Resident Evil Retrospect

Every year when fall rolls around, I can't help but this about the great games that came with it in the past. The scent of autumn's breeze really evokes strong memories of games like Devil May Cry and Metal Gear Solid 2; just a few examples of the great games that came out in during Sept.-Nov. stretch. Since October is all about Halloween, I wanted to cover a few games in the survival horror genre, many of which had falls releases (RE1: Director's Cut, RE2: Dual Shock, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame 2, Parasite Eve, etc.). But instead of picking out individual games in a series, I'll just talk about the series instead. First of which is my first introduction into the genre:

Resident Evil

Back when games were starting to transition from cartridges to CD's due to the help of the Sony Playstation (and less help from the Philips CDi), one of the first games was Resident Evil. It even came in one of those old school PS1 cases that were more like the size of a VHS tape. Other than the Clock Tower series, survival horror wasn't really an established genre; probably because 2D sprites were never that menacing. But with new consoles came more bits; and with the Playstation, polygons (stuff just got geometrical, y'all).

Of course you wouldn't be able to judge the graphical power of this game from the opening sequence, probably because it's shot in live action. They actually got some poor actors and bad special effects to shoot the opening sequence of this game. Every other scene is rendered in the game's engine except for this one. I feel that it really sets the tone for the rest of the game; cheap thrills and a very B-movie feel, which I think is great. B-movies have a very strong fan base, and most all of them are horror movies. So this game fits right into that crowd. I almost want to think that it was an intentional decision by the creators to design a game that captured the same feel as those old, 50's films; too bad the designers have on more than one occasion proved that they’re really just idiots flinging poo around, and seeing what stinks less.

Probably the strongest evidence for this is the story. Resident Evil's story is just dumb. So many plot holes, so many dumb moments, this is a B-movie plot. Scientists playing god with a virus that turns normal humans into the living dead and some key characters into boss monsters; it’s all so campy. Umbrella is the fictional company that houses these loony villains as they mishandle the virus and it ‘accidentally’ leaks out into the public, which eventually causes international issues while being masterminded by one of the coolest video game villains, Albert Wesker. Starting out as a member of the S.T.A.R.S. team and ending up as rejected Matrix character, Wesker is just a bad guy that won't go away. He's really just one step short of having a twirly mustache and top hat, constantly tying girls to train tracks.

Every other character in the series either becomes a reoccurring character or dies. One even had the honor of dying and coming back as a zombie.

One of the more lasting impressions Resident Evil 1 left on the gaming world was some fantastically awful voice acting. I'm not kidding when the voice over work in this game is terrible with a capital 'T'. Every single piece of dialog has lines that are just pure, putrid gold. There is not one redeemable voice actor or moment in the entire game. But when you have a stupid story, why not just go ahead and compliment it with just wretched dialog and voice acting. At least you’re entertaining people through comedy.

There really wasn't much else to this game. You got to play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine through the mansion, underground areas, some scientific looking areas, solved some block puzzles and eventually got the heck out of there. Everything that wasn't a pre-rendered background looked like it was made out of Legos. Most areas were very brightly lit and the standard zombie enemy never really moved that fast; it wasn't really a gripping, terrifying experience.

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil as a series didn't hit its stride until the phenomenal Resident Evil 2. Not only was it a step up from every angle, it featured more game play. About 4x more game play. Resident Evil 1 let you play as Chris Redfield and Jill 'The Master of Unlocking' Valentine. Resident Evil 2 gave us Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield; who not only had their own scenarios, they had their own alternate scenarios (and costumes) as well. The idea was you play through the game in an A scenario with either main character, and then played through a B scenario with the other with minor elements that were effected by how you played through the A scenario. Basically scenario A and B happen in the same time frame, but involved different sides of the story. And the fun didn't end there. There were also scenarios following two other characters: Hunk and Tofu. That's quite the game for only two discs.

The story featured more doofus characters this time around, more doofier than the original game: including melodramatic scientists, secret agents, a fat guy in a gun shop, one black guy who dies (surprise, surprise, surprise, and wouldn’t ya know it, it was his last day on the force too) and David Bowie (or maybe that was Wesker again). There’s a section of the game you control a defenseless little girl (no, not Rebecca from the first game, although you did play as her when your main character caught a zombie STD).

The areas were more complex, the enemies were more varied, the voice acting was... still kind of campy, but in a good way, I have very little complaints with this game other than controlling either party felt like Austin Powers trying to drive a golf cart in a very narrow hallway. Thus my review of this game isn’t very funny.

Let’s move on!

