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The Impact of Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remake || Resident Evil Month
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After their run ins with the dreaded podcast bots, a new organisation calling themselves the Brolly Corporation have emerged from the shadows seeking to destroy indie podcasts once and for all. It's up to Satsunami and the PodPack Collective to stop them by discussing the iconic gaming franchise Resident Evil! Welcome to Resident Evil Month!
In this episode, Satsunami is joined by Luke from the Howdy Beans podcast to discuss two of the most talked about games of the franchise Resident Evil 2: Remake and 3: Remake! But what makes these games so iconic? Why did the second remake succeed while the third didn't? And what are those footsteps?! Grab your hip pouches and your green herbs as we discuss these iconic games!
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Transcript
Return to Red Panda City and Chaos Unleashed
00:00:03
Speaker
After what went down at the Spencer Podcasting House, I decided to return to good old Red Panda City, unaware of what new horrors would emerge. I thought things would have settled down by now, but turns out the Brawly Corporation had other plans.
00:00:17
Speaker
Howdy, Satsu. Nice night for a monologue, isn't it? I was about to agree with Luke when... I mean, yeah, totally. Anyway, what are you doing out and about? Well, I was bored. I decided I'll go get milkshake, but then a horde of zombies decided to burn down the shop. So I go buy one at supermarket for about £10. That's terrible! I know! These prices are getting ridiculous. not that.
00:00:38
Speaker
Although, yeah, that is bad. But the situation is far worse than I thought. We have to head over to the RPD as soon as possible. Surely you don't mean the Red Panda Department? I'm afraid so.
00:00:49
Speaker
The Brawley Corporation have infected the entire city. If we can get the pod pack together, we can stop this threat once and
Introduction to Resident Evil Month with Satsunami and Luke
00:00:56
Speaker
for all. Which reminds me, where is everybody? I think they all ran out of town when the big muscle zombies started hunting them down. Ah, that makes sense. Big zombie what now?
00:01:07
Speaker
Oh god, my leg!
00:01:14
Speaker
Oh well, what can you do?
00:01:17
Speaker
Welcome to Resident Evil Moves, everybody. Why did you do this? Oh, God.
00:01:25
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to the second episode of Resident Evil Month. My name's Satsunami and joining me is none other than the one and only star, or should I say stars, of the pod pack is Luke from the Howdy Beans podcast. Luke, welcome back. It's an absolute pleasure and by the way that was an incredible pun. and I don't care what anybody says. That was great. I am a star.
00:01:48
Speaker
I'm stars.
Resident Evil Game Discussions and Experiences
00:01:50
Speaker
stars stars but Then again, Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 Remake is just not as menacing as his voice. He's more of an annoyance, really. He's more like, Stars, hi. Hey, guys. Hi, guys. I'm home Stars. I'm part of the pack.
00:02:03
Speaker
hi Don't make fun of me. I'm wearing trash. Don't worry about that. Oh, we'll get to him. Don't you worry. ah So today we are going to be tackling quite possibly of the hardest games to talk about in this series, and not because it was difficult by any any means, I mean parts of it was, but again, we'll get to that, but because one of these games we're going to be talking about today is so beloved by the fandom, and the other one is... Oh no!
00:02:33
Speaker
Not so much. Yeah, it's very ridiculed for obvious reasons. But of course, before we dive into this game, these games are definitely worth talking about in depth, but I'm going to turn that on to you first, Luke. Oh, Joey.
00:02:48
Speaker
What your experience, say, with the franchise as a whole? Before we get into the remakes, of course, did you play the originals? Did you know about them growing up? What was your experience? Well, no, I never played them, to be honest. No, I was a big girl's blouse because love horror. But when it comes to actually playing a horror game, a survival horror game, I was never brave enough, to be honest. And it wasn't until Dead Space, which was a third person game, where I could see around me and it wasn't first person that I actually got a bit more confidence in playing them. So Resident Evil was something I always wanted to play and experience, but was never brave enough to do. And it wasn't until the Resident Evil 2 remake came out and it was over the shoulder, it was third person, you know what, I think I can do this. I was still terrified going in, to be completely honest. I didn't know what to expect and it's known for being a very scary sort of franchise. So going into it, it was a scary experience, but manageable one. And especially how the game gives you the option of standard or assisted. And me being me, I was like, well, first time going in, I'm a rookie, Leon's a rookie. I'm going to go in complete assist mode and just make it really, really easy. And then once I went for my second play for his Claire, I was a bit more cocky, to be honest, a bit brazier. So I went as standard and got my ass handed to me by Mr. X, to be honest. But yeah, Resident Evil has always been around. always loved the movies, even though they get a bit cheesy as they went on. I've always been a big fan. So it was a franchise and series I always wanted to get into, but it wasn't until recently with the newer remakes and being able to play them over the shoulder is what got me into them. Like I still haven't played really Resident Evil 7 or Village because they're first person. Now I know you can play Village in third person now through the update, but for the longest time you couldn't. So I was just like, I'm interested but no because it's too scary first person in any horror games is just too scary for me even I'm playing during the day I just can't do it I can watch horror movies all day every day but you put me in a first person video game I'm like I can't do it if you ever played Alien Isolation you know how bad it can be so not for me but yeah I am a huge fan of Resident Evil now I've played Resident Evil 2 remake and free remake and I've got Resident Evil 4 on the burner. It's ready to go. I bought the gold edition of all the DLC. So I'm looking forward to carrying on Leon's story there. I'm excited for the new Resident Evil, which you can play that in both first person and third person. I'm looking forward to that. So I am slowly getting braver with this franchise and wanting to experience the older games. And Code Veronica, I'm really fascinated in that one. So I hope that that's the next remake and we go into that one. So yeah, I've got a lot of things that I love and enjoy about the series. But yeah, when it comes to first person,
Anticipation and Experiences with Horror Games
00:05:14
Speaker
nah, I can't do it. I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. Resident Evil 7 isn't scary. No, it is. Well, no, that one isn't. But I've heard it's more fun to play with friends instead of on your own because it gets a bit boring and annoying. Yeah, it's the feel-good game of the decade. Yeah, century decade. Whatever, just play You need to bring a friend with you to get through it. I mean, I didn't, and I regret So does my backlog of trousers, but that's another matter to talk about. But yeah, I see what you mean. And it's interesting to see how so many people have gotten into the franchise because of the remakes.
00:05:48
Speaker
Because for me, and this is something you'll probably hear throughout Resident Evil month, that I got into the series because I played the remake of the fourth game. One of my friends gave me a i thought, okay, I guess I'll play it. You know, got nothing better to do because I think I was coming off the back of, maybe it was Mass Effect 1.
00:06:06
Speaker
I think it was, yeah. I do remember you talking, but I've just started playing it. I'm like, it's really good. And I'm like, I know. And thought, okay, I'll play it. And I fell in love with it. I thought, this is amazing. I really want to talk about it. And then I thought, you know what? I might as well try the other games, much to my dismay, I want to say. Because for some reason, had bought the Humble Wonder way back when of all the Resident Evil games I could. I don't know why I bought them. gonna be honest. I am very similar to you, Luke, in the sense that I've only just started getting into certain horror games. On Twitch, I have played games like Little Nightmares, Outlast.
00:06:43
Speaker
I see, i like Little Nightmares. I can handle that because it's not in your face. Like, you zoomed out enough where you can see what's coming. Outlast, on the other hand, terrifying. had to play that with my cousin when we were younger. It was absolutely hilarious watching us get terrified, but no, we'd never complete it. No, it's terrifying. I managed to complete it, but it's terrifying. Same with Condemned, Criminal Origins. Great game. That the one where you're in the abandoned mall and get the mannequins that come alive. Yeah, I still have nightmares about that. Yeah, where you just walk up to and he just nonchalantly walks away. And I was like, hmm, I don't like this game.
00:07:14
Speaker
I'm gonna be honest yeah so I've played games like that and then I reviewed Dead Space the remake with the one and only Dan from Casting slash Gaming Views loved that game terrifying but still loved it and you know there's a certain element I suppose that I want to have between horror and being able to defend myself in the horror game if that makes sense yeah for example years and years ago and I mean it's probably over a decade ago but my very good friend Adam and I we had a horror game night for was near Halloween and we played through a lot of different horror games like Amnesia which is a very slow burner so we didn't really get scared that much we played Emily Wants to Play that was terrifying do not hide in the closet Adam you know what I mean I tried hiding it did not work we played Five Nights at Freddy's which It's scary initially, but the more and more repetition you get, the more you're like, oh, right, okay. Yeah, as the franchise went on, you knew what was coming, so they got less and less scary. Yeah, but not even that. When you're playing the same game and you're getting jump-scared over and over, you're like, oh, right, okay, here comes the jump-scare. Oh, look, it's Freddy. Hey. All the FNAF fans sharpening the pitchforks in the background. What'd you say? As you know, sharpening the pitchforks.
00:08:30
Speaker
Don't worry, next month is Five Nights at Freddy's. No, I'm only joking, it's not. So Resident Evil was a game that my brother had for the PlayStation 1, and again, I've still got the case and everything in the game, and I never played it because I was too young at the time. I wasn't really interested until I played the fourth remake, and then I went back, I played through the series, and I did it in a very Benjamin Button way. I played four, then I went to two, three, seven, eight, five, six, like the first remake
Resident Evil 2 Remake: Success and Impact
00:09:00
Speaker
you know i was hopping all over the place i do want to play five five does fascinate me but again if i was to play five i'd want to play in co-op i wouldn't want to play it on my own because i've heard it's a lot of fun in co-op oh yeah absolutely five in six and six are definitely made for co-op six isn't a great game and we'll all be talking about that in about two weeks from now but five and six are over the top and massive goofy but
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, they're interesting games, but again, during the original run in 1996 through to the 2000s, I never really played Resident Evil. I knew what a Resident Evil game was, which sounds really weird, but what I mean by that is you saw the aesthetic of Resident Evil, you saw the zombie dogs, you saw the stumbling zombies, you saw the stars uniform... You knew it was a Resident Evil game. You knew it wasn't just another run-of-the-mill, copycat, zombie game. And I think that even Capcom at the time were really surprised that this game took co- off. It was really popular. And then in 1998, they decided, you know what, we are going to make the second Resident Evil game. And that is so fascinating to see the developments. of this game because there is a colloquially known one within the fan base as Resident Evil 1.5, which I don't know if you've heard much about this, but there were some developers that wanted to separate the first game from the second game. They wanted it to still be in the same universe, but not share anything with the first game, which was really weird. So you had Leon Kennedy, who was the rookie cop, and don't worry, we We'll talk about him very, very soon.
00:10:34
Speaker
And then you had Eliza Walker, who was a motorcycle enthusiast and who would eventually become Claire Redfield. That's why in the remake you get the biker jumpsuit. It's DLC. I think it's DLC, but yeah, that's why she's wearing this big red jumpsuit. You're thinking, why is she wearing that? But yeah, it's very interesting to see how they went from that and then it went to the board and they were like, no, that's dumb. Yeah. Generally, again, not the ideas, but just trying to separate the two. Because, you know, you think of stars, you think of the T-Virus and things, and it's hard to separate one from two. So they went back to the drawing board. They said, right, we're going to rework this. So that's why we've got Claire Redfield. That's why we've got Liam Kennedy. We've got the T-Virus. We've got Umbrella coming back in full force. Instead of focusing more on an action game, it was Action horror. It was absolutely fascinating. And the same with the third game. The third game was, at the time, developed side by side with Code Veronica, but they wanted to keep the numbered entries on the PlayStation, i think. So that's why Code Veronica, and trust me, this is a very contentious within the fandom that lot of people say that oh Code Veronica is the true successor it's the true RE3 and everything and because it was developed side by side and there's a lot of interviews and things to both support and draw questions about that you know it's a very contentious issue and obviously we're not going to be talking about going Veronica today but for RE3 that was definitely expanding on what they brought in with RE2 but the difference was instead of having the A and B scenario where if you picked up a certain item ah um in your first playthrough then in your second playthrough you wouldn't be able to get that item so that was something that was very unique at the time and you had two discs would you believe to actually play this game. So archaic. Isn't it? Bring back two discs. No, seriously, don't.
