I think Chris Evil / Renegade could be believable after recent characterizations, and now with BLUE UMBRELLA at end of 7, assuming they keep up that plot thread.
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The VIllage People: Talking About Resident Evil 8
I'm just gonna spoilerpop my whole response to that.
I absolutely agree from a narrative perspective. From a "Capcom protecting their franchise characters" perspective? No way. I just don't see them doing that. It's one thing when it's Super Joe, a character who hadn't been seen in a game for like 15 years and who only massive Capcom nerds even really know about beyond "he's the hostage in Bionic Commando for NES," but Chris "I Punch Boulders and Fight X-Men" Redfield? I just can't see it.
Since my overall read on the game is so heavily reliant on how its gendered politics ultimately work out or don't, a couple of additional things that have been popping into my head on that front now that I've had the game sit for a moment. All-encompassing spoiler talk, again.
hey just realized: unless you count the ps5-exclusive "maiden" demo (that invents a nameless woman just to kill her at the end anyway so it's pretty at odds with the spirit of this critique) then re8 is the first game in the series that just no-way no-how just plain doesn't have any section where you play as a woman
they finally did it!!!!
we can ignore re survivor and stuff but every other main game and more central spin-off, there's at least been something
hey hey thinking about it even more: re8 pulls the exact same move that tekken 7 did, in that it retcons in an evil demonic mother figure as the True Source of the Troubles, supplanting decades of series thematics for no particular reason except to make the shitty men it's been about up until then a little less culpable or significant as the original sins of their respective mythoses
amazing writing
it's less focal in re8 because that aspect plays out in the ancillary Lore Notes and such, but it sure is all there that spencer, a complete and utter amoral megalomaniac who would never share power or defer to anyone, apparently for some reason did so for miranda and considered himself her "student" in evil biotechnology, and all the roots of umbrella down to the company logo are sourced to their meeting
hilariously so because the artificially symmetrical and segmented octagon is just found in medieval ruins as is, and that's the canon source of it now--spencer just seeing it and going "cool logo"
it sucks bad
it sounds too simple to even bother vocalizing, but elaboration is only worth it if your ideas are better than the absence of them
they finally did it!!!!
we can ignore re survivor and stuff but every other main game and more central spin-off, there's at least been something
hey hey thinking about it even more: re8 pulls the exact same move that tekken 7 did, in that it retcons in an evil demonic mother figure as the True Source of the Troubles, supplanting decades of series thematics for no particular reason except to make the shitty men it's been about up until then a little less culpable or significant as the original sins of their respective mythoses
amazing writing
it's less focal in re8 because that aspect plays out in the ancillary Lore Notes and such, but it sure is all there that spencer, a complete and utter amoral megalomaniac who would never share power or defer to anyone, apparently for some reason did so for miranda and considered himself her "student" in evil biotechnology, and all the roots of umbrella down to the company logo are sourced to their meeting
hilariously so because the artificially symmetrical and segmented octagon is just found in medieval ruins as is, and that's the canon source of it now--spencer just seeing it and going "cool logo"
it sucks bad
it sounds too simple to even bother vocalizing, but elaboration is only worth it if your ideas are better than the absence of them
This just makes me think of at the end of Code Veronica
with the horrible fucking “twist” that Alfred Ashford had been doing deranged drag where he actually thought he was his twin sister Alexia.
Cos of course the only way a man would ever want to dress/be a woman is if they are a complete villain, out of touch of reality, and a dangerous unpredictable criminal.
Cos of course the only way a man would ever want to dress/be a woman is if they are a complete villain, out of touch of reality, and a dangerous unpredictable criminal.
Ugh. I thought I had memory holed that for good…
Pajaro Pete
(He/Himbo)
massive spoilers
i want third person dlc where you find out that ethan's face is just a generic molded from re7
Got a steam key for $10 off and I'll be playing this right after I finish Nier
So, I *think* I'm fighting Vampire Mommy soon? (Maybe tonight on stream, even.)
