Thoughts On: Resident Evil 2 Remake (PS4)

 **This review contains spoilers for the Remake of Resident Evil 2. So, what are you reading this for? Go play it!**

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room once again, after yet another quite long break. I doubt anyone is out there who has been reading this on a regular basis but if you have been and were expecting an update, I thank you for standing by patiently. I've been busy being a sad, tired adult at the age of 30, but that hasn't stopped me from playing video games. Or thinking about them. Or buying them. Well, actually, it has slowed me down in terms of buying them because I have too many other expenses, but hopefully it won't stay that way forever. Anyway, I'm here today because I wanted to talk about something (for, like, the 8th time on this blog) that's quite near and dear to my heart: Resident Evil 2. No, not the one from 1998- the one from this year. And what a long 21 years it's been.

A remake of the original Resident Evil was released for the Nintendo Gamecube in North America on April 30th, 2002. This re-do of the survival horror classic was more than just a simple graphical upgrade; the game was completely rebuilt from the ground up, addressing every issue with the original and intensifying the story, the action, and the horror tenfold. I should know; it's within my top 5 favorite video games of all time. Probably #2, second only to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Anyway, when this game came out, it blew my freakin' 13 year-old mind. I loved it so much- and still do. I'll play the hell out of this game any time at all, even to this day. But when I finished it back in 2002, an overwhelming thought came over me- "what if they do a similar remake of Resident Evil 2?"

Now, while the the original Resident Evil was badly in need of a re-do due to some extremely cheesy writing and a lot of early 3D gaming stiffness, I think most of us can agree that Resident Evil 2 did not need a remake. The original RE2 was great in so many ways the first one wasn't- the writing and voice acting were exponentially better, the story that was established in the first game was advanced, and the game was just fucking horrifying. Aside from maybe Silent Hill 2, I can't think of another game that scared me quite as much as RE2 did. It was a masterpiece of the genre and probably the most beloved entry to the series by old school fans. But while it may not have needed a remake, it was still a very welcome announcement to the RE community when it was initially confirmed. A long period of speculation followed the original announcement, but the day finally arrived on January 25th, 2019, and my body was completely and totally ready. Seriously, this was the first game I've actually pre-ordered to ensure I would get a copy in a VERY long time. Like, the last one I actually remember was Halo 3 back in 2007.

I picked it up, played it 6 times through now, and this is everything I have to say about it at this point.

The basic story of RE2 is kept intact: two strangers, a rookie police officer and a young woman searching for her older brother, arrive in the town of Raccoon City to find it's been overrun by zombies and other horrific creatures and must fight their way through to survive. They both end up in a derelict police station, where they slowly unravel the mystery behind the monsters that have appeared and slaughtered most of the town's inhabitants, all while fighting to survive and trying to escape the nightmare.

Given what the previous game in the franchise (RE7) did and the direction it was steering toward, it's nice to see Remake 2 follow that trajectory of sticking to horror and relative subtlety rather than grandiose action, as most games prior to RE7 had been doing. Granted, I think fans would probably riot if Remake 2 was anything but that, considering RE2 is one of the greatest survival horror games of all time, but I'm still happy to see that this is where we're at currently.

I won't bother rehashing the whole damn story, as you probably know it by now if you've even read this far. What I really want to talk about is my experience with the game as a huge fan of both the original and the entire Resident Evil franchise on a whole.

First, positives. The developers definitely put a lot of care into staying faithful to the spirit of the original. At the surface level, you progress through the game in pretty much the same manner: a trek through the police station, followed by a descent into the basement of the station, then a return to the station with some new key items, then on into the sewers, and finally into the laboratory at the end. Areas from the original have been redone in exquisite detail, especially many of the areas of the R.P.D. station. Weapons are just about the same for both Leon and Claire, with the addition of "defense" weapons that can be used if an enemy grabs you. There's also plenty of opportunities to upgrade your weapons with scopes, stocks, and larger ammo clips over the course of the game. You'll also find various hip pouches as well, which serve to increase your inventory space as you go along.

Just like it's predecessor, Remake 2 recreated areas of the original game beautifully.

The regular enemies are a lot deadlier this time around. Zombies are much tougher to take down than the original, and landing repeated headshots is almost a must. And even when they do go down, they can get back up 2 or 3 more times before staying down for good, making them significantly more dangerous than I remember in any previous game (with the exception of the crimson heads in Remake 1). Lickers and zombie dogs are really difficult to deal with too- both are extremely agile and are tough to hit to begin with, and you really need a heavier weapon if you want to keep Lickers from counterattacking you. And then there's Mr. X.

Hoo boy, yes, Mr. X. The hulking monstrosity that stalked you all throughout the B scenarios of the original is back with a vengeance. This time you run into him in any scenario, and he is absolutely relentless. You can put him down temporarily with a few well-placed shots to the head, but after a little bit he'll be right back up to come after you. When he's on the prowl, you have very little time to stop and take things slow. He basically forces you to scramble to get to where you need to go, no matter how many other enemies are in your way. This can mean rushing into oncoming zombies or Lickers just to get away from him, as well as solving puzzles as quickly as possible so he doesn't come up from behind and pound you into the floor. The developers definitely did an amazing job with him in this game, as he ramps up the intensity in ways no other RE game has done for me in quite a long time. The fedora was a little bit of a weird design choice, but I can live with it. The tension he brings to the game more than makes up for it.

Mr. X truly adds a level of tension to this game that I haven't experienced in a while, fedoras be damned.

