October Together Retro: Golden Age of Survival Horror

[pierrot]

I don't dislike RE3, it's just not what I prefer for Resident Evil games. It feels a little too much like RE2, which I'm not a huge fan of, and not enough like RE1. 2 and 3 are both good games, but the settings aren't as much my thing. I like Resident Evil games better in more desolate areas. (This is probably true for all survival horror games, actually.)



I've been playing Blue Stinger, and have probably made it to around the mid-point now. I've stolen a researcher's ID and Driver's License (it's okay, he won't need them), and am headed into the research facilities, although I don't really remember why. (That's been a little bit of an issue for me; I've been doing things, and then told I need to do something else, but forgetting why I was doing whatever it was I needed to do originally, in the first place.) I am actually really enjoying Blue Stinger. It is so much better than what I've been led to believe. It's not as good as Illbleed, but it's still about what I would expect out of the company that made Illbleed. The opening cinematic was really impressive to me. The spine card for the game (I'm playing the Japanese version, which has the same crappy English VA, but a very different, 'dynamic' camera) boasts a collaborative effort with Hollywood filmmakers, in making Blue Stinger, and it's fairly apparent almost immediately. There's a very action-film pace to a lot of the game, and in some ways that's good, while in other ways in makes the game feel a little spastic at times. So far, the only major annoyances I've had with the game were getting used to the swimming (still won't go into those piranha waters without killing them all, first, though), and the "solution" for the passcode to get through the arcade in the mid-town. (Birth dates are pretty common passcodes in this game, but even though the arcade passcode is still a date, it makes absolutely no sense as a passcode, within the game.)

Blue Stinger is set in the far flung future of December 24, 2018. That's like, so far into the future, I can't even imagine it. Anyway I did feel like it was some sort of serendipity that I just happened to be playing the game in 2018, when I saw it flash the present day date on the screen in the opening movie. The main character, Eliot, is an ESER (Especial Sea Rescue) member working around Dino Island. He's out in a boat with a friend to start the game, on his first day off in two years. Suddenly some extraterrestrial material makes impact with Dino Island, and a strange dome is put around the island, as well as just enough of the boat to put Eliot inside the dome, but his buddy (except for his hand, and the bottle he was holding) outside of it. Some peculiar sprite, thing, flutters over to the boat, and takes the form of the figure inside of Eliot's friend's bottle. She is apparently known as Nephilim, but is otherwise a mystery. A bunch of monsters fly out to Eliot's location as well, and Eliot ends up washing up on the dock of Dino Island. A lot of the people here have gotten uuuugl-y. Eliot meets the captain of the SS Diana, and boss of Eliot's friend, Dogs. It's not really clear why, but they decide to work together. The main goal, I guess, is just to find any and all survivors, and then find a way off the island. The whole way, so far, a former AAA+ ESER and MIT graduate, Jeanine, checks in. I really don't understand whether or not Jeanine and Eliot actually know each other, though. She sends out a distress signal to Eliot in the beginning of the game, and he basically just says that he's off duty, and also needs help. Then when Eliot actually gets to her location, she asks for the password, and he says "my sweet heart." He's also regularly referring to her as "hun," and such. I don't understand if he's just delusional, or what.

I quite enjoy the weapons, and gameplay, though. It's a fun game, and Dogs' shirts are a good laugh. His sumo shirt is really good for farming this one mob in the Hello Market early on, though, too.

[Exhuminator]

I did revive my play of Silent Hill 2. I'm currently about 6 hours in, saved at the Silent Hill Historical Society building's front lobby. I find Silent Hill 2 to be intellectually interesting, but not much fun to actually engage with. I don't mean this game is too frightening or anything like that. I actually don't find Silent Hill 2 to be frightening at all. (SH2 manages an atmosphere of dread though.) Rather I have issues with quite a bit of its annoying game design. I'm still gonna beat Silent Hill 2 for its above average plot's sake, and to see what ending I get. Also blood for the blood Ack.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I knocked out Resident Evil today! It was my first time through the game, and I got the best ending in Jill’s scenario. It took me 5:47, and I saved 22 times.

I actually really enjoyed it, and I am surprised I’d never been able to get into it before. It is a lot of fun, and it certainly has more of a “metroidvania” feel than either Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 4. (Do any of the other games take that approach?) I can see why the Spencer Mansion is such a classic setting. I am actually really looking forward to playing some of the other games in the series now. I’ll probably go back through the game as Chris, but rather than playing the original again, I’ll probably play the touch-screen enhanced, combat-intensive Deadly Silence version. After that, I’ll probably take down RE3 and RE:CVX so that I have all the classic survival horror entries under my belt.

Great theme this month, Ack! I’m glad it inspired me to finally play through this classic!