00:12:39
Speaker
Please don't. But yeah, so for example, if you played through as Leon Kennedy and you went, ooh, a red herb, ooh, green herb, and then once you played through the same game again as Claire Redfield, then yeah, you wouldn't be getting those red herbs and good green herbs. You would just be getting a fistful of, well, Mr. X, let's face it, in the face, and...
00:12:59
Speaker
was not a good time yeah that's again something that we will be talking about in relation to the remake what do i think how interesting that is though if you went into those games not knowing that as a concept and you played your first playthrough as leon you completely took everything and picked everything up because you didn't know any better like oh i'll have that i'll have that i'll storage that i use that completed the game oh okay i'll play as claire now and then play as claire and realize i'm screwed there is nothing left i've got no ammo what am i going to fight anything with so i've think that's actually ingenious. And I know they did it with the remake, but I would love more games to have a system like that. Don't just play it once, play it again, but this time it'll be different. or I think it just adds to the idea of wanting to replay a game because nowadays I recently played the new Mafia and it great, but I have no reason to go back now. And I just feel like I miss the days where you had an option of, oh, you've played it once. Well, play it again, but it's different. So I appreciate Resident Evil for that because it's so different and so unique, but it's very much still very Resident Evil because nobody else does it. Because, I mean, that's what they did for the third game as well. They completely expanded on that idea of maybe not so much in the AB scenario, but they made it more of an action RPG horror.
00:14:06
Speaker
Oh, God. yeah you got into situations that said oh what do you want to do jump out the window or face neusees and you had to choose at that moment and was so interesting to see them try a completely different thing whereas from what i've played of code veronica and again i won't get into too many details because i they justmied that i got my but kicked by zombies but from what I've played of that that seems very much more like the traditional Resident Evil Back to basics Yeah It's still the same principle It's the fixed camera angles and it's similar characters where plays Claire Redfield instead of anybody else but yeah and the third one you play is jill valentine who's still
Resident Evil 3 Remake: Criticism and Comparisons
00:14:49
Speaker
suffering from the aftermath of the first game which is very interesting to see they continued that and because of that we had the introduction of characters like nemesis who was the stalking enemy slash zombie who would pop out of nowhere jump through windows and jump through walls, much like Mr X. You know, it was fascinating to see how they managed to get away with that back then. And these games are utterly beloved. I'm talking about the OGs here. They are utterly beloved, and you can see why. You can see how they basically pioneered this survival horror action genre. Every game in that bubble wanted to be like Resident Evil to mesh these wonderful concepts together. Resident Evil really changed the game in terms of survival horror. Because before, survival horror was just like what you get in the first Resident Evil was you'd go around, you've got limited resources and you've got to make your way to the end. Whereas Resident Evil, the added in story, again, I know it's a joke now, but you had the cheesy dialogue as well as the puzzles and the backtracking and the save system. Like it was iconic. for the time and then when got to Resident Evil 2 same sort of thing but this time new characters new setting as the series went on granted I know I haven't played many of the old ones but I haven't played Code Veronica and I know we don't want to talk about it because that's another thing for another day but that's the reason why I haven't played Resident Evil 4 yet the remake is because I really want to play because I'm a stickler for canon so I'm like I really want to play Code Veronica then 4 so even though I've got it I'm not going to play it yet but I've got my fingers crossed that maybe next year we'll get Code Veronica remake who knows Anyway, the point i was trying to make is the fact of the games kept changing. They always try something different, but they always had that DNA of Resident Evil. And it wasn't until I feel like they got to Resident Evil 4 when it was Leon and it was more action. And again, he was more capable because he was trained. So he did a lot of kickflips and stuff like that, where I think from there, the game sort of went, well, this is what we're looking for. This was really popular. We're going to carry on doing this. And it went the action route and they kind of went from survival horror into action, which for some fans love, some fans didn't. And again, I can only really speak from my experience with remake of 2 and 3 but even in there you can feel the difference in the remakes whereas 2 is very much survival horror with lot of puzzles and the different paths and you've got to play at least 3-4 times to get the full gist of everything which I love whereas 3 remake is more just the fact of everything you've just done and learned in 2 forget that just run and gun and shoot and you've got a guy chasing you that is meant to be terrifying he isn't He's more annoying. And then it depends how good you are at Resident Evil. You can get it done within four hours, probably less if you're really, really good. And yeah, it's not a good change, but at the same stage, it was an interesting one. It really differentiates from how different the genre is and how the games change with each series. So love it or hate it, I think it was an interesting choice.
00:17:31
Speaker
I know we'll talk about when we get to Resident Evil 3, but obviously, like said, I had no experience Resident Evil 3. So all the things that they added and took away with the remake, because I had no prior experience with, my experience Resident Evil was a lot different to hardcore fans. And I'm sure it's probably the same with you, Chatsu, as well. Even though it's not as good as 2, I still enjoy it for what it is, even though I understand why people don't like it. I'm going to put my cards on the table here and definitely co-sign what you just said there, that when I played the fourth remake and then went back to Resident Evil 2 and 3 remake, I hadn't played the originals. Again, I knew of them, I knew of the concepts that they embodied, but I did not play them when I was younger. So I was coming into it from the perspective of remake only, as it were. So that may be total heresy. There's Resident Evil fans just yelling, go and vote! No, I'm joking. Trust me, when you get to Resident Evil 4, you'll laugh at that reference.
00:18:26
Speaker
ah ah Yeah, I really enjoyed the second one. It terrified me. same. There is so much in this game to love. the third one, not so much to love. There was bits to love, but at the same time, I feel as if we need to work through our relationship issues. It's not you, it's me.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah, and I thought, yeah, sure, it's mediocre, but it's not the worst game I've ever played. Oh, no, not at all. Trust me, the way some people were talking, they were talking as if this was the worst game ever. And it wasn't until I did some digging into what made the original Resident Evil 3 that good that I realised, oh my god, they really cut a lot out of this, and there was a lot of areas that felt a bit rushed and slapped together so see without any further ado while we put on our Mr X stomping boots and see the good the bad and the downright bizarre of these two games oh definitely I'm looking forward to it and of course we will be right back after a we patch up this wall behind us and b after these messages Welcome to Chatsunami, a Scottish variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime and general en interest.
00:19:37
Speaker
Join me, your host, Satsunami, as well as the rest of our Chatsunami team for our takes on these very important pop culture topics. Sir, it's clearly a trap. I accept copyright! That three times in the film. Every time that general goes, don't do this one thing, he goes, do you know what I'ma That's the exact thing. it well? She had the pointy teeth? What was that about? She looked like Bilbo when he wants the ring back.
00:20:03
Speaker
yeah um She turned into it. I just want the lightsaber one more time. Parasite says, no, you will get back into your office and work. No, says the man in Zoom. Trousers are for the working man. You're bursting into your hotel room. Honey, we need to go.
00:20:20
Speaker
Leave the kids. We can milk an odysh. Oh.
00:20:28
Speaker
That's the worst thing you've ever said on any of the episodes. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out at our website, chattsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated. Stay classy and have banana. This has been chattsunami.
00:20:48
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:20:54
Speaker
Howdy, I'm Luke from the Howdy Beans Podcast, a variety podcasts where I look into topics each week into the world of pop culture, like book reviews, where I delve deep into the expanded universe of Doctor Who, or a movie review on the 1998 cult
Expectations for Resident Evil 3 and Nemesis
00:21:08
Speaker
classic, The Mummy. Well, if you're very lucky, I might take a peek under the hood of video games, both new and old.
00:21:13
Speaker
So what are you waiting for? check out the howdy beans podcast now on youtube spotify apple podcasts And And and we are back so let's start with ra evil too and i've got a bit of atra to make look something that you brought up air weird about being scared about horror game age years ago and this is probably a story over hear throughout recent an evil month as bill but eight years ago I was sitting with my very good friend Adam on a Xbox Live call and we were all playing different games, you know, I think I was playing Call of Duty or something and my friend Adam kept screaming. Constantly, you know, he kept screaming at different intervals and they kept yelling about this person called Mr. X. And I was like, Adam, what are you playing? And he would tell me, oh, I'm playing Resident Evil 2 Remake. And I thought, OK, but why do you keep screaming? I didn't know it at the time, but that planted a seed in my mind that actually made me terrified. And I think I messaged you at the time. I was terrified to play this game. Oh, no, I was as well. I was googling who is Mr. X, does he appear very often, how do you trigger him to appear, I was terrified and I felt the same of course with Resident Evil 7, but don't worry that is Dan's job in a couple of weeks to talk about that, but I was terrified, genuinely thought, I don't know if i'm going to be able to cope with us, this is going to be a terrifying experience, but I went into it after several hyperventilations, I thought, you what, I'm going to do it, and yeah, I have to say out the two of these games this was by far one of my favorites and i know that there is some slight controversy with some content that there was supposed to be fixed camera angles at some point there is actually a mod that you can play this game in that reintroduces the fixed camera angles and things which i think is so cool of the community to add those things in But yeah, out curiosity, what was your experience with this particular remake? How did you find it going in? Well, relatively the same as you, to be honest. I was really scared going in. I did a review on Resident Evil 2 and I remember I did the introduction before I played the game at all.
00:23:25
Speaker
And I was trying to do the introduction as long as possible because the longer I wouldd do it, the more i didn't have to play the game. I was terrified. i was like, I've had so many rumors. Everybody said it's terrifying. You go into it Mr. X is always there and it's dark. And I'm just like, oh God, okay, nightmare fuel. But before you know what? Okay, be brave, bite the bullet, it play it.
00:23:41
Speaker
And when the game starts and you're in that petrol station, fuel gas station, whatever Americans call it, I ended up using almost all my ammo trying to get out of there, to be honest. So by the time I got to Raccoon City and got into the police station, I used all my ammo. I was just like, oh God, I'm screwed. But what I love about Resident 2 Remake is the fact of it's very clever, but it's also depends on what difficulty you play on. I played it on assisted first because again, For me, I needed to know what was coming and how the game worked before I went into standard mode when I played as Claire. As I played the game, I realized how clever it was. I realized that actually it had a lot of things in it that were terrifying. It was scary and the zombies wouldn't always go down with two shots. Like you shot zombie in the head didn't mean it stopped it. Also, sometimes you had to shoot him the leg, which I learned halfway through the game. When shot him the leg, they would go down you can run around them. Again, the idea with boards and you can board up windows. I felt really smart because as I would go through it, I'd be like, So I'm going to spend a lot of time in the Raccoon City Police Department. And before Mr. X shows up, I'm going to go open every door. I'm going to go to every room. going to plan a route around. going to get to know this around. And so I spent majority of my time running around like a madman. Like if there was cameras in there and recording, you've just got Leon going from room to room, just carrying loads of stuff, dumping it into a box, coming back, dumping more. You know, I was literally like a pack horse. I was just hoarding everything just because I needed it. So I got used to how it all worked.
00:24:59
Speaker
I boarded up all of the left hand side of the PlayStation because I knew how to get around there. And I knew that if I boarded that up, because I'm one of those people that does their research where they play games like this. I'm like, okay, so what do I need to know? What the tips and tricks? I watch YouTube videos and that. so I planned out my route of escape.
00:25:13
Speaker
So by the time that Mr. X turned up, he was still terrifying. Don't get me wrong. and When you hear the thump, thump, thump, the banging noises, it was still, my heart was going. And how many times I'd run back to a safe room and be like, okay, I know he's outside the door and he could come in, but he won't. So I'm like, okay, oh I can breathe. And it was just those moments of like, oh God, my heart's going 10 to a dozen.
00:25:30
Speaker
And then he'd leave. if Before he'd leave, I'd be like, okay, quickly save. right, so where am I? Look at the map. All right, I've got to get the detonator over here. So I've now got to quickly run this way, this way. So I felt smart. I felt clever. You could say I got cocky because I went through the sewer level and all the other levels and you go into the hive and secret base and all that. So by time I completed the game as Leon... I didn't feel like a rookie anymore.