The game also really resurrects (no pun intended) that classic survival horror feel of the older games. Throughout my first playthroughs of the Leon A/Claire B scenarios (which have now been re-titled "1st and 2nd runs"), I felt as though I was constantly scrambling for ammo and health as I progressed, and that was just an awesome feeling. Survival horror was such a great niche genre because a large part of the uneasiness you feel as a player comes from struggling to survive on limited supplies, and this game really hits the mark there. And I haven't even tried hardcore mode yet, which I'm sure kicks that aspect up a few notches. The game is also much darker than previous ones- like, literally, it can be really difficult at times just to see where you're going. I had to actually readjust the brightness several times while I was playing because I kept missing things in the darkness. However, it definitely adds to the creepiness while you're prowling around the police station with just a flashlight illuminating your way, especially when an enemy leaps straight out of the darkness at you. There were definitely more than one expletives that escaped my mouth when I ran into a Licker coming right at me from the darkness.

I also found that the game had some really great moments where it manages to squeeze as much tension as possible out of certain situations. For example, there's a section in the basement where you must enter the station's morgue to find a key. Now, of course any zombie movie fan knows that hospitals, graveyards, and morgues are pretty much the worst possible places to be during a zombie apocalypse. Additionally, the original game had a similar moment where you find yourself in a morgue and you're surrounded by corpses that spring up on you in an instant, so veteran players already had an idea of what was coming next. So, as soon as you see "morgue" on the basement map, you know you're in for trouble. However, when you enter the room, there's no zombies anywhere- that is, until you realize that you need to check the lockers one by one, slowly pulling them all out until you find what you're looking for (which, of course, is in the next to last one in the room). This moment definitely had me on the edge of my seat as I pulled out each gurney just waiting for a zombie to jump out in my face. A similar moment occurs when you must push four bookcases into place to create a bridge in order to reach the door to the third floor. At this point in the game, Mr. X is still furiously stalking you through the R.P.D., and you have mere moments to get the bookcases into to place before he bursts in. However, your character drags the bookcases along verrrrrrrrryyyyyy slowly, so slowly that you can practically feel Mr. X breathing down your neck as you push the damn things into place- a truly terrifying moment.

Having to slowly pull out every single one of these gurneys worked very well in upping the suspense for me.

I was initially very happy with the experience, but the feelings kind of dulled a bit as the game went on. I do think the game is great overall, but there were plenty of flaws I noted along the way. The R.P.D. station is recreated wonderfully in the game, but the sewers and lab were lacking, I felt. I did like certain areas in each, especially the long passage in the sewers where you fight off a bunch of G-mutant monsters en route to picking up the King & Queen plugs, but for the most part I felt they crossed the figurative line in straying a little too much from the original game. There are a few visual nods to the original in both areas, but the sewer really felt like a giant maze and the lab reminded me much more of the crappy Resident Evil movies than the labs from any of the originals. I just felt that both the sewers and the labs didn't do enough of what made the original remake, as well as the first half of this game, so great- faithfully recreate areas from the original while mixing in new areas and challenges to overcome in a balanced manner.

This part in the sewers in which you must run through a gauntlet filled with G-mutant monsters was great and actually was one of my favorite parts of the game, but the rest of the sewers section left a lot to be desired, I felt.

And this leads me to another point, which was probably the biggest disappointment I had from this remake- the differences between the A and B scenarios were sorely missed. One of my favorite aspects of the original game was playing through the A scenario only to find that there was a 2nd scenario with the other character that felt just enough like the same game, yet was completely different in many ways. What's more, certain things you did in the A scenario actually affected the B scenario! For example, when picking up an item as Leon in the A game, that same item will no longer be available to Claire in the B game. I was completely amazed by the idea as a kid, and I was really expecting that aspect to be back with a vengeance in the remake. The possibilities seemed endless; with the advances in technology, imagine how many things one could do in the A scenario that might have a bearing on the B scenario this time around. Playing through Leon's 1st run initially, I even wondered how many things I was doing that might impact Claire's 2nd run. One part in particular stood out in my mind- in the safety deposit room in the R.P.D., where you have to find the missing keys to the keyboard panel in order to unlock the evidence lockers. I really thought this was a prime area to manipulate the environment such that it would affect both scenarios. Like, and I'm just spitballing here, what if one character found one key for the keyboard but the other found the second one? And that's just one example- there were plenty of moments all throughout the game where I felt the same concept could have been implemented fantastically.

This section in the safety deposit room would've been a prime spot to have some interactivity between the two scenarios.

However, I was quite disappointed to find that there's virtually nothing that carries over between scenarios. In fact, there's not even much of a difference between Leon 1st/Claire 2nd and Claire 1st/Leon 2nd at all. The only real differences as far as I can tell are in the beginning and end of the game. In the original, Leon A/Claire B and Claire A/ Leon B were nearly the same, but had enough differences that they did end up feeling like different sets in the end. For example, in Claire A/Leon B, Sherry is implanted with a G-virus embryo and the player must deal with creating a vaccine for her, while in the Leon A/Claire B scenario this doesn't happen at all. However, there were really no equivalent moments in the remake. Leon 1st is pretty much exactly the same as Leon 2nd, and the same goes for Claire 1st/2nd. Again, I really thought this was the kind of thing that a remake would take and make substantially more complex, yet unfortunately the developers ended up discarding the idea altogether.

One other thing that bothered me a little bit was the music...or, really, the lack thereof. I know it's not necessarily fair to compare this game to Remake 1 (and I'll have more to say about that in a bit), but that game did such a great job in recreating everything from the original in amazing detail, music included. Remake 2 definitely did not follow suit in that regard. There were a few familiar musical cues that came up here and there; for example, the very memorable theme of the main hall softly plays in the background when you first enter the station. However, most of the other music from the fantastic original soundtrack is not present at all, replaced with mostly generic and often subdued music. Don't get me wrong, what music is there is completely fine, and really for a lot of the game there's just no music at all, which adds a lot to the ambiance. I guess I just would've liked to have seen more of the great tunes from the original redone- again, something Remake 1 pulled off expertly.

