October Together Retro: Golden Age of Survival Horror

[noiseredux]

Those fucking dogs are the worst. I've just been avoiding that hallway and taking the long way around in this playthrough haha.

I'm impressed though - I had assumed the DS version was just sort of a downscaled port of REmake. That's why I didn't realize it had the original FMV stuff in it. That's cool and it makes it a good reason to want another version. (IE: an excuse to buy more RE games).

[pierrot]

I finished Enemy Zero last night. I'm pretty "meh" about it, overall. The third disc was pretty much all FPS, but for most of it, I had a gun with unlimited ammo. So, while it was pretty tense, it wasn't really very difficult. I died once, pretty much right after getting the unlimited weapon, as soon as I encountered the little babby aliens. They're easy to deal with, once you know what you're looking for, but one sneaked up on me in the first hallway that they appear, and killed me pretty good.

Generally speaking, what Enemy Zero does right, IMO, is the atmosphere, and a fair amount of good presentation (considering the era of its release), but the things it kind of does wrong feel too numerous for the game to really sit well with me, all said and done. I'd probably give it a C+: Ambitious, and probably worth a play for serious Eno fans, but too derivative, and awkward to recommend to the average person. As far as I can tell, this game is completely unrelated to D, and really just has Laura, and a holographic butterfly as insignificant callbacks.

I'll be playing D2 next, just not exactly sure when I'll be able to actually start it, at the moment.

[Exhuminator]

I finished Enemy Zero last night.

Nice job man. Sounds like it was tricky business.

You playing this game reminded me I had a copy of it. I thought I had it on Saturn, but turns out I actually owned the Windows 95/98 version:

I've owned that game so long I forgot I had it.

[Nemoide]

Well, I'm up to chapter 5 in Fatal Frame II. I really wish the main character wasn't a twin. Aside from the fact that this village's long history involves some sort of twin sacrifice, my sister is apparently always getting herself possessed and I'm stuck saving her.

This game has an unusual flow in that when chapters start, you're not in the room with a save lamp, so you can't just stop right then and there (which I'd be normally inclined to do) but it works. It's been years since I played the first game, but I'm inclined to think this one is a step up in how it flows, how the ghosts fight, and how the story progresses. At this point in the game, I think I have a handle on what's went on in the village but I know there are going to be some more scary revelations as the game goes on...

[pierrot]

I've owned that game so long I forgot I had it.

I was actually wondering about that version of the game a bit, at different points while I was playing the Saturn version. I'm pretty sure you would absolutely hate it, but I also kind of want you to play it, just so I might hear about any differences with the PC version. On the Saturn, it's a little like the initial releases of Beyond Good and Evil, with everything drawn in a 16:9 window that's letterboxed for 4:3 aspect ratio. I used one of the letterboxed settings on the Framemeister to see how terrible it would look blown up into 16:9, and it was pretty unpleasant to look at, when it's otherwise a fairly solid game, graphically. I thought that maybe the PC version could actually be mapped to a 16:9 resolution.

I had kind of hoped for more from Enemy Zero, just because it started out feeling like a pretty impressive game. I at least knew going in that the gunplay would be problematic, but what I ended up finding out was that most of the pace of gameplay is just excruciatingly slow. It doesn't really help that the story is pretty limited, and really not worth investing in at all.

Well, I'm up to chapter 5 in Fatal Frame II. I really wish the main character wasn't a twin. Aside from the fact that this village's long history involves some sort of twin sacrifice, my sister is apparently always getting herself possessed and I'm stuck saving her.

You're almost there, Nemoide! Another chapter or so, and you get to meet the real star of Fatal Frame II.
Mayu is a real jerk. She is probably the creepiest character in the game, to me. If I were Mio, I might have left her in that village--.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I’m moving right along in Resident Evil. I beat the snake, and I’ve unlocked the door with the crests. I also think I’ve reached the “tipping point” where my austerity during the beginning if the game is about to pay off. I have a large stockpile of heavy ammunition, healing items, and ink ribbons, and I think I should be able to move the rest of the game with relative ease. (Maybe not. I’m not using a walkthrough; so, i don’t know how much further I need to go. I suspect I am about 1/3 of the way there, though.)

For Chris’ scenario, I am thinking about playing the NDS exclusive “rebirth” mode. Apparently, it is slightly remixed and has a few more puzzles. Thoughts? Should I play through both scenarios in “classic” mode before giving rebirth mode a shot?

Finally, this game is really great. I’m kind of shocked I couldn’t get into it before. Maybe it’s because Resident Evil 2 was my ntroduction to the series.

