#re1make

I’m sure I had heard Resident Evil mentioned in gaming spaces as being a bunch of really iconic games, but I never really had my interest piqued until I saw the demos and trailers for RE7. 

Horror? On VR? Holy shit thats awesome! 

I think it’s important to note that when people started dropping videos of them playing the demos, I had no way to play or even access the game really. Not only did I not have a console to play it on, but there was no way I’d even be allowed to bring that kind of game into the house. Also coming from a weirdly (and often contradictorily) conservative… well, shall I say prudent, christian upbringing, I was simply told I would not like horror as a genre because it is icky and disgusting and created by very disturbed people, and that I will become disturbed and tainted if I watch. Even as a kid, I called bs, but I didn’t have a way of refuting that and didn’t have much opportunity to be exposed to the horror genre at all. I just compartmentalised whatever vague interest I had in horror related things because I knew it’d make me sad that I couldn’t pursue that interest, and it’s only been this year while living on my own and with roommates that I’ve decided to pursue the interest. Best fucking decision ever.

Even in the very sheltered and anti-yucky household I grew up in, RE7 still caught my eye because it was the first I had heard of a legitimate game being made for VR. It looked like a real innovation on how video games were going to progress, which it was; and as I briefly looked over the Resident Evil series, I saw that it had continually been innovating gaming throughout it’s history, and THAT is what solidified my interest. 

Waiting a few years and putting a few dollars aside for the eventual day I can play them for myself, the RE2MAKE trailers dropped and I was so excited by them that I decided I had to play that one first. So I did, and I fell in love almost instantly.

Although I played the first few games in a weird order, the thoughts and reviews of each game I’ll put in order just for sake of ease. In case anyone cares to know the order I played in, it was re2, re1, re3, re0, re4, re5; all remakes or remasters/ports to ps4.

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RE0

This game was… interesting. There was a lot going on and it was a bit of a mess, but I honestly really liked it. 

It took a moment to truly grab me, but I liked Rebecca and Billy was pretty interesting while he was being introduced, so I had the pleasure of falling in love with both of them during the game. I liked exploring the train and the training facility, they felt like a good ‘unique area’ and ‘classic area’ for a resi game. But I gotta say, the enemies felt weird. I know that’s not a real original thing to point out, but I feel that they kinda shot themselves in the foot by setting it before RE1; they can’t really have enemies that are supposed to be ‘the first time we’ve ever seen such a horror!’ and they can’t really get too unique with the enemies and outshine what we see in re1. Rest in peace, I understand that it is a quite difficult position to be in considering there have been so many crazy enemies and it’s what we come to expect from resi games, but… giant animals? Feral animals? I don’t know if I had just become accustomed to the horrors of resi and began to enjoy them more than I feared them at this point, but I found it very hard to feel frightened while playing. Also those little monkey bitches suck! I feel it would’ve worked better to have enemies that move around as much as they do in an ots game, not fixed camera. I died quite a few times in ways that felt unfair, but overall I felt pretty good as I played through and felt like I had an idea of what to do. 

I also liked the way you can switch between Billy and Rebecca, the way that this was handled was pretty good in my opinion. Although I wasn’t a fan of the multiple occasions where you are forced to have one half of the pair during boss fights and the like, I understand that its just a mix of drama for the plot line and because an AI partner in a boss fight may reveal the way to fight without letting you figure it out on your own. Not the most perfect, but pretty damn good. I’d also like to point out that as much as I liked having Billy and Rebecca together, it did lessen the scare factor. Even though it’s just a video game protag, it did feel less scary knowing I wasn’t alone as I explored these grotesque places.

While playing, I didn’t really feel like I’d take these events as canon, due to how ridiculous they were, but honestly? I’m willing to pick and choose to make my own version of what feels right to me personally. Anyone that cares about the lore and storyline should probably do that too, as there were some genuinely interesting aspects of the lore added and introduced; you get to see how much of a shithead Marcus is, and it was quite interesting reading about Albert and William in their training days within the facility. I really liked the way Billy and Rebecca got to grow closer through these traumatic experiences, and the final cutscene was a nice note to end on.