00:25:50
Speaker
I felt capable. I felt brave. I felt strong. I went in playing as Claire with being cocky, thinking, oh, okay, you know, i know I'm doing. It's going be a exactly is the same. Things going be different, but it's going to be the same. And then playing as Claire and and realizing the game was like, no, you're playing in standard difficulty now, mate. The game literally just threw everything at me.
00:26:06
Speaker
It threw liquors at me straight away. Mr. X was already in the building. He was in the safe area, in the main big court area. He was already running around in there when I first got there. So it was just terrifying. And it really caught me on my toes of like, okay, I'm going to die quicker now. So I've got to run around. I've got to hide. I've got to find keys as well as all solve the puzzles while I'm being chased. So it just added an extra bit of tension to me. So running around the second time of...
00:26:27
Speaker
the police station I'm glad I spent so much time with Leon figuring him my way out before Mr. X turned up because if he was already there I think I would just would have been like i can't do this and then would have turned it off so I think it's just a very smart and clever game and obviously the differences between Leon's campaign and Claire's and to get the true ending and all that I absolutely loved and adored that and I just think it's really great like you just don't get games like this anymore where you play it once as one character you play it again yes you might go to the same places but you'll meet different characters for my experience of Resident Evil 2 remake it was just one worth being absolutely terrified, but feeling accomplished. It's like when you solve a puzzle for the first time, like the mixture puzzle, where you've got to get the right mixture of of the solutions to kill the plants. When I first did that without any help, I felt so capable. I felt like, oh, I can take on the world and learning the code so I can drop the ladder, so I can bypass going up and down the stairs all the time. So I'm not always attacked and ambushed by the plant triffid things. I felt clever because I looked around. I learned to examine things in my inventory. And I learned as I went on, I just felt like Leon. I felt going from being a rookie of having no experience of any Resident Evil game at all to by the end of it, just feel like a very capable survival horror fan. And from there, I want to play ah the new Alone in the Dark remake. And I want to play more survival horror sort of games. So if anything, it's led me to feel more capable and be like, you know, you know I can play these games. like, yes, I'm struggling with first person, but if they're third person, I can do it. For me, it sparked a new love and joy of wanting to play survival horror games now because it's a genre that I've always wanted to get into because I love the horror genre, but I just never felt brave enough. So to be able to have that from Resident Evil and the likes of Dead Space and all that, I love it. absolutely adore and i really appreciate it for sparking that joy in me yeah no 100 because remember when they remade the first game in 2002 it was quite a faithful adaptation in a lot of regards but they added some bits and they took away as i discussed last week of course but with this one, i think they were to and fro about whether or not to have a faithful adaptation, but I am so glad in some ways that they decided to make this a lot more modern and go that route, because it is something that I think the remakes have decided to go with. that they're implementing more modern control schemes that is that over the shoulder element but it is something that will get new players engaged myself especially because going to the old games is quite difficult i'm not gonna lie well that's one of the things that put me off a lot of the old games because even though i'd always wanted to play them it's the tank controls it's the way that the camera is and because i'm so used to how games are now I just feel like my enjoyment would be hindered because of the way those games are. Again, not to say they were bad games. It's just that's the technology. They were limited to the technology. So that's what they had to do for those games. But that's what puts me off wanting to play them. So I'd much rather watch somebody else play them through a playthrough than experience them myself. But if they decide to do a remake of Resident Evil 0 or Resident Evil 1, but like they did with Resident Evil 2, I'd be all for it. But I think from what I've heard from a lot of the fandom of Resident Evil, a lot of them said that you don't need to to remake Resident Evil 1. The GameCube version was the best remaster and that's it. And from what I've seen, yeah, it looks pretty good. So if that's what the Resident Evil fandom are saying, I'll go with that. But if they wanted to, I'd definitely play it. If they decided to remaster it like Resident Evil 2, I'd definitely play Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 0. Because, I mean, not to brag, but of course, last week I reviewed the first remake and they remastered it in 2015, which you can play it with the old tank controls, but you can also play it with the analog stick, so you don't have to depend solely on, oh, you have to turn, move forward, turn, move forward, you know, and I grew up with that system, so I just want to point it out but it has been so long i did as well with tomb raider to be honest but i don't know there was just something different about tomb raider you're adventuring you're not always worried that a zombie's going to eat your flesh you know so you don't have to panic but at the same time it's been so long since i've had to play a game with those types of controls well other than code veronica but again time and place
00:30:24
Speaker
But if you play Resident Evil 1 and even Zero, both of them have the analogue control, which I have to say makes it a lot more bearable to move around. definitely different than these games for sure, but they're both apples and oranges. The first one is such a good remake, you know, it makes the old game accessible to new players while not sacrificing what made the original game so good in the first place. Whereas I've seen a lot of criticisms for the second game. And again, these are more to do with that they're not as faithful to the original, that they cut out certain enemies, like the spiders, the moths, which, thank God, I didn't have to fight them. Oh, would have been terrified. But at the same time, i can see why they went in that direction for the second game. And don't get me wrong, this game looks absolutely gorgeous. The second remake is absolutely breathtaking. And they definitely went for a more, and I use this phrase really loosely, realistic style. Claire looks great. Leon looks fantastic. All of the other supporting characters, and Ada, of course, if all of them look absolutely brilliant. i thought they did a great job on the design. Mr. X looks delightfully terrifying. And that's the thing as well, although it's not first person, it doesn't have to be to instil that fear, because, and this probably a good point to talk about the story, you basically play as either Leon Kennedy, who is a rookie cop who slept in for his first day on the job, probably the best time to sleep in on the job, because when he arrives, yeah. Everything's fallen to chaos. They are in this grand police station that has been renovated from a former museum. That's the excuse they use so that you can solve all these puzzles. It's grand, it's opulent, it's so damn good. It's such a great design, it's so iconic, it's probably just as iconic as the Spencer Mansion. Well, maybe. Nearly as iconic, but still really iconic. And you have to explore that as Leon or Claire. Claire's looking for her brother, Chris Redfield, aka Boulder Puncher, which don't get me wrong, two weeks.
00:32:36
Speaker
we will be talking about him. Leon's just trying to survive, essentially. And more or less, the game follows a lot of similar beats. The only difference being that you're seeing it from different perspectives. And the only downside of it is a lot of people have criticised it for being a bit more simplistic with the A and B scenario. For example, if you pick up a green herb in the A scenario with Clash, Claire, who I played first, and then Leon's still going to find that green herb. So there's no consequences for it. There wasn't with any of the codes that you could open lockers. If you knew the codes for your first playthrough, they were exactly the same as the second one, which I saved them all, which I like that. Don't wrong, it makes it easier when I was running around like Headless Chicken as Claire trying to get all the things while I'm being chased. so
00:33:20
Speaker
It makes it easier, less stressful. But part me would have also respected the idea of like, oh, no, no, no, no. It's different codes. You've got to do it all over again. In the moment, it would have been annoying because I'm being chased and I'm terrified. But like I said, I would have respected it. You know what? It makes this second playthrough a bit more fresher than it already was. You know, a bit more sort of like, oh, actually, I have to put the work and I can't just, again, be cocky. I can't just like, I already know the codes. It's fact of no, no, no.
00:33:44
Speaker
It's going to be different this time. But either way, I liked the A and B scenario. But like I said, there are certain times where you could have given the option of do you want to play it as well. You get both the same amount of resources in both options. Or we can do the old-fashioned way where it's like, if you have it in a you won't have it in B. Because I know they do that with the keys. Because certain keys Claire can open and certain keys Leon can open and stuff like that. But it would have been nice if they did that with a few more things as well. Just to kind of add the more of the survival horror aspect of itself into it. No, I'm totally with you there, Arthur.
00:34:13
Speaker
There are enough differences to make it more replayable. For example, with a Leon, where it differentiates is when you get to the parking garage and you see a dog try to attack you and you get saved by the one and only femme fatale, Ada Wong. She is mysterious. She's saying, oh, look at me. the only woman that can wear shades in the dark and pull it off. And a trench coat, of course. She's going for that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vibe.
00:34:39
Speaker
So then you've got, every so often, Leon teaming up with Ada and then talking to a reporter who unfortunately gets his face smushed. And meanwhile, in the other scenario, you play as Claire and by the time you get to the parking garage, you don't so much find Ada. Instead, you find the very corrupt Chief Irons who kidnapped... Oh, I hate him. oh, he's awful. He kidnaps a little girl called Sherry, and you have to basically try and hunt him down. The bit I didn't like in her story is when you have to play as Sherry Birkin. Oh, the puzzle. Oh, God, the nightmare.
00:35:13
Speaker
That was horrible. Not even the... I mean, the puzzle was terrible. I'll give you that. But having to run around as her, because that's one of my least favourite tropes in a horror game, where it's like, oh, you know that badass you've been playing and you've been barely surviving with? yeah let's go for a child how would you feel about playing as a child is like i don't want to play a child yeah and then you gotta do sneaking puzzles i'm like i don't want to sneak around it actually reminds me of and we will probably talk about this later on in the month but with resident evil i think it was revelations 2 where you play as a child character and you're like don't want
00:35:47
Speaker
play as a child he can't shoot back i don't want to play please but you know they force you to and it's hiding from chief irons oh that terrified because it gave me flashbacks to outlast and i know that's such a basic you know what fear to have to be like, ooh, I'm afraid of getting chased, but genuinely, you're helpless, you're a child, you've got the keys to get out the door. It is terrifying. Any chase sequence like that, I was terrified. And, you know, had to look up the walkthrough to be like, okay, I don't want to get spooked here or And, you i was still terrified, but at the same time, you know, adds to that tension and things. And I thought the way they built the atmosphere in this game was great. Again, this is probably the perfect place to touch on. Before we talk about the ending of this game, of course, the one and only Mr. X, which I did not realise until looked up a video. You know the guy who, he goes into video games and he basically breaks them by going... Oh, yeah, he goes out bounds.
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah, he goes out of bounds and he shows you how the game works and everything, how it loads certain characters and puts them in other places so they're not generating. It is so fascinating, definitely look it up on YouTube. But the thing that really terrified me was the fact that when you're walking along the station, there are certain areas that will load because you're near them. But Mr X, for the most part, you would think, oh yeah it's just the game throws them at you at random intervals but no no no no no he actively tries to hunt for you he's always there he genuinely is always there and it's terrifying because nothing scared me more than thinking i'm doing a puzzle and then two seconds later you had the thump thump thump and i thought i'm gonna get my cheeks clapped right now aren't i I cocked the shotgun. I'm like, there is no way he's coming through this door. You start looking for exits and you're like, where do I go? I can't out the window. Where do I go? Like, he's so close. The worst one for me was, see that bloody library puzzle where it's like, oh no, you jump over that. And it's like, no, no, you have to find this specific Hool-Aid thing to slam the bookcase as loud as possible. And remember I moved them. And I was like, right, okay, and I lined up, I rang up the stairs, I'm like, okay, hop, hop. And then two seconds later, he literally troy walked in, and I was like, I hate this game.
00:38:07
Speaker
I love it. hear that. That's why love it because it's so clever as well because there are times where you do a puzzle like that and he'll appear and then as you second run through, if he kills you, you do it again and he doesn't appear. And it's just the fact of this game is deliberately mocking me because I know at any moment he'll appear but he didn't appear this time even though he did last time and I'm like, where is he? Why isn't he not around? And then I remember when you had to go get the detonators in the loft and I thought, okay, it's it's all right, it's safe. You know, i can't hear the thumping.
00:38:31
Speaker
And as soon as I pick up the detonator, thump, thump, thump, turn around, there he's just coming through the door. And you remember the loft. It's tiny. It's like, there's nowhere to run. And then the door's locked, so you've got to move that thing out the way. And i was just like, move. I couldn't jam the button enough. i was like, move move, move, move, move. And then you go for the door and he just... This is the thing about Mr. X. He doesn't run. He walks.