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

After the massive success of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 had the terrible task of following up. Even though it wasn't a bad game, there's not really much different about it. Game play was changed up a bit with a mixing feature which allowed you to mix and create your own ammo. Not a bad idea, it allowed you to focus on your preference of fire power instead of finding a bunch of ammo for a gun you'll probably never use (though mixing the right kind of grenade ammo took some trial and error, mostly error). It was a nice balancing feature, not that powerful ammo was ever plentiful in any of these games. Stuff tends to be less scary when you’re packing heat like Schwarzenegger in Predator.

But the biggest change (pun intended) was the inclusion of the brick house known as Nemesis. A creature so menacing, he's in the title: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. I don't know any other survival horror creature to get title respect from a game: although I would love to play Silent Hill 8: Pyramid Head (actually that sounds really dumb). Nemesis managed to live up to the title by being about 7 feet tall, ugly as sin, strong and oh... Capcom gave him a rocket launcher. Yeah, that was a great idea. As if a 7-foot terror like Nemesis wasn't frightening enough, he now has long range, explosive capabilities. That’s just what that creature needed. Why not give him lasers mounted on his forehead, or a great katana that also fire out shurikens and lightning, and why not put him in a Lady Gaga outfit and sing show tunes (wait, what was I talking about?). What sadistic game designer thought that one up? And Nemesis makes it his mission to track you down throughout the entire game. So on top of the hordes of zombies, rabid dogs, lickers and spiders, you have the undead Hulk Hogan wanting smash you like Gallagher would a watermelon, and his fists were the mallet, fantastic.

I know there was that other creature in Resident Evil 2 in the B scenario that also chased you around, but I like talking about Nemesis better. He just had more… personality. Yeah, let’s go with that.

Another noteworthy change, every now and then, you'll come across a scenario in which you have a choice between fighting Nemesis and running away. Running away being the choice anyone would make as long as they had two functioning feet and a brain that wasn’t the size of a pencil eraser. Or you could stand your ground and fight which would allow you to try and temporarily stop the behemoth and you'd be rewarded with a valuable item like a health spray carrier or an attachable part to a firearm, or you defeated and punished with all the damages of standing in front of a moving bullet train. Having the choice presented to you like this detracts from the sheer terror that Nemesis should fill you with, but, luckily, this doesn't encompass every encounter you have with him. One of the last scenes in the game actually let's you choose between finishing off Nemesis and just walking away. After about 5 hours of being chased around by that maniac, I couldn't hit that kill button fast enough. Honestly, what person would just pass up the opportunity to exact vengeance on this biological nightmare? Nemesis dies no matter what ending you pick, so why not just kill it? Afraid of staining your hands with the blood of the non-living, because I think that ship sailed in the first five minutes of the game. The game ends with a very dramatic scene of Raccoon City being destroyed by a bomb, probably atomic, erasing all of Umbrella's blemishes, plot holes and whatever survivors there might have been. It's all accented with one of the most beautiful scores in Resident Evil history; one that I've actually learned how to play on the piano.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica X

Code Veronica was the only game to start out on the Dreamcast before making its way to the Playstation 2, and is the only game where you can play both Redfields. It's also the first game to not take place in Raccoon City since it kind of... blew up. Now we have an international mission to investigate the Ashford family and their absurdity, because Umbrella decided to leave the picture. The Ashfords have to be one of the world's most dysfunctional families (topped only by the Osbourne family): with a brother who is deeply obsessed with his sister (creepy), the dad who helped start Umbrella (stupid by default) and Alexia who is a godless killing machine (not unlike the North American Grizzly).

I believe this is also the first Resident Evil game to not rely on pre-rendered backgrounds. There wasn't much else that changed. You ran around, solved various puzzles while being stalked by a mosh-pit’s worth of zombies and other strange creatures. You even get to go to base in Antarctica, because… that’s the first place I think of when building a facility.

The game also brought us the infamous Steve character, whom of which I despise greatly. He's the kind of character you wish would just get bit by a zombie so he'd turn into one and you'd have to give him a double-barrel blast of boom stick. Sadly, the game never granted you this pleasure, but the whiny little peon does die. At least that was something I could enjoy. Ever since Steve, I've actually rated a character's whininess level on what I call the Steve-meter. Characters like Tidus from Final Fantasy X, Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2 and Hope from Final Fantasy XIII all scored pretty high on this meter.

And just in case you didn't like Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, there was also the demo for Devil May Cry which, I honestly, played more than Resident Evil. Going from driving around human tanks to using Dante and slaying demons in all his twitch-based glory, it was like watching the Adventures of Sonic with chilly dog jokes, and then watching the Adventures of Sonic that didn't have chilly dog jokes; just so much better (the latter also never had stupid PSA’s at the end of each episode).