Overall, this isn’t as offensive of an entry as you may think. Yeah the enemies are pretty lame and annoying, and it has its own unfortunate limitations due to being a prequel to an already established world, but it has a lot to stand for on it’s own two feet. When playing this I was still not confident in my abilities to play, so I was playing on easy; if the game is too stupidly frustrating to play on standard, just play easy and have a relaxed time with it. I plan on replaying again soon, once I finish my first plays of the rest of the games, and re0 seems to have a few fun looking extra game modes, and I unlocked a Wesker mode? I can’t tell you how much I laughed but was also excited to see that? I will be giving it a few more plays in my lifetime, it’s sad to not see Billy in any other games, and it seems unlikely he’ll return in future, but he was a lot of fun and had a good chemistry with Rebecca. 

Parting thoughts, some of the risks they took paid off, others didn’t. The lack of item boxes sucked ass, but controlling two characters was really fun. Some areas felt so at home amongst others in the resi series, and some shit was so laughably weird that I will simply laugh at it and not take it as seriously as it wants to be taken (looking at you, reborn(?) young hot Marcus that sings opera to control leeches)

Definitely give it a shot if you’re really into Resident Evil, but go into it expecting it to be a pretty goofy game. 

Zero || Uneasiness || Lullaby 1

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RE1MAKE

God, what an incredible game. There’s almost nothing else that so perfectly encompasses ‘frightful and delightful.’ I love this game so much, I already have such a strong nostalgia for it and it’s only been a few months since I’ve played. I can’t wait to go through and try to unlock all the endings, and try to get better at the game in order to beat the hardest of challenges. 

The fixed cameras took a bit for me to get used to, as I’ve never played anything like this. However, right from the start, the film student in me was nerding out over how cool some of the shots were composed. Sometimes I’d simply stop and stare at the screen, enjoying how spooky yet pretty it was. I loved the awkward voice acting, and to hear that the originals are even worse just makes me so happy lmao. I don’t know what gets me with it, but it’s such an iconic part of this game that I wouldn’t have it any other way. (the amount of times I’ve just copied and said ‘BaRry!1!’ like Jill or the weird “yeAh” that Chris does… endless fun)

The plot of this game was really interesting, and I can see why it’s beloved by many. Reading the lore files as you explore and figure out puzzles really set the tone and invited me as the player to experience this world at the same time as the protags. Lisa and the story of the Trevor’s was devastating, Wesker’s involvement with the plot, reading about the people who were exposed to the virus slowly losing their minds; it’s very very interesting. The ambient soundtrack is incredible, along with having really good songs in general. 

I don’t really know how to keep myself concise and to the point here; I’m overflowing with love for this game. After researching a bit and trying to figure out how it differs from the first game, I feel pretty confident in saying this is one of, if not the best, example of a near perfect remake. I genuinely look forward to the next time I replay, and can’t wait to explore every in and out of this mansion incident. 

Safe Heaven || Neptune Tank || Main Hall 

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RE2MAKE

Ahh, RE2. I really love this game. It’s been so fun playing it, I must’ve played about 6 times when I first started, I was obsessed. The plot was interesting, the characters were so likeable, the exploration and puzzles were fun, and it was thrilling to try fight or evade enemies. 

I’ve heard that for this remake, or shall I say reimagining, they tried to go for a more movie like method of storytelling while still keeping the protagonists fairly grounded and reacting realistically. I can definitely feel that, with the cinematic vibe of the cutscenes being quite fun to watch, and the exclamations from your character as you play. (Leon’s ‘what the!?’ and Claire screaming “WHAT THE FUCK!!??”)

I need to point out that the map system here is INCREDIBLE. Genuinely one of the best gaming UI’s I’ve ever worked with. I was worried I’d have a hard time with the map as I wasn’t used to or very good at this style of gaming (never really played a gun game before this :P) but the maps were awesome to use and I felt confident plotting out routes while trying to catch my breath in save rooms. Mr X is also AMAZING. I really love him, and his theme music as he’s stalking you is awesome. It was truly fascinating watching videos by people who tried to figure out his AI; his Terminator style of hunting was very fun and gave me quite a few frights, I absolutely love it! I can see myself replaying this a lot in my lifetime, and the extra ghost modes and 4th survivor are awesome challenges. One day I will get good enough to complete them, but not today. (I’ve only completed 4th survivor, 12 minutes whoop!)

