Evil Residences

More Delays – Spent all Day Playing Resident Evil GC Remake

Sorry to switch the projects again, but I’ve found very little time left in the day after going a surprising length of time with the Resident Evil GC Remake.  Since it kind of fits the project, I’m going to take a break today and review some of the things I found made this a classic, and a couple of things carried forward, and forgotten, from Revelations on the 3DS.  I hope to get back to the main project shortly, but with work tomorrow, I don’t know who can say for sure.

REmake (an affectionate name for the Gamecube version) isn’t my first introduction with Resident Evil, but I did miss the Playstation original entirely.  Resident Evil 2 was the first I played, catching up with in back in the days of the N64.  Immediately struck by how blocky and geometric the game was, I peered past it to find a core game that has gripped me and never let go.  A core that I have found slipping away ever since RE4.  

REmake focuses on the cast of the original, Chris, Jill, Barry, Rebecca, Brad, and Wesker.  There is a surprisingly deep amount of backstory for a game with so very little dialog, instead relying on recovered documents, scribbled notes, journals, and a minor quashed rebellion of the in-house scientists to open to story up to the player.  Most of the time, the player is given one directive, to survive.  The choice to stand and shoot or run away is the player’s to make.  After so many dozen runs through the mansion, I have long ago set a plan of clearing out the zombies and then burning to bodies, you know, to prevent them getting back up.  I hate Red Skulls, though every other game always seemed a bit weaker for not including them!

REmake contains all of the original rooms, plus some new ones.  I’ve just caught myself enthralled, running from Jill’s final victory through two tyrant battles, through a restart as Chris, then all the way up to the Red Skull battle in the crypt out back.  GameTrailers suggests that this room was never in the original, but I can hardly believe it, as the Death Mask puzzle is spread out all over the Mansion and quite seamlessly integrated.

Classic hilarious lines (heh, Jill sandwich) don’t appear in REmake, but it is hard to complain of having a well written and translated script.  The full motion video is also a nice touch, and the in game character models are done very well.  Most of all, the puzzles are real head scratchers, preventing the player from blowing all through the game.  Keeping track of four old keys, four emblem keys, and the huge number of inventory items that have to be moved around causing many inventory problems.  Some I’ve found to be just easier to leave where they are and bring the required component to them, or come back for them when the rest of the puzzle is ready, rather than dumping everything into the magic boxes.

There is no multiplayer in REmake, and for the most part, only superficial reasons to return.  Jill and Chris have additional costumes to unlock, and there is an additional “One Dangerous Zombie” mode to unlock, but for the most part it is the very same game over and over again.  This leaves me wondering why I do keep coming back, much less being unable to turn it off when I get here.

Revelations is much the same, but in critical ways different.  I’ve beaten it twice, once on easy for the story (which is crazy mixed up) and once again on normal for the challenge.  I haven’t worked up the interest for playing hard mode, and the infinite rocket launcher bribe doesn’t thrill me, as with it there can be no real horror.  Repeated play throughs earn a few new weapons for single player, while the multiplayer, Raid Mode, includes many more such goodies, including playable versions of many of the cast members, extra costumes, weapon modifications, and more stages and challenges.

Weapon mods deserve an aside to explain.  In REmake, all guns are static, though you can find alternate versions, such as the shotgun and Richard’s auto-shotgun.  This persists in Revelations, but players can custom tailor their guns with add-ons for more power, or just different effects.  I was overjoyed to find a Charge Shot mod for the shotgun just in time for the final boss fight in the main story; Charge Shot is sufficiently unbelievable, but the ability to hold the fire button and unleash a super charged double-barrel of shrapnel to the Tyrant was just too good to pass up.  I can see the game balance breaking with mods for the rifle and magnum, which are already heavily overpowered on their own, but I can’t wait to find them.

Raid mode is intense, throwing enough forces at you to force not only careful advancing, but difficult choices about when to shoot and when to close for melee.  Melee, I should mention is much better done in Revelations than any time before, including a custom bladed attack for each character, and a melee charge attack to hurl opponents to the ground (or roundhouse, or power punch).  The care gone into the attacks is evident, and does a lot for encouraging players to take risks and get in close to save those precious bullets.

Also surprising is the amount of swimming players will have to do through the Cruise ship.  REmake sticks with the original and simply drains several reflecting pools rather than expect players get their feet wet.  Swimming mechanics are much harder to manage, though, as no melee or guns will work, only the electric grenades, and then only if you have one left!

As stated above, the story is vastly different.  REmake sticks with the original for a tale of comrades and betrayal, centering on Wesker.  The story is sufficiently thin that the plethora of retrieved documents and notes takes center stage.  In Revelations, journals and suicide notes are still all over, but with hell breaking loose everywhere, gamers may spare only a passing thought for the dead.  The still-walking, however, are the most compelling villainous victims since Lisa Trevor.  I still have the odd nightmare that screams “MAAAAYYYYDAAAAYYYY!”

Speaking of Mayday, I should comment on how much better the boss fights have become.  Big targets chase you, usually threatening you with instant death or something close to it (Rachel doesn’t kill instantly, but surprises you with how much damage she can do).  More deadly are the back up; that’s right, the bosses are actually bosses!   Yawn slithers around the attics and library and rears back for a hissing poison strike.  Mayday calls half a dozen common Oozes to close in on you, or hang back and launch those bone missiles to mess up your carefully timed shots.  Using the area explosive canisters carefully can usually cause the boss to fall, and they all have weak points that make fighting them easier.  Trying to fight without exploiting the weak points usually results in quick painful deaths.

I like Revelations, and I think I will hold it in high regard in my collection.  Why the game seems less enthralling than REmake is a mystery to me.  Perhaps it should be no mystery, as REmake is a classic in the true sense of the word, which is undiminished by the metaphorical new coat of paint Capcom gave it for the Gamecube.  The 3DS version is a marvelous proof of concept, a version of Resident Evil compressed to a portable, digestible in chapters, but every bit a worthy successor for its namesake.