Everything with Mia on the ship feels like a misstep. Having to watch a videotape of Mia as Mia was this silly, unnecessarily recursive bit of exposition, couched within perhaps the most annoying combat-heavy sequence of the game. It also completely broke my suspension of disbelief regarding the VHS tapes themselves. I'd assumed Lucas or one of the Bakers just fancied strapping a Go Pro to their prisoners and then converted the digital file into an analog format for the hell of it. But having the section on the pre-destroyed tanker on film distracted me to the point of irritation. A found footage aesthetic just for found footage's sake. You could handwave it away with all the talk of the hallucinations Eveline manifests, but that is unsatisfying for a wealth of separate reasons.
After the ship, however, the game made this kind of amazing pivot for me. Beginning, at least, with the vision Ethan has of Jack and Zoe in the Bakers' living room. Jack is humanized in that conversation in ways lesser horror games--even lesser Resident Evils--wouldn't think to have time for. I adored that moment, that moment of Jack apologizing and taking responsibility for the trauma they've brought into the world, despite understanding their helplessness beneath Eveline's power. The whole game shifted for me in that second. He asks you to save his family, to give them a final peace from this nightmare within Eveline's growing influence, and after that conversation I was emotionally invested in bringing this monster down.
The final boss fight is schlocky and cinematic in hilarious fashion. But I dug it. It felt like a reward after my harrowing, clench-jawed bid for survival amidst the terrors within the Baker estate. I don't think this will catch with everyone, but I appreciated that even in its most reserved and intimate of entries no game in the Resident Evil franchise is without its audacious Resident Evil-ness.
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