Resident Evil 1 Remake

Never before has a Resident Evil been exclusive to a Nintendo console until this game. Remaking the first Resident Evil had to be one of the easiest things to do. There really wasn't much room to make that game worse than it already was. Basically Capcom took the layout of the first game, characters, setting, story, and gave the game the treatment that could never have been achieved on the Playstation. The atmosphere was darker, new areas, new defensive weapons, more aggressive enemies; this game was an improvement in just about every single way (except for the dialog, but why would you want to change that?).

One thing I always think of in this series is the save room music, especially in this particular entry. It's probably the second best ambient music in gaming history; first being Aquatic Ambiance from Donkey Kong Country. It creates such a contrast between the tensions that you feel running around hallways, not knowing what might jump out at you, to finally hearing this soothing music in a room that becomes a haven (full of ink ribbons). Third place would be the track from the underground water tank level with Neptune, the shark also from this game.

Speaking of which, many of the areas from the original game receive massive over hauls in terms of layout and feel. Instead of the brightly lit hallways and rooms of the original, the remake threw down some shadows and actual atmosphere through some beautifully rendered backgrounds of the pre- variety. Some completely new areas and aspects of the story were also added (though didn’t really matter that much), like the cabin with that girl who transformed into some kind of hunchback monster that would show up every now and then and beat the crap out of you (kinda like Activision but with better business practices).

Enemies were no longer the dumb, slow zombies that we grew up with. I remember my first encounter with one that could actually open up doors between rooms. It was horrifying as a gamer to have an enemy that pursued you in such a way that wasn't Nemesis. For the remake, you also had to dispose of the bodies by either head-shotting them or burning the corpse or the real fun began. Normal zombies would go from their lumbering selves to redheads which did more damage and sprinted after you (like a fat kid after an ice cream truck). One encounter was reason enough to torch every last one of those things.

With the mature audience thoroughly behind the release, Capcom and Nintendo didn’t stop here!

Resident Evil 0

Zero appeal, Zero reason to play

Resident Evil 0's story takes place before the mansion incident in Resident Evil 1 and follows the adventures of Rebecca Chambers and Billy 'Never Gonna Appear in the Series Again' Insert-Last-Name-Here. This game is a good example of story that is all kinds of stupid but not in that campy way that comes off as funny. The antagonist was dumb (I can't even remember who he was or what he wanted to do with his army of leeches), Rebecca wasn't interesting in the first game, and isn't in this one either with her tom-boy haircut. Billy is just kind of there because Becky is too weak to move anything heavier than a T.V. remote (and someone had to handle all the manly artillery).

Capcom also tries taking advantage of two protagonists by having some non-two-player co-op game play (which sounds just as dumb as it plays). You can switch between Billy and Becky with a press of a button. So if one character is in a dire situation, it's up to the other to bail them out. Oh, and if one of them dies, game over (wheeeee….). In retrospect, Capcom was probably testing the waters for a game like Resident Evil 5 (which was also annoying with an AI-controlled character, so whatever).

Resident Evil 0 does manage to commit one of the worst sins in gaming by having one of the most horrifying inventory systems. When that's the scariest thing about your game, something has seriously gone wrong. Basically, instead of the magic inventory casket from the other games, now you simply drop and pick up items as you go. Unfortunately, some of the areas you visit aren't accessible after certain points. So if you've left your valuable grenade launcher in one of those areas, it's gone for good. I actually had this misfortune of this happening near the end of the game. Luckily I had an old save file where I still had it. Otherwise, I'd have had to reset the game due to a particularly durable boss encounter that basically requires the grenade launcher as well as some other choice weapons to take it down. This is not good game design! I guess they thought this was okay since the game is only about 5 hours long, 2 if you know what you're doing. Or you could just be smart and never play it. Not like it matters if you care about the (cough, cough) story.

Usually when an item was no longer useful, the game just asked you if you wanted to discard it. But now, you have no idea which items will continue being useful or just act as dead weight for the rest of the game your first time through. And who the heck played through this game more than once, or once to begin with?

Resident Evil 4

Holy crap, where did this game come from? Never before has the series been so rejuvenated since Resident Evil 2. Boasting a completely revamped, over-the-shoulder game play style and a host of new ideas, Resident Evil 4 is one of my most favorite games of all time. And it came out on the Gamecube! Actually, that wasn't as much of a surprise considering the Gamecube held host to the remake of Resident Evil 1, Resident Evil 0 and ports of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Since its release, Resident Evil 4 made its way to the Playstation 2 with added features and to the Nintendo Wii with motion control compatibility.

