Resident Evil 2 Remake: A New Nostalgia.

As a kid playing Resident Evil 2 was an endurance of heightened sensations. I suffered increased anxiety, joy, fear, nausea, even legitimate physical afflictions such as sudden, debilitating stomach cramps, which invariably forced me to use the toilet. I get that same replicated stimulation from playing this remake that I experienced playing the original sequel. The fact that I’m writing this specific segment on my phone whilst on the toilet should give you some sordid indication of just how harrowing this remake is!

I hadn’t anticipated this reception: to be both humbled by nostalgia and aghast at the subtle innovation that retains the core tenants of the series that made Resident Evil such a cultural spectacle. This is a truly pivotal moment in my life, to experience Resident Evil 2 for the first time…..again! This remake, that functions more as a commemorative reinvention, supplants all of the geriatric controls and fixed camera angles that made the original such an arduous slog to play, while extracting the sheer bowel irritating fear that made your measured exploration around the RCPD such a ponderous and frightening experience. An element absent from the action orientated, boulder heaving sequels of Resident Evil 5 and 6. Seriously though, whoever designed the elaborate architecture for this police facility/museum was more sadistic than the current biologically challenged occupants!

You can’t settle, feel comfort or safety. Your only reprieve from the ravages of the infected are the designated save rooms scattered sparingly across the Raccoon City police department and the subterranean labyrinths that lurk below. It’s strange too trying to familiarise yourself to environment I once knew intimately, making knowing self-satisfied commentary as I make my way around, only to have the game completely dupe my nostalgic expectations, as it succeeds in unnerving my every footstep. Employing a rigorous assault to my faculties so hostile and personal that it’s like I’ve slighted the game in some way. That I’m being punished for even considering picking up the controller! It’s exhausting navigating the claustrophobic halls, blood speckled corridors and faint yet distinctive sound of the dead shuffling through the dimly lite alcoves. Participated by the quadriplegic scuttling and piercing, elongated tongue of the Lickers. Creatures I haven’t missed! All while you avoid the propagating advances of the towering monolith that is the Tyrant!

You can’t just kill everything that moves, shuffles or lurches as the limited ammo at your disposal will quickly deplete. Instead you have to be pragmatic, choosing when to shoot carefully and more importantly, precisely. Inventory management ensures you’re well prepared for any potential cartilage chompers, as well as amply spacious enough to pick up any crucial items you may need. Storing surplus components or supplies is crucial, otherwise you may find yourself having to navigate down perilous hallways you’d otherwise avoid just to make room in your inventory. Or worse discarding an item completely! The games inert adaptive difficulty also ensures that you are always being challenged. If you haven’t died the game ramps up the difficulty. Contrary, if you find yourself struggling the games eases up a little.

There are some obvious continuity lapses between the A and B scenario’s that were handled much better in the originals, with Claire and Leon able to communicate via a walkie-talkie at least. And it’s a shame really. With a few minor narrative amendments the two concurrent perspectives could have been separate stories told from different perceptions, instead of competing ones. But really these kind of discrepancies are negligible when compared to the rest of this well handled remakes of one of my favourite Resident Evil titles. In another game the jumps might seem cheap, like a ghost train at a travelling carnival. But because the jumps scares have been tempered by the twisted, uneasy ambience and the precarious nature of your safety, the sudden shocks feel genuinely frightening. You may think your safe fully laden with ammo and abundance of healing herbs, but it only takes one tiny, misplaced bullet to put you right back in danger.

This is survival horror, the way the genre was intended to be. And Resident Evil 2 has reminded me just how much I’ve missed it. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have to find some more toilet tissue!

Top 5 Games That Most Interested Me At E3.

Devil May Cry V.

