Becoming a Resident of Evil

It was the year 1996, The first Playstation just came out a year ago and not everyone owned it, it was new and expensive and it ran games on CD; The future was now, and the games that were on it were the subject of discussions throughout the school, it was the thing dreams were made of and an object of desire to every high school student I knew. 

Luckily my close friend at the time named Ahmed was one of the blessed ones that owned a PlayStation, I remember how mesmerized I was seeing the early games that were out, games like Wipeout and Ridge Racer, it was unlike anything I have witnessed before. Games were hard to find though, and expensive! We were only students and allowances were not nearly enough to cover the cost of a brand new game, even illegal copies at the time cost around BD10 (USD25) due to the high cost of blank CDs, gamers were just starting to make the transition between floppy disks/cartridges to CDs as it was a new tech leap at that period. 

Enter the day where our gaming lives changed forever, Ahmed gives me a call and tells me about this kick ass demo he has for an up coming action/horror game, I immediately told my dad  not to pick me up the next day from school as I will be heading to Ahmed's house immediately after. And so I did, and after devouring lunch we ran to the PlayStation and booted up this awesome game he was going to show me, as soon as the demo started I immediately remembered one of the most memorable games on PC, Alone in the Dark, the tank controls, the creepy mansion, the fixed cameras, the zombies, all screamed new AITD game, and I was immediately in love.     

Going through the Resident Evil demo time after another, we did not mind the repetitiveness but we were thirsty for more! I went on dreaming about this game and how it might feel like to explore and go through that mysterious mansion. Days later I get a call from Ahmed, he just said "I got it". I immediately knew what he was talking about as I was screaming on the phone in excitement, and immediately ran to tell my parents that I needed to be at Ahmed's FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! Obviously they declined my request but they did allow me to go the next day and possibly the following, and so I did, and began a wonderful journey of exploration and puzzle solving in this creepy zombie infested mansion. 

As I mentioned already, the PlayStation was a new console at the time and transitioning from SNES/SEGA or any 16-bit era console, the concept of save game was not very common, sure some games had the ability to save progress in the cartridge itself, but as I said it was not very common and only a few games had it. So imagine playing all your PlayStation games up to Resident Evil without owning a memory card, yes we did it the old fashioned way, if you die you had to start from the beginning! Every time we started the game we progressed a little further, and further, until it was bedtime, and I had to go back home, Ahmed told me not to  worry as he switched the TV off, and told me we will continue our game tomorrow, yes, we left the console on overnight for many, many nights because we didn't want to lose our progress, talk about fire hazard indeed! That brick power adapter was the first to burn out obviously. Eventually Ahmed gave up and managed to get his hands on a memory card, and we were finally able to progress through the Hunters area without having to start the game over from being decapitated by them every single time. 

   

So what made this game so special? Well, other than my passionate love for Alone in the dark, it was an improvement and a new generation release of a familiar game, it was a survival game, sure; it had a few jump scares, but overall it was mostly about running and hiding rather than engaging the enemies, bullets and resources were scarce so you had to manage it well, you could only hold a certain number of items so inventory management was essential, of course the cheesy dialogues during the cut scenes and the fun out of place puzzles in the rooms, all these things combined are the core elements which made Resident Evil a memorable experience. 

School ended, we graduated and I moved away to study abroad, didn't own a PlayStation at the time, so I didn't get a chance to play the long awaited sequel until about a year after it came out, it was fine during those days; as no internet brats were there to spoil the gaming experience for you, no "let's-play" videos being streamed, actually not much going on with the internet all together, so whatever I experienced with the game was fresh and unspoiled. 

    

Moving on, going though Resident evil 2 was a blast, I mean literally; the satisfaction of pumping that shotgun so early in the game and blasting zombie heads remains satisfying till this very day. It felt familiar, similar yet innovative, the sequel packed a punch and like the first game, it had 2 wonderful campaigns which played differently in some way or another, adding replayability value as always. I still remember getting to the part where the Tyrant first bashes through the wall, I was in my college dorm room with a friend and we literally fell of our chairs. Such an exciting and memorable game and no doubt why it is critically acclaimed to be the best entry in the series. 

Many sequels followed the RE franchise, I tried my best to keep up with them, RE3: Nemesis and RE Code Veronica maintained the classic RE formula, I remember when the first footage of RE4 was leaked, which showed a new style of rear camera with a blend of fixed camera play in some areas, it looked like the future of RE was headed in the right direction, until we actually played the final version of RE4, the camera was over the shoulder and fixed cameras were gone for good, nonetheless, it still remained true to its roots, it had the RE feel even though it was a completely new style of gameplay, and as exoected, alot of people did not accept it at first, but after playing it for a while most people have come a realization that this is still a true RE game, and it turned out to be a great part and one of the best in the series overall. 

Sequel after sequel, and many spin-off games released, the spin-offs usually were inspired by the RE universe but with new gameplay styles introduced and new characters, for example, the RE:Survivor games are light gun based games, while outbreak introduced an online co-op concept which was ahead of it's time, as not many multiplayer co-op games were out then. Others include shooters and 8-bit scrolls, the list goes on and on. It was a lot for any RE fan to try to catch up with all the RE releases over the past 2 decades, I mainly dedicated myself to stay with the main game entries and perhaps try some spin-offs, ones which I found interesting at least.  