I like the daughter fights: the first one teaches you what makes them weak, and the other two make you figure out ways to get the cold air into the room. Playing on hardcore, the one in the library was pretty tough at first, because I found out early shooting the skylight didn't work, and it's hard to look around for switches or whatever you think the game might want you to do when a human-shaped colony of carnivorous flies is chasing you around the room and can one or two shot you.
Aside from those fights, my weapons feel powerful enough now to be able to deal with standard enemies pretty well, and I'm very glad I didn't give up on Hardcore after sticking at the big lycan fight. Much like RE7, this game seems to make you learn to use the block effectively to survive on the higher difficulty (I've seen/heard people say on Standard they never blocked, because they never needed to, and that mostly tracks with my RE7 experience.)
With three masks in place near the door, I'm pretty sure the Lady of the house is the last one I need to deal with so I can move to the next section, and honestly, while I know some broad stuff about locations, I'm pretty interested to see where the game goes from here, since in the lead-up, Capcom made it seem like you'd be in the village and in the castle for most, if not all, of the game. I obviously assumed there'd be a lab under the castle, if that was the case, but to find out there's more, that's pretty cool.
Aside from those fights, my weapons feel powerful enough now to be able to deal with standard enemies pretty well, and I'm very glad I didn't give up on Hardcore after sticking at the big lycan fight. Much like RE7, this game seems to make you learn to use the block effectively to survive on the higher difficulty (I've seen/heard people say on Standard they never blocked, because they never needed to, and that mostly tracks with my RE7 experience.)
With three masks in place near the door, I'm pretty sure the Lady of the house is the last one I need to deal with so I can move to the next section, and honestly, while I know some broad stuff about locations, I'm pretty interested to see where the game goes from here, since in the lead-up, Capcom made it seem like you'd be in the village and in the castle for most, if not all, of the game. I obviously assumed there'd be a lab under the castle, if that was the case, but to find out there's more, that's pretty cool.
Yeah, that shit was something. I did it last night, I knew I was coming up on it and I intentionally waited until it was dark to start playing.
Is 7 Evil Dead? Feels more like Texas Chainsaw 2 to me. (That is a compliment.) But 7 doesn't have anything as genuinely unsettling as House Beneviento, and while I haven't seen Zombieland 2, I suspect it doesn't either?
I just started the mines before going to bed last night, so I guess we'll see where I go from here.
madhair60
Video games
my man.
I was pretty bummed by the end, honestly. There are definitely high points, and it's certainly gorgeous. I wanted more of what was in the first half.
Story: I still think
Story: I still think
Chris is up to no good. He asked them to move to country, where surely he knew the origins of Eveline, and that Miranda was nearby. Also what is Blue Umbrella? When did he leave BSAA? Why are they using undead soldiers? He is still bummed about Piers? (Lol)
Ludendorkk
(he/him)
Chris is a character Capcom has no fucking idea what they want to do with
Pajaro Pete
(He/Himbo)
i'm sure you can look forward to all those answers and more next month at the e3 virtual event where they announce 8age DLC
I think they spent enough time with him being all 'boo hoo people are dying and it's my fault' when no one was around that I trust his motives are genuine.
No clue when he left BSAA (I really didn't play many of the games between 4 and 7) but Blue Umbrella is a faction of former Umbrella scientists and PMCs who regret Umbrella's actions/didn't know they were working for the bad guys before the reveal who have, confusingly, restarted Umbrella as a relief group dedicated to anti-bioterror. They hired Chris to help clean up the mess caused by the group studying Eveline and the mold in 7. In the 'Not A Hero' DLC, Chris was very cautious and distrustful of them despite their seemingly sincere commitment to doing good. This is a dangling thread not picked up at all in Village.[/SPOILERS]
No clue when he left BSAA (I really didn't play many of the games between 4 and 7) but Blue Umbrella is a faction of former Umbrella scientists and PMCs who regret Umbrella's actions/didn't know they were working for the bad guys before the reveal who have, confusingly, restarted Umbrella as a relief group dedicated to anti-bioterror. They hired Chris to help clean up the mess caused by the group studying Eveline and the mold in 7. In the 'Not A Hero' DLC, Chris was very cautious and distrustful of them despite their seemingly sincere commitment to doing good. This is a dangling thread not picked up at all in Village.[/SPOILERS]
4-So
Spicy
Finished this tonight and had a great deal of fun with it, certainly more fun than I ever had with RE7. It's also the first Resident Evil game (that's not a remake; I finished RE2 Remake and RE3 Remake) I've finished since original Resident Evil 2; although I played quite a bit of Code Veronica I never finished it and I haven't played the other games.