You play as Leon Kennedy once again, who finds himself in Spain, investigating the kidnapping of the President's daughter Ashley. It doesn't take long before Leon is under hostile company as, for once; you're not clearly fighting enemies of a zombie variety. The Spanish population is effected by a new strain of a virus which leaves its victims in a more mobile state than the T-virus, or G-virus, or whatever Umbrella was wasting their time with. The player may actually hesitate before shooting because the enemies still act like humans, just really pissed off humans, who spoke Spanish. Aye, dios mio! (It was too easy, and I'm just that stupid).

It becomes clear around the halfway point of this 20+ hour game that the story doesn't take itself seriously. And you know what, that's a good thing, because neither does anyone else. One of the bad guys is a (somehow) smaller version of napoleon with a giant mechanized version of him that chases you in one scene. He's more comical than anything but the game doesn't seem to care.

Resident Evil 4 also has one of the more tolerable escort missions in gaming where you have to drag Ashley's loud mouth (and subsequently the rest of her) around a few levels. After a few minutes of her screaming and talking, I almost wanted to just hand her over to the hordes. Heck, I'd feel bad for them. But she's also a character that has the decency to realize that she is utterly useless in combat, and has the good sense to go hide somewhere. Whether you come back to get her is completely up to you. Unlike other games, Resident Evil 4 tries a few different game play variations with Ashley: from having you defend her via sniping missions or directly controlling her to navigate some infested hallways. One this is for sure, this game has a lot of variation, and yet stays so unified.

One of the more intuitive aspects of the game is the inventory system. Instead of feature 4-6 slots of inventory, for the first time, you get the capacity of an entire case with a grid layout. Instead of all items just arbitrarily taking up one space, bigger items occupy more space. Going from Resident Evil 0's horrid inventory system to this, it was a dream, though short-lived.

Resident Evil 5

Yeah, the latest installment decided that it need to come back more than 1 character doing stuff, and thus you control Sheva Alomar (ice powers not included) and Chris Redfield (who’s been hitting the steroids more than my head hitting the wall while playing Tomb Raider). I think what people remember most about this game is the pre-launch racism claims surrounding it, which I’ve always found dumb. No one really had a problem when Leon gunned down half the Spanish population, but suddenly master of the white race, Chris Redfield decides to extinguish every African within eye-shot, now we’re calling racism? What kind of double-standard is that? Whites killing whites (Spanish) is fine but whites (and Sheva, who the game says is black) killing blacks is suddenly frowned upon? What happened to equality? I believe I’m within my full right to enjoy the massive genocide of any race on the face of the earth in a video game given that I have a proper motivation (no matter how poorly developed). Besides, you’ll only spend half as long mowing down Africans as you did Spaniards since Resident Evil 5 doesn’t stay around long enough to get the call from Jesse Jackson; there’s also bigger problems to complain about.

One of which is the freaking inventory system. Due to the inability of the game to stop the action and give you a proper inventory screen, we have to do everything on the fly, hence our 3 x 3 grid which is all you get. All items are split between you and whoever is playing with you (or god-help-you the AI). Thus we have a clumsy trading function and you’re not allowed to stock pile up enough grenades to re-enact Pearl Harbor on the faces of the inhabitants of whatever-this-black-village-is-ville. I’m not saying multiplayer isn’t worth the sacrifice, I’m just… yeah, I’m saying it wasn’t worth it. Really, the best time you’ll get is playing with another person, but the game also has the option for you to play against other people. All strategies boil down to stopping, shooting, moving and stopping to take aim again. Did I mention it wasn’t worth it? And what is up with carrying around your body armor in the inventory screen even when it’s equipped? How is that possible? Am I wearing armor in the pocket of other armor? It makes no sense!

Rez Ev 5 also tries to bring some kind of conclusion to the over-arching story with Wesker but who really stayed around for that? At least Ashley didn’t stop by to awkwardly hit on the male protagonist after a daring escape on a jet ski. But there’s still room for that since Resident Evil 6 is in the works. Maybe we’ll get to kill some Canadians this time (fingers crossed).

So that’s most of the series in a nutshell. I never played the Outbreak series or watched the movies while sober, but the main series has always been a major part of gaming and brought joy to survival horror fans (though I doubt anyone seriously followed the plot). Hopefully Capcom will see that Resident Evil is best when it’s embracing its campy nature instead of trying to convince us we’re supposed to be taking it seriously.