Warning.
This feature contains scenes of explicit gore and major spoilers.
Summary
Rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy (first day on the job) and Claire Redfield (searching for brother Chris) arrive in Raccoon City, blissfully unaware of the nightmare that awaits.
Claire meets Sherry (relationship is very Ripley and Newt), with little girl kidnapped by twisted police chief and now Orphanage director Brian Irons.
Leon bumps into Ada (posing as FBI agent), whose mission is to get mercenary hands on G-Virus.
Amidst all this, Tyrant and William Birkin cause unruly mischief.
Great
No QTE's, no dumb infinite ammo sections, just old school survival horror.
Fucking hey!
Design is second to none and maps detailing health, bullets, key items etc really helps.
Built from the ground up, RE Engine ensures proceedings look simply sumptuous, and quality never lets up.
Using wooden boards on windows prevents the 'riff raff' from getting inside police station.
Combining green, red and blue herbs will not only restore full health and remove any toxins, but temporarily, you'll also take less damage and be immune to poison (indicated by symbol in bottom right).
Usually found by cracking safes and opening lockers, hip pouches add two inventory slots.
Joypad emitting sound of putting key to door hole is a nice touch.
Gunpowder (first introduced in Resi 3) and sub-weapons (Gamecube remake of original) make a welcome return.
Some items and background details are lifted straight from Resi 7.
It takes about 6 hours (with either character), to finish first time, with three more reasons to go through nightmare again.
Zombies
Flesh munchers undoubtedly steal biological show.
Body physics are AMAZING!
Even the late and great George A. Romero would be impressed.
Scoring a head shot can be pretty difficult, getting a big thumbs up from me.
Undead can be literally taken apart, but even with missing limbs, threat remains.
It's a bloody shame we can't stomp on heads though.
Tyrant
He can be stunned (but never knocked out), eliminating the possibility of robbing ammo and/or gun parts.
Best advice though is just run like the wind.
Yes he's basically Jack Baker, but then again, Jack's behaviour 'ripped off' Mr. X, and to a certain extent, so did Lisa Trevor.
Alligator
Great one-liner there.
'New' enemies
Not really, as fewer exist.
Spiders, crows and giant moth are all absent.
In the sewers, new look G-Embryo just annoys.
Rather than poison spewing plants, Ivy are now vegefied zombies.
Apart from using fire, you can immobilise threat by destroying bulbs (identical in principle to Resi 4's Regenerators).
If grabbed, kiss ass goodbye (unless sub-weapon is equipped).
Taking the G
In total, good doctor comes in five mutations.
And a nod to original's title screen.
So re-imagining of 1998 classic is pretty awesome, but...
Bollocks and bullshit
Script is generally cheesy (f-bombs feel out of place), and non-subtitled comments during gameplay did my head in.
Claire: 'Oh no', 'What's up with you?', 'Shit' and 'Asshole'.
Leon: 'You bastard', 'Damn it!', 'What the hell!' and 'Jesus'.
Just shut the FUCK up already.
Personalities have radically changed.
Leon is naive and pretty dumb, Claire is way too confident, Irons is just a fucking asshole and Annette is a cold-hearted bitch.
Effects are great, but soundtrack is virtually anonymous.
Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure technology necessary for Ada's EMF Visualizer didn't exist in 1998.
NEST lab is extremely anti-climatic and boss encounters are insipid.
Background and corpses can't be examined.
Apart from cut scene at R.P.D. gate, Leon and Claire never physically meet again (ending doesn't count).
Some places can be too dark, making us wish flashlight had a stronger battery.
Chopper crash is explained in original's B scenarios, but now spirals out of control for no reason.
Revolutionary zapping system isn't retained, so as a consequence, gameplay choices cannot affect Leon and Claire's campaigns.
Even though scenarios obviously have different story arcs and characters, we largely revisit the same areas, solve the same puzzles and fight the same bosses.
But this'll be fixed in 2nd runs, right?
Read on.
Annoying
On-screen message of 'This 'whatever' is useless now' is no longer displayed.
Instead, we must manually discard once red tick appears.
And no, I don't care if process only takes a few seconds.
Ammo and sub-weapons can be combined with each other, but same courtesy isn't extended to ammo and gun.
Curious.
2nd Runs
Once inside police station, item placement, medallion codes have changed and Tyrant shows up much earlier.
But once we escape underground via Goddess statue (entrance isn't, but should already be open), it's exactly the same as before, which makes no FUCKING sense.
In main hall, Marvin has already turned.
Okay, but what if (just for argument's sake), we've already killed him?
In other words, game doesn't give a shit whether you did or not.
Also, Tyrant is killed by Birkin in Claire's first run, so how can he still stalk Leon?
Leon blows up alligator (again) and ceiling should already be destroyed during G Stage 2 boss fight.
Countless other inconsistencies exist, but I'd be here all day.
Scraping the barrel, some puzzles are trickier (like chess plugs and mixing solution), and G 5 is true end boss.
But even that is just lame.
So after playing through with Claire or Leon, it's pointless bothering with the other.
Summing up:
Claire (1st) - 8/10
Leon (1st) - 9/10
Claire/Leon (2nd) - 1/10
How did Capcom bungle what they previously handled so well?
Such laziness puts a huge downer on a flawed, but otherwise superb effort.
This feature contains scenes of explicit gore and major spoilers.
Summary
Rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy (first day on the job) and Claire Redfield (searching for brother Chris) arrive in Raccoon City, blissfully unaware of the nightmare that awaits.
Claire meets Sherry (relationship is very Ripley and Newt), with little girl kidnapped by twisted police chief and now Orphanage director Brian Irons.