I played the game on standard difficulty and the only time I died was during the Moreau ruined village, where you have to run to the second windmill to get the crank, and that's mostly because I couldn't suss out what the game wanted me to do and I paid for some risky behavior while trying to dodge Fish Mo. So I agree with the general sentiment that if you want a classic RE seat-of-your-pants experience, bump the difficulty.
The story element where "Surprise, Spencer learned his craft from Miranda and was inspired to start Umbrella" was a bit hamfisted but I was not incredulous or anything. It was just kinda... okay. I was sufficiently whelmed by this 'revelation'. If it did anything, it made me go look up Resident Evil history through a wiki since I've missed so much of it. There's a lot of stuff I missed! But now that I'm caught up I will say that despite the good time, I think I prefer the tone and tenor of the earlier games. Based on the ending, I assume we'll be getting another "Winters" game, unless they button that up in DLC.
I played on PS5 and there were virtually no load times. About 8 seconds or so from the PS menu to the game menu, loading into a game takes about a second, saving the game takes less than a second, etc. The power of the next gen systems (so far) really lies with that internal storage; if there was any loading during the game proper, I couldn't detect it. And the adaptive triggers on the DualSense added a certain depth, where each gun felt different, especially Chris's Dragoon where each "pop" of the gun could be felt while holding the trigger.
Beautiful game, by the way. Gorgeous. They can do some amazing stuff with the RE Engine.
I unlocked Mercenaries so I guess I'll give that a go for a bit before hopping back to Returnal. Overall, very satisfied, and curious about whatever the DLC will be.
I played the game on standard difficulty and the only time I died was during the Moreau ruined village, where you have to run to the second windmill to get the crank, and that's mostly because I couldn't suss out what the game wanted me to do and I paid for some risky behavior while trying to dodge Fish Mo. So I agree with the general sentiment that if you want a classic RE seat-of-your-pants experience, bump the difficulty.
The story element where "Surprise, Spencer learned his craft from Miranda and was inspired to start Umbrella" was a bit hamfisted but I was not incredulous or anything. It was just kinda... okay. I was sufficiently whelmed by this 'revelation'. If it did anything, it made me go look up Resident Evil history through a wiki since I've missed so much of it. There's a lot of stuff I missed! But now that I'm caught up I will say that despite the good time, I think I prefer the tone and tenor of the earlier games. Based on the ending, I assume we'll be getting another "Winters" game, unless they button that up in DLC.
I played on PS5 and there were virtually no load times. About 8 seconds or so from the PS menu to the game menu, loading into a game takes about a second, saving the game takes less than a second, etc. The power of the next gen systems (so far) really lies with that internal storage; if there was any loading during the game proper, I couldn't detect it. And the adaptive triggers on the DualSense added a certain depth, where each gun felt different, especially Chris's Dragoon where each "pop" of the gun could be felt while holding the trigger.
Beautiful game, by the way. Gorgeous. They can do some amazing stuff with the RE Engine.
I unlocked Mercenaries so I guess I'll give that a go for a bit before hopping back to Returnal. Overall, very satisfied, and curious about whatever the DLC will be.
I just fought and killed Hammer Santa in the Stronghold, so I have all four baby flasks. I've gotten to that point in the action-oriented RE games where I have more money than I know what to do with, I'm easily able to buy all weapon upgrades as soon as they're available, but I'm hoping to see some new weapons before the game is over. I guess part of that was fighting Otto the Ax-Wielding Cannibal, which is optional but gives you fat sacks of cash and isn't that tough? I feel like I'm closing in on the end, Steam says I've been playing for about 15 hours, but Hardcore has definitely sapped some time from me (the first big fight/setpiece, as I have said, was a real bastard).
