Together Retro: Resident Evil

[zxqdms]

Years ago, when I played this game I would always have to kill everything and I would always be low on ammo. Later I watched my friend play, and he would just run by certain things. For some reason that never occurred to me.

[noiseredux]

Years ago, when I played this game I would always have to kill everything and I would always be low on ammo. Later I watched my friend play, and he would just run by certain things. For some reason that never occurred to me.

Y'know, it seems that smart thing to do is avoid as much conflict as possible. But I'm always wasting ammo blasting away at zombies.

[Ack]

Ah, the secret of the game is to figure out what you have to kill, and what you can avoid entirely. Make sure you study the layout of the various locations via your map, because it can reveal the shortest route, or possibly longer but safer ways to go.

There are other tricks to surviving I'll discuss if you guys want.

[blue_veilvet]

As I live in Germany, getting an old RE can get a bit tricky. My options would be to open up a fake US-account for PSN and download it on my PS3, importing a copy of the PS1 version from Great Britian (since games for people of over 18 years of age are not sold on the German ebay site) or buy an overpriced and sticker-plastered copy of the gamecube remake at gamestop, if the two stores around here even have them at the moment.

So I'll join in with Resident Evil 2 instead, which has been lying around here for a while. I borrowed RE1 Director's Cut a couple of years ago and beat it, so maybe I can still comment on that. It was the German version, btw, with the awesome intro with the real actors.

So I started this morning. I really miss the real actors from the RE1 intro, because Leon looks more creepie in the introduction FMV than any creature I encountered in this game. It is interesting how both games are introducing the zombies to you: In RE1, after a bit of dialogue, you encounter your first zombie in some loomy room. In RE2, every damn of the first few screens are infested with zombies, tossing at least 5 specimen at once at you!

One of my biggest gripe with survival horror games is that you usually have so few possibilities to actually survive. You can shoot (if you have ammo), use a melee weapon, or run. It would be nice if you had at least a few more moves for avoiding enemy attacks, like ducking away or swift to the side or whatever. It's just so awkward to steer your guy with those tank-controls through a cramped prerendered background that has 5 zombies in it without being hit.

I liked the first Dino Crisis, where you could mix some arrows which could at least stun or even kill enemies or you could do cool stuff like activating laser barriers or open a velve to put gas on the dinos. It just gave you a few more possibilities to deal with the enemies, that was nice. At least, enemies don't follow you in other rooms in RE. I was glad when I could escape into a bus, leaving behind 5 zombies that could not get into that thing.

Ah, the secret of the game is to figure out what you have to kill, and what you can avoid entirely. Make sure you study the layout of the various locations via your map, because it can reveal the shortest route, or possibly longer but safer ways to go.

There are other tricks to surviving I'll discuss if you guys want.

Of course, my gripe could as well result (as it is often the case) in my own lameness. I'll have to consider your advice (I guess it holds true for RE2 as well). Often I want to avoid the enemies, but it's really hard when you encounter them in narrow locations and need to get past them.

I reached the police station today and used the typewriter there. I explored (and killed) the whole east wing, then started to explore the west wing and died there. Maybe I should have had saved before venturing into the west wing.

Am I the only one who finds it very nasty that you have to use limited items to save? You always have to consider if you want to save or not, risking that you need to do whole sections again if you die. Of course, it can make a game more thrilling, and is not much of a problem now that I have vacation. But when university and work starts next week, it could get a little tricky because I'd probably need a good hour of playtime to be worth the effort.

Despite my slight criticism, the game seems quite cool for the time being.

[Curlypaul]

I played this over and over when it was new and I knew that mansion inside out. Still do actually.

Most of the hunters can be avoided since they are so slow and take so much damage to kill.

For me this is one of the 'citizen cane' games that raised the bar for everything else. The game was just so intense I had to take regualr breaks to bring my heart rate down and dry my palms off. The lack of ammo, the awkward controls and camera angles and the brilliant music all add together to make this one of the most finely crafted games I ever played.

[noiseredux]

There are other tricks to surviving I'll discuss if you guys want.

that's what TR's all about!

[nickfil]

I've played resident evil zero a bit on the cube way back when. I only managed to get off the train. Zombies were plentiful as was ammo. I always felt like i was going to run out, and truly never had a ton but always enough. I played until we got into the mansion and played a little bit of the mansion, but just kinda... lost interest. The game was creepy, but something about it just seemed boring. I wasn't invested in chambers or billy and the atmosphere wasn't great.

I've played resident evil 4 through to the end. A few parts were tricky, and like REzero There was always ammo near by, but a few times on some larger encounters i ran out of ammo for the gun that was most useful in that situation and had to kind of scamble to gather ammo on the run or use a gun that really isn't suited well. The game was creepy, but never scary. Still a fun ride though.

