About a month ago, i decided to take a little journey to the PSX era and run through all the Resident Evil games. I thought i might post my thoughts and feelings about them one-by-one starting with the original Resident Evil and i blabber about REmake a bit. What you're gonna see might not be anything new to you, but i figured someone might wanna hear about my experience with the games considering the first one i genuinely played through was RE4.
Without Further Adieu
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 5 was on it's way so i decided i'd go through the original games and try to beat them to get the real feel for the series. Watching the guy getting mauled by something and a close-up of blood bursting and an eye appearing as the main menu background is a memorable moment for me already, So come with me, Jill Valentine Cosplayerlet's play the game. So it's 1998, people aregetting eaten in the mountains, and S.T.A.R.S is on the case. Alpha team is sent in after Bravo team dissapears, and you get to see a Black&White Live-Action sequence introducing all the main characters and then showing them discovering Bravo Team's chopper and something else in the fields. After a pretty hilarious Live-Action chase scene, they all end up in the house and are all now low-res polygon models. From the get-go you're treated to somecheesy lines from all the characters of the series, i thought it brought some unintentional humour to playing the game like some B-movies do. You can choose to be either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, differences being that Chris starts off with a Lighter, has 6 inventory slots and can take more damage than Jill. Jill has 8 inventory slots, a Lockpick but has less health than Chris. Jill's scenario is all-around considered the easy one due to more inventory and not having to find small keys(lockpick will open anything that requires them, Chris will need to use up his already limited inventory to hold on to them and use them.). There are some storyline differences in the 2 scenario's which i'll outline as i go on. So i picked Jill and went with her for 1 reason specifically, Barry Burton. As you start the game(Jill Scenario), Chris has gone missing and you and Barry go What is This?investigate a dining room for clues. Barry finds some blood on the floor that he hopes isn't Chris' Blood. As Jill, there was a door to the right which i went to check out. As i walk to the right side, every door is locked and all the while i hear crunching noises. So i head to the left a an FMV sequence kicks off showing a head slowly turning to reveal a grotesque zombie face. It cuts back to the game and i run for it to the dining room. The zombie follows me(this is pretty much the only zombie in RE1 that can follow you through a door) and Barry shoots him 3 timeswithwhat i believe isa .357 Magnum ( or Colt Python, also..were the first 2 shots blanks cause i'd think a weapon of that calibur would rip the zombie apart pretty much) and kills him. Jill recommends that she and Barry report this to Wesker, but when they go to the lobby of the mansion, Wesker is missing (WESKEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!) and Barry decides that they should split up and cover more ground this way. (I'm gonna fast forward through the endless exploration parts just so it's less like reading a Gamefaqs walkthrough). Jill then finds a shotgun on a wall and grabs it cause, why not?. Long story short, it's a trap, the ceiling is coming down and the door's on either side will not open( despite the fact that jill has a shotgun and they're wooden doors and she could blow the handles off). Barry was in the neighbourhood so he just....opens the door outside the room?(this is expanded/changed in REmake which i'll get into). Barry tells Jill how she avoided becoming a Bite-Sized Snack(A Jill Sandwich if you will !) and Jill thanks him for saving her life, but wondering why he is on the opposite end of the mansion (when they split up, Jill went right, Barry went left). Barry says he just had a hunch, so he just walks away. Jill then Finds Forest Speyer's corpse on a balcony and finds.....a Grenade Laucher!(Really good weapon and exclusive to Jill's scenario). As she walks away Forest rises up to munch on Jill's face but gets an explosive round embedded in his torso within seconds. Then jill meets up with Richard Aiken who has been bitten by a giant snake(It's official name is Yawn) and Jill needs to give him some serum(in the original release, it doesn't really matter wheter you give him the serum or he dies). So i give him serum, and then promptly meet the giant snake himself. I avoid him and just grab something i need to use for a certain puzzle. Then i head to the Garden's or whatever it's called and meet up with Tentacles protruding the floor, Giant spiders that break into a ton of tiny spiders on death, and Bees!