Another thing I want to mention, although I know a lot of ‘gaming purists’ can get worked up about the offer to switch to easy mode if you die a lot, but I’m really grateful that there is an easy mode. It was still challenging in it’s own rights, especially for my experience as a new player with no earthly idea of what the fuck I was doing. Yeah some of the bosses felt a little bit flat, but I just had to remember I was in easy mode and that I’ll conquer standard and even hard modes later when I’ve gained the confidence to do so. It’s a little thing, but I appreciate that there are options like this for gamers that aren’t confident or skilled.

Though I’d rather butter up this game for being an amazing intro for me to the world of RE, I do want to give a little criticism. The acting was amazing, I loved all the performances; but some of the story feels a little conflicting. I know every gamer that’s played RE2MAKE has pointed it out already but. I want to say it again anyway. The story plots don’t line up very well, even as an A/B scenario. It’s especially apparent when you get down to the lab area. Mr X is killed in Claire’s route fairly early on, but in the same plot but just slightly later he is still alive and stalking Leon? William and Annette seem to be the biggest plot holes, with both Claire and Leon fighting the exact same G fights, and Annette telling her backstory both times, dying in the security room with Sherry in Claire’s route but also being alive enough to get to the final confrontation between Leon and Ada to shoot and then die again. In an otherwise beautifully crafted story, these parts stick out like a sore thumb. I’m still willing to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the cool story and plot points, but for something with so much care put into it, it feels a bit weird to ask that kind of effort be made of the audience. 

Nitpicking aside, I absolutely adore this game. Now that I’m more confident in my gaming abilities, I can’t wait to tackle harder challenges as I play and terrify myself all over again. 

Black Impact || Looming Dread || Last Judgement 

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RE3MAKE

The ironically perfect game to come out during lockdown. RE3 was interesting to play, it was incredibly fun and with the item shop on the menu screen, has a fairly good replayability in my eyes. But as much as I enjoyed this game, it fell a little flat after the standard RE2 set. 

Again, I can’t fault the actors; they did an amazing job and the cutscenes are very fun to watch. Usually I’m having a lot of fun playing this, but it felt so short. Learning that there was a whole segment in the clocktower that was cut sucks ass, it really needed that extra location to explore. And also apparently all the cool puzzles were in the clocktower; it would’ve been awesome to see a modern take on those puzzles. Instead, the only puzzles here are those gems you collect for the thing in the train station at the start, which is more hide and seek than a puzzle; and creating the vaccine? Finding the electric plugs in the warehouse before the lab? Again, more of a hide and seek mission than a puzzle. There’s nothing wrong with hide and seeks, RE2 had plenty, but there were also OTHER puzzles to help diversify the searching. 

The game also felt a lot more restricted by linear paths compared to RE2. They both have their set orders of doing things and nudge you in the direction it wants you to go, but RE3 felt soooo linear. I enjoyed exploring the devastated Raccoon City, it would’ve been fun to explore more and have that same freedom of exploration in the other maps. The hospital and R.C. were the best to play in I think, but even then they did feel a little more closed in compared to RE2. I know 2 and 3 aren’t the same game and it’s not completely appropriate to do a 1 to 1 comparison, but they’re setting similar standards for remakes of classic games people love. Also the intros to both games really show how I feel about them? Like, RE2 had a little intro of just the city, and looked kinda like a Netflix series intro. It was clearly something quite grand that had a lot of effort put into it while still feeling respectful of the roots it grew from. The into to RE3 being... propaganda footage of riots? It was just footage of people smashing shit and running around with an Umbrella ad and shots of Nemesis spliced between. There would only have been riots BECAUSE of zombies, so why not show citizens running from, being attacked and trying to attack zombies? It felt weirdly disconnected, compared to a proud showing-off of the passion put in; that’s the kind of vibe I think both the games have, and are perfectly shown through their intro scenes.

Learning that original RE3 had choices that affect how you play, this game could’ve used something like that to help it feel, well, more! The more I try to learn about the original RE3, the more it sounds like that’s still superior. Not to be blunt, but I don’t think this was the best way to modernise the game for new audiences. 