Played through RE5 which.... yeah.. can you even call it a resident evil? I think that game was about chris redfield's arms flexing at guys to make their heads explode. Maybe also about putting shiva in a clubbing outfit if you play through twice. The political subtext was about the gamer community being super sheltered and totally uncomfortable with race.

SO HERE STARTS THE ACTUAL PART ABOUT RE1 ON CUBE>

here i am at Resident evil 1 remixed for the gamecube. I've owned it for at least 4 or 5 months without putting it in. Telling myself i'll get around to playing through zero before tackling it. Load it up. Playing as Jill. You know that first zombie you find totally eating that guy like he was made out of spaghetti and Viagra? I didn't really realize that you had to run back to Barry. I died on him a total of 8 times before i read that shit in the walkthrough. I mean fuck- they give me a gun AND a knife. Then they point me at a zombie. I did what came natural and i refuse to apologize for it. I emptied my pistol into him while i slowly backed up, and then tackled him with a knife. By the 8th death i had this shit down to a science, but he would not go down. So i figured maybe i'm not hitting him right? Walkthrough tells me to turn the fuck around stupid because apparently i'm in a scripted event and had no idea. Fun times. Load it up- walkthrough it up.

Ok- so we are good now. I'm ready to kill my first zombie. I go in the other room opposite the one barry goes in. push the desk. Get the dagger. Down the zombie and run by him. I hear him get up and i get behind the desk. He walks up and I knife the crap out of him. Killed fucking zombie! Awesome. I'm on a roll of one.

Now we run into the problem that i have with this game. Ink ribbons and saving. I know that this is supposed to increase the tension or whatever, but fuck man. I am a chronic saver because i never like doing anything more than once if i have to. Plus, I am not playing for hours and hours at a time. I just don't have a lifestyle that affords that. I can grab an hour here and there, but i feel like the game punishes me for that.

Which- because of that i found myself all over a walkthrough. You know whats not fun either? walkthroughs. I got the mansion key because of the walkthrough. It was easy. And boring. I didn't save. Stopped using a walkthrough and got killed by one zombie.

Am I the only one who finds it very nasty that you have to use limited items to save? You always have to consider if you want to save or not, risking that you need to do whole sections again if you die. Of course, it can make a game more thrilling, and is not much of a problem now that I have vacation. But when university and work starts next week, it could get a little tricky because I'd probably need a good hour of playtime to be worth the effort.

exactly.

now i'm back to my original first save right at the very beginning because I'm more afraid to save than i am of the zombies and i can't decide if i love the game that just shit all over everything i want in games, or hate it. What i really wish i had isn't a walkthrough, but like... a spotter. Someone that would realize if i was way off the beaten path and rein me back in before i got eaten. Just someone looking out for me, but not telling me everything about everything.

It's just so awkward to steer your guy with those tank-controls through a cramped prerendered background that has 5 zombies in it without being hit.

I totally agree. In a game that demands this of you, i feel like they could've made it at least fair. The little i've played of RE2 I had the same problem. Feeling like i could get by if the camera moved doesn't make the game thrilling for me, it just makes it frustrating. I know purests are going to chim in that learning that skill is critical and unique to the game, but really... really. Come the fuck on. The few times the camera pulls back and is fixed in batman arkham asylum drove me fucking crazy. This is an entire game like that. It isn't scary, it is just annoying. And the weird thing is- RE doesn't even really NEED to have fixed cameras to create atmosphere and tension. It is scary/creepy already.

[noiseredux]

Now we run into the problem that i have with this game. Ink ribbons and saving. I know that this is supposed to increase the tension or whatever, but fuck man. I am a chronic saver because i never like doing anything more than once if i have to. Plus, I am not playing for hours and hours at a time. I just don't have a lifestyle that affords that. I can grab an hour here and there, but i feel like the game punishes me for that.

This is my same exact one complaint. Some of us have jobs, and lives, and wives, and other responsibilities and can't afford to play for hours and hours. I'm not asking for save states. You want a typewriter? Fine. But the limited ink ribbons? C'mon!

[nickfil]

Now we run into the problem that i have with this game. Ink ribbons and saving. I know that this is supposed to increase the tension or whatever, but fuck man. I am a chronic saver because i never like doing anything more than once if i have to. Plus, I am not playing for hours and hours at a time. I just don't have a lifestyle that affords that. I can grab an hour here and there, but i feel like the game punishes me for that.

This is my same exact one complaint. Some of us have jobs, and lives, and wives, and other responsibilities and can't afford to play for hours and hours. I'm not asking for save states. You want a typewriter? Fine. But the limited ink ribbons? C'mon!

I would be more into this game if i could save as much as i wanted. In fact, i would LOVE this game if that were the case. Does anyone know if there is a hack out there with unlimited saves?

[noiseredux]

I don't know about any hack... but I bet if you had an Action Replay you could work something out.