(OH GOD WHY!?). I meet Wesker here shooting at something(on closer inspection...it's nothing but a wall :S) and he tells we're still looking for Chris and skips off. Long Story short, i meet Plant 42 and pump him full of Grenades, then when i think he's dead, he grabs me and Barry comes in with a flamethrower and melts it. As i return from the Garden, i'm greeted with an FMV showing something closing in on the door into the mansion and opening the door. Then i head to the Aqua Lab and meet up with some Mutated sharks. I drain the Water and the result ends up in suffocating sharks flopping on the ground. Then i head into the 2nd floor to solve another puzzle, while being introduced to Hunter's(they're pretty much scattered in almost every room, and they're a bunch of Mean Monster's). After solving the puzzle, Yawn is back for round 2, after Say hello to Tyrakilling it with the Grenade Launcher(i have the magnum at this point, but it would be a waste of rare ammunition), i fall through a hole in the floor. Barry runs in the room as throws me a rope...and it slips. He promises to get me another rope and i have the choice of waiting for Barry or going further down this hole(wheter or not you wait for him he'll either be with you at the end of the game or dead). So Barry get's back to me with another rope and i get back up, after which he leaves me again. I decide to go down the hole and i've arrived at the secret underground lab, greeted by a trio of Hunter's diddyboppin' all over. After mucking about looking for 2 MO disks(having both and using them results in the best ending) and other assorted puzzles and whatnot including finding Enrico Marini(Bravo Team's Leader) who is about to tell you who the traitor is when he gets killed by someone offscreen. Finally i end up going down an elevator with Barry, being greeted by Wesker pointing a gun in my face and telling me he's blackmailed Barry into helping him get Live test data for Umbrella's newest B.O.W(Bio Organic Weapon), the Tyrant. Just as Wesker's about to shoot Jill, Barry knocks him out and they both decide that whatever this weapon is, they need to destroy it. They go into the lab and an FMV sequence shows off the Massive Tyrant, who breaks free. Barry tries to stop him but he gets cut down, so Jill has to run around avoiding Tyrant's massive Claw-arm and kill it. As Tyrant is killed, Jill finds that Barry is still alive and helps him up. The self-destruct sequence has just been activated(Wesker most probably) and Jill and Barry run for the exit while also finding Chris who was captured and freeing him. All three of them get in an emergency elevator andreach the rooftop of the mansion, finding a signal flare with which to signal Brad Vickers(Alpha Team's chopper pilot) to pick them up. The Tyrant comes back and is unbeatable for the entire fight, it's just a strict avoid getting killedaffair until Vickers drops you a Rocket Launcher and you kill the Tyrant. the game ends with either a Bad, good or Best ending. i got the best one and it showed Jill Resting on Chris' Shoulder while Barry was fondling his gun. The End!
Man, looking at what i've just written, feels like a bad Fan Fiction telling of it (ughhh...)
Quick look at Chris' Scenario
Most of the game is similar bar some changes. Chris starts off un-armed and finds Jill's gun on the ground in the main hall. Chris doesn't get the Grenade Launcher, Meet the Huntershe gets a Flamethrower, his secondary character is Rebecca Chambers. For the Plant 42 fight, You have to take control of Rebecca for a short time and mix up V-Jolt into Plant 42's system. Chris has to replace the shotgun in the room with a broken one in order for the ceiling to not crush him. When Chris meets Richard Aiken, Rebecca will be there treating his wounds. there are some other small details, but for the most part, about 60-65% of the game is similar.
REmake
The Gamecube re-make of the game is similar to the original of course, but more backstory is thrown in, there's more sections to explore, and most of the script has been re-written to be less ''cheesy''. You explore a graveyard and a shack in the forest, meet Lisa Trevor( The mansion architect's daughter, who's been subject to almost every single Umbrella Virus in existence at that time), Richard Aiken this time has a bit of a bigger role when you save his life Lisa Trevorby giving him the serum, You meet Crimson Heads(If you kill a Zombie and don't blow his head off/burn him, he will undergo a second mutation where he grows small claws, moves much faster, and in general is a pain in the ass) and it's an overall re-imagining of the original using the setting. It's a re-make that i like in the sense that it's not just a re-release with better visuals, about 60% of the overall game has been changed but you won't miss anything that was in the original games(besides the low-budget styleness :D ). Overall, if you have a Gamecube, it's definently something you should have in your collection if you like Resident Evil. I feel that if they start re-making the old Resident Evil games, they should definently follow REmake in making them, cause seeing them RE4'ified is cool & all, but i just think some parts of the games would start losing what they tried to give youin the original games.
Hope you guys Enjoyed this, and i hope i'll have the energy and attention span to make one for all of the main games (besides RE5) 9 Comments
So i've been hearing about this Blogging business, seems like i want in on it, so i think i may become one with the blogosphere and tell you all about my grandé adventures in Vidya gaming.