Leon bumps into Ada (posing as FBI agent), whose mission is to get mercenary hands on G-Virus.
Amidst all this, Tyrant and William Birkin cause unruly mischief.
Great
No QTE's, no dumb infinite ammo sections, just old school survival horror.
Fucking hey!
Design is second to none and maps detailing health, bullets, key items etc really helps.
Built from the ground up, RE Engine ensures proceedings look simply sumptuous, and quality never lets up.
 |
| The fun really begins... |
 |
| Lighting and shadows are to die for. |
 |
| A dead body hangs menacingly from ceiling. |
 |
| Deceased is found in so-called Licker corridor. |
 |
| Ferocious beast doesn't show up until exploring S.T.A.R.S. area. |
Combining green, red and blue herbs will not only restore full health and remove any toxins, but temporarily, you'll also take less damage and be immune to poison (indicated by symbol in bottom right).
Usually found by cracking safes and opening lockers, hip pouches add two inventory slots.
Joypad emitting sound of putting key to door hole is a nice touch.
Gunpowder (first introduced in Resi 3) and sub-weapons (Gamecube remake of original) make a welcome return.
Some items and background details are lifted straight from Resi 7.
It takes about 6 hours (with either character), to finish first time, with three more reasons to go through nightmare again.
Zombies
Flesh munchers undoubtedly steal biological show.
Body physics are AMAZING!
Even the late and great George A. Romero would be impressed.
 |
| Coming face to face with them is even more terrifying. |
Undead can be literally taken apart, but even with missing limbs, threat remains.
 |
| What a brilliant mess. |
 |
| Take one too many bites, expect side of neck to be ripped out. |
 |
| Bastards can even double up on you. |
Tyrant
 |
| As if by Umbrella magic, indestructible force suddenly appears once flames of wrecked chopper are extinguished. |
Best advice though is just run like the wind.
Yes he's basically Jack Baker, but then again, Jack's behaviour 'ripped off' Mr. X, and to a certain extent, so did Lisa Trevor.
 |
| In Claire's story, William rips him apart. |
 |
| Leon ends up meeting Super Tyrant. |
 |
| As Leon runs towards the camera, encounter is nothing more than a tepid dodge 'em up. Shoot gas pipe to make 'overgrown son of a bitch' go boom. |
'New' enemies
Not really, as fewer exist.
Spiders, crows and giant moth are all absent.
In the sewers, new look G-Embryo just annoys.
 |
| Blue herbs are finally given purpose. |
Apart from using fire, you can immobilise threat by destroying bulbs (identical in principle to Resi 4's Regenerators).
If grabbed, kiss ass goodbye (unless sub-weapon is equipped).
Taking the G
In total, good doctor comes in five mutations.
 |
| Stage 1 |
 |
| Stage 2 |
 |
| Stage 3 |
 |
| Stage 4 (Claire only) |
 |
| Stage 5 (2nd Runs only) |
 |
| Am I about to fry? Why eye man. |
Bollocks and bullshit
Script is generally cheesy (f-bombs feel out of place), and non-subtitled comments during gameplay did my head in.
Claire: 'Oh no', 'What's up with you?', 'Shit' and 'Asshole'.
Leon: 'You bastard', 'Damn it!', 'What the hell!' and 'Jesus'.
Just shut the FUCK up already.
Personalities have radically changed.
Leon is naive and pretty dumb, Claire is way too confident, Irons is just a fucking asshole and Annette is a cold-hearted bitch.
Effects are great, but soundtrack is virtually anonymous.
Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure technology necessary for Ada's EMF Visualizer didn't exist in 1998.
NEST lab is extremely anti-climatic and boss encounters are insipid.
Background and corpses can't be examined.
Apart from cut scene at R.P.D. gate, Leon and Claire never physically meet again (ending doesn't count).
Some places can be too dark, making us wish flashlight had a stronger battery.
Chopper crash is explained in original's B scenarios, but now spirals out of control for no reason.
Revolutionary zapping system isn't retained, so as a consequence, gameplay choices cannot affect Leon and Claire's campaigns.
Even though scenarios obviously have different story arcs and characters, we largely revisit the same areas, solve the same puzzles and fight the same bosses.
But this'll be fixed in 2nd runs, right?
Read on.
Annoying
On-screen message of 'This 'whatever' is useless now' is no longer displayed.
Instead, we must manually discard once red tick appears.
And no, I don't care if process only takes a few seconds.
Ammo and sub-weapons can be combined with each other, but same courtesy isn't extended to ammo and gun.
Curious.
2nd Runs
Once inside police station, item placement, medallion codes have changed and Tyrant shows up much earlier.
But once we escape underground via Goddess statue (entrance isn't, but should already be open), it's exactly the same as before, which makes no FUCKING sense.
In main hall, Marvin has already turned.
Okay, but what if (just for argument's sake), we've already killed him?
In other words, game doesn't give a shit whether you did or not.
Also, Tyrant is killed by Birkin in Claire's first run, so how can he still stalk Leon?
Leon blows up alligator (again) and ceiling should already be destroyed during G Stage 2 boss fight.
Countless other inconsistencies exist, but I'd be here all day.
Scraping the barrel, some puzzles are trickier (like chess plugs and mixing solution), and G 5 is true end boss.
But even that is just lame.
So after playing through with Claire or Leon, it's pointless bothering with the other.
Summing up:
Claire (1st) - 8/10
Leon (1st) - 9/10
Claire/Leon (2nd) - 1/10
How did Capcom bungle what they previously handled so well?
Such laziness puts a huge downer on a flawed, but otherwise superb effort.
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