(no subject)
TL;DR Revelations review, broken into three parts:
The gameplay itself, generally speaking, is amazing. They managed to do a full-fledged RE game on a handheld, and they did it well. It took me an hour or two to get used to swapping between my weapons and the Genesis scanner, but like other RE games, you finally get used to the control scheme and it becomes second nature easily enough. The gameplay was a smart blend between RE4 and RE5, mixed with the atmospheric elements of the traditional RE horror, which went together ridiculously well. Even if you have a rocket launcher in your hands, that doesn't make a dark hallway any less scary; in that aspect, the horror-action elements were blended just right.
Also, the gyro sensor controls are SO COOL, although I really didn't use them hardly in my first run-through. The touch-screen commands were also amusingly neat.
The underwater levels -- omg, I thought I would never have a fun time underwater in games. Again, it took me a while to get used to the controls (wtf, inverted X/Y axes), but once I did, I had a freakin' blast. I like how there's no OMG OMG OMG OMG GONNA DROWN GOOOOOO pressure -- no timer onscreen, no character flailing and beginning to panic when time gets low, no creepy Jaws music. Just a gradual fade from color to black-and-white onscreen, and the character starts to get slower in his/her movements. Surprisingly, I actually made it through the campaign without drowning once.
Raid Mode: o.m.g. This is like -- this like Mercenaries on steroids. BEAUTIFUL. So many unlockables, the online play is perfect, a TON of stages, different difficulties that mix up the enemies and locations, a bonus stage -- basically, a lot of replay value. As of right now, I've spent 27 and a half hours on this game; it took me about eight and a half hours to finish Campaign. You can do the math.
I CANNOT QUIT YOU, RAID MODE ;w;
The graphics, needless to say, are jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The cutscenes are amazing, as all RE cutscenes seem to be, and Chris and Jill both get their share of AW YEAH KICKASS moments. The music is something I really loved about the game; ever since RE5, I've noticed a kick up in quality (IMO) in the music, and this carried over into DSC, and now to Revelations. Even the main menu music is pretty and catchy, and there's a "main theme" to the game that I quickly fell in love with. There's one score near the end that gives me chills with the way it's timed, and all around you can tell that everything is quality.
On that note, the voice acting is wonderful. RC Smith is amazing, as always, and Jill's new VA grew on me surprisingly quickly despite my love for Patricia Ja Lee. The script actually had a record minimum of "........omfg what" moments (Jessica had the lamest lines, IMO, which was still only a handful), and there was a lot of dialogue that you looked back on later in the plot only to go "OOOOOHHHHHHH, I SEE NOW," which is always a Cool Thing.
STORY REVIEW BEGINS HERE: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED OF SPOILERS
lksjdfkljss. I'd heard beforehand that Dai Sato was doing the script, and while I'm unfamiliar with both Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, I thought it was really, really obvious that the story formula in this game was different from the usual RE style.
Which turned out to be a very good thing.
I was surprised by how much it really focused on the characters -- other REs are more about PLOTPLOTKILLALLTHETHINGSPLOTPLOTSHOOTSHOOTSHOOTRUUUUNohheysomeangsthiJillSHOOOOOOTIIIIIIT so this was a nice new flavor. Primarily, I was surprised by the in-depth look at Chris' and Jill's relationship; with the way Jessica was grilling Chris in the beginning ("SO. Jill, was it? She was your PARTNER before this, right? ...I was just asking. ...Do you TRUST me as much as her?"), it was pretty obvious what angle the game was gonna play, but it was handled really well.
Obviously, the most 8Oa moment was Parker's cheery observation of "...Maybe he's already taken" while he was watching Chris and Jill head off together, which... idk, for a simple statement of opinion, the way it was done seemed to carry a lot of weight. But I especially loved all the moments after it -- it just did so well in portraying how Chris is always concerned about Jill, always protective of her, but never in a way that's overbearing or overanxious. He trusts her to look after herself, but he's always got her back; the only times he really lost his cool were
1) when they were separated in the sterilization chambers and that one B.O.W. broke into Jill's side; even as I was yelling and firing like an idiot, I still managed to sadfais as Chris was yelling "Jill! Jill! Hold on, I'm coming for you!" and just punching the window because he couldn't get through. ;;
2) when they were separated and Jill's room became flooded with the liquid!virus, and she couldn't respond on her radio when Chris was frantically asking if she was all right. Still, even when he was worried, he just ordered her to meet back up with him -- idk, I probably read too much into things, but I took that as pretty sweet because it was like he... defaulted to soldier mentality and his basic trust of Jill rather than panicking over something he had no control over.