[Nemoide]

Fatal Frame II continues to give me the jibblies really bad. But I did make it to chapter 6!

[Key-Glyph]

All right. I've spent the day drinking tea and playing Clock Tower, and although I'll write out my runthrough from the perspective of Jennifer in a few days, I thought I'd post some of my reflections so far.

For one, I've been really surprised by what in this game is terrifying and what is not. Terrifying: walking down long, uneventful hallways expecting something to smash through the windows. Not terrifying: Actually being chased.

I thought pursuit was going to shake me to the core, but after my first experience running from the Scissorman, I think I accidentally ruined any magically spooky feelings I could have with him. This is because I ran from him for about fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to shake him while repeatedly dying in the process. When you spend a quarter of an hour in what's supposed to be ultra-frightening mode and you experience things like your enemy approaching you from an impossible direction (I left him in the dust to the left, just to crash into him inexplicably entering the next room from the right), the immersion breaks a bit and you just wind up feeling impatient. "Where is the good hiding spot so I can finally move on with this story?" you say to yourself, amazed at how long Jennifer can maintain a sprint that's supposed to be a limited resource.

That's not to say I'm not enjoying the game a lot, though. There's an RNG element at work, which is really interesting. I looked this up because I was wondering why certain items were in one place on one attempt and then not there on a subsequent run, and I discovered that certain entire rooms can swap places. Super cool! I've also had a bunch of jump scares from a black cat, which amused me. Apparently those are semi-randomized as well. They actually can be enemy encounters instead.

I will admit I'm super relieved to be in the final area, however, because I was backtracking all over the place for several hours, trying to figure out what I'd missed. Everything had been clicking along, but then suddenly I'm in an Obviously Important Room that I had Obvious Items and Keys for, and nothing was happening. Apparently I'd forgotten to re-check two rooms that had been locked for 80% of my runthrough; I'd checked those doors ten times each or more and was mistakenly convinced I'd done so after acquiring each key, and I think my brain just deleted them from active memory after that. I needed to examine some items in those rooms to "know" what to do in the Obviously Important Room -- in other words, you can have all the right items and issue the right commands in that place, but nothing will happen unless Jennifer has already come across the explicit directions for what to do there.

That particular concept in the gameplay -- that certain interactions with objects aren't available unless Jennifer has examined certain things -- is actually pretty neat, but it's an unfortunately double-edged sword. Sometimes, like I mentioned above, it will lead you to believe certain things just aren't possible. As another example, there's an area where the floor has caved in and a wooden plank is resting against the wall near it. You click on the plank thinking this is an obvious solution, but Jennifer will do absolutely nothing with it unless you've examined the hole in the floor first. Only then will she put the plank down so you can walk over it. I mean, come on, Jennifer! That said, this has inspired an amusing fan theory in me that Jennifer is actually an android who can't understand instructions that aren't absolutely literal and properly defined, which I'm glad to have as an option.

Wish me luck! I have no idea which ending I'll be getting.

EDIT: Well color me surprised. I got the A Ending.

[nullPointer]

I've been pretty poor about posting updates, but I id beat Resident Evil 2 late last week. I posted some thoughts in Games Beaten. Dawn of the Dead is not only one of my favorite horror movies, but probably one of my favorite movies outright. I feel like RE2 really nailed a lot of that same kind of zombie apocalypse atmosphere. Great story, great setting, and a great game all around. It's easy to see why it's so fondly remembered.

[Exhuminator]

Ever beat a game where you felt like you were the last gamer on earth to finally do so?

Yeah I had that feel tonight:



So I beat Silent Hill 2, only seventeen some-odd years after its release. But hey, that's what TR is all about, right? Anyway, I've known a lot of people who've beaten, and loved this game. I've seen it consistently praised online for almost two decades now. Well, I didn't love this game. But my oh my do I respect it. My SH2 review is here.

[Exhuminator]

Sorry to double post. Just wanted to mention that I beat Silent Hill 2's sub-scenario "Born From a Wish" tonight. It was a good tale, but not so good gameplay. A decent extra though, for the later prints of SH2. Review here.

Edit: It was called "Born From a WISH" not "DREAM". Late night brain derp.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I started up the “rebirth” mode in Resident Evil Deadly Silence (NDS) playing as Chris. It is definitely “hard mode” for this game. There are fast zombies, which take more shots to drop, and random first-person HOTD-style knife fights when you enter certain rooms (and regardless of whether you cleared them earlier). There are also some touch-screen puzzles, but they don’t add much to the difficulty. There are a few more items, I think, to compensate for the increased difficulty, but having to drop twice as many zombies for a paltry green herb isn’t much off a trade...

[MrPopo]

The knife fights are what got me to completely abandon that version and just stick with the GC remake.