While I understand that the action elements are a lot more present in this game, it felt lacking in the horror to me. In RE2, when you cut up zombies and shoot them, their limbs slowly fall off, and they’re forced to try move and attack you with that loss of a limb. It was really cool and gory, it both set the tone and was pretty entertaining if you cared to have fun with it. Here in RE3, the zombies don’t have any kind of adaptive damage done to them, they just kinda disappear or explode into nothingness. Which I didn’t really find all that comical tbh, it just felt a bit lame? The tower defence segment in the hospital sucks ass too, it felt like it was there purely as a padding to make it feel like there was more going on, but it felt out of place, even from my pov as a relatively new gamer to the re world and not having done research on the original at all before playing. Running around shooting zombies that explode with cartoonish slime effects? Doesn’t quite feel right… At least in RE4, another action centred game, when enemies die it’s due to the kind of infection they have; dissolving into sludge because the body is no longer alive for the host? Feels more fitting than supposedly the same kinds of zombies from RE2 just exploding here because it’s Jill and Carlos and they’re in a more action kind of game.

Also… more complaining but the qte were LAME. The intro with Nemesis chasing you where you just… run forward? Running through rail roaded areas and having the qte be... just press a button or hold joystick up? What the hell that totally ruins all sense of panic and urgency! It crashes right through and ruins the tone, and after playing RE4&5 where the qte feel so much better and actually feel as urgent as the situation requires, why weren’t the qte better here?

All this complaining aside, it is still a very fun game to play. I just have really fallen in love with this series and wish that this game was better? Or at least on a closer level to RE2MAKE. The story was still pretty interesting, regardless of how on rails it felt, and the characters were very fun and charismatic to get to know over the course of the game. It just feels very short and flat, especially in comparison to its original game, which is a real shame. We can’t have perfection, I know, but this unfortunately didn’t come as close to the levels or RE1&2 remakes. Still worth playing, but please don’t pay full price for this game, get it on sale. 

Save Room || Surrounded By Terror || Take Back the Vaccine 

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RE4

This game… Incredible. I had so much fun playing this; even though my roommate sat next to me scared out of her mind for most of the game, I was playing with a smile on my face and laughing most the way through it.

The tone is still quite scary, there’s a distinct survival horror element to the game, but THIS is how action is incorporated well into RE. I think this is also in large part due to the campiness of it. Trying to wander around carefully without being spotted was tense, but when taking on a hoard of enemies, it was exhilarating in a rather action-game way without being too jarringly different from how we’ve fought enemies in re1-3. The Ganado were so unsettling, it was a fun subversion to have incredibly human like enemies chase after you instead of the slow and creepy ways of the zombies. Also killing them in just the right way sends them flying; putting an enemy to their death with a gay little twirl cause endless amounts of joy. 

The introduction of currency was a risk, but it paid off. The merchant jump scared me more than the Ganados, but he had some cool stuff to buy which was very nice. Also, man the qte here were great! I know qte in games aren’t generally favoured, but they fit in so well here. Running away from a boulder? Mash those buttons! Need to perfectly execute an attack or defend yourself in a pinch? Make sure you press these buttons in time or you’ll fumble to your death! Caught in the grips of your enemy? Roll that joystick around as frantically as you can to break free! All the qte felt right at home here, perfectly conveying the urgency of situations and getting your heart racing with fear alongside Leon. 

This game was a fun challenge, most the time when I died I knew where I had messed up, it rarely ever felt like I was dying unjustly. Of course there were a few times, especially during Ashley escort sections; but hey, the game wasn’t made in 2020. For a game of it’s time, it is so long and fun, definitely worth your money and time invested into this. There’s awesome places to explore, interesting bosses and mini bosses to battle against, and epicly cheesy dialogue that made me laugh on multiple occasions. Not to mention the best healing/weapon item - EGG

While I didn’t find myself scared for most the game, more-so experiencing the stress of fighting against and overwhelm of enemies; when you meet the regenerators in the lab areas, oh boy. I felt as scared as I did playing RE1 and 2. They were horrifying, and awesome enemies to fight. I’m glad that there was the lab section with those enemies that felt truly terrifying and keep that horror element, as the rest of the game was a lot more survival action. Despite the obvious shift to action, I don’t think it felt bad at all, and can see why this was such an incredibly well received game. The only time I found myself thinking ‘ugh, really?’ was the section near the end where your helicopter friend shoots the shit out of everything. I was looking forward to trying to scale that area and make my way to the castle, and I was robbed of a really good warm up fight before the final boss! Tangent here, but it frustrated me at how irresponsible it was to send a second chopper to come get Leon and Ashley when the first one was shot down and NO measures had been made to prevent that from happening again and Leon hadn’t confirmed that the airspace was secure. Like what the hell? The first chopper going down is an unfortunate accident, but that second chopper is all on you, government. Truly irresponsible. 