00:38:49
Speaker
But because he walks, it makes it worse because... I don't know. There's just something about, it's like the whole reason why we're scared of Jason from Friday the 13th is the fact if he doesn't run, he walks. But the idea of him walking is so much more terrifying than running because while you're running out breath, panicking, making mistakes, he's just an ever looming presence. And how many times I ran to safe rooms and I heard him right outside the door and I would have a little peek and he would turn around and be like, okay, he's not he's not there. He's still there. And I'm just like, okay. It makes no sense. Like he could break down the door. In all realistic, he would. But I'm just like, okay, going to sit here for a bit. I can't. And then the thumping would go and I'm like, And then that's where I'd get the map out. I've got a plan. I know where I've got to go.
00:39:25
Speaker
Obviously, when you play as Leon, he's ever present. He's always there. You know, when you're in the umbrella base underneath Raccoon City and then you finally put the code in and you kill all the plants, right? When you're playing as Leon, Mr. X jumps through the glass and then he chases you and my heart went. And I was expecting that to happen when I played as Claire. So I'm like, okay, I'm ready. I've planned my escape. I'm done. As soon as you put the spray in to kill all the plants, I'm ready. Okay, here he comes. He never comes through. And I'm like, oh, oh, that's all right. Okay. And then all sudden, Birkin appears that know him. Oh, God, I wasn't now expecting you of nowhere. My heart was just like, thump, thump, thump. I did not get that Resident Evil 3, but Resident Evil 2 was like, I played it through twice, both times, it was just like my heart was just going, do-do, do-do, do-do. Oh, that is terrifying. I mean, we're not calling Mr. X the next Joe Hendry, but he is pretty much Joe Hendry. just appears out of nowhere. That's the thing, because when you're playing as Claire, because the story's different, you've got Mr. X for the bit, and you're like, oh, God, okay, so he's going to chase me everywhere. And then you get the bit where he's at the lift, and he's opening up the lift, and he's right there in your face, and all sudden, he just gets sliced in two. And you're thinking, what could destroy Mr. X? I couldn't do It took me forever as Leon to kill him. What could do it? And Birkin comes out of nowhere, and you're like...
00:40:29
Speaker
It's even worse. See, that is one of my minor criticisms of the game. I like the idea of there's always a bigger a fish. Don't get me wrong. Especially when the bigger fish saves me. So I was all happy for that. He's like, oh, I'm saved. Oh, wait, no.
00:40:44
Speaker
It's like, you that scene in Megamind? I wouldn't say saved, just under new management. No. oh no. It sounds so weird to say this, but I've got different triggers for being horrified. Let's just say, I think the thing about Mr. X that terrifies me the most, again, it's the anticipation that this game has. It's the build up. It's the hearing the stomping boots. And I've said this before to friends, but as someone who is over six feet and probably with stomps like Mr. X, maybe I'm doing these things. Not just like boom, boom, boom. But seeing this humanoid figure stomping towards you stalking you throughout the entire place. And one thing I think is excellent is the fact you've got all the safe rooms that you have, the typewriters, you can save whenever you want. And again, that's a very interesting thing that they did away with.
00:41:34
Speaker
that you can just save whenever you want, rather than in the originals, you have to have a ink ribbon and use them to save. Again, that makes the game somewhat easier, so you have to manage that yourself, as it were. But what I love is, in the reception area, and there's something you touched on earlier, in the reception area, there's a typewriter, so you immediately associate typewriter with safe zone. Oh yeah. Oh no! No, no, no, no, no. When he first appears there, you're like what are you doing here? You're not meant to be here. There's a typewriter, can't you see it? I've heard of horror stories of people saving at the typewriter being like, ah, it's okay, it'll despawn them, and then getting immediately punched in the back of the head once they reload it, and it's like, no, no, no, no. There's no point wasting ammo on him because it does nothing.
00:42:18
Speaker
yeah Apart from just like shoot his hat off. That's it, really. So this is why alien isolation and things like that is a factor. You can't fight back. So you feel helpless. You generally feel like all I can do is run. I think that's what makes it more terrifying. If you could turn around and you could put a few rounds into Mr. X and it puts him down for a bit, kind of like Nemesis, then it somewhat softens the blow. But just knowing that you can't do anything until later on in the game. You've just got a run.
00:42:41
Speaker
And hopefully, wherever you're running to, you've not just got hordes and hordes of zombies in the halls. Otherwise, you're not getting through without being punched in the back of the end by Mr. X. That's terrifying. But it's also exhilarating because, like I said, he could get you, kill you. So you restart wherever you saved. Do the same thing again. He might not appear. And the game messes with you. But it's a good thing. know it sounds strange to say, but you're happy with being messed about because you're like, oh, okay, I'm safe now, but I might not be safe later. And then the game throws a curveball at you when he throws you out of nowhere. You're like, fuck!
00:43:09
Speaker
For me, it just made me feel like the game was learning. When I was, like I said, being cocky as Claire, the game knew that. The game knew that I was going to go win B-Cocky and then just threw him straight at me straight away right at the gate with hardly any ammo. And I panicked.
00:43:20
Speaker
And it took me a while to, okay, I've got to relearn. I've got to be smart again. I've got to go back to how I was when i first started playing as Leon. And eventually, because I knew everything was, it was easier. But still, it was one of those where it's like the game just feels so smart in a way that I've never felt in a video game before where the game's against me.
00:43:36
Speaker
But it's also willing to work with me if I'm willing to work with it. If you get what i'm trying to say. Oh, no, absolutely. Once you manage to conquer that fear, it becomes a somewhat annoyance. You know, you're trying to do a puzzle and, oh, it's Mr. X saying, are you doing, son? And it's like, get a away. trying to solve this. Would you like to talk about your umbrella corporation? No, I wouldn't. Put your flowers away. I'm not interested. Speaking of the umbrella corporation, something I think that's quite cool is there's a control chip on his head. So see if you zoom in, it's got the umbrella logo and everything, which is really cool. I love the attention to detail. That would have been cool if you could sneak up behind him, shoot it, and he puts him out, like a little bit of detail, that sort of thing. No, I think it just makes him angrier, to be honest. You shoot his hat off and he just chases you more and you're like, oh, I don't like this. My special hat.
00:44:21
Speaker
But going back to what was saying there, I love that conceptualisation of the slow stalking villain, exactly like a slasher film where he's just there, he stomps. He knows that he doesn't need to chase after you very fast, he doesn't need to do the whole stalk. person, you know? just an absolute unit. He will kill anybody in his way. And that is the most terrifying. He doesn't have to say a word. Now, what I was saying before about why I wasn't a big fan of William Birkin, who it turns out later on in the story is a researcher who created something called the G-Virus, which is infinitely worse in some regards, and he is slowly being mutated into this horrible creature.
00:45:04
Speaker
Where I draw the line for horror is when they get a bit too fantastical in design. You know, don't get me wrong, he's horrifying and it's horrible to see this big eyeball looking at you going, oh, I'm gonna get you. But that to me isn't as scary because it feels more gamified, if that makes sense. the Look at the big eyeball, you shoot that. sort of thing yeah whereas mr x and again when mr x transforms into his dragon ball references aside his final form i was like oh okay he's a tyrant things that i thought he was less terrifying when he transformed yeah you know i mean because when he transforms i know i can shoot him now i can do damage and kill him the fear went whereas when he was mr x and you couldn't do any damage that was more terrifying to me It adds to that sense of helplessness that you're seeing this person just storm towards you and you're like, I don't want to play this game anymore. The only thing that I have to say took that away, and I just want to say this for the record, Your Honour, but I played this game normally through to begin with, but later on to race through the game, I downloaded the DLC to unlock, and I know this is terrible, and normally I wouldn't do this but out curiosity i got the dlc where you could get the unlimited ammo weapons oh fair enough and i wanted you to see what the game would be like with the unlimited ammo i'm gonna be honest do not play this game with unlimited ammo unless you just want to blast through the game because literally it takes away all of the tension it takes away all of the horror survival there is nothing worse than seeing mr x for the first time and be like oh yeah rocket launcher bomb that's a that absolutely destroyed it but again i didn't play the game like that i played it with the limited ammo with limited resources and that is a way to play this game for sure i've seen a lot of people do runs this game because again one of the things about the rest the games that i love which i would never do because i'm not that much of a hardcore player of these games but there's people that do challenges of like oh complete the game in a certain amount steps complete the game without saving complete the game without use the resource box i'm the of the game, you get a score, you get a ranking for how well you did, how long it took you and that sort of thing. And I've seen people do run throughs of this game with unlimited ammo, with the rocket launcher, just destroying everything and getting S plus rank. And it looks a lot of fun, but I feel like it is fun for them. But it's one of those where I'm the same as you. I feel like it would ruin the experience because then it just gamifies it. It's no longer terrifying because I know that anybody that comes at me, rocket launcher dead, keep going, you know, and that's that. But that's exactly it, though. You go into a corridor of liquors, and then you're like, oh, what a shame. b Blam. And that's how they're going. got problem over here? Pow! ain't got a problem now. My favourite one was that there was a zombie at the window knocking, and then he smashed through the window and argh! And then he saw the rocket launcher, and then went, you know that scene out of Spider-Man at the very end where he's like, Godspeed, Spider-Man. And then he just sees the glider, and there's that one second where he goes, oh.
00:47:59
Speaker
It's just the rocket launcher gone too soon. So they went, oh, and they just exploded. I was like, yeah, do not play the game like this because it just it takes away the tension completely. But it's obviously a bonus. You know, it's not something that you would have anyway in the outset. That is interesting to see it. Speaking of challenge runs, though, there it was a guy on YouTube, a remember his name, but if anybody knows, please feel free to comment under this episode. But there was a guy who played the original Resident Evil 2, and his challenge was that he couldn't move. So he had to position himself and shoot so that the recoil would move him through the map. It was baffling.
00:48:38
Speaker
He actually did it, surprisingly. At the very end, I think he got stuck because there's a time limit and everything. But i mean, this was of course the original and this wasn't the remake. But it was so funny the way he did it. And they actually succeeded. It is a great video. If you find it on YouTube, please go and watch it. It is incredible. The dedication that guy had to do it is amazing.
00:48:57
Speaker
But for this one, there is definitely a different vibe to this. If you look at the old game, and again, this is something people criticise, it's not as casual. campy it's a lot more gritty and realistic which i like personally but i can see why people don't like that in a way especially and again this is something we'll talk about next week with joey from the game club pod with re4 but there was a difference between the campy nature of re4 versus the remake that is still campy but it has more gritty and serious elements to it. feel as if, and obviously before we go into RE3, I feel as if my major problem with it is more the ending to it. I don't know how you feel about this, but as you said, you go into the lab and you meet these
00:49:44
Speaker
creatures that are part plant and everything and oh look they're plant zombies oh yeah and you have to do the puzzle and whatnot and then once you complete that again that's the weakest part of any resident evil game you go down to the lab and you're like okay i know what's gonna happen the only bit that did terrify me was when mr eggs popped up and I'm like so no no no I don't like this but yeah then you have to fight William Birkin have to admit that both made me laugh and cry when I was playing through as I think it must have been Claire in the first playthrough and I thought okay I'm nearly done run to the train and then the game's like well done Satsu have a minigun game why are you giving me a minigun game why is there all this ammo game
00:50:24
Speaker
game why are you giving me this just walk down the back of the train and keep going that whole boss fight that really annoyed me that was annoying the puzzle for the chess pieces that irritated the hell out of me i hated that there was just a lot of minor things in this game wasn't as difficult as the sherry puzzle that was the worst one i almost quit the game generally that was that bad i generally almost put the game down it wouldn't come back for it it was until i managed to on a fluke i still don't know to this day how much to do it so i managed to pass it and i was like okay that's it i'm never because there's an achievement to getting out of that room in 60 seconds how you do i don't know because it's it's different for everybody i'm just imagining chief irons coming back being like how you doing sherry that's just you going in a matter i didn't minute i am busy I am working on it.
