Once again I've taken a greater break from my Resident Evil In Depth series then I originally intended to, but there was just so much going on in the world of gaming that I honestly couldn't find the time for retro game diving that specific moment. Of course, the past week hasn't been any different and there would be just as reasonable a reason to take yet another week off if it hadn't been for the surprise reveal of something that had been rumoured about for a while now. That's right; 'Resident Evil VIII: The Village' is happening, and I'll have a definitive look a that much later in it's own individual blog. For the moment, however, this has encouraged me to get back to this series and wrap it up so that I can get to the literal 8 other Resident Evil games that I have to cover before VIII comes out. (Oh, and the Resident Evil 4 remake in the following year. Jeez Capcom, you guys won't let me take breaks, huh?)
When we left off last blog Jill had just managed to fell Plant 42 and for her troubles she received the final important key for the old Mansion, signalling the start of the third act. As The Spencer Mansion is the focal point of this entire game, it makes sense for the player to be directed back to there, and so if for some reason they had completely forgotten about the doors that they couldn't open back at the beginning of the game, Capcom even put in a helpful scene to assist for that. In the hallway, player's will bump into Captain Wesker, of all folk, trading bullets with zombies bees. (Wait, he was shooting the bees? With a handgun? Must be a hell of a good shot.) During their back-and-forth, Wesker manages to feed on Jill's suspicion on Barry and mention how there are still some locked doors back in the main building. (A bit heavy handed, but that's probably the most clear direction I think this series has ever given.)
The journey back can almost been seen as a victory lap, counting the amount of threats you've managed to neutralise. The bloodsucking floor tentacle won't attack anymore, pythons don't fall from the sky anymore and you even get a radio call from Brad which Capcom threw in for, I can only assume, the sole purpose of adding in a subtle little reference to the kinda-simultaneous events of Resident Evil 0. (In the line "Bravo Team- it doesn't matter") However your radio still isn't working and there's no way to let Brad know how badly you need pickup, meaning that Jill still has to resort to picking through the mansion in her search for escape. (You know, it just struck me how interesting it is that the majority of this plot is driven by the desire to escape the mansion. Everything else just happens to fall into place during that pursuit. It's just a little wild, is all.)
As a lead-in to the reentering of the mansion, the little warehouse that connects into the east wing is flush with new gear left by Barry. He also leaves a note explaining that he fixed the door handle, (what a handy man!) allowing for easier access to the eastern item room without fear of blocking off an escape route. As folk who have followed this game up until now and who understand the importance of routes and the power of planning, this should be a sufficient tip-off that the situation at the mansion is vastly evolved from where it was at when you were last here, and you should definitely prepare for the worst. Perhaps that won't be enough, however, for not even three steps back onto the premises, the player will be met with another iconic monster of Resident Evil lore, the deadly Hunter Alpha.
These amphibious reptiles are large hulking monsters that move faster than any other foe in the game, boast incredibly jump height and razor sharp claws, and are capable of two shotting the protagonist on lower difficulties. (One shotting on the hardest.) This pretty much makes him the scariest thing to go up against in this game, as a single misjudged second could be your doom. Having familiarised yourself with combat up until now it's unlikely that they player will be unprepared for such a challenge, but they may be intimidated none the less. It's at times like this that the virtue of planning, resource management, and huge guns really start to stand out. (Some might say it's the only way to live. Like me. I am the some.)
Now Jill is back in the mansion there is no beating around the bush anymore, things have changed. Many of the zombies that plagued the halls have mysteriously vanished and in their place are empty halls, ripe for a whole heaping of new surprise attacks from exclusively deadly creatures and zombie variations such as these new Hunters and those damn annoying Crimson heads from before. This is the time when Capcom are trying their hardest to disturb the player's attempt at opening up those last locked doors, so planning and route execution is essential. In this way, it only makes sense that the first new room that a returning Jill would access would be the only previously non-accessible room in the entire east wing; And that's exactly what Capcom planned for.
This place is yet another puzzle room, only this one goes that step beyond the usual by combining several elements from previous puzzles to show a slightly more complicated one. (Again, Resident Evil isn't exactly going to hit it's players with a mind-crippling bender, that's not the sort of game it is, but they do take the chance to make them slow down and think critically every now and then.) This particular room boasts elements that are timed, as you have to race a collapsing wall, and a pushable object to finesse within that time window. Figuring this out will reward the player with a mysterious red book and a snippet of lore. Here lies the final words of the man who's story we have followed a lot in this mansion, George Trevor, and we finally learn his significance to events. He was the one who designed the house, and yet those he worked with betrayed him in the end and would leave him to die trapped in the walls like this. A suitably depressing end for a story in a game that thrives on a dour atmosphere.