Persona 4
Everyone's jealous of my name i got Persona 4 cause i was interested and people were saying it was a pretty good game. from what i've played, i really like it. The game is mainly a life-simulator with a dungeon crawler in there aswell. The game doesn't delve into the dungeon crawling until about an hour in, but i enjoy the dialogue and characters in general, so i wasn't bothered by it and went with it. The game feels pretty up-beat for most of it, but there are some serious undertones to it at times. In the main life simulator section you have choices to make, and people to talk to. Some of these choices will affect the Persona system but i'll get to that in a second. A day in persona doesn't last very long, but the game isn't in real-time or anything...so sitting there won't pass the day by, it's the decisions you make during the day that affect it. Simple thing like buying items or equipment or just talking to simple NPCs won't do anything, but if you go to a restaraunt in the game, that's gonna be it for that day, you'll go from After Is Persona 4 a life-simulator?School(on a school day) to Evening(all you can do is walk around your house and either Study or Read a book if you have one and then sleep afterwards). The dungeon crawling in the games comes in when you realize that you can use TV's as a portal to an unknown place and people are ending up dead after being trapped in there for a while. Finishing a dungeon the first time is mandatory, because if you don't finish it in a certain amount of days, the person will end up dead which means Game Over for you. After you do it, you can go back in there for some grinding and bonus stuff. There's also a Persona System in the game. Persona's are summonable spirits(or something) that tie in with your character and level up and can learn new spells when they are equipped(kind of like Junctions in FF8, without sorting about, just equipping the GF) and allow you to use their spells, and they can boost your stats depending on how high theirs are. You can only carry 6 persona's on you at any one time and can't physically store them per-se, but there's a place in the game where you can register your personas which means you can always buy back a persona card if you want it for a fee that gets larger depending on the persona's registration level. In this place you can also fuse persona's which allows you to mix 2 or 3 separate persona cards into a new persona. Depending on the combination, you could have a new strong personaThere's a hidden meaning in here... or you might end up with something you already have(it tells you what the result will be so you'll know). However, there is a limit to what you can make...You can only fuse to create a persona who's level is as high as your Main Character's. something small i'll add here is that there's a persona forecast that depending on date, will grant exp or stat bonuses to persona's(don't know if there are any with penalties). It's a fun game to play, but i play it in about 2-3 hour intervals so i'm coming along slowly.
Monster Hunter
Hi, i'm John RomeroI started playing Monster Hunter aswell, which is a cool game, definently reminiscent of Phantasy Star Online, there's not too much to say about it (multiplayer's been shut down so there's no chance of talking about that,i imagine it to be PSO Online). You take on quests, kill monsters, carve their bodies for loot, gather berries,plants, I'll just sit here....waiting....mushrooms, mine minerals, cook food, fish....It's an MMORPG offline in the basic gist of it. you take on quests because i think you want to become a master of hunting monsters and make money to buy better gear for yourself or spend it on items. Action in general is pretty cool especially since most of the weapons in the game are pretty huge (FF7 Buster Sword style, there's even a Buster Sword you can get in the game), but the game takes a bit of a realistic approach with this. since most of the weapons(especially early in the game) are huge, your character likes to make slow swings and whenever he strikes a hit, he needs to find some strength to lift his weapon back up. It's a cool game if it weren't for these slowness issues...You Gather slowly, you mine slowly, you gather slowly, you attack slowly, you reload slowly(if you have a crossbow), the levels are chopped up into 7-13 part zones, each one taking about 5-10 seconds to load, starting a quest requires you to run out of the village and load the quest for about 20-30 seconds, and when you finish a hunting quest, you need to wait for 1 minute before the game takes you back to the village (there's no way to And Waiting......manually go back to the village, cept beating or losing the quest) and for gathering quests it's 20 seconds. I find this really annoying but i really like the game, the PS2 didn't get Monster Hunter 2 or Monster Hunter G in anywhere but Japan, so i don't get a chance to play those, and i don't have a PSP to play the handheld ones. All in all, it's cool, but they really need to either put a turbo mode somewhere in the game, or just not make these animations ridiculously long (or offer me to get smaller weapons early in the game to attack and recover fast).
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
I'll have to admit, first time i ever played MGS3, but it blew me away(as do all MGS games really) from the minute i started playing it. I'll go in-depth with it, but first off, i have to say that after playing MGS3, MGS 2 feels like a worse game than i thought it was(i suppose this just happens with alot of games and their successor/sequels...or not). Getting into MGS3, it feels like i'm playing a bond movie alot of the times, which is good. The Camo System is neat and if i'm bored i just dress snake for the newest in camo fashion every now and then. The stamina and survival system is a cool addition as well and if i'm bored, i'll just hunt some wild He's Covered in Bees...Do not mess with him.game for myself. I like the story (for every Metal Gear game really) and there are some pretty great moments. One thing i gotta say about the Cobra unit...they have a guy on their team who uses bees as a weapon, and i don't think anyone would wanna fuck with that. The boss fight's are pretty tense at times especially the Fear fight for me. The End i thought was cool but sometimes it was a bit boring cause it would just end up with me looking really hard into finding him, but when i did...The Chase Began!. Alot of the end-game stuff was pretty cool, but i was getting frustrated with any fight involving Volgin(i suppose that's the reason why people don't mention the fights with him when they talk about MGS3) cause he was just plain annoying really. There are some really fun codec moments to find and there's a certain dream sequence and a cutscene in a cave that are pretty genuinely WTF moments(both in a different sense of that word). Overall, getting to finally play it feels amazing, and as a certain person from Consolevania said...it reminds me why i love video games. There's more to talk about, but i think you should experience the game yourself if you haven't yet.
If i kissed him right now...i bet he'd taste like a Wild Beast!
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