00:51:11
Speaker
but The puzzle was just a nightmare. And I thought, oh, walking can cheat. i can go online, find the company. No, no, it's different for everybody who plays it. So it's just like I've had a brilliant experience so far. And then you make me do a puzzle that is not impossible, but not fair at the same time. So it's like that for me was my biggest job. But like I said, I feel like it was worth it because again, the whole thing with irons and then again, the idea that Claire, she deals with Birkin, whereas Leon, which is funny with Leon because you deal with Birkin, then you deal with Mr. X. But he's just like, oh, I've got to end this. Well, no, you don't. You can walk away. You've got the virus. No, no, I've got to end it.
00:51:40
Speaker
So he goes outside, beats him, goes back up the lift, goes to think only that really bothered me that confused me was the fact of when playing as Leon, Ada falls, well, presumably to her death and dies, right? But then you're fighting Mr. X and all sudden the camera changes and then somebody kicks down a rocket launcher. And thinking, that's not Claire who's just kicked that rocket launcher. Was it Ada? think it's meant to be Ada. I don't know, canon wise. That kind of bothered but I like the endings. Again, it was a bit silly how, oh, here you go. Here's a minigun. Just shoot the hell of this big mass and then that's it. I think that was sort of the games being like, oh, well, you know what? You've played the game twice. You've struggled. Here's loads of ammo. Have a bit of fun. That's how I took It was just like, look, you've gone through it all.
00:52:15
Speaker
Here's bit of fun. But as I said, and as I've mentioned a couple of times, I just really appreciate that this game allows you to not just play it once, but encourages you to play it more than once and encourages you to do more. And then once you've done that, then you get the true ending. Whether be good or bad, you get the true ending. And I like that. I really do. I just feel like more games should do that because you just don't get that nowadays. You don't get the replayability as you used to.
00:52:36
Speaker
It is so rewarding, though. You're completely right because you escape the umbrella lab and you're watching these two characters that you've gone through hell and back to... Basically get out of this situation, just literally walking into the sunset with Sherry. is just such a great moment because you're playing as Claire, you're fighting to save Sherry's life and later on you meet her mother who is very into interesting, let's just say. She is one of the umbrella scientists, but she has her very particular views on the world, let's just say. And at one point you also get to play as Ada, which is such a cool mission, up until you nearly get barbecued by Saint, Mother of Sherry, and you have to run away from Mr. X, which, again, my soul left my body when I heard the footsteps. I was like, no, no, no, no. And then you have to
00:53:28
Speaker
do It is so satisfying. It was something that I loved in the 4 remake, where after you complete it and you sit down, you watch the credits, and the song Bullet or the Blade plays, which is fantastic, by the way, can't wait for you to get to that. But in this game, it is Saw Daddy, think, which is such a great song, honestly. And you just feel so satisfied after being through this situation. As you said, you know, you've conquered your fear. You're like, I can't believe it. I fought Mr. X twice and I won.
00:54:01
Speaker
didn't die. It is fantastic. And admittedly, there are sloggy elements. Before we move on to three, there are sloggy elements. You know, there is the sewer level, which some parts are good and then other parts. It's kind of similar to what they do in the third remake, where they have a specific area that you can get poisoned in that being the sewer and these weird amphibian creatures that come up and try to bite you and eat you it's horrible remember the part in the sewer level playing as Leon and you have to go through this maze along these little mounds of crap that you've got to get through to get this unique weapon at the back
00:54:39
Speaker
But while you go through that, you've got these creatures around that poison you. So you need a special herb to cure the poison. But you've got no sort of space to dodge and maneuver from these creatures. And I remember doing that twice, going back and forth and being like, do I really need this weapon? And to be honest, tell you the truth, I think it was a flamethrower. I never properly really used it. I only really used it against the plant people. But like i said, once I realized I could get the code to drop the ladders, which bypasses the whole stairs and go all the way around to get back to where i needed to go... I didn't use it. I ended up putting back in my storage and using something else. So I kind of sat there was was it worth it really having to waste all those resources just to get it where it was a bit useful, but then it wasn't. So there are certain moments in the game where you sit there and go, was it worth doing that? Or what did I just do it for the completion? For my second run, I know you get different weapons as Claire, but when I got to my second run, I was just like, if that part comes up, I'm not doing it again. And luckily it didn't because the game's different, but I did think of like, yeah, I wouldn't waste any resources doing that again. So if I was to play as Leon again in like a fourth playthrough, would probably do things differently. But that's what like about the game. The game basically gives you the option, that you don't need to go there if you don't want to. It's up to you. Actually, I think you do have to go there to do something. But otherwise, the point is you don't have to do certain things. Like you can decide, oh, get this then, and get this then, whatever. So yeah, I just like how the game leaves open to you. Because that is something that I feel as if is absolutely really well handled in this one. But again, as I said, we'll get on.
00:56:01
Speaker
Three in a Minute, where the characterisation is done extremely well. You've got Leon, who is this rookie cop, and he's very cocky, and, oh, look, I can handle Mr. X until, you know, he actually sees Mr. X, and he goes, Jesus Christ. And he goes from this naive but well-meaning police officer to this very jaded, doesn't know what is going on kind of thing, especially with the betrayal between him and Ada and seeing what this world has turned into. Because one of the scenes that really breaks my heart is when you go into Kendall's gun shop for the first time with Leon and he sees Kendall who is very protective of his daughter because his daughter has been bitten and Ada just does not hesitate. She points a gun, says, oh, she's infected. He's like, how dare you say that about my daughter? have this very bittersweet moment moment where he takes his daughter behind a closed door and you can kind of infer what happens with the gunshots. That changes Leon's viewpoint completely of the situation and it is so interesting to see that versus Claire's journey of being a protector, being just like a brother in that regard, minus the boulder punching. But again, we'll get that and trying to bring down irons which is something that would eventually know the remake came after lot of the games in the films but it's something that claire redfield has always been she's been someone who always stands up against certain villains whether it's somebody Whether it's any of the offshoots, choose one, because she does it in Revelations 2, she does it in the animated films, where she's more of a journalist. She works for an organisation called TerraSave, but again, this isn't for 2 Remake, it's more for what will become of her in the future. So it's cool to see the origins and the seeds being planted in character. character there honestly i think it's why this game is so memorable you've got fantastic characters you've got fantastic voice actors you've got the music which is great you've got the atmosphere you've got the build-up and again as i said it sags in certain places whether that's the sewer the questionable puzzles whether the bombastic action lands or not but again i love it i think it is other than the fourth remake of course one of the best resident evil games of the remakes that you'll play yeah definitely The trifecta for me is definitely, maybe that's unfair, but if you're playing a Resident Evil game to get the full experience, 1, 2, and 4 remake, they are some of the best games you'll ever play in your life. Genuinely, go play it. Which is not something I can say about the next game we're going to be talking about. No, no, no, no. I was lightly disappointed.
00:58:38
Speaker
yeah Yeah, so this game, unlike the previous game which came out in 2019, this one, of course, came out in 2020. Covid years. unfortunately don't think you can really blame no you can't no you can try but you can't because it was still in development before covid you know this one could have been so good and there's a very interesting opening where we have fan favorite returning jill valentine who is a well i think at this point maybe x stars maybe She's looking to leave Raccoon City, she's literally counting down the days. We get this really cool first-person perspective, where we wake up from bed, we're looking at all the evidence that we've gathered, which is linked to the very first game.
00:59:24
Speaker
That is so cool, because they're very much leaning into what they did in 2017 with Resident biohazard. Really, really cool. I'm not gonna lie, it is such a cool idea. The only thing, though, that sullies it is you have this sequence where it's like, ooh, spooky, she's turning into a zombie, and that could have been so cool to delve into the idea. Oh, yeah, that was terrifying. That could have been a great moment to delve into the idea of Jill is suffering from PTSD and everything from the Spencer Mansion incident. And that's something I love about the first game, whether it's the original or remake, that they react like normal human beings to these situations. Even Chris Redfield, he's not exempt from this, but everyone, they see zombies, they see these creatures, and obviously by the end they're fighting the naked tyrant, which is, of course, the name of my metal band, but that's another thing. Buy tickets here. LAUGHTER I'm all good. But you have that and you think, oh, this could be really interesting. We're diving into how this has affected Jill Valentine. I wonder how, oh, look, there's the wall. There's the wall crashing down. Oh, look, there's a big zombie going stars. And oh, as soon as that happened, I was like, okay, this game is just going to be full on bombastic. And definitely the moment they ruined it for me was that a lot of people had built up Nemesis, you know, they had said, Nemesis is going to be this big, hulking, stalker villain. And I was really excited because I thought, well, Mr. Beggs was fantastic and this guy was creepy as hey we need about a day to work but he'll looks creepy as hell. as hell.
01:00:56
Speaker
What is he going to do? Is he going to stalk us, appear at random intervals? And I don't know about you, but the bit that killed it for me immediately was when you meet him for the first time in the streets and you have to navigate through Raccoon City as it's collapsing, and, you know, everyone's getting infected. I like the concept, but it was as soon as you saw him and I started shooting at him thinking, oh, right, okay, that's fine, I'm going to shoot at him and I'll be able to stall him like Mr. X. Now, as soon as a chest...
01:01:25
Speaker
popped out and it was like a gacha game a loot box that killed it for me i'm gonna be honest i was like yeah this isn't like mystery at all it's not like biohazard it just there was no fear there i was like all right this is a game enemy oh great but flipping it back onto you what were your impressions see of the first part of the game the intro and whatnot and then meeting nemesis were you disappointed by it or Well, I was disappointed, to be honest, because like what you said, everybody told me that Nemesis is the big bad. He's really, really scary, terrifying. He's going to be a stalker. Even the developers, remember them saying he was like Mr. X, but on steroids. So I'm like, okay, here we go.
01:02:06
Speaker
I know it's a bit sacrilege to say, but Resident Evil 2 Apocalypse, the movie, is my favorite movie of all the franchise, particularly because it's got Nemesis in it. And I love the Nemesis in that movie and how he hunts down and kills the stars members and the story. or Like I'm I might get into that's going different, but it's my favorite film of them all because of Nemesis. So from that and from my experience with Resident Evil 2 Remake, I went into it being, again, terrified, being like, oh God, you know, this is going to be 10 times worse than Mr. X, but I'm excited because I'm capable because I did it already. I go into Resident Evil 3.
01:02:36
Speaker
I do exactly the same as I did for Resident Evil 2. Before he appeared, I did everything I could. i unlocked all the doors, you know, the pick locks, broke chains, blah, blah, all the resources. Because I played assisted again at first, because this is what I do Resident Evil games. I always play assisted and then standard from a second playthrough, just so I'd know that had to land. And then, like you, Nemesis showed up as Oh my God, there he is. Finally. Oh, loot crate. That's a bit strange, but okay.
01:02:57
Speaker
Don't worry about it. And as the game goes on, you realize he's just annoying. He's just there. He's just like, go away. And then what you quickly realize, it wasn't the loot box that bothered me, even though that's not great. What bothered me was the fact of when I quickly realized that Nemesis was just a Deus Machina. He was just a MacGuffin. He was just a thing to move on the story. Right? Where it's like, oh Nemesis showed up.
01:03:17
Speaker
You've got to get Nikolai and all that. They're going on the train. So Carlos is going to save some time. So you've got to run away. So you run away from him. And the next thing you know, he's chasing you. And then you're running through a burning building. And then you run him over a car. And he's just a set piece to get from one piece to the next.
01:03:31
Speaker
And if for me, it was just the fact of, oh, well, that's kind of taken the wind out of the sails of him. Because I don't want to shoot him. Because, yes, I know I'm going to get some and get out of it. But I don't want to waste ammo on him. So I'm going to run away. And then he's just there just as a boss, but he's not a hard boss. He's more of just, like said, hindrance and annoyance. He's standing there menacingly. Basically staring at me, but he's not doing anything terrifying. He's just there. And then when I played this standard difficulty, No one told me this motherfucker could jump, right? Pardon my language. Oh, yeah. When you play assisted, he doesn't jump. He doesn't do any of that. He doesn't disappear out of nowhere. He just walks like Miss Rex. When I play his standard, he was jumping everywhere. He was appearing. and but didn't make it scary. It made it more annoying because when you first meet him and you're running away, I come out of the shop and he's there in a little square. And I want to go up the stairs to go run towards the train station. I managed to hit the electric box. It electrocutes him so I couldn't run upstairs like i'm running running running before i could even get to the gate to open it he jumps in front of me there was like a two inch gap between me and the gate but somehow he managed to fit inside it and push me down and then he picks me up throws me away and then just decides to repeatedly stomp on me it was horrible it wasn't it wasn't even horrible as that is cool or that is scary it was like that's unfair that's really annoying And it just took the wind out myself. was like, this is not what I expected Nemesis to be like.