Unlike many devil may cry purists, I don’t have a pathological hatred for the reboot. I think it was obnoxious, puritanical and rudely dismissive of its roots, but at least it struck a chord, even if conceptually it was a brown note. The combat was its strongest asset, beguiling you with its turbulent hack and slash, duel wielding pistols Ebony and Ivory as well as utilising Dante’s Nephilim abilities. Switching between blade ravaging slashes, rapid scythe sweeps and flattening demons with a powerful axe really allowed for more dynamic variation that was responsive, ambulant and deeply satisfying with almost choreographed fluidity. DmC may of had a redundant abbreviation, a belittling attitude towards the series fans and tried just a little too hard to refrain from everything that had come before in a misguided attempt to stand out, but at least it wasn’t as sterile and forgettable as Devil May Cry 2. Well until now that is, with Capcom banishing any hope of a direct successor and instead doing what they should have done originally and make Devil May Cry V.

Continuity be damned! We’ve got the substitute hero from Devil May Cry 4 and shoddy Dante impersonator “Nero” returning with a new look, new accomplice and new appendage? A detachable extremity no less, one that can be used as missile to surf on?! The lack of Dante is disturbing and the general Final Fantasy 15 vibe is a little too pervasive to me, but this seems like a progressive step in the right direction.

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The Last Of Us 2.

I’ll admit that I’m still a little sceptical about this sequel. I realise it’s NaughtyDog, yes I know I loved the first, but something about this just feels…. unnecessary. Ellie and Joel’s ambiguous dialogue at the end of the last game felt conclusive if not ultimately defined. I liked that, these two brave, complicated individuals sauntering off to pastures unknown. But here we are anyway, Ellie scouring dense woodlands where the general populace continue to be infected by malaise of fungal blemishes. Hostile scavengers foraging for basic amenities, perishables and forging implements of neck piercing persuasion. With Joel curiously absent?

The trailer does make for good watching though, with the intelligent AI that seems adaptive to whatever move or tangent you go off on being particularly impressive. Seeing Ellie flourish from awkward teenager into a women of assured badassary is another engaging incentive. I’m still not 100% sold on a sequel yet, but I’m getting there.

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Resident Evil 2

A remake of my favourite game in the Biohazard series? One ticket to Raccoons City please! There had been murmurings uttered surreptitiously for some time that alluded to it. Claims that stated it was in development. But to finally have visual confirmation of its existence gives much-needed veracity to the speculation. I’ve always been curious about what this particular entry in the series would be like on current gen consoles. How modernised controls would affect the traditionally stiff mobility of Leon and Claire, whether increased movement would neutralise some of the anxiety of surviving a Police Station teething with infected?

The great thing about it is that it doesn’t just look like a straight, copy and paste remake, but rather establishing its own versatile identity from utilities and concepts from its past. The Gameplay trailer certainly suggests that the game will adhere to the classic pervading ambiance that induced this constant imbued anxiety, that was only compounded by reduced spatial visibility and limited ammo.

If Resident Evil 2 can provoke the same nostalgic terror that crippled me to periodical 10 minute intervals of play and create something that also feels original, then this could be my new favourite Resi!

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Spider-Man.

Insomniacs Spider-Man doesn’t get me excited merely because it plays and feels like everything I’ve ever wanted in a Spider-Man game, no. It gets me excited because it’s like they plucked the conceit directly from my 10-year-old mind. The way the helicopter starts whooshing towards the ground. The pilots like “Ah, save me Spider-Man!”, and he’s like, swoosh, got ya. Then he’s like “oh no, all the prisoners are escaping”. So he’s like bosh, bash, doosh, and Electro’s like “Ha ha ha, I’m going to electrocute you”. And Spider-Mans like “I don’t think so Sparky!” before chasing him down, swinging and swooping, finally catching up with him. But then Spider-Man gets cornered by LOADS of recognisable villains and Spider-Man’s like “Oh spider poop!”. I can only imagine what my 10-year-old self would have said?!

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Death Stranding.

I’m fresh out of takes. Seriously, I got nothing?

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What game are you most excited to play? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers

My Top 10 Most Influential Games: #5 “Resident Evil 2”.