I could talk about how some of the segments with Ashley were fucking annoying, but I don’t think I really need to say much about it. It sucks when she won’t shut the fuck up while you’re trying to secure the area and figure out what to do, and when she kinda lets herself get kidnapped or die; but at the end of the day she is a very scared young girl thrust into a world of terror during a time when this was probably the better achievements of AI at that point in gaming. She’s fine, I think people are too quick to take their frustrations out on her  instead of her mediocre AI.

To end, this game is awesome. I feel that even if you’re not all that into RE, you could definitely enjoy this game. It’s campy and over the top, but we love to see it. With rumours that it could be remade soon, I hope they follow the standards set by RE1 and 2, and doesn’t fall flat like 3 did. This is a really great game that felt large and exciting to play, I’m looking forward to replaying and getting good at the extra modes.

Serenity || Save Theme || The Mercenaries Ada 

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RE5

Oh boy, what a hot mess. I’ll admit, the start of the game didn’t really grab me like the other RE games I’ve played, but once shit started going off the wall, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. 

I’m sure that it’s been pointed out before, but it did feel quite uncomfortable to go to Africa and shoot black people. I know that they’re all infected, but even with the game showing that it’s definitely not a good thing, it really sucks that it feels like such a white attack and taking-advantage of this African town. It made me especially sad to see enemies wearing tribal gear, and reading journals from townsfolk being forcibly infected; while it was nice to see tribal gear as a display of culture and have them as objectively good enemies, since they were hard to defeat, and having cool contraptions in the ruins to show that they weren’t dumb savages… bro it feels quite icky and wrong killing and destroying all of that. As much as the later parts of the game showed off how interesting and wild this story was, I can’t enjoy this without feeling a strong sense of guilt at how racist a lot of this felt. 

In no way trying to dismiss, downplay or ignore what I’ve just said; this game did get a lot more fun as I played. The start was slow to catch my interest, and I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this game as much as I’ve enjoyed the rest of the series so far, but there were some genuinely beautiful and interesting areas to explore (ignoring the fact that the colour palette looks like piss and shit. Classic PS3 era look)

This game wasn’t scary, and didn’t have anything like the RE4 regenerators to help have at least one aspect of the game bring a genuine chill. I want to say there is an aspect here of me becoming more accustomed and desensitised to horror, and that I’m able to handle myself better with fear responses; but I don’t think that is solely the case. It just didn’t feel scary, it was very action-y. However, my enjoyment came a lot more from Wesker than anything. I was glad to see that enemies twirling to their death was still a thing if you hit them right; but oh my lord the first Wesker fight was one of the best boss fights I’ve ever played. I died a few times just egging Wesker on and making him dance, it was so incredibly fun and I may just have to replay that fight next time I’m having a bad day. The second Wesker fight was really fun as well, and although it didn’t seem clear enough to me that I had to simply initiate a qte to deal the final blow to Wesker’s final form, that fight was pretty interesting too. I genuinely love Wesker, I like how he holds himself as a piece of shit villain and his story is pretty interesting to me. It was very nice to see his character explored here, and to get a bit more to his backstory through lore files. It’s a shame it took so long to grab my interest, but once Wesker was revealed to be behind these events, I was hooked. It is cartoonish and stupid but god it was funny. 