IDK IT WAS JUST SO GOOD.
And then the Jill + Parker interactions were so awesome and cute and one of my favorite exchanges was
Parker: GDit now we have to go up to the observation tower B(
Jill: *cheerfully* "I bet it has a nice view, at least." ;D
[Twenty minutes later]
Parker: "Ah, we're finally here -- aaaaand it's night. So we can't even see anything." B|
And then it was so, so sad right before he fell to his FAKE!death, because he smiled and winked at her and it just totally looked like a tossback to when she was trying to cheer him up before. ;_;
ALL THAT SAID, it kinda felt like this game really had more of an emotional quality to it than the others, for the most part. You really see how Chris and Jill feel about each other, from what I mentioned above to Jill's Enormous Relief +50 when she hears from O'Brian that Chris is alive ("Chris? He's all right?!"), and her sadfais when Parker appeared to die really tugged at my heartstrings, and even Parker and Raymond's Brofist Moments in the flashbacks were sweet. >8 THE MEN IN THESE GAMES ARE JUST SO AWESOME.
Speaking of Parker, I love him so much. <3333 He won me over in record time with his "PFFFF MANUALS. WHO NEEDS MANUALS?" moment, and the way he buddied up with Jill was just so awesome. Not to mention he seemed to have a habit of saying what was on the player's mind. "What is that thing??" (Two minutes later) "...No, seriously, look at it! How is it even alive?"
And then when he apologized to Jill for having her run in circles, and she replied, "Sometimes I feel like running in circles is what this job's all about."
TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN, JILL. NEVER.
And I LOL'd when he kept cursing out the Draghignazzo (sp?) boss; "You son of a bitch!" "HOW'D YOU LIKE THAT, BITCH?" "Pain in the ass piece of shit!" ...which was made all the more amusing by his Italian accent. |Db
As for Jessica... hngh. I tried to give her a chance, really -- aside from her acting like a preteen idiot with all her OMG ARE LIKE YOU AND JILL TOGETHAR?!? thing at the beginning, I thought she was all right; her sniping skillz helped out a ton, and she at least got some amusing linefais/wtf-is-your-problem reactions out of Chris.
...Buuut then she donned that retarded diving suit.
...Aaaand then she was continuing to hate on Jill in front of Chris even when he was obviously worried like woah about her.
And then, you know, she shot Parker. >| At which point I was like
I was hoping SO SO SO SO badly that Jill or Chris was gonna drop down on her like Batman while she was standing there gloating for five minutes, but woe. Another time, perhaps.
Although, going back to that "funny reactions from Chris" bit, I did love this scene:
*ROOM SHAKES*
Parker/Jill/Chris: 8O /look around in surprise
Jessica: *YELPS* *THROWS HERSELF ONTO CHRIS*
Chris: *doesn't move*
And then Jill and Parker are just all "oh hey this place is coming down we should probably leave" and Jill turns to Chris and starts talking to him, and he talks to her... all while Jessica is still hanging off of him, and they're both just ignoring her entirely. |DDD And then halfway through Chris just shoves her off. BWAHA.
And the way Chris and Jill hooked up and headed off together like they'd never been apart was just so \o/ I can't even describe my geekfest in all but squeeing over getting to run around with Chris as my partner. |3 I swear, I don't even mind that these two seem to be doomed to forever being Platonic Life Partners -- their friendship is just so, so much win, and there's so much trust and love between them already that it kinda makes you step back and go "PFFFFFF, PAIRINGS. WHO NEEDS 'EM? THIS IS AWESOME ENOUGH, THANK YA VERY MUCH." I couldn't help an inward fist pump when the character profile in the book described Chris as "Jill's brother in arms ever since the Mansion Incident." YES. YES YES YES THAT JUST PUTS IT SO AWESOMELY IDEK.
...Even so, the accidental ass grab was hilarious and has made it onto my (mental) Top Favorite Video Game Moments Ever list.
Anyway. Back to the review.