Mid-late game spoiler question: I have made 5/6 recipes so far. I have a bunch of extra meat, etc, that I don't need for the last one. Should I sell it, or when I make the 6th meal, will new ones open that I'll want to have this stuff for?
Also, has anyone figured out if you can remove the Mr. Everywhere/Mr. Raccoon bonus charms from weapons once they're on, or are you committing?
Mid-late game spoiler question: I have made 5/6 recipes so far. I have a bunch of extra meat, etc, that I don't need for the last one. Should I sell it, or when I make the 6th meal, will new ones open that I'll want to have this stuff for?
Also, has anyone figured out if you can remove the Mr. Everywhere/Mr. Raccoon bonus charms from weapons once they're on, or are you committing?
Matchstick
(He/Him)
My understanding is that you can only hide them being displayed. You can't take them off and add them to other weapons.
You have a decent way to go, relatively speaking.
So I fought and killed Plane for a Head, and while I know about the plagarism, I did still find the whole encounter to be delightfully silly (and self-aware, if you find a certain document right before the fight).
Also? That entire section was creepier than I expected, and also not as bad as I felt like some reviews led me to believe? I was kinda bracing myself for the RE8 version of the tanker (by far RE7's worst section, doubly so since you have to do it twice).
Anyways, hoping to finish this first run before the weekend.
Also? That entire section was creepier than I expected, and also not as bad as I felt like some reviews led me to believe? I was kinda bracing myself for the RE8 version of the tanker (by far RE7's worst section, doubly so since you have to do it twice).
Anyways, hoping to finish this first run before the weekend.
I finished this last night and BOY FUCKIN' HOWDY, is this on the nose.
I like the gameplay, I liked the settings, and House Beneviento is the scariest an RE game has ever been, BUT... everything Peklo said w/r/t the writing is spot-on. Ethan is a nothing character, and to Ludendorkk's point, Chris kinda is, too? He spent his first several appearances as a boy scout, then in Revelations, they tried to give him some depth by having him be "the best ex-whatever, who needs to sober up and come out of retirement," but that didn't really land. In 7 he's basically just the tie back to the rest of the series, and here he basically fills the same role, he's just there from the beginning.
RE's lore is fucking hilariously bad at this point, because they've written themselves into so many corners that they really would have been better off actually running with either the soft-reboot everyone thought RE7 actually was, but turned out not to be, or taking RE2K19 as a jumping off point to splinter the series off in a reboot that uses REmake and it as the starting point. Showing the Umbrella logo prominently in teasers and then in a prominent spot in the game itself makes you think this all ties back to Umbrella in some way, but it's just casually dropped in a missable document at the very end in the dumbest and most perfunctory way possible. And on top of that, they pulled in a bunch of lore bullshit from 7 that made Miranda kinda/sorta the big bad there, too.
Ethan-as-Mold-Person was kinda clever, honestly, and answered the question of "how does this fucker keep sticking his limbs back on," but also: I'm glad he's dead, because, again, he's a mayonnaise sandwich of a hero, and I was frankly insulted that this game went from having me fight Mountain Village Magneto while driving a tank and then expected some serious moments of emotional response from me as Ethan makes his noble Sad Dad sacrifice. Like, five seconds ago a bad guy called Chris a "boulder-punching asshole" and now you're like "GET SAD, FUCKER." And, nah, you didn't earn that. As Peklo said, this game is riding hard on RE4, but RE4 had an extremely playful tone throughout, and never asked me to view Leon as anything more than a less-rugged Jason Statham.
Still, as I said, writing criticisms aside, I quite liked the gameplay, atmosphere, locales, etc. and am now working on unlocking shit.