That is merely the start of new troubles, however, as beneath this tombstone lies a whole new location. (Capcom know how to guide player's directions) This place is known as the basement, but it has more in common with some sort of underground sewer. The walls are concrete and dank, the lights are harsh and glaring and the ground is soggy, even giving way to flooded pools at one end. This place actually reminds me somewhat of a much more rundown version of the Aqua ring. And if that generally unpleasant assortment of sensations doesn't unsettle you, there are also the giant venomous spiders who roam this area; marking this as one of the first places to reintroduce the poison mechanic that was carefully introduced to the player through their first encounter with Yawn. Once again, Capcom hides a tutorial behind active experience, ensuring that players feel prepared without ever getting the sense of being coddled. (As that is the death of horror games everywhere)
Through this basement the player's will discover the solution to a problem that they'll have seen all the way back in Act 1 but which will have totally slipped their mind; the broken down elevator! Turns out the issue was merely some blown fuses that can be switched around, putting the elevator back into action and resurrecting the playability of an area that player's will have thought themselves done with in an almost From Software-esque manner. (All that's left to do is locate the elevator and ride it down.) To hammer that point home, the route out of the basement leads into that gross kitchen from all the way back at the beginning, only with a much more haunting atmosphere as the previous zombies are all gone.
If there's one thing that version two of the mansion hasn't stopped doing, however, it's throwing the occasional jumpscare at the player, and now that there's the uber deadly Hunter's thrown into the mix jumpscares are more terrifying then usual. One such Hunter surprises the player as they alight into the west wing to see a seemingly clear hallway, only for the amphibian to jump around the corner from another hall. Actually getting past him reveals that this Hunter actually ripped through the door in order to get here, which completely shatters the previously established rule by literally every single Resident Evil game up to that point how zombies in other rooms were incapable of disturbing you without an incredibly belated and audible cue to mark their entrance. This was sudden. This was shocking. And it subverted all expectations hard. Truly a masterful jumpscare.
Of the remaining unexplored rooms, there is one that contained a mostly optional puzzle that I remember vividly, probably because it was the first time that Resident Evil really stumped me. That sits on the western wing and boasts a confusing set-up of taxidermy heads and a tracking statue without an inherently clear path to a solution. Looking back I recognise that this isn't exactly one of the most difficult puzzles in the world, but the way it relies on timing does sort of defy how that mechanic has been used for other puzzles and so it sort of left me unprepared. Most of Resident Evil's challenges are adequately established but this one did take a slight deviation upon the accepted puzzle conventions. But perhaps such is acceptable when considering how important, and vague, the prize for this puzzle is. Solve this back and forth and the player is given another mystery hook with two coloured gems, one yellow and one red, with a decent idea of where they go. Cast you mind back to a few scenes past and you might remember the statue of a tiger who asked for gems in his eye sockets. Capcom intend for the player to remember these sorts of open mysteries as they return to the mansion, as it makes the process of completing the rooms feel that more dynamic and natural. Giving this tiger his other eye grants the player a curious trinket, an MO disk; opening yet another question to sit in the back of our heads as we continue.
Also in the room sits a very eye-opening document. In fact, for an mostly optional room it really is criminal for such a huge chunk of lore to be regulated to this corner of the Spencer abode, but here we are. Inside we see orders, addressed to the head of Umbrella security, detailing the events of the game up until now from the perspective of a potential orchestrator. We see the plan step-by-step; 'S.T.A.R.S are to be led to the mansion purposefully in order to test the combat data of beings known as BOWs. Embyros of each mutated monster must be obtained (excluding that of something called 'The Tyrant' as that must be destroyed) and the entire facility and it's staff are to be destroyed.' This is real revelation-level stuff here that people could very easily miss, and I fear that without this context there's a good chunk of the rest of the game that'll make literally no sense. (Although to be fair, for those serious about learning what this game has to offer, the chances of missing this document that is placed right on the coffee table is slim to none.)
All that's left is to clear out the rest of the rooms, starting with that route to the attic that has been teasing us ever since the end of the first Resident Evil blog. That one right next to the fake key trap? Yeah, that's the kind of door that worms under you skin and really gnaws on the old psyche. What could be behind it? Why has the wait to get here been so long? Well, the answer it seems is another classic horror setting; the ill-lit attic space. In terms of ambience, the designers really laid into this mysterious vibe of something hiding just outside of view. The hall is webby and musty, with naught but the pale moon breaking through the side windows to illuminate your next steps. To cap it all off, most of the fixed camera angles for this section are situated right outside of the windows themselves, really hammering home this idea that there's something out there watching you.
And as it turns out there is, because once the player is too far gone to back out, a sudden crack of window panes signals the return of an old enemy; the giant mutant poison snake: Yawn! (Time for round 2!) This boss fight happens around a library area that I think was grander in vision than execution, to be honest. I can imagine the concept with a maze of shelves and a deadly serpent winding around them, but in practise it's just a single shelf and a deadly game of cat and mouse with the big man himself. Yawn spends most of this fight coiled in his strike stance, reinforcing the idea that the player is seconds away from death at all times; but in reality the fight isn't all that difficult, it just requires a little practice and restraint. Luckily, having gotten this far in the game, patience is something that the player will have most likely stocked in abundance, so this usually ends up as a fairly straight forward bout. (Although I will admit that the melee method is a lot more difficult for this fight.)
The reward for this battle is two fold, the final death of a long held rival and one of the final big puzzle solutions in the game. In his throes, Yawn unveils a blue book to match the player's red one from earlier, making it abundantly clear that these are items to pay attention. Of course, at this point players will be well trained in examining items in their inventory and so they've likely already been alerted to the fact that each book contains an emblem. (one of a wolf and another of an eagle.) Just as with almost every puzzle in this game, you have key without a lock, and solving this stage of the investigation will undoubtedly open up biggest secrets of Spencer Mansion. But those are secret depths that we'll have to plunge next week as that's all I have the time for in this blog.
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