Keith and Quint -- from what little I've seen of reviews, it seems like they're getting some serious hate. Which is sad. D8 I know they're extremely goofy and set pretty far apart from the main cast, but that was partly why I immediately loved them. THEY'RE JUST SO DORKY AND RIDICULOUS -- and the first time they showed up, I was admittedly like "Awww, lame new guys. 8( I wanna go back to Chris or Jill." But five minutes in, I was hooked and then actually a little disappointed when it shifted POVs all too soon. I was srsly sadfaising when it looked like they died, and then couldn't help a goofy little smile when they turned up at the end.
Raymond -- ....okay, seriously, it's like the developers went out of their way to make him as butt ugly as possible. What the heck. ...That aside, I liked his history bits with Parker -- and I'm hoping future games will explain why he was all double (triple??) agent and working with Jessica in the end despite that he outed her secret and she shot him (and tried to shoot him again when Parker jumped in the way).
Rachael -- yes, Rachael gets her own paragraph(s). I'd yelped many times up to that point (TY, Ooze monsters jumping out of everywhere INCLUDING A WASHING MACHINE), but oh, man. You're on your own, in a silent, pitch-black maze of hallways, walking along when all of a sudden
"...Fooouuunnd yyyooooouuuu..."
Dude, seriously
I now know what it means to feel your blood run cold. 8|;;;;;;;
To make it worse, I had my earphones on at the time, and those do REALLY good with the surround sound effect, so when that voice spoke, it seriously, seriously sounded like it was right on the back of my neck.
When that happened, I froze dead, paused it, and just stared in terror at the screen as I tried to get my heart back in my chest. NGL, I was shaking there for a minute, it scared me so bad. No joke, this was easily The Biggest Scare I have ever received during a game, which is saying something for me after all my episodes with the REmake and all the jumping and yelping I did during the Dead Space games. But then, all those moments were LOL SURPRISE RAWR! /jumps out at! moments, and this... was just so much more psychological, I think, because you still didn't encounter anything right away.
And then the fact that Rachael kept coming back -- FOR GOD'S SAKE, IT WAS LISA TREVOR ALL OVER AGAIN BUT KIND OF WORSE BECAUSE RACHAEL MOVES FASTER DDDDDX Every time she showed up or I heard her creepy sounds right before hand, I immediately lost all confidence and backpedaled like
SCARRING STUFF, OKAY. And then the very last time she showed up, it was less AHHH and more OKAY ARE YOU KIDDING ME WILL YOU NOT JUST DIE and Parker and I pretty much both had the AUUUUGHHHH reaction of
at about the same time the axe is totally fitting and IC, btw, hurhur; I ended up just running for my life, though. Again.
I did, however, get a brief laugh at
Monster!Rachael: *CLAWS AT GLASS* "Foooouuund yoooou!"
Jill: "OH, SHIT!"
rofl. My reaction exactly.
And then, the ending: I liked how the epilogue wrapped things up, giving the summary of how everyone turned out (lmao Parker and that manual X'D), but augh, that last stab -- it's all happyhappyhappy, and then it just had to include that "As for Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine... they have no idea of the horrific fate that awaits them" screen, and then it shows them approaching the Spencer Estate and AUGH THERE WAS SO MUCH HEARTBREAK FOR ME THERE because it was just. Augh. This whole game, you get all this emphasis on how close the two of them are, only to be hit with the reminder that OH, WAIT, CHRIS IS GOING TO LOSE HER FOR THREE YEARS, BLAMING HIMSELF FOR HER APPARENT DEATH, ALL WHILE SHE GOES THROUGH AN ABSOLUTE LIVING HELL.
WHEE.
B|
Thank you for the heartbreak, Capcom. Thank you.
Then again, the fact that it made me so sad is really just proof of how good this series is, so -- sarcasm aside? Yes, thank you, Capcom.
Overall, the story was really, really good -- a bit of a new take from the usual RE formula, but it definitely worked. I liked the insight on the B.S.A.A.'s history as well as all the character interactions, but also appreciated how the horror element was kept very constant; it went back to the much more morbid days of the likes of RE1 and CVX, where you'd read different reports and go "....8|" at the depiction of particularly harrowing accounts of zombie transformations and such (there was even a strong throw-back to ITCHY TASTY). The catch this time, though, was that it was much more in-your-face: some of the monsters were still sentient to a degree, even able to talk, and it was a bit gut-wrenching to hear the security-chief-monster begging you to stop because he was still human (in between his creepy snarls of "TAAASSSTTTYYYY"), as were Rachael's agonized, broken screams of "It hurts!" and her occasional sobbing and whispers saying that she was scared and wanted someone to save her.