Some other minor things kind of annoyed me as well. All throughout the game, the characters will, when aiming at an enemy, randomly blurt out things like "what the?" or "you asshole!" a lot. Which is, in my opinion, kind of stupid. Like, ok, realism or whatever, but I can't say I really care too much about realism in a game in which I'm carrying 4 guns at a time and fighting the living dead while an 8-foot linebacker wearing a trench coat and fedora stalks me through a police station. And it just sounds...dumb, to me. Also, the game just straight up cut out a lot of enemies like the spiders in the sewers, black Lickers in the lab, and the giant moth mini-boss battle. Which, fine, the moth I could understand getting rid of (even though I always thought the room you fight it in was so cool because it looked like something straight out of Aliens), but the black Lickers were awesome because of how much deadlier they were, and the giant spiders were always a staple of the early RE games, so I think it's hard to justify omitting them.

There were also a few minor continuity errors that kind of bugged me, being the detail-oriented geek that I am. For one thing, there's a moment in the 1st run scenario where, upon exiting the R.P.D. building onto the 2nd floor fire escape, your character will see the other character behind a locked gate and have a brief conversation with them. This occurs after you make your way through the city streets and do about 30-45 minutes worth of running around in the police station. However, upon starting the 2nd scenario with the other character and beginning the game right in the outer courtyard area of the R.P.D., you come to that very area and the same cutscene plays about 2 minutes in. When I first saw it, I literally said out loud "wait...what?" Even in the original, scenes with both Leon and Claire between the A and B scenarios occurred at roughly the same point in the playthrough, at least making it seem like it made sense.

So Leon took like an hour to get here and Claire took about...30 seconds.

Also, there's another moment that bothered me- so in Leon's game, he's stalked all throughout by Mr. X and it isn't until the very end that you find a way to kill him once and for all. Claire is only followed by Mr. X. for about half of her campaign, because upon entering the sewers area, Mr. X is actually chopped in half and killed by William Birkin right in front of you. So...is it not the same Mr. X between scenarios? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, though I can't get too nerd-mad at this one because I think there is an explanation. It's not made explicitly clear in this game, but in the original, Mr. X is dropped into the R.P.D. by a helicopter which is also carrying five other tanks that we can only assume contain other tyrants. Also, at the very end of Resident Evil 3, a number of dead tyrants are seen scattered in a room in the factory. So, I guess it makes sense that there would be more than one, but the idea is not really explored at all.

Anyway, before I break your computer with extreme nerdiness, I have one final point that's a more of a philosophical question than anything- so, with all the changes made, is this game really a remake at all? Well, it's a little complicated. Compared directly to Remake 1...not really.

The biggest difference between Remake 1 and Remake 2 is that Remake 1 was actually a remake in a much purer sense of the word; very few details from the original game were subtracted, but many more were added and enhanced. Remake 2 is less of a remake in this regard and more of a re-imagining. Details were added and enhanced for sure, but others were subtracted, shuffled around, and mixed together to create an end product that felt familiar, yet significantly different enough that it's hard to call the game a straight up remake.

I think this is more a result of changes in the tech of video games over time than anything. Consider, for a moment, the timeline of these games being released and the gaps between each; the original Resident Evil was released in 1996, followed by Resident Evil 2 in 1998. Then, after a string of sequels and spinoffs, Remake 1 was released in 2002. That's only a 6-year span between the original and Remake 1; compare that to the 21 years that separate RE2 and Remake 2- or, hell, even the 17 years between Remake 1 and Remake 2. What I'm getting at here is that there was a far smaller gap between the original and Remake 1, meaning that technology hadn't really advanced all that much to allow for huge fundamental changes to be made from the original. It had advanced just enough so that Remake 1 most certainly changed the rules in a lot of ways (for the better, I might add), yet didn't stray too far from the tried and true formula of the original. Despite all the flaws it ironed out, the control scheme, pre-rendered backgrounds, and 3rd person fixed-camera POV of the original are all still there in Remake 1.

By 2019, however, video games have changed quite a lot from 1998. We're in the era of massive, open world games with huge amounts of interactivity and complexity in the environments they create. There's games with huge story branches, games with non-linear worlds in which you complete objectives in any manner in which you choose, and let's not even get into online multiplayer capabilities. So, remaking RE2 in the same style as Remake 1 did with RE1 just wouldn't quite work the way it did in 2002, I believe. I mean, it's hard to say whether or not Remake 1 would be more of a re-imagining as well if it were done today and not in 2002. But this is what we now have, and unlike Remake 1, Remake 2 is a true 3D, over-the-shoulder POV shooter much closer to a game like RE4 in look and style, even though it still manages to retain the general tone and feel of RE2.

Whatever the case and despite everything I've just talked about, I did really enjoy Remake 2 overall. There are plenty of liberties taken but overall it doesn't turn the game into something unrecognizable, which was my biggest worry from the start. I think it's got enough to keep fans of the original happy, and it didn't go completely overboard with trying to make something old new again. I also think it's definitely a lesser companion to the original than Remake 1 is to RE1 for sure, but as I said earlier, the original RE2 was a really tough act to follow, and this game did a damn good job trying. And, you know what, there's still plenty of things I haven't even gotten to in this game yet- Hardcore mode, the various "Ghost Survivors" mini-games, and the 4th Survivor game as well, so maybe this game will warm up to me even more.

Above all, one thing is for certain- survival horror is not dead yet. Maybe it just needed a resurrection, very much like a zombie infected with the T-Virus. Thanks for reading.

Thoughts On Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS4)

**Contains massive spoilers for Resident Evil 7. The whole game.**

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room, where there is an evil all around us, and yes, it's a permanent resident. Yeah, I thought that was real clever too. Except not really.