[Xeogred]

I’m moving right along in Resident Evil. I beat the snake, and I’ve unlocked the door with the crests. I also think I’ve reached the “tipping point” where my austerity during the beginning if the game is about to pay off. I have a large stockpile of heavy ammunition, healing items, and ink ribbons, and I think I should be able to move the rest of the game with relative ease. (Maybe not. I’m not using a walkthrough; so, i don’t know how much further I need to go. I suspect I am about 1/3 of the way there, though.)

For Chris’ scenario, I am thinking about playing the NDS exclusive “rebirth” mode. Apparently, it is slightly remixed and has a few more puzzles. Thoughts? Should I play through both scenarios in “classic” mode before giving rebirth mode a shot?

Finally, this game is really great. I’m kind of shocked I couldn’t get into it before. Maybe it’s because Resident Evil 2 was my ntroduction to the series.

Glad you're liking it so much! While REmake is absolute perfection, I still really enjoy going back to the original off and on too. Beat Chris' game myself earlier this year.

I don't know all about the NDS exclusives and whatnot, but even with the base release of RE1, both Chris and Jill's scenarios are different enough if you're cool with going through the mansion and same environment again. Chris can tank more damage, but he has a smaller inventory, no lockpick, and Rebecca around who can heal him a few times at certain points. Jill is weaker, but gets the grenade launcher, bigger inventory, help from Barry, and has the lockpick. With Chris, you have usable small keys you find around for a few of those locked doors and can do them in any order. The flow of the mansion can be quite different between the two playthroughs. So what I'm getting at... is even with the original playthroughs, the characters will feel like a remix of the other. You definitely won't be following the same exact path through the mansion again because of the subtle changes in events, items, etc.

I'd put REmake above RE2 but RE2 above RE1, if that makes sense heh. But yeah, there is really nothing quite like the Spencer Mansion in the series ever again. RE2's police station is great but still only like half the size of the mansion. I definitely get the strongest Metroidvania vibes from RE1 compared to the rest of the series and that makes it pretty unique.

[noiseredux]

Hey Xeo, how is the Spenser dlc in RE5? I only played the base game.

[Xeogred]

I just knocked out Silent Hill 4 again today myself. Second playthrough of this one. 6:51.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhhlYAlCS_c

This is such a flawed masterpiece that I love, a strange game that compels me to write up an article about it or something. I keep thinking I should do a blog like some folks here do to get my thoughts jotted down. I want to defend it but moreso just simply talk about it. It's a radical departure from the first three in every conceivable way, probably an entirely different engine, Akira Yamaoka even goes for a completely different sound, the only connections are subtleties building off lore of the cult and Silent Hill town itself. The Room opens the door to infinite possibilities and isn't as metaphorical as 1 or 3, rather it's full on supernatural surreal J-horror to the max that initially unravels like a horror crime drama. Once the pieces start falling into play however, it's one of the most bizarre experiences I've had in the gaming medium. The story/concepts and art direction of this game (camera angles), are so aggressively experimental and obtuse, this is where the game completely rocks.

But I guess because it was so different mechanically at the time, fans didn't want to accept it. The Room is a title I wish people would look back on and give another chance. For my money, SH4's story utterly blows 1 and 3 out of the water and Team Silent outdid themselves in most ways with SH2, so they took a big chance with SH4 and I'm sad it flopped. I love basking in the horror genre within gaming and I have yet to see anything even remotely as weird as SH4 gets. Suddenly the rest of Silent Hill and the Western titles would do their damndest to rip off SH2 at every major note, unload the cliche's of guilt on the main character, even throw in Pyramid Head like he's some Goomba and not out of place in anything outside of SH2... the lack of imagination in the post-Team Silent era is beyond disappointing.

I guess I'll maybe add to this later and talk about more elements of the game, but I'll stop there for now...

SH4 is really flawed, I can see how it's not for everyone, but it's such a fascinating game that I wish would get a second chance from everyone, Silent Hill fans or not. If only the PT kids out there knew that it pulled way more from SH4 than the rest of the series.

[Xeogred]

Hey Xeo, how is the Spenser dlc in RE5? I only played the base game.

It's amazing. I love RE5 but this DLC makes me laugh, because if the base game was more like this, it may have surpassed RE4. It's only about an hour long but absolutely worth playing, in fact I replayed it this year on its own actually.

I think the Gold edition on PS3 and all the ports to the newest systems include it.

I guess for reference here's the RE stuff I replayed this year:
19. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PSX)
20. Resident Evil 2: DualShock* [Claire A/Leon B] (PSX)
22. Resident Evil HD* (PS4) [PLATINUM]
23. Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares* (PS4)
72. Resident Evil 3* (PSX)

I wonder if I've gone a year without beating some RE stuff at some point... probably not.

(though I've been preparing for REmake2 )