So here we are at my number 5, a game that I recall with more clarity than many on this list. Primarily because of just how harrowing this game was for me growing up. Choosing Resident Evil 2 over so many of its prestigious and indeed less revered kindred was a fairly routine decision for me. With the exception of a few misguided entries, the majority of the series has elicited some of the most anxious, bowel shuddering moments of my gaming adolescents. The festering hounds shattering the mansions windows with poop inducing precision. The regenerator’s of Resident Evil 4 that ambled through tight corridors with muffled, gnarled breathing and unsettling palsied twitching. The Nemesis breaking through walls and the conformities of the games infrastructure with literal ferocity, by taking away the safety of entering another room to thwart an enemies pursuit. Not to mention boulder boxing in a volcano, leaches, absurd live action intros, an alphabet worth of viruses and Jill filled sandwiches. But nothing quite resonates with the same enduring terror that this habitually outlandish entry does!

Resident Evil 2 was originally a compromised purchase. Having traded my faulty copy of Crash Bandicoot 2 for Resident Evil 2 from a dubious market proprietor I really had no idea what I had let myself in for. Praise must be paid to the blissful ignorance of my mother though, who if she had any inkling concerning the games sadistic extravagance probably would have forbade me from playing it, not that I would have listened.

Up to this point in my gaming tenure I had mostly been acquainted with more child friendly platformer’s that was much more congenial to my preadolescent sensibilities. So a game of such distinct morbidity, that riled you with its ambient trepidation was so exhaustively disconcerting. My first foray into the decrepit Raccoon City wasn’t particularly successful either, as I wrestled with the controls attempting to manoeuver myself away from the advancing hordes of zombies that had emerged from the incendiary wreckage behind, only to moonwalk directly into their grasp. Wounded I staggered forward trying to negotiate my way past the abandoned cars smouldering beside me as I progressed, only to be embraced by another Zombie just off-screen. The infamous “You Are Dead!” text illuminated the blank screen and I immediately switched it off. I don’t like losing, least of all after a couple of minutes against the games first antagonist. This to me was the equivalent of losing to a goomba in Super Mario!

After considerable time had passed, my juvenile ego renewed by the games absence I persevered, slowly progressing through the ravaged streets, watching in horror as a delightfully gruff gun store owner became a happy meal for the shuffling masses and proceeded to shriek, scream and squeal my way to the cities most elaborately designed police station. This merry little jaunt through the barren streets and musky alleys allowed me to familiarise myself with the revolutionary ability to run, an ability that up to that point I didn’t realise Claire and Leon possessed?! As well as instilling the inherent obsession with conserving ammo to a pathological level, that meant every bullet I squandered just made me more anxious.

Because of the explicit fear this game provoked I could only play it in gradual, interspersed sessions. Every time I stumbled upon a save room I would exhale with exasperated fatigue, requiring a good couple of minutes to compose myself, organise my inventory, combine herbs and use yet another ink ribbon to save my meandering progress before mustering the courage to continue. The only time I’d ever play for more than half an hour is if my step brother was there. And even then we’d hurl the controller at each other as if it were a bomb ready to detonate, signifying that it was their turn to endure the company of giant poisonous tarantulas and feral alligators.

This was also back at a time when a guide or walk-through was reserved for a friend from school who’d completed the game. A friend who was so well versed in the ways of this survival horror that I’d consult with him on an almost daily basis. The stream of convoluted locks, statues, keys with specific insignia’s that had to be found to progress was baffling. Couple that with the constant threat of cannibalism and you got yourself a game that frustrates and terrifies in equal measure.

Despite its absurdity, the clunky movement and graphics that were somewhat dated even when I played it back in early 2000’s, this is still the most memorable entry in the series. I’ll never forget those sudden encounters with the zombies, the faint shuffling and bellowing moans echoing down the corridors. Coming face to face with the sharp-tongued monstrosities that were the lickers, snarling and oozing cascades of saliva as they clung to the ceilings with their serrated claws. William Birkin’s grotesque transformations, Ada Wong’s duplicitous incursion into the Umbrella facility, being hunted by a 7ft Tyrant that would just appear without warning and the dying cop who I had convinced myself was Will Smith, who always had this peculiar inflection every time he said “Umbrella”. And it’s difficult to work out whether it was intentionally sinister, poorly voiced or a composite of both, but I never forgot that scene, nor panicked as much when his slumped, lifeless body lurched up to devour my pixellated face!