And here we are, exactly 20 years later, and at E3 2016, Capcom revealed a  teaser which was announced to be the 7th entry of the main Resident Evil game. 

Was I excited? No. 

Where do I even begin? So I tried not to be skeptical  as always and not jump to conclusions mainly by a teaser, which as I saw it, had nothing to do with the Resident Evil franchise, it's almost as if they created a new IP and just decided to stick the Resident Evil name on it last minute, again, not jumping to conclusions, I will wait to see some actual gameplay from the final game before I decide wither I will be giving up on the franchise or not. 

Well, good thing is that Capcom immediately released a playable demo, available to download at the time of the teaser announcement, I decided to watch some streams of people playing the demo to see if it's worth downloading or not, well, it's a P.T. clone, nothing more. 

From a business perspective, I can fully understand why Capcom decided to move quickly and jump on the PT bandwagon, especially that PT/Silent Hills got canceled, and how fans reacted to the news, the fans were hungry for more and Capcom gave them just that, very smart move indeed. 
The gaming industry relies heavily on first person games nowadays, I used to enjoy first person back when I was playing Wolf3D and Doom on my 286 PC, not so much nowadays, I don't know what it is but I simply despise first person, I have missed out on so many games because of my sheer hatred for first person games, I simply cannot stand them. 

This is a game targeted at the younger players, the kids that enjoy watching reaction videos of other people playing first person horror games, and before anyone mentions it, yes, I do understand this is mainly a playable teaser that has nothing to do with the main game, but Capcom did announce that the final game will be in first person, it will be horror themed and will be about survival. 

I can completely accept this game if it was another Resident Evil spin-off, call it RE:VR or RE:The House or anything, why did you have to call it RE7? Are we going to suddenly forget about the S.T.A.R.S members? What about Umbrella corp? Wesker? 
Well we don't know about what they are doing story-wise yet, but the gameplay is just... JUST LOOK AT IT! 

What's even sadder, gaming online personalities that claim to be hardcore RE fans are absolutely Fine with it! I haven't seen anyone complain about this yet, everyone seems to welcome it with open arms! 

When Capcom announced that RE will be returning to it's horror roots, I really was expecting a new RE1 style mansion/fixed camera type of game, when was the franchise anything like this? 

I am beyond disappointed at this stage. 

The 2D Souls

Being preoccupied with Dark Souls 3, I didn't get a chance to actually talk about this gem of a game which was released 2 weeks prior to DS3, a lot of people thought it was a good "filler" game to pass the time while waiting for DS3 to finally release, to me it was more than just a filler, it was a very enjoyable solid experience. 

I first heard about this game nearly 2 years back when it was still in development, it was last year when VaatiVidya released a gameplay video of this Souls-Like game as he puts it, the video got me intrigued and had me follow the development progress. Game was made by fellow Souls fans, a team of husband and wife that wanted to show their love for Dark Souls in their game, it is an indie game, but do not take this game lightly, as I soon as I hear the term "indie" I immediately think of a $5 game with 5 hour gameplay and retro graphics.. This is a full-on complex ARPG, this game took me over 22 hours of gameplay to reach NG+ (yes there is a NG+ surprise surprise) Value for money indeed!

As soon as you start the game, you will immediately have this grin on you face because the first thing you notice is how familiar the character customization is, it has a very similar layout to Dark Souls 1, and even the selection sound is similar, you will feel right at home from the very beginning. 

Alot of people immediately shouted Rip-Off, but I see this as a gift to every souls fan, made by a couple of souls fans, it is very much inspired, to the point that you will think you are playing a 2D DarkSouls 1, yes it is that close, fromthe clunky sounds of your heavy armour while walking, to the messaging system where you leave notes to other players online! 

This is what Dark souls 1 would have been if it was made in a Castlevania style, the level design is absolutely brilliant, complex levels of ups and downs, platforming elements, shortcuts to open only to realize that you are back to an area you were at a few hours ago! 

This game has crafting even, equipment and weapons and boss weapons that effect your gameplay style, even classes which offer replay value (and the ability to reset skill points), so you can play as strength build, dex, caster or faith, again, similar to Dark Souls. The skill tree system may seem overwhelming at first glance, but you will realize how easy it is to customize your build, if you are familiar with the grid system of FFX, it looks similar to that. 

I heard alot of people complain about the art style, the art work fits the game well, and the variety of different environments are beautifully sketched in a hand drawn style, although I do agree with the big-eyed characters, but have no fear, you will soon cover their faces with some bad-ass helmet or mask. 

I always wondered how well would a 2D Dark Souls be in terms of combat, but again, these guys knew what they were doing and created a tight combat system which feels great to play, rolling and blocking actually does help you with bosses, once you get used to the controls, my only down point is that I wish I was able to switch the controls scheme to match DS. 

If you are a Dark Souls fan it is a must play

If you are a Castlevania fan I highly recommend it.

If you are a fan of both... Well... Why are you still reading this? Go play it already!