Resident Evil 3 Remake: Character Analysis and Gameplay Critique
01:04:47
Speaker
I expected Nemesis to be like Mr. Rekt, to always be there, but with guns. And I could run away, but he he can shoot me with a rocket launcher out. So I have to be clever. I have to evade him. I'm going have to hide in buildings, run around, learn the way to land, really. But it didn't matter because even if I was clever and I ran away, he wouldn't follow me. He would just jump over a building like Hulk and land in front of me. And I'm like, that's not fair. Because then what's the point of learning The layout, what's the point of me learning where to go and what to do if he's just going to jump like Hulk in a pier? And yeah, he just became annoying. And it was just by the end of it, I was just like, I want to play this game again to play standard. But part of me also the fact of, do I want to have to go through all that again when I know it's basically just the same, but a little bit harder? But I did because, you know, I wanted to experience what it was like playing it like that.
01:05:30
Speaker
But when he started jumping around, it was like, it went from fun to just like, oh God, okay, this is what it isn't. It hurt me, it did, because I just had such a great time Resident Evil 2 remake that I was just hoping for so much more from the next one. And again, like i said, I never played the original, so I can't miss anything I didn't experience, like the expanded levels, the clock tower, the park, and just giant spiders, and all these other things that were cut out the original for the remake. I have no experience that, so I can't say, know, I missed them and I wish they were in there. But knowing what this game is and how short it is... I don't know why they took those out. I don't know. It would have been nice to have those extended levels, those moments when the options of, do I jump over this ledge or do I jump out the window and give me more reason to replay. Whereas Resident Evil 3 Remake, in all honesty, if you've played it once, you don't need to play through again unless you really want to, because you get points at the end of it once you complete for the first time and you can use those points to unlock like a special knife or more ammo space or Jill's original outfit, which I love that. thought that was great. And if you're a completionist, you That's brilliant. But for me, it was just like, oh, well, you know, I've got a few points.
01:06:29
Speaker
I unlocked Jill's original outfit. I unlocked the hip pouch because just gives me more resources. So when I played the second time around, what made it more fun for me was just seeing Jill run around in her original outfit from Resident Evil 1. I appreciate that. I loved that because it made it feel a bit more continual, if that makes sense. Apart from that, yeah, Nemesis just, I hate to say but just ruined it for me, which was like...
01:06:49
Speaker
I don't want to go back and play this game now. Like, I've done it once or about twice, technically, but I don't really want to have to go through this story again. Which is ironic, because if you think about Resident Evil 2, and one of the most scary parts of that game was, as we talked about in length, was Mr X. Yet he is not the title character of that game. He's not really, can't remember if he's on the promotional art, but, you know, he's not the main focus. It's not called Resident Evil 2, but... Mr X which would be very weird and they would have to sell a CD of the X gonna give it to you soundtrack like that does nothing but fill me with fear I know there's mods for it see now that should be the DLC I'd pay for that DLC like if the Capcom got the rights every time we appeared he got X gonna give it to you I'm like Yes, he will. I'm running away, X-Scong. And I'm singing as I'm running. There is mods for that, I have to say. It is amazing. It is terrifying.
01:07:41
Speaker
And that's the thing. People use that mod to mitigate the fear factor. See, if anything, there is nothing more terrifying than hearing those boots and then hearing, X-Scong, give it to you. we No, no, no, no, no. Please don't give it to me. Whereas for this one, you're completely right.
01:08:00
Speaker
Resident Evil 3 has always focused around two core factors. It's focused around Jill Valentine and it's focused around Nemesis. I mean, for God's sake, when you load up the game, it is Nemesis's face at the beginning. He's like, yes, it stars. And you're like, oh. Oh no. Maybe this is the musical brain in me that kept thinking this. don't know if you thought this at any point, but every time he said stars, I just thought of him like, you know, Javert out of Les Mis. Oh yeah. And I was expecting them to break out in song like, They're out in the darkness. And I'm like, please, down the rocket launcher.
01:08:37
Speaker
Let's talk about this. I'm like, no. No, Nemesis, please, for the love of God. just, as you said, oh God, that voice really takes it out of you. He just, as you said, he just really irritated me. He popped up, he was like, oh, look at me. And I can see why people are annoyed at the clock tower being taken out. And from what I've seen of the original game, Nemesis just appears out nowhere. There is one terrifying one where it's like, you're walking down a corridor and then two seconds later he is bolting after you. He is running for your ass. And you're like, oh my god. People pause it at that moment to get their breath back. They're like, I don't want to play this. And no wonder, because he is a force of nature. He is like Mr. X, but the only difference is, unlike the original second game, where he just stomps towards you and you just keep shooting him until he dies, he doesn't have that same menace to him. He is just another obstacle. He's just another boss that have to overcome.
01:09:33
Speaker
And it's such a shame, because I genuinely think up until he crashes through your front door, he ah looks really really good like i know he's wearing trash or look how he's wearing trash bags but the model looks really good it's just a fact of yeah you know what i mean the character's not so it's like doesn't matter if he looks good he's wearing trash and he is trash and it's like oh it's like a walking pile of turd really just chasing you it's that's not terrifying can i admit something for a second to you speaking of the death of a franchisee ah So there's a character in this, I cannot remember, can you remember his name, the helicopter pilot? Oh, Brad, is it Brad, Bill? Brad, that's Brad Mickers, yeah. So, I remember when I was playing this, and in the original, and in this one, he gets killed by, I think, In the original it gets killed by Nemesis, but in this one it gets killed by the zombies coming through. When I first played that, I remember I was so confused when I played Revelations 2, because in Resident Evil Revelations 2 there's a scene where you play as Barry Burton, and I remember playing as him, and I was like, hold on a second, you're dead!
01:10:40
Speaker
You died in Resident Evil 3! Because I thought that Barry and Brad were the same person. And I went back and I'm like, oh, his name is Brad. Oh, no. oh Yeah, so that was my guilty confession of the night there. Speaking of, again, deaths of characters, and i'm going to keep using that segue. Sue me for legal reasons. Please don't sue me. But can we talk about Jill for a second? Oh, definitely. I have a bit of an issue with her character and it might not be what you think because there was a lot of people going with the asinine argument of, oh, she's a girl boss, she's a Mary Sue, she's this, oh, she's badass.
01:11:18
Speaker
She is badass, don't get me wrong. But she seems to fall into this archetype of a character that, on the one hand, she is badass and everything, she manages to hold her own, which is great, you know, go queen. We support a strong queen in Ragun City. But on the other hand, we have this moment where she also gets absolutely physically wrecked in this game and there's a lot of weird things it's like trying to make her badass by also just traumatizing her constantly and one of the scenes that i think you'll know where i'm going with this that really threw me off and threw off a lot of people because it never happens again and the poison status i don't think appears very often again after this as the scene we have to fix the generator for the subway Oh, yeah. yeah and you go in there's these
01:12:06
Speaker
flame spider creatures and they basically the rust enter inter throat it and they put a paite and then they say oh you have to eat a green herb to fix yourself and heal yourself that mechanic never really comes back into the game thank god but it never comes back and again it actually reminds me of the way they characterized Lara Croft the way they did that and you know the 2016 reboot onwards where it's like oh she's a badass she's capable but also let's put her through the most physical trauma possible oh yeah let's literally put her through so much sort of trauma like PTSD that really any normal person wouldn't be standing at the end of it but she yeah she's powerful she can do I'm like
01:12:46
Speaker
No, it is funny you mention that because Jill in this one, there's just something about tongues and things wanting to touch her with a tongue and licking her. Like she gets picked up by a neck by a big tongue from Nemesis tentacle thing. You've got those tentacle monsters that Nemesis sends after you. And again, I'm not saying it is, but there's so many suggestive things where I'm like, okay, that's a bit much. Do we need that? But you are right with Jill. She is badass and she's really, really cool. But I think what I liked about Claire was that Claire was humanized, whereas the fact of the reason she's in Raccoon City is because she's only there to look for a brother, Chris.
01:13:18
Speaker
Right. She gets there, she meets Leon and she's stuck. But then she meets Sherry and then she's like, OK, well, that's my new focus. Chris is gone. I'm stuck in it, but I can help somebody while I'm here. And with her character, you relate with her. You want her to see a help Sherry and save the day. And it's lovely. You know, you get a bit of character exploration into her. And so by the end of it, you feel like, oh, you know what? She is a college student. She's not really badass. She's probably taught by a brother how to shoot. This is probably as much as she's good. But she survived. She's capable. She saved the day. Great. Great. Whereas with Jill, again, I haven't played Resident Evil 1, so I had no real experience with her character. But you assume that she's Starz member, she's highly trained, she's a soldier, she she's doing, she's capable. But for me, there was no real moments where I could connect with her character all well... I did care for her, but caring the much of like, oh, if Claire or Sherry got hurt, I might put her down. You know what I mean? Like back away from her, you bitch. You know, proper alien style. Whereas with Jill, I was just like, well, you know, it was just fact of she wants to get out because she wants to prove Umbrella are corrupt, which is fine. She's running away from Nemesis while she's also being stalked by the other Umbrella Corporation soldier bloke. I think she's great as a character, yeah but I feel like what would have been better and used something great at the beginning when we saw Resident Evil 3 was when she's in the mirror at the beginning of the game and she's looking into it and it goes gray and she can see herself turning into a zombie. If they had kept that PTSD storyline, I know it might have not upset old fans, but it would have been great in terms of, because I know that they want to change the continuity a bit for the newer games. They've changed things around.
01:14:46
Speaker
It would have been great with the remake for newer players to be like, as you're playing for Resident Evil 3, she starts hallucinating or she gets flashbacks or the screen goes black and white. And I'm not saying she turns into a zombie, but she experiences these moments where she feels like she's turning or something's wrong with her. And you could feel sorry for them because when she talks to Nikolai and Carlos and the other survivors, they're like, are you And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. He's like, you're sure you know your nose is running with blood? You're blacked out there for a bit. Again, I'm making this all up on the top of my head.
01:15:13
Speaker
But it would have been great for that extra bit of character development of the PTSD or some sort of like, just to make it feel like, oh, she really did go through a lot. It's really taken a toll on her and she shouldn't be here. She should be in a hospital recovering, but she's not. She's having to relive this nightmare all over again in Raccoon City where she should be safe while she's also being hunted by a giant tyrant. How does that affect her? How does that affect her mentality? And by the end of the game, how is she as a character? Has she changed? Is she more capable or is she more broken? Those sort of things would be great. So when Carlos comes along and helps and saves her, you're like, yeah, you know, she needs it. Good for you Carlos, sort of thing. Not the, oh, it's Carlos.
01:15:50
Speaker
There he is. He's got a big gun. It's great. He's got loads ammo. That's great. Yes, give me action, but also give me story. Give me character. Give me a reason to have these characters. So when the action kicks in, I feel badass. I feel capable, but also i actually want to protect Jill because I know that she's dealing with a lot. So I want to make sure she's safe. So I want to make sure she's got all the resources she needs to get through this struggle. And that's how I want to feel. I felt that with Leon and Claire. was like, I care about them, so i want to keep them safe. My job as the player is to make sure they don't die.
01:16:18
Speaker
But with Jill, it's like, I want her to live, but I have no reason other than to play the game to keep her alive, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think that pinpoints my major gripe with this game, that it feels like a game.