Anyway, today I'll be discussing Resident Evil 7, which I've just finished my fourth playthrough of and am ready to discuss further. As you are probably aware of by now, Resident Evil is one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. However, since Resident Evil 4 some 12 years ago, my feelings regarding the series have been mixed. Generally, I think things have been in a bit of a downhill slide since 4. Though I did enjoy 4 and even 5 (albeit in a different kind of way), 6 was the first game in the main series that I really thought was a dud. I've been eagerly waiting for the franchise to return to its horror roots, and I think that 7 certainly represents a huge step in that direction.

"Survival horror" may not have been invented by Resident Evil, but it was the first game to really take the concept to the mainstream. After all, the original Resident Evil was largely inspired by a Japanese Famicom game called "Sweet Home," which was considered the first true survival horror game (in fact, Resident Evil was originally conceptualized as a remake of Sweet Home). The horror genre was the basis for the franchise, with its tale of an old abandoned house filled with zombies, giant spiders, and other monsters. Which is why it was a shame, I think, to see the game get dumbed down with its action-centric gameplay and inane story arcs that rival The Fast & The Furious movies for patent absurdity.

The return to the series' roots in horror is definitely refreshing, not only in gameplay but in story as well. The game follows a man named Ethan, who has recently received a mysterious message from his former girlfriend Mia, who has been missing for the past 3 years. She beckons him to find her in the bayou country of Louisana, a.k.a. the middle of nowhere. Ethan eagerly sets out to find her, and his journey brings him deep into the center of a nightmare when he finds himself trapped on a crumbling estate run by a psychopathic family called the Bakers. The family is headed by the homicidal Jack Baker, who runs things alongside his deranged wife Margeurite and sadistic son Lucas. There's also a little girl named Eveline running around who seems to have something to do with everything, but her role isn't quite clear initially. The story takes a break from the Resident Evil regulars and presents something new, but you do uncover connections to the franchises' past along the way- more on that later.

 The Bakers, your antagonists through a majority of the game. 

Anyway, the game begins with you, as Ethan, desperately trying to escape the house and save Mia while staying alive and avoiding the Bakers and other monstrous creatures that have sprung up in the house. You'll have to find weapons and ammo to defend yourself, solve puzzles, and unravel a mystery along the way- very reminiscent of the good old days of survival horror. In fact, that's what I liked the most about this game in comparison to recent Resident Evil games; it really felt like a desperate struggle to survive, much like the original games did. This is clearly in opposition to the newer games, which were mainly presented as noisy action movies with little substance to fill them out.

The first person perspective is a bit of a change up as well. Sure, there have been other first person Resident Evil games (i.e. Survivor, Dead Aim, The Umbrella Chronicles, etc.), but this is the first one from the primary series. This was a great decision as far as I'm concerned, as I believe the 3rd-person perspective that started with RE4 has gotten kind of stale by now. Again, this might just be my subjective dislike of RE6 that's showing, but I really feel like that style of gameplay for the Resident Evil games had played itself out, at least for the time being.

Anyway, the first person perspective also serves to add a new feature to the Resident Evil repertoire: Virtual Reality, in the form of support for the Playstation VR. Unfortunately, I don't have a VR headset at the moment, so I couldn't experience this mode of play. But, oh man, I could imagine that playing this game with the VR would be a thrilling/terrifying way to play the game. Maybe one day I will, but either way I think this is an excellent addition and future games should all have this option as well.

As far as the feel of the game, it reminded me of a lot of other games at times. It felt like there was a bit of old-school Silent Hill influence at times, mostly when waking through dark corridors with only a tiny bit of light illuminating what's in front of you. Other times it reminded me of games that emphasize stealth, especially in areas where Jack is hunting you down and you have to do whatever you can to stay out of his line of sight. But mostly, to reiterate, it felt a lot like the original Resident Evil games in that I was constantly on the lookout for any items, weapons, and health that could help me survive a little longer. Aside from other horror games, it also clearly had a ton of inspiration from horror movies as well. The whole "homicidal backwoods family" thing is definitely a nod to movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. At other times, there also seemed to be plenty of references to movies like The Exorcist, The Ring, The Grudge, Evil Dead, and Saw. As a horror movie junkie, this is all fine by me.

Anyway, now to the actual game. The entire first act of the game is dedicated to finding your way through the Baker's massive property, tracking down Mia, and staying alive while dealing with monsters made of what looks like a mixture of tar and caviar (the game calls these creatures "Molded"). The black stuff is all over the place, and though it does feed into the plot, it mainly serves to indicate the presence of the Molded. For example, at one point in the game you must travel into the basement of the estate, where you'll find the black gunk all over the place. It's a truly tense moment because you just know it will be crawling with the creatures, and you never know what lurks beyond the next corner.

I really do think they look more like caviar than mold.

Along the way, you'll also have to deal with the seemingly unstoppable Jack Baker as he stalks you through the house. On normal mode, it's fairly easy to dodge him and stay out of sight; however, on hard mode, he's pretty relentless and escaping his wrath is no easy task. You can hide from him if you manage to get out of his line of sight, which is where the stealth aspect comes in. However, it's not really necessary and there aren't too many areas in which you need to dodge him. It would've been interesting if this idea was explored a little bit more, but it doesn't really detract from the game either. Jack can be slowed down with bullets, but with a limited supply of munitions, it's best to just run and hide as much as you can and then sneak off when he isn't looking.

Speaking of munitions, you'll have to search high and low for them. Ammo is definitely scarcer than in recent RE games, and you'll need to do plenty of searching of the environment in order to find it. You'll also find a fairly sizeable supply of weaponry to fend off monsters, from various handguns to a grenade launcher with two types of grenade rounds. Some weapons will require a bit of ingenuity to acquire, though. For example, you'll find a powerful .44 magnum that's locked in a birdcage and can only be opened by inserting 9 so-called "antique coins" into a slot, and the tiny coins are often hidden out of sight and scattered all around the estate. If you're low on ammo, you also have the option to produce more by doing a bit of crafting. An item called "Chem Fluid" can frequently be found on the grounds, which you'll need to combine with other items like gunpowder or herbs to make ammo and health, respectively. There's also a less common "Strong Chem Fluid," which can make more powerful ammo or health. And lastly there's the "Separating Agent," which can be used to extract chem fluid from certain items in order to be used to make something else.