One thing that really wasn’t funny was the AI for Sheva. I think she is a cute and interesting companion character, and I’d like to see more of her eventually! But Jesus her AI is awful in this game! I’m more than willing to accept that a certain percentage of my deaths in any given game will be my fault, and that sometimes you have to die to understand how to progress; but holy shit it’d be nice for Sheva to not run to her death half the game. I’m pretty sure over 75% of my deaths were caused by her AI just being plain stupid. If you need help imagining how awful it is, not only is she just in the way most the time and can’t just follow your footsteps or lead the way in a comfortable manner, but a real anecdote from my playthrough is that, upon coming up to a room where I could see a hoard of armed and shielded enemies ready to attack that hadn’t been activated yet, I went to stand around the corner and reload all my weapons and get ready to throw a grenade in so that I’d have a better chance at fighting. Instead of following my lead and reloading, Sheva ran in with next to no bullets (I hadn’t had the chance to give her any) and tried to grab a single herb. There were about 5 heavily armed enemies attacking her all at once, so I was forced to run in and rescue her, wasting a full heal on her and taking so much damage trying to get out of there that it wasn’t even worth the single healing herb she retrieved. She even used it before I could request it from her to mix and make another full heal to make up for what we’d lost. Like? How is that fun? If Chris OR Sheva die, thats an automatic game over; so with the AI being this shit and Sheva leaping into death’s arms so enthusiastically, this game was quite frustrating to play. It felt like I was babysitting a dumb younger sibling that didn’t know how to play, except a dumb younger sibling would do way better than this AI. Companion characters in RE isn’t such a bad thing; I genuinely enjoyed Billy and Rebbeca as a pair in RE0. But this is pitiful. The AI and controlling of characters in 0 was great, once I got the hang of it I could work around it with ease and minimal frustration. Even Ashely’s dinky AI in RE4 was better than Sheva’s here. Those are two games that did companion AI better, and they came way before this game. Genuinely, what the fuck.

While typewriters were kind of redundant in RE4, they feel like such an iconic part of the Resident Evil series that it sucks to have them removed. The lack of item boxes in RE0 was a risk they wanted to take, and while it was annoying it did force me as a player to think more carefully about item management; similar thing for RE4 lacking item boxes, but in that case it was more than ok to excuse as you could expand your pockets to the biggest I’ve ever seen in an RE game. Here, with a lack of both typewriters and item boxes, it felt like something was missing the whole time. Not even the currency feels fun, there’s no merchant, instead you just buy shit and upgrade your weapons at the end of every chapter. While it seems that especially during this era of the RE franchise, the over the top-ness of the plots and enemies seemed to be the way the series was heading, it unfortunately feels like a much bigger departure from what makes RE it’s own thing. I’m sure I simply didn’t enjoy the hiding behind walls and peeking out to shoot enemies thing as much as other players cause I’m not well versed in shooters and gun games; but hiding and shooting felt so much like a COD game and not RE. Running and hiding to surprise attack Wesker is one thing, but I dunno, in RE it just feels much more like an RE thing to have to run around the enemy and attack it in a flustered state and not really be able to hide - I’m talking running around zombies and trying to find the right time to stand still and shoot, and deciding wether you want to destroy a licker, guns a-blazing, or carefully creep around them to get to the safety of a save room. With such a lack of that kind of strategy to survive, this feels a bit more like a spinoff game than a main game to me. RE4 did a better job at blending the classic survival horror mechanics we’ve grown fond of in 1-3 with the action and cheese we’ve grown to love. RE5 did get a great amount of cheese and campiness towards the end, but maybe my main grovel here is that it feels like too much of a departure from the classic tropes and mechanics that made me fall in love with RE. At the very least, I’m glad the qte are like 4 and not like 3MAKE, I’ve actually begun to appreciate the art of a good qte through 4&5. 

As a final note for this game; I enjoyed the latter half when it went off the rails, most my enjoyment was from Wesker because I love him as a villain, and while Sheva was a good companion from a story perspective, her AI makes playing needlessly miserable. Don’t take out your frustrations with the AI out on her, she’s cute and fun. If you play this, maybe keep a critical eye on all of it as you play while also not taking it so seriously, but I do think it is worth playing if you like RE, have patience and don’t mind it going wild towards the end. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, despite all the issues I had with the game.

Pray - Theme Song || Pursuer and the Pursued || Opening - Chris’s Arrvial 

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To close; I’ve really fallen in love with the Resident Evil franchise. I’ve had such a good time playing, it’s still a bit surreal that I’m even playing them after trying to ignore my interest in the games because I had no way of playing. 

I’m looking forward to playing 6 and 7, and am slowly collecting other games like Code Veronica and Revelations, and a few of the dinky spin offs, to add to my collection. Thank you for reading this far, feel free to tell me what you thought of the games I’ve played so far as well - I’d love to hear.