01:16:30
Speaker
And I know that sounds like such a weird thing to say about a video game. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, it feels very gamified. You've got the dodge mechanic, which I think was in the original as well, or something similar was in the original, but you've got this dodge mechanic, and you can see why they added it, because compared to Leon and Claire, they are very much normal human beings, whereas, get me wrong, Jill is a normal human being, but she has been trained by stars who are, you know, they're the people you call when they experts can't deal with the situation. They're the last resort, they are so cool. But, so you can see why she's capable. Her qualifications in the matter aren't up for debate, but it's more the fact that you sit there and you see yourself go through these particular scenarios, and it's just the same thing over again. It's like, alright, okay, here's Nemesis, oh, you get to go to the RPD again as Carlos, which I think in the original you go to the RPD as Jill, which
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, that is a bit of a downgrade. Again, i liked it, but the whole thing just felt like, and again, we don't really get these anymore, but it felt more like an expansion pack of the second game. It didn't feel like its own standalone thing. i mean, you can play it as its own standalone thing. i thought that it was still a fun experience. It was serviceable. You have your big, fantastic moments of, oh, look, it's Nemesis, but he's a blob monster now. Whereas when I think of two, I think of the chases with Mr. Rex.
01:18:01
Speaker
I think of Claire's plight with Sherry and trying to stalk Chief Irons with the relationship between Ada and Leon and them trauma bonding, essentially. Because it is cute, some of the scenes they have together where he just tries to protect her. And, you know, maybe that's part infatuation and part that he is just a good guy deep down. Whereas in this game, other than the chemistry between, and I use that loosely because the chemistry between Jill and Carlos is alright, but again, can't really remember many moments other than, oh yeah, here's the Umbrella Corps cleanup crew, but one of them's evil. think that's Nikolai. Yeah, Nikolai comes across, and I can't speak for the original, but he comes across very twiddly thumbs as They were twiddly fingers like, excellent, ooh. My plan is coming together.
01:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna get rich off of this. It's like, take it from Fallout, if the world is gone, he can't survive with money. Honestly, it's just, it's a silly concept, but, you know, he's serviceable, but again, when you've got him running around laughing in the back, while you've got Nemesis as the big blob chasing you. And again, there's so many moments where you have to run away from Nemesis and it is just so tiring. And I've heard Inferno mode is just a nightmare, which I have no intention of playing. But yeah, it's not the best introduction to the series, I would say. And again, it's like between the representation of Jill, between the Nemesis, Rep. reputation building as it were it just comes across as like a big dumb action game other than nemesis you know if nemesis was taken out of this game would you feel as if this was a resident evil game yes i would but i feel like with resident evil you need that drive you need that other big bad chasing you or you need again like with resident evil ball you need that driver i need to save the day whereas i feel like if it was just jill trying to escape raccoon city before it was nuked
01:20:05
Speaker
it was like okay that's interesting but then add more things to it so like if it was the game as it is now where it was like no nemesis just you go from one section to the next i'm like that's a bit boring but if they decided then to add in the water treatment plant the park and the clock tower and all the things they took out and had you facing hunters oh god in the hospital they were a nightmare oh yeah the hunters i remember i told the story where you've got to go get i think it's a tape or something like that in one of the rooms and there's two hunters in the room and And again, when I played as assisted, remember I ran in terrified. I screamed as I went in the room. like, ah, you know, quickly grabbed the tape, ran out, fine. And then when I played as standard, I ran in the room and they just beelined for me, both of them, and just ripped me to shreds. So I remember before went in the room, I had to quickly scavenge around for like a grenade and a flashbang.
01:20:49
Speaker
I threw a flashbang in the room. It went off, threw grenade in. It killed one of them, but it killed the one closest towards me. But luckily the one was still stunned. Ran in, got the tape, ran out. was like, oh, that's terrifying. But more moments like that, if they added in more of the hunters, which were terrifying in themselves, they were really scary when they got you because they were quick and they would kill you really quickly. More of those added in the giant spiders, added in more mutated zombies or mutated creatures from the sewers. We didn't mention it, but one of the things I felt funny in Resident Evil 2 was when Leon first goes to the sewers, he runs away from the giant crocodile. Oh, yeah. You do kill it, but you don't get to fight it. You just run away from it and then it it dies.
01:21:24
Speaker
But something like that, like a giant crocodile or like a giant creature or something in the sewer, like a giant rat, zombie rat or something like that would be great. Because one of the things that I love, one of the bits of lore that I love about Resident Evil 3 Remake, which I don't know if you found this, if you went around reading all the notes, but Mr. X is made from, i think it's the T-Virus or the G-Virus. Whereas Nemesis, he's made from the parasite.
01:21:44
Speaker
That's why he can do what he does. That's why he changes because he's a parasite. And in the note... I think it was William Birkin who wrote the note, it was one of the doctors basically said, I'm paraphrasing, but it's unstable to use a parasite because a parasite is uncontrollable. You can't control it, it evolves and changes constantly. Whereas the T-virus or G-virus, whatever one was used to make Mr. x can be controlled you can control that and how that you should stop developing with the parasite virus because it doesn't work in terms of making tyrants is like parasite is not good for that so don't you do and there was a back and forth and i really like that as an idea so to have more maybe again it links in resident evil for last plug us parasitic zombies running around and jill be like okay where's this from this is not t-virus i don't recognize this and then a notable villain or bad guy is saying, oh yeah, they're experimenting and it got loose, or we just decided when the zombies hit, we ran away, forgot to turn off any of the systems and they got loose something like that. Long story short, answer your question. If they added things like that and tied it in Resident Evil 4 and made it a bit more of a survival horror as you're trying to make your way through it, then I feel like it would feel like a Resident Evil game. It would feel newer, feel fresher.
01:22:48
Speaker
and it would follow on from Resident Evil 2. And even if you had moments of like you're going through the sewer and you could hear Leon shout or you hear somebody screaming and shouting near the police station, thinking, oh, little bits like that. goes Oh, I know what's happening there because Leon's there or Claire's there, you know, or you see a drop pod and you're thinking, oh, that's possibly Mr. X being dropped out of a plane and now he's stalking around on the other side of the city. Little things like that would have been great, but as the game is now, if they decided to take Mr. X out and just give you what's there, I'd feel like, oh, this game's not very fun. It is just literally a run and gun. Like Left 4 Dead, kill zombies, shoot things, get to the end, that's it. Left 4 Dead's good, but I'm playing Resident Evil. I want a Resident Evil experience. And with Nemesis in it, the way he is now, like he's just an annoyance. If anything, it makes the game feel longer because he's just as there annoying. Whereas if he wasn't there, the game would be over really quickly. Yeah, and it's just such a shame because I could definitely feel the bit betrayal of the fans of the original where they played this, there was 10-hour video essays on it being like, oh, Jill's not supposed to act like this, or oh, the rude nemesis. Every time I watched a video like that, I could totally see the point
01:23:53
Speaker
Because we had a game that was revolutionary in the 90s and went from that. Now we have a game that is very half-baked in terms of presentation. Well, I mean, presentation-wise, I do think the graphics still look good. Anybody saying, oh, this game doesn't look good, I would strongly disagree. That's one. of its few things that has going for it. The very beginning, the opening cutscene, everything, edge just looks gorgeous. It looks great for what it is. But again, it cannot shake off the fact that this just feels like an expansion to RE2. It definitely feels like you're expanding on what you had before. work There's a lot of good additions, there's some maybe not great additions. And as I said, it's just
01:24:36
Speaker
taking Jill Valentine, putting her in these horrible situations, not really delving into that more. They could have delved into it more, but they just decided not to. i don't know why. But again, you know, I'm not a game developer. I'm not as much a writer for games, so I can't 100% like, ooh, they should have done this, because hindsight is a wonderful, wonderful thing. They shoulda, coulda, woulda this whole game. But at the same time, there's some clear moments where, although I loved Carlos, I loved his relationship with Jill and everything, it wasn't enough to pull me back and say, this is a game that I think everybody should be trying. Oh, Nemesis is so cool. Again, Nemesis reminds me a bit of, and I don't know if you've come across this trope before in video games, where you've got a character who they say, oh, this is an amazing character. They've done all these feats of heroicness and whatnot. And you go, oh, cool. I can't wait to see them.
01:25:31
Speaker
And then when you actually see them, they're a bit of a loser. Oh, completely. What a pushover. If Mr. X came out of nowhere and was like, leave this human alone and then decided to beat him up, I'd feel like Mr. X would win. As soon as he knocked off his fedora, I'd be like, that's it, it's on.
01:25:44
Speaker
And then just destroy him and then carry on chasing after me. Have you seen Freddy vs. Jason? yeah There's a moment in that movie where Freddy appears and he's like, you go, this one's mine. And then Freddy takes Jason on it's like, brilliant. That's what I'd feel like it would be. But it would just be Mr. X puts his fedora down be like, you've made me take off. It's on. And then he just destroys.
01:26:01
Speaker
Because that's how what Nemesis feels. Nemesis doesn't feel terrifying. He's more just the fact of, I wouldn't even run. i would stand and watch. him like, get him. Get him, Mr. X, get him. It actually reminds me of, I don't know if you've seen the second Silent Hill film, and spoilers for anyone who wants to watch the second Silent Hill film, you know, skip a couple of seconds ahead, but you know the scene at the end where it's like Pyramid Head comes out of nowhere and he starts fighting the big bad in that? That's what it feels like, it's just... just nonsensical fan service, but you're like, you know what? It's cool.
01:26:32
Speaker
I love it. Mr. X has definitely set a high standard for the stocking enemy, because even before that, we had Jack Baker, who, don't worry, he's a lovely gentleman. He will feed you in his lovely Louisiana bayou, trust me, and nothing bad will happen. But in that, for Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, you have Jack Baker who stalks you throughout the house and everything, and that's really creepy because it's just a guy.
01:26:57
Speaker
And he's just like, oh, gee, I can't wait to, you know, there's a siddling up. He's like, oh, I can't wait to basically impale you in whatever horrors you end up coming across. But you have the building blocks for something really, really interesting. And again, i completely understand why maybe they thought, okay, let's cut out the RPG elements, which granted would have made it more interesting, but cut out those elements, cut out fixed camera angles, let's make it more like the second game, but you know, you've got moments where it's like, oh, let's have Jill ram a car into Nemesis. Oh, Nemesis is a fish monster now running across the literal clock tower that you're not allowed in. oh now he's a blob. And again, the worst part it is of a Resident Evil game the underground in the laboratory. Yeah, once you end the game. I remember sitting at the end of 4, just put down my the de listen to the credits i was so good just so satisfied say the second game i put down the Steam Deck, was just, it was so amazing to experience that game. For the third one, i didn't feel... feel that.
01:28:04
Speaker
I just felt, again, there's something you said there, that obligation to say, oh, I have completed it for Resident Evil month, but not super happy about
Evolution of Resident Evil Series and Final Thoughts
01:28:13
Speaker
it. I'm not upset that played it. I still think it's a good enough game on its own, but if you compare it the game that it's based on, it's terrible. If you compare it to even the second game it's not as fleshed out and i don't know whether that's because of time restrictions resources budget because i mean they were working on things like resident evil village which would come out the year after so and the fact that it was bundled with the resident evil resistance probably oh god i forgot i had that until they announced that they were shooting it down was like oh i've got that and then it was like oh there's no point playing it no one's online Well, exactly. That's how I felt. I was like Resident Evil what? And I had to look in my Steam library and I was like, that malware? Why have got that?
01:28:55
Speaker
Genuinely. I was like, well done. You've got a free game. I don't want this game. I'm sorry. It's like Capcom knew that they wasn't giving you enough with the base game. So it's like, oh we're just going to give you this extra thing for free. It's like, well, i don't want it. are you going have it? it's a bit like you know when you go out and you get this very nicely presented meal on things only in this case there's a few things maybe the potatoes are missing they're in the clock tower let's so you know you've got your meat and everything but you're missing a few things and then they're like yes so sorry we don't have the potatoes for this game anyway here's some mystery slop and then they just splat it on top of your meat and you go i don't want this really don't want this. Please take this away. No, no, no. You have to finish it. Oh, God. Just like I've seen it in Matilda.