The .44 magnum requires a bit of work to obtain.

Inventory space is limited, but can be increased as the game goes on. Sometimes you'll need to juggle items around in order to be able to fit everything in your inventory, but this rarely gets in the way of the gameplay. The Resident Evil tradition of storage crates returns, and you'll find one in just about every major hub area of the game, which helps out with managing inventory space. One kind of annoying thing about the inventory though is that you can only use four weapons at a time, and if you have a fifth weapon, you can't even equip it just to reload it with ammo and manage some space. It's kind of dumb, considering every other game in the series let you carry as much firepower as you wanted. However, by the time this really becomes an issue, the game is almost over anyway.

About halfway through the game, they throw a curveball at you by having you take control of Mia when Ethan is temporarily incapacitated. From here, you'll need to navigate a derelict tanker ship and get to the bottom of what Mia's role is in all this madness. Mia plays exactly the same as Ethan, but you'll need to start from scratch with your inventory. This makes for some tense moments as you're stalked by enemies you've become familiar with but now lack enough supplies to deal with, even if it does feel slightly manufactured. Mia does get her some new weapons of her own, like a machine gun and some remote bombs to play with, so this section also manages to fit in some new things. Anyway, once you finish Mia's section and take control of Ethan again you'll be in the final stretch, and this is where I have my biggest complaint about the game.

After regaining control of Ethan, you escape the tanker and head into an abandoned underground salt mine, which is ominously labeled the "Lab" on a map that Ethan finds. My thought going into it was that this is where things were going to really get good, as the laboratory sections of previous RE games were always my favorite parts. And things definitely did get good, for a little bit: Ethan uncovers the last bit of the mystery, which explains where the Molded came from, the Baker's involvement, and Eveline's presence in the area. However...it all happens very fast. The lab section is very short and it's pretty much just a straight shot into the final fight of the game. There's no puzzles to solve, not much area to explore, and it doesn't even have a boss fight...well, it kind of does. At the end of the section, you'll square off against two "Fat Molded" enemies side by side, which are pretty much the toughest non-boss enemies you'll see in the game.

I got pretty excited upon seeing this map, but my excitement was short-lived.

After that, you'll re-emerge back at the Baker's house from the very beginning of the game, where you then square off against Eveline, who mutates into a gigantic black-mold blob with a face and tentacles. It's cool, sure, but it's also...very anticlimactic. The fight plays out on more of a script than an actual fight, and you don't even really need much ammo or health for this part. Ethan will grab a big, powerful gun that he finds on the ground, you fire off the last bit of ammo at the monstrous Eveline, and that's all.

I would've liked to have seen a lot of different things in the final act. First, as I mentioned, I would've liked if the Lab/Mines section was more extensive with more to do in it. I guess the idea was supposed to be that it explicitly isn't supposed to be a big fancy lab, but rather something thrown together by a backwoods mad scientist, like a meth lab or something. Still, I would've liked more out of the final section of the game. Also, the final boss fight left a lot to be desired. If it was less scripted and more reliant on actual player input, I think I would've had a much bigger sense of accomplishment upon beating the game, especially on hard mode.

Oh, yes, the game as a hard mode- called "Madhouse" mode, unlocked once the game is beaten once on easy or normal mode. This mode is far less forgiving than normal mode, but I think it's really the definitive way to play the game. For starters, enemies are a lot tougher- they deal out a lot more damage and can take much more abuse. Items are also completely rearranged. For example, a key that is used to unlock certain doors in the Baker's house can just be found out in the open in normal or easy mode; however, on hard mode, the key is locked in one of the bird cages and the player must find antique coins to unlock it, forgoing other helpful items that are locked up in other cages just to be able to progress.

By far though, the most drastic change in hard mode is the handicapping of the autosave feature. On easy and normal modes, you have two means of saving the game: manually saving at save spots (called "tape recorders") which are scattered about in hub areas, or waiting for the game to autosave. The autosaves are frequent enough that you get one for just about every major item you receive and most events that happen in the game. As such, dying will not set you back very far and you can often pick up and try again right where you left off. However, this changes big time in hard mode. In hard mode, there is only about 4 or 5 moments in the entire game where you get an autosave. In addition, manual saves come with a price; in order to save at a tape recorder, you'll need to find cassettes to use at the recorders (which, once again, harken back to the old days of typewriters and ink ribbons, which was another nice touch). You get about 3 cassettes per save spot, but I ended up using them quite quickly just to ensure I wouldn't get set back too much if I died (which, by the way, I did a LOT on hard mode). It's a much greater challenge than the other modes, but by the end, I found that I enjoyed hard mode the most. I think it's the best way to experience the game and get the most challenge out of it.

The lack of auto-saving on Madhouse mode is the biggest challenge you'll face.

There's plenty of fun things to unlock as well, which keeps the experience from getting old. Firstly, there's two different endings based on one choice you have to make, so that alone gives you a reason to play through more than once. Secondly, you'll unlock a more powerful handgun and an item which increases your defensive abilities after beating it once, which both really help to get through hard mode. Beating the game on hard mode unlocks infinite ammo for all weapons, which in turn helps make the game easier to beat in under four hours, which THEN will give you an item called the "X-Ray Glasses," which allow you to see exactly where any item is and helps to find many hidden items you may have missed before. Once you reach this point, you've pretty much mastered the game and any further playthroughs are just to have fun with all the unlocked content and to gain trophies (or achievements, in the Xbox One version).