RE's lore is fucking hilariously bad at this point, because they've written themselves into so many corners that they really would have been better off actually running with either the soft-reboot everyone thought RE7 actually was, but turned out not to be, or taking RE2K19 as a jumping off point to splinter the series off in a reboot that uses REmake and it as the starting point. Showing the Umbrella logo prominently in teasers and then in a prominent spot in the game itself makes you think this all ties back to Umbrella in some way, but it's just casually dropped in a missable document at the very end in the dumbest and most perfunctory way possible. And on top of that, they pulled in a bunch of lore bullshit from 7 that made Miranda kinda/sorta the big bad there, too.
Ethan-as-Mold-Person was kinda clever, honestly, and answered the question of "how does this fucker keep sticking his limbs back on," but also: I'm glad he's dead, because, again, he's a mayonnaise sandwich of a hero, and I was frankly insulted that this game went from having me fight Mountain Village Magneto while driving a tank and then expected some serious moments of emotional response from me as Ethan makes his noble Sad Dad sacrifice. Like, five seconds ago a bad guy called Chris a "boulder-punching asshole" and now you're like "GET SAD, FUCKER." And, nah, you didn't earn that. As Peklo said, this game is riding hard on RE4, but RE4 had an extremely playful tone throughout, and never asked me to view Leon as anything more than a less-rugged Jason Statham.
Still, as I said, writing criticisms aside, I quite liked the gameplay, atmosphere, locales, etc. and am now working on unlocking shit.
Part of why Leon works characterization-wise in RE4 is that he's fundamentally true to his RE2 incarnation in how people react to him. He was originally defined by no one listening or taking him seriously, ever, so there was a nice turnaround on the default entitlement usually afforded to leading men in fiction. 4 amps up his performance as a supposedly confident and suave proactive agent to support the fantasy of inhabiting that skillset in the game's over-the-top farce, but that core appeal is still present as for all his carefully practiced affectations he's still ridiculed by nearly everyone he meets, or shot down immediately for his Solid Snake come-ons. He is an empowered character but one who regularly takes pratfalls to land him on the better side of endearing as a result, possessing ample privilege to weather those blows. I'm not a very big fan of RE4 but RE8's simultaneous courting of its overall iconography and concepts and the tonal dissonance that resulted in made me take stock of what actually worked there both narratively and otherwise, in contrast. Whatever the older game is, I think it's a work of far clearer tonal confidence and clarity.
Ethan, in addition to everything discussed for how he's positioned in the story, is also on a personal level just kind of unpleasant which marks most of the modern writing associated with the series for me. I used to be drawn to RE because it was a horror cartoon, gruesome and gory, but at the same time tame and chaste. No one fucks, no one trades insults or uses profanity beyond a PG rating if even that. Over time, "maturity" has crept in in people throwing around their fucks and bitches and other really mean-spirited, barbed putdowns. Ethan's one-liners aren't even good but they still feel like they have to punctuate every boss encounter's conclusion with them, and it especially rankles with characters like Moreau who are so obviously victims of something larger than themselves and they're not afforded anything but base insults for their appearance and circumstances from the player avatar. They're not supposed to make me resent Ethan or have his actions serve as a criticism of him as all the concerns of the storytelling are in strict idolatry of his motivations and drive to go on, yet I've never felt as hollow inhabiting any other character in the series as a result of the writing itself.
Ethan, in addition to everything discussed for how he's positioned in the story, is also on a personal level just kind of unpleasant which marks most of the modern writing associated with the series for me. I used to be drawn to RE because it was a horror cartoon, gruesome and gory, but at the same time tame and chaste. No one fucks, no one trades insults or uses profanity beyond a PG rating if even that. Over time, "maturity" has crept in in people throwing around their fucks and bitches and other really mean-spirited, barbed putdowns. Ethan's one-liners aren't even good but they still feel like they have to punctuate every boss encounter's conclusion with them, and it especially rankles with characters like Moreau who are so obviously victims of something larger than themselves and they're not afforded anything but base insults for their appearance and circumstances from the player avatar. They're not supposed to make me resent Ethan or have his actions serve as a criticism of him as all the concerns of the storytelling are in strict idolatry of his motivations and drive to go on, yet I've never felt as hollow inhabiting any other character in the series as a result of the writing itself.