Resident Evil 2 gave me more nightmares than I care to remember. Provided some of the most exquisite, genuinely poop you pants moments I’ve ever had. No game since has ever roused the same sustained chills that Resident Evil 2 dished out, nor have my gaming experiences or indeed gaming choices been the same since then. And that’s why Resident Evil 2 is my #5.

The Search For Claire Redfield.

On February 3rd 2000, Claire Redfield, the much-lauded protagonist of Resident Evil 2 made her final canonical appearance in Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Since then her appearances have been transient at best, with only sporadic appearances that meekly validate her prominence in the narrative lineage of the series. Her departure and subsequent disappearance has been principally speculative for some time, but Capcom’s refrain in clarifying the specificity of Claire’s discretionary absence from the series, has been reticent to say the least. Upon consulting the Japanese based developer on the volatility of locating Chris Redfield’s younger sibling, a polite representative refused to comment on an ongoing, incredibly confidential investigation. But I am however privileged to disclose to you, the concerned public, that my formal application for an interview to establish the specifics of the investigation, as well as other conjecture that may have led to Claire’s permeating omission has been granted, by Resident Evil 2 compatriot, Leon “S” (I was told to emphasise the “S” for future clarification) Kennedy. WARNING! The following interview was conducted under the careful supervision of fraudulence and are purely spurious conversions between a fictitious character and myself. If you are offended by my portrayal of Leon “S” (very important) Kennedy, then please, consult someone who cares.

Me: So Leon, can you summarise precisely what Capcom are trying to do in terms of locating Claire Redfield?

Leon: Well I can assure fans that every effort is being made to find her safe and well. I can also attest to the expansive search being conducted is meticulously thorough. We’ve checked under every cushion, lifted every seating cover, checked every employees shoes to ascertain her whereabouts, though so far without any success. We even thought we had discovered her a few weeks back lying on the ledge of a window, but it turned out to be a cat!

Me: Oh, uh….OK? How concerned is Claire’s brother Chris over her disappearance?

Leon: Well he currently resides in hospital.

Me: My apologies, I was not aware that the loss of his sister had afflicted him so severely.

Leon: Oh no it hasn’t; after receiving a botched facial augmentation, he was also kept in for to monitor his substance abuse. Notably his steroid dependency.

Me: Oh. Uh, do you believe there is a direct correlation between Claire’s leaving and the way Resident Evil series has regressed?

Leon: What do you mean?

Me: Well, Resident Evil has always emanated a very liberal interpretation of a zombie apocalypse, in terms of an evil corporation being accountable for the pandemic. And there has always been a latency in the narrated parity, with no tangible context to clarify the motivations of the perpetrators. Is this a systemic issue that has hindered the progression of the series to a point where the publisher felt they needed to reflect a more contemporary shooter, with the likes of Call of Duty clearly encroaching on the cinematic’s and game-play in Resident Evil 6?

Leon: Look, I’ll admit that Resident Evil 6 was not where I wanted things to go.

Me: So by your own admission, Resident Evil 6 was an aberration too far?

Leon: No. It was simply rubbish!

Me: Wow, I hadn’t expected you to answer that question with such deft glibness. Do you think Capcom can refine the constituent parameters that made Resident Evil synonymous with survival horror?

Leon: I….I…..don’t know.

Me: If they did, do you believe Claire would return?

Leon: Yeah, I do.

Me: One final thing, this has always bugged me. What motivations can their be for a pharmaceutical company to mutate society into non-complicit cannibals? It can’t be financially lucrative?

Leon: Duh! Their evil. Hence “Resident Evil”.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 will be released next year and will star….Oh?……Claire Redfield. Making this entire article even more worthless. Great. I could’ve been getting drunk instead. Well, more so.

Who’s The Boss Now?

