After spending a considerable amount of time playing as Jill Valentine Prime, thanks to the timely Resident Evil 3 Remake demo (which I've completed about 8 times), I can't deny that it felt like a huge downgrade going back into the shoes of good-old normal Jill from Resident Evil 1. However, that isn't to say that I didn't find it easy getting back into the swing of things, because just as the latest Capcom Devs are great at capturing that great feeling of being a badass, the old Capcom were unmatched in making their horror protagonist feel powerless. It's almost the exact polar opposite effect exuding from the same character, but it draws upon the same innate excitement that makes me giddy to be a Resident Evil fan. Before I continue, however, I will admit that this will be something of a smaller entry as I was doing my best to get my bearings and observe as much as the mansion as possible, rather than just pushing ahead like a rabid dog, so expect some hanging around.
After the last entry we left off with a brand new key, the Armour Key, and yet every Resident Evil veteran should know that there was a little bit of a problem that we still had yet to solve; namely the fact that there we still had the sword key on our person. The problem with this of course being that we only ever have limited space to work with, making it in our best interest to figure out which door remained. Due to the intelligent level design from the creators, players never find themselves in a position wherein they are required to walk around with two keys at once, as that would get annoying once players realise that they are sacrificing the ability to lug around a shotgun in order to keep a key-chain going. (Quite the immersion breaker, once you think about it.) Therefore, whenever you receive a key you can rest assured that every door it can open is within the reach of you immediately, you just need to find all of them.
That can be easier said then done, however, as I proved when I ended up going on another headless jaunt around the mansion. (Doing these weekly is actually a lot more difficult than I originally imagined.) Immediately this had me doing my usual spiel of going the exact wrong way from where I need to be heading and activating 'moments' early. This ended up with me finding myself in one of my favourite puzzle rooms early. The room in question is actually made up of one long winding hall that features walls decorated with various morbid paintings below a railing resplendent with cawing crows. Now, one's immediate thought might be "Who in their right mind keeps an entire room dedicated to crows, which they then decorate with paintings?" But I'd imagine your attention would soon be distracted by the fact that there is a wall of coloured glowing mosaics to one side, each with a button underneath them.
Capcom are really good at this sort of set-up; sticking you in an odd room full of vaguely puzzling items in order to active that critical part of your brain. You may also notice that somehow these are some of the few rooms in the mansion that are entirely free from the threat of Zombies, establishing a firm distinction between the player's 'survival mode' and 'puzzle solving mode'. Although that isn't to say that these rooms are without danger, and that is part of the reason why I personally nominate Resident Evil to join the ranks of 'Games who punish you for spam clicking.' You have the Owl from 'The Ocarina of Time' who will reexplain everything to you until you go insane, Nurse Joy from 'Pokemon' who will lock your animals in a constant loop of revivals, and now Resident Evil, where clicking the wrong button underneath the 'check answer' mosaic will set off the killer crows to pick off your flesh as you turn to flea the room. Yeah, you read right. Killer crows. Who says that zombie games can't get creative with their enemy types?
Next I found myself heading for a location of unique importance to the Jill Valentine playthrough. You see, as I've mentioned before there are certain little changes between playing as Chris and Jill, and they don't all come down to their special abilities. There are actually specific weapons that one can only get as Chris, such as the air force knife, and others that are unique to Jill, such as Barry's Magnum (Which is the strongest weapon in the game but requires you to commit to the 'bad end' in order to receive. That's right, there's multiple endings. This game was ahead of it's time.) This early on, however, the one gun that Jill can get her little mitts on in the series stable Grenade launcher, and don't ask me why a special forces branch of the police have access to Grenade launchers. (Their specialisation is supposed to be on 'rescue operations'. How is a grenade launcher going to get someone out of a landslide in one piece?)
Jill can find this on the second floor outdoor balcony propped up against the corpse of Forest, a former S.T.A.R.S member and one of Jill's friends. This might have been a powerful moment, but we really don't know Forest, in fact I think the guy only get's named in later stories, so this scene is admittedly a little emotionally hollow. But that doesn't mean it's not memorable, because as soon as you claim your free grenade launcher and go exploring it's only a matter of time before you can cornered on the roof top with his suddenly zombified body. This is another trick Capcom liked to pull in Resident Evil, by forcing you into a corner where you only have a few seconds to react. This instance is particularly memorable for the fact that Zombie Forest is actually uniquely faster and more hardy than traditional zombies, for seemingly no reason whatsoever. This is an optional encounter, however, meaning that learned players will know to temper their greed in order to save themselves from a potentially deadly face off. (Somehow I've never managed to pull off this fight without getting a chunk bitten out of me.)
