful to avoid getting hit by the purple gas he emits, otherwise you'll be poisoned and will need to find the antidote later on.
In Chris' half, there's three parts in particular that stick
out in my mind where an entire runthrough can be ruined very quickly- the
introduction of the "sweeper" enemies, one part where you briefly
regain control of Claire and have to break open a glass ball, and the first
boss fight with Alexia.
Sweepers are almost exactly the same as hunters, which are
extremely dangerous enemies on their own- sweepers, however, will poison you
every time they damage you, making them that much more lethal. At one point in
Chris' game, you need to run past two sweepers which come at you from both
sides, and if you stop to kill one, you're most likely done for. Since they can
take you into caution with just two hits, the third is likely to kill you because they can perform an instant kill if you're in caution. I found this out
the painfully hard way in my first run through when I made it to that point and
tried to fight them off instead of just running past them- I was dropped pretty
quickly and my run to that point was over.
In this section, sweepers come at you from the left and right. Your best bet is to avoid them, because if you aren't able to take them out quickly you'll be screwed. Even when avoiding them, you're likely to take a hit which can be very dangerous. One minor mistake here can doom an entire run, so this part was always extremely tense for me.
For a brief section of Chris' half of the game, you have to
take control of Claire once again. Toward the end of the game you find a key
card embedded inside of a glass ball and must use a giant stone slab to crush
it and free the card. The slab rises to the ceiling on a chain and then falls,
and just before it falls you must run underneath it and place the ball down
down. However, if you aren't quick enough it's another instant death.
Thankfully, I have never actually died here, but it's a nerve wracking moment
since you are very close to the end at that point and one slip up could cost you
the whole game.
And lastly, the part I remember the most is immediately
after you regain control of Chris once Claire's brief section is finished and
you have a boss fight with the transformed Alexia Ashford monster. It's not too
terribly difficult, as it only requires five magnum shots to take her down.
However, there's a bit of a hitch- if she gets too close to you, she can
instantly kill you. Okay, so just stay far away from her, right? Well...if
you're prepared, that's not too hard to do. However, there's a huge requirement
before you can do that- you have to remember to equip the magnum as soon as the
fight starts. See, before Claire's brief segment begins you must equip the
knife as Chris in order to cut Claire out of this green snot-like stuff she's
stuck to the wall with. However, when you regain control of Chris, you'll still be
equipped with the knife. During one of my better runs, I was anxious to take
Alexia down and completely forgot about it. I pressed the ready weapon button
and mashed the fire button as soon as the fight began...only to take a slash at
Alexia with the knife, who's standing right in front of you when it begins.
Before I could scramble to recover from my mistake, it was too late- she was
upon me and my entire run was ruined. This fight is only about 10 minutes away
from the end of the game, so to come that close and fail was devastating.
You have to equip the knife in order to cut Claire out of this green snot-like shit. However…
…you’d better be prepared to unequip it as soon as you regain control of Chris and the fight starts, otherwise your whole run might be done for.
I wanted to give up after that debacle, but after a week or
so I knew I had to try one last time. I made a note on my puzzle guide that
read: REMEMBER: EQUIP THE MAGNUM! and set out to do one more run. This time I
was fully ready. I blazed through every part- Claire's first half, her second
half, and by the time I reached the midway point at Chris' start I was totally
pumped. Unfortunately I had gotten poisoned during the Nosferatu fight whereas
I hadn't in the previous run, but it was no matter- I couldn't turn back now. I
once again reached the fight with Alexia and this time I was ready- I pulled out
my magnum and blasted away, taking her down without a hitch. I was totally
stoked now- only one last boss fight stood between me and rocket launcher
glory. But the final fight is anything but easy.
After taking down Alexia in the first fight, you do a little
bit of running around before facing off with her once again, this time in two
different forms- one in which she is a massive blob swinging tentacles around
and spitting out annoying little smaller blobs that attack you, and a second in
which she basically turns into a giant dragonfly and spits fire at you. I had a
tendency to way overprepare for this fight- I would bring along the AK-47 with
a 50% clip reload, the fully loaded submachine guns and the magnum, as well
whatever extra healing items I could carry in my inventory. Really, all you need
is the submachine guns. Even though the AK-47 is more powerful, the dual
submachine guns are ideal because Chris points them in two different directions
which allows you to have one shooting at Alexia and the other dealing with the
little blobs she unleashes on you.
I had originally stuck with using the magnum since it's the
most powerful out of all of them, but this time I tried the submachine gun
strategy and found that it worked to my favor. Once her first form is dealt
with and she turns into a killer mosquito, Alexia starts rapidly flying around
above you and shooting fire at you every now and then. In order to kill her, you need
to grab the ridiculous-sounding "linear launcher" (seriously, that
sounds like a gun I would've made up in 6th grade) and take aim above you, timing
it just right that the blast nails her in mid-air, and then you've done it. I
grabbed the launcher and took aim, my heart pounding like crazy. I fired the
shot, and....I missed. Again and again. To make matters worse, there's a
countdown going down above you, and at that point there should only be about 2
and a half minutes left on it, so my anxiety was sky high. Thankfully, the
launcher has infinite ammo- it's just annoying because it's pretty easy to lose
track of Alexia as she buzzes around, especially though the view in the scope
where it's hard to see where you're looking as it is. Also, as I mentioned before the first-person scope controls are kind of weird compared to the rest of the game, so you have to grapple with using the
controls for a bit before you get the hang of it, and by then Alexia will most
likely be spitting another volley of fireballs at you. She flies around so
quickly that you need to anticipate where she's going to be, only firing
when you're sure she'll fly straight into the blast. I tried again and again,
getting more frustrated. Only one shot stood between me and the end. I'd done
it before, I could do it again dammit!
The linear launcher controls just like the sniper rifle. This fight is even worse than the Nosferatu fight though because Alexia is buzzing around you like a pissed off bumble bee and spitting crap on you.
But finally, after what seemed like an agonizingly long
period of time I fired the winning shot, hitting Alexia and ending the game. I
felt great as the last ending cutscene played out, but I still stood in
anxiousness. Despite my checklist, I still worried that I had missed something
along the way, that I didn't satisfy one of the requirements, that my timer was
off and I had gone over the 4 and a half hours, that I had done something wrong
and my efforts would be in vain. I waited until the end credits, ready to see
my ranking, and...
...there it was. The glorious A ranking. I'd done it. The rocket
launcher was mine. I gleefully celebrated, but once again I restrained myself
cautiously. How did I know for sure that it worked? The only way to find out
was to start a new game and check. I did just that, skipping over all of the
opening credits rapidly and jumping
right into a new game. I opened my inventory box-
-and there it was, the infinite rocket launcher, guaranteed
to destroy anything in one shot. I immediately equipped it and ran out into the
area where you first encounter zombies, in which you'd normally be armed with a
measly knife. I rejoiced as I blew away every zombie that came near me,
laughing as their burnt corpses hit the ground. And then I played through the
whole game again. Not in one single go, but doing everything I hadn't been
allowed to do in the main run. Saving every chance I got. Using aid sprays.
Taking my sweet ass time. Wasting away every special weapon on the smallest of
enemies. Defeating every boss with ease by using the rocket launcher. And it
was a wonderful feeling. Thanks for reading.
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