Do do do do do dodododododo, do do do do do dododododooo…Now this musical notation really doesn’t need clarifying, considering that its glaringly apparent that this musical composition converted from it original audio, is Sonic the Hedgehog’s antagonistic parable (Dr Robotnik’s) theme music. Altering the exuberant tones that accompany your accelerated endeavours to more urgent intonation, and even after adolescence has absconded me, coercing me into reluctant maturity (well, older anyway) this piece of scoring is still distinctive as well as abiding encapsulation of my absent youth. Though the variable encounters that you engage with this questionable physician are as onerous as a scuffle with candy floss, it is lamentable to think that such vivid boss battles have become somewhat moderated, diminished by the advent of multi-player or if not completely relegated. The latent catharsis is so apparent in modern games that its difficult to differentiate between one ambivalent, mutated creature and another repellent engineered mutation augmented by a dilatory, shady corporation with clear apathetic ethics. The glaring abstinence of villainy has only been compounded by the swelled infirmity of developer creativity.

“Captain Birdseye’s original vocation before fish fingers.”

During MGS3: Snake Eater for your confronted by many gregarious oppositions with varying conceptual eccentricity, composed of individuals such as “The Pain” who largely spent his time propelling projectile hornets at my crutch (probably), a former cosmonaut known as “The Fury” that spews incendiary retardants with flame-thrower while elevated by combustible jet pack, and The Sorrow, who though technically dead can still kill you. But the boss that is most visceral in my mind is the sniper extraordinaire referred to as “The End”. Which is ironic considering that this battle (loosely termed) never ended! You were required to identify the location of a surprisingly nimble geriatric, camouflaged amongst the dense foliage that required passive mobility to avoid detection from his remarkably precise reticles. Hours were emaciated tracking him to various environments across a linear, though vapid environments, culminating in a number of indolent manoeuvres and vocally expressive retorts.“You sneaky son of a gun. I’ll get you next time (paraphrased statement).” At one stage I became so ingrained in my environment that we spent 10 mins lying parallel, innocuous to one another’s stationary presence despite the close approximation of our adjacent equivalent’s, before I crawled surreptitiously into Captain Birdseye’s sniper barrel. The misery of being repressed by a boss that spent the majority of his time preserving what little vitality he had left by sleeping is humiliating enough, but the most disconcerting thing was that this entire protraction could have been averted if I had simply dismissed nobility, by shooting him while he was slumped defensively in his wheel-chair earlier on in the game.

“Run from the pixels Claire! RUN!”

The Tyrant in Resident Evil 2 still evokes anxiety too, with his almost harmonic, synchronised steps that reverberated throughout the dilapidated corridors in Raccoon City Police Department. With the clattering of wood that heaved under the excessive force of his gargantuan frame indicating his nomadic return. Though his massive frame prevented much urgency in his mobility, this giant, follicle infirm vagrant with cumbersome pace, still strode with menacing pace that always appeared to catch you up. It was his perpetual presence, his motivated penchant for your death that made every pious step excruciating. The DMC series has often revelled in the eccentricity of its extenuate portrayal of mythical beasts and demonic spawns, secreted from the depths of hell with intriguing abstract depictions, they also required collating tactical awareness. You had to parry at the exact moment, cultivating your moves with minimalistic button prompts as simply squeezing the attack button wasn’t enough. Patience wasn’t just a virtue but vital to succession as much of your time was expelled utilising cover and dodging projectiles rather than extruding aggression. But sadly even this series has pandered to some nonchalance of sterility.

“If a tumour had a penis, it would look like this.”

Now we are presented with enemies that resemble a pulsating phallic with an angry tumour attached! Or an angry demonic bald man who diminishes as a prospective bogeyman, as without rhyme or prior exposition mutates into a generic giant, composed of concentrated tarmac and metal. Why?! But that’s the problem; nonsensical boss’s that pander to the conventions of simple extraction of weak points; dodge a few wayward, choreographed moves that are easy to interpret and counter with sardonic exclamations of your exuded captivation “Ooh isn’t this exciting!”  This may not necessarily apply to all current games, but there is an endemic nuance on aesthetically pleasing abominations, with grittier, bigger and with more grr presentations! That are shallow, simplistic are most notably, forgettable.

Let me know what your favourite boss fight is, and are boss fights really relevant now? Cheers.