Overall, more often than not I was curling into a ball going
There was just a real psychological element to this game, in more ways than one, and that was just really, really welcome (even if it scared the daylights out of me and occasionally made me sadfais). Overall, everything about this game was so, so well thought out, and Capcom didn't skip on any detail. I give this a 10 out of 10, even.
As with the usual RE plot, though, there was a bit of Biology 101 fail -- most noticeably when Jill would quickly volunteer to reach into dead B.O.W.s/nasty, bloody corpses WITH NO GLOVES ON. 8| When checking out the Globster things, she reached in as far as her shoulder -- right after reassuring Parker with "Don't worry, I do this all the time! 8D"
....
8|
If she's the resident expert on dissecting contaminated materials, no wonder the B.S.A.A. had a shaky start. Orz.
Even so, overall the game game was very excellent, and I have very high hopes for future RE games. ♥ $40 was well worth the investment, and goodness only knows how many hours total I'll put into this game.
As for my RE6 speculations:
A) Jessica mentioned "the company." This can probably only be The Company, considering 1: she's a backstabbing bitch (lolAdamuch), and 2: she gets a hold of the T-Abyss Virus, much like the Company has been stocking up on every single bio-weapon since RE1. Considering the way she spoke about Lansdale, it was obvious she was never loyal to him, much like she was never loyal to the B.S.A.A., and it can be assumed that she went to work for him as a double agent from the beginning, or she was convinced partway through -- again, Ada much?
That said, it's looking probable that the Company is rearing its head (finally) in RE6, whether or not you believe the hypotheses that 1: Alex Wesker is behind it, and 2: that new dude is Alex.
B) Think back to the RE6 trailer: "How many of our men are dead because of THAT BITCH?" Chris has a "personal vendetta" against a woman who betrayed either him or the B.S.A.A. or both, and who obvs holds some responsibility for at least part of the worldwide outbreak that's occuring; Jessica fits this role, considering she (again, most likely) delivers the T-Abyss Virus to the Company.
C) Simply put, the game took its time to show that post-credits epilogue. If Jessica wasn't going to play a role later on, I'd think they'd have just given us the satisfaction of watching her pretty little head get bitten off. Not to mention Capcom does pretty well with having all the RE chapters, whether the games or the CGI films, tying in with one another in the last few years; each one builds on the last and leads up to the next. RE4 was tied to RE5 via Degeneration; even the T-A.L.O.S. chapters in Umbrella Chronicles tied into Wesker's Uroboros plan, although it was pretty subtle. Given how Damnation is looking, it obviously leads up to or follows closely after RE6.
Basically, I don't think Revelations' ending was a loose end. It has to be going somewhere, and several clues point towards its being tied with RE6.
The gameplay itself, generally speaking, is amazing. They managed to do a full-fledged RE game on a handheld, and they did it well. It took me an hour or two to get used to swapping between my weapons and the Genesis scanner, but like other RE games, you finally get used to the control scheme and it becomes second nature easily enough. The gameplay was a smart blend between RE4 and RE5, mixed with the atmospheric elements of the traditional RE horror, which went together ridiculously well. Even if you have a rocket launcher in your hands, that doesn't make a dark hallway any less scary; in that aspect, the horror-action elements were blended just right.
Also, the gyro sensor controls are SO COOL, although I really didn't use them hardly in my first run-through. The touch-screen commands were also amusingly neat.
The underwater levels -- omg, I thought I would never have a fun time underwater in games. Again, it took me a while to get used to the controls (wtf, inverted X/Y axes), but once I did, I had a freakin' blast. I like how there's no OMG OMG OMG OMG GONNA DROWN GOOOOOO pressure -- no timer onscreen, no character flailing and beginning to panic when time gets low, no creepy Jaws music. Just a gradual fade from color to black-and-white onscreen, and the character starts to get slower in his/her movements. Surprisingly, I actually made it through the campaign without drowning once.