So, after the fourth playthrough, I think I can say I definitely did have a lot of fun with this game, even if the ending was somewhat of a letdown. Besides that, I didn't have a whole lot to complain about. One minor thing though, there isn't a whole lot of variation in the enemies. Besides the boss fights (two with Jack, one with Margeruite, and half of one with Eveline), there's pretty much only 4 enemies in the whole game- regular molded, molded with large hooked claws, four-legged molded, and fat molded. There's also a section where you'll have to fight off some large bugs, but these things are more of an inconvenience than a real enemy. Of course, this is probably just me with the nostalgia glasses permanently glued to my face, but I can't help but think back to the days of Resident Evil 2, which had so many varied types of enemies that you needed to adapt different strategies to deal with. Obviously, they're two very different games, but I think experiencing so much variety is one of the main things that made me love the original games to begin with.

And one last thing, back to my point about connections to previous games- there's plenty of them, but you have to look a little hard and have a great memory (or, in my case, extreme nerdiness) to spot them all. For example, most RE fans would probably get this reference to the first game:

But, how many would see this one, from one of the files you find in the game:

Yes, that author is the very same Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil: Outbreak, who apparently is still doing investigative journalism 18 years later. Now that's reaching into obscurity.

There was also this one:

And this one:

You get the idea. I just like how they managed to do their own distinctive thing, yet keep the spirit of the previous games alive, even if it was only in subtle little ways. That, in my opinion, is what any good sequel should do. I also think it's telling that even the title of the game represents the franchise coming full circle (for those who are unaware, Resident Evil is called 'Biohazard' in Japan, so calling the game Resident Evil: Biohazard was meant to be the bridge between the Eastern and Western versions of the game. And yes, it was called Biohazard: Resident Evil in Japan). It's as if they specifically meant to tie the whole thing together neatly, and I think this game did a good job with that.

And even though the final fight was a bit of a letdown, I did like the ending and the cliffhanger it left for future games. So the game ends with a squadron of helicopters swooping in to pick up Ethan after he finishes Eveline off, and the helicopters are branded with the...*gasp* Umbrella Corporation logo!? And what's more, a masked soldier descends from the helicopter and approaches Ethan, then removes his helmet to reveal...our old friend Chris Redfield! They carry Ethan off in the helicopter, and in the good ending, Mia is alongside him. But there are still many unanswered questions. It's been revealed that the Bakers were being controlled by Eveline, but who created Eveline in the first place? Who's running Umbrella now, and what is their role in all this? What became of Lucas, and will he be back in future installments? And what ever happened to Ark Thompson, damn it??

(P.S., these questions may have all been answered in the various DLC packages for the game, but I haven't played any of them as of this writing, so they're still unanswered for me at least. Except for that last one, that was a joke. Sort of.)
  
Anyway, my final verdict for RE7? It's a great game. Much better than 6, also better than 5 in different ways. I admittedly haven't played a lot of other recent RE games like Revelations 1 & 2 or Operation: Raccoon City, so maybe comparing this game to older ones isn't necessarily fair. Nonetheless, I still think 7 is a welcome addition to the series and I hope newer games continue to build on the precedent it set. Despite the flaws, I think it's a huge step in the right direction for the franchise. I enjoyed the horror, the mystery, and the journey, which are the exact elements that I enjoyed from the old days as well. Now if only Capcom will officially announce a remake of Resident Evil 2, then we'll be talking. Thanks for reading.

Collection Additions Volume 12: NTSC-J FTW

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. Well, after a long winter, here we are in late spring at last. The weather's getting nicer, the flowers are in bloom, and a deadly bio-organic weapons experiment has gone terribly wrong and spilled a horrific mutagenic toxin in a hidden laboratory underneath a crumbling mansion out in the woods. That last part is fictional of course, but in the game Resident Evil, released in 1996 for the Sony Playstation, these events did take place on May 11th, 1998.

As such, this time of year always makes me think of the Resident Evil series. If it wasn't already evident from the myriad of posts I've previously made about it, Resident Evil is one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. To talk about everything I enjoy about it at this point would be exceedingly redundant, so suffice it to say that it's one of my absolute favorites. And of course, once this time of year rolls around, I always get the itch to play it again. Itchy/Tasty, that is.

Anyway, this year I decided to try something a mite bit different. Heading over to the 'ol interwebs, I went ahead and purchased these two items:

A simple Sony Playstation 1 and a game called Biohazard. At first glance, the unassuming reader might ask, what does this have to do with Resident Evil?

Well dear reader, as it happens, Biohazard is Resident Evil, just the Japanese version of the game. When the game was brought over to the U.S., it was renamed due to a swath of trademark issues with the name Biohazard, and thus Resident Evil was born. However, that's not all that was changed. The game was also censored in a few places and rearranged a tiny bit. Being the hardcore RE fan that I am, I wanted to get a closer look at these aspects and find everything I could see that was different.

However, I first needed something to play it on. Japanese PS1 games are region-locked, meaning that they will only play on a Japanese PS1. Therefore, I went ahead and picked one up. Thankfully, only the games are an issue; U.S. controllers, cables, and memory cards will work perfectly fine (though memory cards do need to be reformatted to work, meaning all previous data on them needs to be wiped. Also, the power cable needs to have a "figure-8" ending, as opposed to the U.S. power cord that ends with one square side, which won't fit in the power slot of a Japanese console).

Aesthetically, the console is nearly identical to a U.S. region PS1. In fact, the only way you can really tell the difference is by looking at the sticker on the bottom of the console:

The NTSC-J code marks the console's region as Japanese, meaning that I had everything set to get the game going.

I decided to play through Jill's scenario, since it's the easier of the two. The very first thing I noticed was that both Jill and Chris' scenarios are actually marked easy and hard, respectively, as opposed to the U.S. version where the player is left to just play it and figure out which one is more difficult on their own. An interesting omission.