01:29:39
Speaker
Heed, heed, heed. This is what it feels like. It just feels, again, I wouldn't say overly unfinished. I would say unfinished in a conceptual basis in terms of storyline and areas that you can explore. Gameplay-wise, this is one of the things people moan about. It used to be good in the original and whatnot, but I'm going to be honest. gameplay-wise, I think this game is solid. Oh, yeah, gameplay. works again feel as if the areas are about half baked i feel as if the plot which granted they're taken from the original game it's not the best because again you could have had several different endings with the original because of the rpg elements you can decide to run away or stand your ground and fight whereas this one that's like oh you shoot nikolai in the head and then that's it you save carlos you get out of raccoon city and you watch as gets absolutely nuked, which I'm sure we'll see plenty of in Resident Evil 9 Requiem. But in my closing point for both of these games, what love about the second game overall, other than as I said, the characters, the gameplay, etc, is the fact that not only did it do a great job of modernizing the original game but also put a new spin on it and it made it accessible to modern audiences because the first game I genuinely think is a perfect remake 10 out of 10 but I can see why people would be put off by it because there's a lot of things like limited resources that you can't run and gun there's the fixed camera angles and think as I said last week, it adds to the experience and it's great experience a first game like that. But in terms of doing that going forward, I think something had to change. And I'm glad we've got modders that can bring that original vision to the limelight. As we said, you've got the fixed camera angle mod, you've got the X gonna give it to you mod, which I'm sure was meant to be in the original. But unfortunately, it feels as if the third one is just more of the same, but less competitive.
01:31:40
Speaker
compelling It's almost like the Separate Ways DLC, but and again, you'll get to that in RE4, you're gonna love it. but Whereas that expands the story, you get to play as Ada, spoilers, and go through that. It's absolutely fantastic. This one just feels... eh...
01:31:57
Speaker
Again, I know that's a scientific term. yeah It's not bad, but it's not great. It's not great. It's just kind of there. And it's such a shame. And I feel so sorry for fans of Nemesis because as we said, he is such an iconic character. to take him, make him a gacha machine is just not that great. You know, I only did that once. Literally, I only did it once when he first gets taken down, i think by Carlos. And then you get the first thing. I never bothered doing that again. So I only really used him once because it just felt like a waste of resources of pumping loads of ammo into him just for a piece of gear that might upgrade me, might not. I just found it easier just to flashbang him or to electrocute him or something and then just run away than use him as a gacha machine. So me personally, I never got any benefit out of that whole concept. and I don't know why you would, because like I said, it's a waste of resources. I'd rather spend it getting through and get into the next part of the game than just shooting the hell out of him, getting apart, then running away. Honestly, i think that just summarises this game, that they basically gamified Resident Evil. And again, I know that sounds stupid to say, oh well, Resident Evil is a survival horror game. game. But when you're in Resident Evil 1, when you're andra in Resident Evil 2, even Resident Evil 7, or even Resident Evil 4, again, there's so many examples, you get sucked into this world of heroes versus this ominous umbrella corporation. You're thinking, how am I going to survive this next couple of hours. Oh, I'm running out of ammo. What are those footsteps? And so on and so forth. You forget that you're playing the game until you get to a very egregious puzzle. But again, you know our thoughts on that. And there is, of course, a lot of very simplistic puzzles in this one, which people have complained about, in the third one. But when you're playing it, you definitely feel as if, oh, it's a video game, you can dodge, you can shoot them, but oh, you have to do this scripted sequence, and it just doesn't land. And I agree with you, I hated those hunters. They were probably the only few times I died, because think for the most part, I didn't really die very much, except for the hunters yeah because I keep forgetting how lethal they are at close range. When they throw them at you, you are in like small corridors or small rooms where you can't really run anywhere. It does feel a bit unfair. Like I get why they're there, but it's very unfair that they're there. I would have loved to see in a took up against Nemesis, where Nemesis comes into the hospital and they attack him and then he attacks them. And, you know, that could cause damage to him and I can run away or something like that. Again, just to add a bit more concept to the world.
01:34:29
Speaker
One thing I will say though about Resident Evil 3 in a positive note is that it left me wanting more of Resident Evil 2 and it meant wanting more of that and looking to get it with Resident Evil 4. and that's what's got me excited to play resident evil 4 is the fact of yes it is leon's story and yes it is a bit more actioning but from all of the things i've heard they've gone back to what was so good about resident evil 2 remake so i'm looking forward to that but also even though ah i think jill's a wonderful character i actually was thinking well i really miss claire and i know we keep mentioning it but that's why i want a code of veronica remake is because i want to carry on claire's story i want to see where she comes in and what she did next
01:35:05
Speaker
after the events of Resident Evil 2, which I really enjoy. Where does she go next? Was she looking for a brother or did she decide to sink house? And same with Carlos. I did a bit of research. I don't think Carlos ever appears ever again, which is a shame because I really liked Carlos. And I'm like, I want to play him again. I want to see you more of him. So if anything, it left me wanting more of what I didn't get, which is more of characters that I loved and more of a game that I loved that I was hoping to get but didn't. But knowing that I will get it eventually Resident Evil 4 has got me excited. So there are positives there. It's just a shame that it wasn't the game that we'd all hoped it would be or it was hyped up to be. And yeah, bouncing off that positivity, something i will say as well is at least it is turning people towards to the original game and being able to say, OK, the remake isn't that great, but look at the amazingness of the original. Because I think on the PlayStation store, you can buy the originals.
01:35:56
Speaker
Personally for me, I, well first of all I don't have a Playstation so argument over but even that aside, I don't know how well I would be able to cope with the game but at the same time, you know, I'd happily try it but I think with the tank controls it would just be a bit much but that means that Even though I might not do it it, doesn't mean that other people aren't going to try and explore what made 2 and 3 such iconic games to begin with. And honestly, if you played the 2 and 3 remake and you think, you know what, I really want to try the originals, go for it if you can. i Don't spend ridiculous amounts of money, because as I said, you can buy it on GOG.com if you want to play on the PC, or you can also play it on, I think...
01:36:39
Speaker
the PlayStation Store. I don't think Xbox has it, but one day. We'll probably add it to Game Pass, let's face it. No, jokes are aside, definitely go try it if you want to. But on that note, I would say if you're toing and froing about whether or not you're wanna play the second one or you wanna play the third one, i would still say play them. The third one might not be as good as the second one or maybe you won't like the second one but you'll love the third one, definitely go and try them out because usually the second one's on Game Pass, I don't know if it's
01:37:10
Speaker
still on Game Pass, but I mean, it's a great game. You're going to get plenty of content. You're going to get lots of replayability. Definitely check these games out for better or for worse. If you hear it, feel free to reach out and send us your medical bills. Yeah, our Chatsunami therapist is fully booked for the year.
01:37:27
Speaker
All joking aside, that would be my final point. Definitely go check these games out because they are fantastic. But before we wrap up, is there any other final points you want to make like No, I think you've wrapped it up perfectly there. I just was going to reinstate what you just said. Give it a go.
01:37:42
Speaker
Definitely give Resident Evil 2 Remake a go. That should be in any game's bucket list of giving it a go, even if you're not very good with survival horror. i Trust me, if we can play it, you can. But when it comes to Resident Evil 3 Remake, I know we make fun of it and we are a bit deflated. I would still say experience it.
01:37:57
Speaker
It's one of them games where you shut your brain off. where it's like you can play it in assisted mode or play it in standard, shoot your brain off, shoot zombies, have fun. It's very quick. You'll get it done within four, five hours.
01:38:07
Speaker
Depends how good you are. Still give it a go. Like said, you still got a lot content there and just don't go in with the high hopes of expecting what you got from Resident Evil 2 with Mr. X. Just go in for action. Expect action, you'll get action and you won't be disappointed because if you go in looking for horror, a little bit disappointed. And I mean, it is ironic, just one last point there, that both of these games end relatively similar. Oh yeah. Where, I mean, don't get me wrong, Claire and Leon don't hold a big super weapon in their hands, whereas Jill has the big badass moment where she's holding the real gun and she blasts Nemesis to the end. Pretty much destroys the, think it's the NE Alpha Parasite, whatever it's called. think You know, she has her, again, that Ripley moment of get away from her, you bitch, and just, well, there's no one around to say that to, and she just blasts them to oblivion. That is a cool moment, but it's very Resident Evil bombastic moment, considering a lot of the games end in very similar ways, just without the big giant railgun. at her hip because I mean the second one literally ends with the cousin of Thomas the Tank Engine getting burned alive as Mr X crawls through it and you have to gun him down as he's crawling on the carriage I mean it's still terrifying but yeah again that's pretty much a common thing amongst Resident Evil games so yeah
01:39:27
Speaker
Go check it out, honestly. In all Resident Evil games that we're going to be talking about this month, you're going to get the highs, you're going to get the lows, you're going to get the very a questionable moments, but definitely we go check these out because they are absolutely fantastic. And speaking on fantastic, on that note, Luke, thank you so, so much for being a fantastic guest tonight and, yeah, joining me to talk about these two very iconic games. Oh, it's been an absolute pleasure. I like to be a very positive person. I like to be full of beans. But yeah, with Resident Evil 3, it was a difficult one. But like I said, I'd still recommend people give it a go if you're looking for action. Just don't expect as good as what you got Resident Evil 2 remake and you'll be all right. And definitely don't watch those videos that are like, Top 10 things wrong with Resident Evil 3.
01:40:11
Speaker
Number one, Jill. Number two, Jill. Number three, and you know, you get the joke. ha. ah ah Yeah, definitely. do your research, player. Go do you. But before we wrap up, where can the amazing Pandalorians at home find your content? So you can find me here and everywhere, really. I'm on all podcasting platforms. I'm on Spotify, I'm on Apple. I'm on Spotify. also on YouTube so if you just type in the Howdy Beans podcast you'll find me there and elsewhere I'm also now on TikTok which I feel like an old man being on there even though I'm still young I feel old being there but if you want to follow me on TikTok you can find me there and yeah that's about it really I'm coming up close to about 140 followers on Spotify so I could do with a few more followers on there but yeah you can find me here and everywhere just type in the Howdy Beans podcast and then you'll be able to listen to my show definitely go check out the Howdy Beans podcast. is an absolutely fantastic podcast and as well if you want more Resident Evil content especially is it right insane you reviewed the second game? Yeah oh god it had to have been a year or two ago now I think it was two years. I reviewed Resident Evil Resident Evil 3 remake. As you can imagine from this review my review of Resident Evil 2 was a lot more positive but
01:41:24
Speaker
Again, it has been a while. like I didn't replay Resident Evil 3 for doing this review. i actually went back and reinstalled Resident Evil 2 and ran through a bit as Leon just to kind of get the gist and refresh my memory. But it it does say a lot where I could have played both, but I was like, no, I'm going to play 2. I played a majority of 2 leading up to doing this. So if that doesn't give you a reason as to why you should play 2, I don't know what will. Once you're done with the Howdy Beans podcast, if you want to listen to the rest of Resident Evil Month, as well as other collaborations from ourselves, which we have plenty of, don't you worry, then you can indeed check us out at our website, chatsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, Robotic Battletoaster, Ghost Day, and Cryptic 1991. Thank you all so, so much for supporting the show. It honestly means the world to us, and if you would like access to...
01:42:14
Speaker
exclusive episodes, early access to episodes, commentary tracks, as well as Look and I's livestream of us playing Resident Evil 7, for legal reasons that last one's a joke, then of course you can check us out our our Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. This podcast is of course a proud member of the Podpack Collective. For more information, check us out at our Twitter slash X page at Podpack Collective.
01:42:38
Speaker
But as always, thank you all so, so much for listening to this episode. Next week, we'll be joined by the one and only Joey from the Game Club pod, where we'll be discussing Resident it did Evil 4 Remake. So definitely check that out. Except for you, Luke. Go play it and then come back and listen to it. will.
01:42:54
Speaker
You've still got time. Well, let's see how quick they can get a Code Veronica remake. That's the only thing that's stopping me. Yep, speed running up. Come on, well let's go. As always, thank you all so, so much for listening. Stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.