Resident Evil Review (𝓐𝓻𝓽𝓱𝓾𝓻 𝓜)
*Play at Night*
*Controller Recommended*
I've always loved the older Resident Evil games, however the last one I actually remember much about was Resident Evil 3 as I owned that one growing up, and only played the previous games at a friend's house.
This Remaster/Remake is just was I was hoping for. The newer Titles RES 5 and RES 6 focus way too much on action, and you often end up with a small asenal at your disposal with a ridiculous amount of ammo.
This is not the case with this Remaster/Remake. Ammo is limited, Inventory space is limited, and even your vision is limited depending on where the camera is situated. (this is a good thing)
It makes you use caution when moving somewhere, often you may want to rely on your senses... can you hear a zombie groaning in the other room? or was it just your imagination?
I started out playing this game on hard mode, just to see what it was like. I died from the 2nd or 3rd zombie I encountered. It was a brutal experience, the zombies were tough as nails eating most of clip from my hand gun before finally dying.
I was stuck relying on my knife almost immediately due to not having enough ammo to take care of the zombies, and since I needed to get around the zombies to proceed, there was little choice. Due to being in close melee range, it also meant they could grab and eat me.. which is what usually ended up happening.
Hard mode was INTENSE.. It was terrifyingly amazing how useless and weak I felt. This made me actually FEAR the zombies. Everytime I entered a new room I was a tense situation not knowing if there would be a zombie to greet me as soon as I stepped though the door..
After a couple of deaths I decided to switch to Easy Mode and progressed through the game much better.
While it was Easy Mode, I still thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It wasn't a walk in the park, the game was still challenging but the player can take more hits before dying, and there are more healing herbs and ammo scattered around the mansion. This was greatly benifital to me as I had no idea where I was going, or what I was to expect up ahead and it allowed some room for error.
There were still times where I died, but often it was due to being ill prepared. There are multiple traps in this game, and while they look like they would probably be insta-death I managed to avoid all of them by being cautious or just seeing ahead.
I finished the game after about 20 or so hours.. This was actually a pretty long play through and could have been done much shorter. This was widely because of not knowing where I was going. Not to say that you are wandering around aimlessly.. (although you kind of are in a sense) There is a map, and its the key to progressing. Some areas of the mansion are unaccessable until you find a certain objects.. like keys, or items used for puzzles that open way for new areas.
There is a lot of back tracking involved and the game doesn't direct you at all by giving you a marker to move towards or a mission objective to complete. Its all up to you, and it feels great!
After finishing the game and making sure I had 100% of the map and item progression I decided to check online to see if there was anything else I could unlock or do in the game. In fact there was.. but I had to play on Hard Mode.
I was still a bit in fear of the experience I had with Hard Mode the first time around, but I decided to come back and try it again a couple of weeks later.
Having learned a lot from playing and finishing the game on Easy Mode, I figured I had a better chance at survival than when I first attemped Hard Mode.
While the zombies were MUCH harder to kill, you take brutal amounts of damage, and ammo was scarce. I did indeed have a better grip on the game.. I was ready.
Unlocking the Samurai Edge Pistol. (beat the game in under 5 hours)
Unlocking the Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher. (beat the game in under 3 hours)
Given how it took me over 20 hours to beat the game on Easy Mode, I clearly had some work to do if I was going to even get close.
The first thing I did was find out if there were any safe places where the game clock did not tick.. like in a menu, or pausing.. during cut scenes.. etc. There was not.
The moment you load the game, there is no pausing the timer.. PERIOD. This means you really have to be careful when you save the game. Thinking a head is critical, you have to know where you are going and where all the monsters are.
I decided I would do some trial and error with some runs.. I'd take a path, get the items I found to be valuable in order to progress the quickest without having to back track too much.
The game needs to be done in segments, figure out a path that leads you to get some importent items and then gets you back to your safe house to save/deposit items to clear up your intentory. Planning was integral to success, as I didn't want to go through the game and fail just short of the required time to get my unlocks.
My brother and I decided to digitally draw the mansion using mspaint by tracing an online map of the mansion. I was then able to mark rooms that were locked with a certain key, or needed something special to progress. Making a path to follow was also easier as you could now visualize the whole processes before going through with it.
Through a lot of trail and error, I completed the game in about 2 hours and 30 minutes. This was a great success for me, and I unlocked both weapons in one run. While I finished the game with an in game clock of under 3 hours, in reality it probably took me longer to complete than the first play through since I often was not happy with my segment times and would redo them.
This process turned me into a zombie dodging ninja, as often the fastest way through a room wasn't to clear it by gunning zombies down.. it was to simply step around them somehow. Completing this time trial challange has essentially turned Hard Mode turned into Easy Mode.. and it was a lot of fun.
The games over now right? Wrong.
There are 2 characters you can choose to play as.
Chris
Higher max HP
Higher damage output using a Knife
Starts with the Lighter item
Jill
Larger inventory capacity
Starts with a lock pick
They have different story progressions and you explore the masion taking different paths.
If you finish the game with both Chris and Jill on at least Normal Mode, the next time you play, the game will throw a new zombie into the mix.. This zombie has a bomb straped to it's chest and killing it will result in an explosion that will always kill you.
Not enough?
Invisible Enemy Mode - Yeah.. its what it says, the enemies are invisible. I haven't even attempted this yet as I am certain how it will turn out... but one day..
There are also different costumes you can unlock per character.
Lastly.. there are also Steam Achivements to strive for.. like
Beat the game without saving.
Beat the game using only a knife. (no other weapons, not even counter/defensive ones)
Amazing game, worth every penny. I hope RES 7 will take a note from how well this game has sold and try to stay more true to it's roots.
Can't wait for RES 2 Remake/Remaster.. will buy day one. (this one is actually being worked on!)
Can't wait for RES 3 Remake/Remaster.. will buy day one. (I can hope they eventually make this)