Of course, there's the infamous censored scenes in the beginning of the game. During the opening FMV cutscene, there's three moments that were censored. When Chris begins discussing the bizarre murders that have been occurring, a mutilated corpse is actually shown; in the U.S. version, it cuts to newspaper headlines describing the murders instead. Later on, when the S.T.A.R.S. team is investigating the forest, one of the members finds a severed hand and is subsequently attacked and brutally killed by dogs, which his teammates then fire at and kill. His gruesome death is shown in full detail, as well as the mutant dogs being shot at; in the U.S. version, the scene cuts away just before the severed hand is shown fully and his death is edited down to a few jump cuts of dog teeth and feral growls. Lastly, during the character introductions, Chris Redfield is shown lighting up a cigarette and taking a drag from it; this scene was censored in an odd way in the U.S. by pasting other footage of Chris over it, while the other character intros were left the same.

Another interesting tidbit, I always thought that the Japanese version was colorized, as opposed to the U.S. version which is in black and white. However, this is not the case, as both versions are in black and white. I thought this was odd because I have actually seen the full uncensored cutscene on YouTube, which is colorized. As such, I thought this was the Japanese version. As it turns out though, this intro is actually from the PC version of the game. The Japanese one is uncut but is still in black and white, which was kind of a downer, but was likely due to hardware limitations of the time.

Moving on, while playing through I noticed that the Japanese version is actually easier, oddly enough. Usually it's the other way around because us dumbass Americans can't seem to handle the difficulty, or at least that's what the corporate suits thought (see: Super Mario Bros. 2, NES). Anyway, everything is a lot easier. Enemies are weaker, auto aim is enabled, and the amount of ink ribbons found is higher, meaning game saves can be made more frequently. Also, in some areas where three enemies might attack you in the U.S. version, only two or one will be present.

There's also a few minor differences that only an eagle-eyed RE veteran would notice. For example, for each of the file texts, a picture of the file will appear behind the text, unlike the U.S. version which just shows the text on a blank screen. At least it gives me something to look at since I can't read Japanese. Also, the Plant 42 boss has some, um, interesting music to say the least. However, this music was replaced with the music of another boss in the JP version, that of the giant spider. Small details, but noticeable if you've played the game as many times as I have.

So that's Biohazard on the Japanese PS1. Was it necessary for me to buy it? Not really, since I already have the original, the Director's Cut, the Director's Cut Dual Shock Edition, and the Sega Saturn port of Resident Evil, meaning that this is literally the 5th different version of it I now possess. But it was cool to play it as it was originally intended for the folks in Japan, and it's also generally cool to me that I've played the game so many times in my life that I can beat it without even needing to read the text. I define "cool" quite differently from most people, as you can probably tell.

Anyway, I have one last thing to share as far as collection additions, and it's just as redundant as having a 5th different version of the same exact game I already own: a Game Boy Advance.

But not just any Game Boy Advance! No, this is the special "Target" edition, only sold at Target stores (obviously) with a big old corporate logo plastered right on the front of it. Whatever, I thought it was unique. And all I need is two more and then four copies of Mario Kart Super Circuit and I'll be able to get a sweet four-player Mario Kart advance race going! Or, at least I can tell people that I can if I wanted to. Thanks for reading.

Gaming Memories: Mastering Resident Evil Code: Veronica X

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. I try to bring different things to the table, but I'll own up to this one fact: I talk about Resident Evil a lot. I try not to be repetitive, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of my greatest gaming memories come from playing it, and all in all it's probably my favorite video game franchise of all time. Anyway, today I want to talk about another one of my finer gaming accomplishments from one of my favorite games ever: obtaining an A ranking in Resident Evil Code: Veronica X.

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.

Over-analyzing Resident Evil

**Spoiler warning- This editorial contains spoilers for Resident Evil.**

Hello dear readers, welcome back to the game room and a happy Halloween to you all. I thought it would be appropriate today to once again step into the world of survival horror, so I'm going back to the subject of one of my favorite games ever.

Have you ever played a single game so many times that you just start to notice weird little things every time you play through it again? We all have at least one game we can always pick up no matter what and give it a run from start to finish while enjoying every second. The original Resident Evil is one such title for me, and even though it hasn't aged all that well compared to it's quite superior sequels, it's still a classic that I get the urge to play every once in a while. However, every time I do I feel like I notice a little something about the game that I never noticed before. Be it something in the background or a weird quirk in the story, Resident Evil is just one of those games I have endlessly scaled inch by inch and over-analyzed to death in the 20 years since it's release. So, I present to you a few amusing little things I've noticed by playing through the game at least a thousand times in my life.

The gap at the box puzzle. So if you've played Resident Evil, you surely remember the part where you have to push the boxes into the water-filled gap so you can safely cross into the flooded basement area of the guardhouse. Have you ever stopped to think though- how did anyone get across this gap when the basement wasn't flooded? Obviously, yeah, this was just meant to be a short puzzle and most likely there was not much other thought put into it. From an in-game point of view though, imagine the Umbrella scientists filling up the gap with water every time they needed to look at the Neptune tank, then pushing a bunch of crates into the gap (because they couldn't jump across it or anything, either). How would they get the crates out afterward? Would they even want to? Why is there even a gap in the first place? Why not build a little bridge over it? What kind of architectural design was this? And why is the water still there when you drain the basement? I have to ask myself these things every time I'm sitting and waiting as I slowly push those boxes over.

Fairly early in the game, you can make your way to the 2nd floor balcony area where you'll find the corpse of our dear Bravo team comrade Forest Speyer. Depending on who you're playing as, you can pick up either a bazooka or a few clips here and you'll get attacked by a few zombified crows. But something always bothered me about this area: it's supposed to be the dead of night, but doesn't it look a bit like daytime out there? I always liked that shot of Raccoon forest, but at the same time I've felt like it should've been a bit darker. I don't know, you be the judge.