From there we venture downstairs to the actual last place we need to open in order to safely discard our sword key. This location is another staple of the horror genre, as it is a horrifically unhygienic kitchen full to the brim with mystery meat slabbed ontop of tables. Early game this location offers the player nothing but atmosphere, but it's actually somewhat essential to open it up for the later, that's because Resident Evil comes from that same stock of level design as the early Souls games did; wherein the world is actually a lot closer together than you think and you learn handy shortcuts all the time. Honestly, this aspect of design almost has hints of your traditional Metroidvania-style game, as it's all about coming back upon places you've been before with the tools to solve a previously unsolvable puzzle. It also helps to actually visit this place instead of just opening the door as Capcom have a traditional jump scare moment for those who try to leave after their first visit. (That's the kind of encounter you want to wrap up before the real dangerous monsters start showing up.)
The next big moment in the game actually shadows the very last moments of this title as well as puts a test on your understanding of the Mansion's layout. That's right, it's time for a time trial. (Although most players won't actually be aware of the fact that this section is timed.) on the upper floors it won't be long before you stumble across a wounded S.T.A.R.S. officer called Richard with his mutilated arm. All he manages to get out is the fact that his arm was mauled by a big snake and that venom is currently cursing through his body, the only serum for which lies in the otherside of the mansion in the first safe room. Now, understandably, this is a dire situation that requires your immediate attention, although I'd imagine a decent number of players never realised this and thought they could take it at their own pace. In truth, if you take too long Richard will die from his wounds and become a shambling undead, locking the player off from a potential cutscene and prize later on.
This whole sequence puts everything that the player has passively learnt up until now to the test, by making you plan out your route through the halls, figure how to avoid enemies where possible and slip by them where it is not. At this point it's likely essential for you to have become familiar enough with the layout to know that one can slip right behind a zombie without getting pounced upon as long as there is no hesitation and nothing in the way. Players will either learn that or how to be very liberal with their use of bullets, but any Survival horror experience whatsoever will likely clue most on to not doing that. Should one succeed, they can rest in the knowledge that they've saved one of their comrades, even if it is temporary. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
The places you start to explore in the second half of the mansion begin to get more tricky to navigate or require the player to have more of their tools to hand. There's one room in which the player is incapable of interacting with anything unless they light a candle, requiring the lighter. This reinforces the player's dependency on their equipment and annoys the heck of me whole completely forgot about that and hoped to finish the whole 'Music sheet' thing in this session. Unfortunately, it's mother's day so I didn't have all the time in the world and had delay this until next time.
Instead what I tackled was a puzzle room on the east ring that consisted of a room decorated wall-to-wall with suits of armour. The second that the player enters, four of the armour cases jut themselves out of the wall and the player is met with a little plaque threatening those that dare "disturb my sleep". There's also a little button which floods the room with deadly gas if pressed, so this means a handy little bit of puzzling! Honestly, this particular puzzle was perhaps stronger when it was first thought of back in 2002, but by today's standards is pretty straightforward. All you are required to do is push the armour pieces back against the wall with the small stipulation that some of the armour remotely interacts with another piece if you touch it. These can be some infuriating puzzles in other games, (Like in the later Dragon Age games) but here it's a practical breeze. And your reward for this trouble? A jewellery box with a little item manipulation puzzle to work through, showing how the designers are starting to combine ideas together.
Opening the box with confer a rather unique boon, a death mask without eyes, nose or a mouth, signalling the start of a brand new scavenger hunt around the mansion. Now you have to figure out what this mask is used for and how many more there are to collect. (hint: We had this puzzle teased in Part 1) That will all have to wait until next time, however, as I went far too long without a save and was beginning to become anxious. Also, I definitely was procrastinating for too long, seeing as how a Crimson head spawned and tried to take my head off. Next time I intend to actually get to the first boss like I thought I would here, and hopefully even wrap up all of the rest of Act 1, maybe then we'll see how the scares really start to ramp up for the next area.
No comments:
Post a Comment