Let's talk about another oft forgotten member of the team: Brad Vickers. So we all know the opening to Resident Evil pretty well: The S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team goes searching for the missing Bravo team in the Raccoon Forest, they get attacked by mutant killer dogs and their helicopter pilot Brad "chickenheart" Vickers flies away, leaving them stranded. They run to a nearby seemingly abandoned mansion and search for a way out, all while the pilot desperately tries to contact them over the radio. At the end of the game, the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members launch a flare early the next morning that signals him to their position, and he flies in the pick them up as the Spencer mansion explodes behind them, the end. Here's the thing though- what was he doing the entire time while they were running around in the mansion? Flying around in circles repeatedly trying to contact his team without any answers (whom he totally abandoned and left for dead, by the way)? Didn't he see the heliport? Don't tell me it wasn't noticeable- it totally was, as evidenced by these two pictures:

Why didn't he land there and then look for them? Or, better yet, why didn't he go back to the Raccoon Police Department building for backup? I also find it pretty funny that he just immediately dropped in as soon as the signal flares were launched, indicating that he had to be at least just hovering around the vicinity of the mansion most of the night. Or maybe he just took the helicopter to a Dunkin' Donuts and picked up some coffee, then came back later when he remembered that his friends were probably torn to pieces because of him. And all this brings me another point-

Rocket launcher madness. First of all, what's with that thing? It's straight out of the movie Commando, showcased by good old Arnie in the picture below:

Did the S.T.A.R.S. team really need that kind of firepower? I know they're supposed to be an anti-terrorist police squad, and maybe I just don't know enough about tactical police weaponry but I'm having a hard time believing that they really needed to be packing that kind of heat, especially on what was a search and rescue mission. But forget about all that. Let's talk about the real issue here- how the hell did Brad manage to toss this thing out of the helicopter at the end?

So in Resident Evil's climactic finale, Brad drops the player a rocket launcher which allows them to obliterate the previously unkillable final boss, the Tyrant. But I've always had a hard time wrapping my mind around just how Brad managed to do so. I imagine that thing would've probably been secured pretty tightly, lest the team just had a loaded rocket launcher sliding around on the floor of the helicopter at all times. But he couldn't have gotten up to take it out and then throw it out the window, could he? Do helicopters have some kind of autopilot function I'm unaware of? I'm no expert, but I'm gonna say they don't. So until I'm proven otherwise, I'm gonna have to say that the launcher was just sitting on the floor and he had to tilt the helicopter mid-air in order to slide it out. Also, how durable are those things? I always laugh at the thought of the rocket launcher falling out but then just shattering to pieces the second it hit the concrete. Or better yet, unintentionally going off when it hit and then blowing up Jill or Chris by accident.

How about the secret entrance to the Umbrella laboratory? This was a pretty memorable part of the game- upon collecting both the Eagle and Wolf medals and escaping the deadly underground tunnels, you emerge into a mundane looking outdoor area with a large fountain standing before you. However, when you place the medals in their appropriate east and west positions, the fountain drains and opens up to reveal a hidden elevator, leading to the secret Umbrella laboratory. Sounds pretty simple, and this was easily one of the coolest moments of the entire game (complete with a short CGI sequence where the water parts and reveals the secret entrance that made it even cooler). However, I have a few issues here.

Firstly, in the little courtyard area where the fountain is there's a large metal door. If you approach it and try to use it, a text box will appear telling you that it's been tightly welded shut. That's the end of that, but I've always wanted to know- where the hell does that door lead? It's not connected to the mansion anywhere on the map, yet there is a large building behind it. What is it? A little pool house for the fountain where they kept a skimmer and chlorine?

Second, let's talk about the fountain itself. So you're telling me that every time one of the many Umbrella scientists and workers who slaved away in the lab making the T-Virus had to enter the lab, they needed to insert two medals and drain an entire fountain just to use an elevator? I mean, there's an entire network of underground tunnels right before it! Couldn't they just have connected the lab entrance to that? And who refilled the fountain every time they drained it? What would happen if someone was exiting the lab and there was still water on top of it? Would they just get drenched? Maybe the scientists just slept in the labs all the time- as someone who actually works at a real lab myself, I can tell you that it definitely does happen from time to time. But where would they sleep? In that break room on the 3rd basement level? And why would there be all those bedrooms in the mansion and guardhouse then if no one was using them?

 The fountain opens up in this nifty little sequence that was always one of my favorite moments in the game. However...

...did they really need to do that every time they entered the lab?

And lastly, not a humorous moment but just something I always found very cool- the music change upon re-entering the mansion. So you start out by exploring the Spencer estate mansion from top to bottom, but there are still a few locked doors that you don't have the key for. You then leave the mansion for a bit to explore the courtyard and the guardhouse, where you eventually find the final key that will unlock the last doors. However, upon return to the mansion you'll find things are quite a bit different- it's now filled with the extremely dangerous hunter enemies that stalk every corner. Something else is also a tad different- the background music that plays on the 1st & 2nd floors of the mansion. Nothing too strange, but if you listen closely you might hear something interesting: the music is now a rearranged version of the original theme. Give the original music a listen, then listen to the revisit music- you'll notice it's almost the same, yet there's something far more sinister about the rearranged version, conveying that everything has changed in the mansion since you've been gone. It almost does feel like a complete different place, since it's filled with terrifying enemies you haven't seen to that point and new rooms to explore. It's just another nice little touch to an already great game.

Now I know what you're probably thinking- it's just a video game from the 90s, shut up with all the scrutiny. And you're right, it is just a game. A great game. One of my favorites ever. And I wouldn't be over-analzying it so much if I didn't love it and have played it so many damn times in my life to even notice these things. Such is the nature of games that we grew up with that have become timeless classics in our eyes. Thanks for reading.