Raid Mode: o.m.g. This is like -- this like Mercenaries on steroids. BEAUTIFUL. So many unlockables, the online play is perfect, a TON of stages, different difficulties that mix up the enemies and locations, a bonus stage -- basically, a lot of replay value. As of right now, I've spent 27 and a half hours on this game; it took me about eight and a half hours to finish Campaign. You can do the math.
I CANNOT QUIT YOU, RAID MODE ;w;
The graphics, needless to say, are jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The cutscenes are amazing, as all RE cutscenes seem to be, and Chris and Jill both get their share of AW YEAH KICKASS moments. The music is something I really loved about the game; ever since RE5, I've noticed a kick up in quality (IMO) in the music, and this carried over into DSC, and now to Revelations. Even the main menu music is pretty and catchy, and there's a "main theme" to the game that I quickly fell in love with. There's one score near the end that gives me chills with the way it's timed, and all around you can tell that everything is quality.
On that note, the voice acting is wonderful. RC Smith is amazing, as always, and Jill's new VA grew on me surprisingly quickly despite my love for Patricia Ja Lee. The script actually had a record minimum of "........omfg what" moments (Jessica had the lamest lines, IMO, which was still only a handful), and there was a lot of dialogue that you looked back on later in the plot only to go "OOOOOHHHHHHH, I SEE NOW," which is always a Cool Thing.
STORY REVIEW BEGINS HERE: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED OF SPOILERS
lksjdfkljss. I'd heard beforehand that Dai Sato was doing the script, and while I'm unfamiliar with both Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, I thought it was really, really obvious that the story formula in this game was different from the usual RE style.
Which turned out to be a very good thing.
I was surprised by how much it really focused on the characters -- other REs are more about PLOTPLOTKILLALLTHETHINGSPLOTPLOTSHOOTSHOOTSHOOTRUUUUNohheysomeangsthiJillSHOOOOOOTIIIIIIT so this was a nice new flavor. Primarily, I was surprised by the in-depth look at Chris' and Jill's relationship; with the way Jessica was grilling Chris in the beginning ("SO. Jill, was it? She was your PARTNER before this, right? ...I was just asking. ...Do you TRUST me as much as her?"), it was pretty obvious what angle the game was gonna play, but it was handled really well.
Obviously, the most 8Oa moment was Parker's cheery observation of "...Maybe he's already taken" while he was watching Chris and Jill head off together, which... idk, for a simple statement of opinion, the way it was done seemed to carry a lot of weight. But I especially loved all the moments after it -- it just did so well in portraying how Chris is always concerned about Jill, always protective of her, but never in a way that's overbearing or overanxious. He trusts her to look after herself, but he's always got her back; the only times he really lost his cool were
1) when they were separated in the sterilization chambers and that one B.O.W. broke into Jill's side; even as I was yelling and firing like an idiot, I still managed to sadfais as Chris was yelling "Jill! Jill! Hold on, I'm coming for you!" and just punching the window because he couldn't get through. ;;
2) when they were separated and Jill's room became flooded with the liquid!virus, and she couldn't respond on her radio when Chris was frantically asking if she was all right. Still, even when he was worried, he just ordered her to meet back up with him -- idk, I probably read too much into things, but I took that as pretty sweet because it was like he... defaulted to soldier mentality and his basic trust of Jill rather than panicking over something he had no control over.
IDK IT WAS JUST SO GOOD.
And then the Jill + Parker interactions were so awesome and cute and one of my favorite exchanges was
Parker: GDit now we have to go up to the observation tower B(
Jill: *cheerfully* "I bet it has a nice view, at least." ;D
[Twenty minutes later]
Parker: "Ah, we're finally here -- aaaaand it's night. So we can't even see anything." B|
And then it was so, so sad right before he fell to his FAKE!death, because he smiled and winked at her and it just totally looked like a tossback to when she was trying to cheer him up before. ;_;
ALL THAT SAID, it kinda felt like this game really had more of an emotional quality to it than the others, for the most part. You really see how Chris and Jill feel about each other, from what I mentioned above to Jill's Enormous Relief +50 when she hears from O'Brian that Chris is alive ("Chris? He's all right?!"), and her sadfais when Parker appeared to die really tugged at my heartstrings, and even Parker and Raymond's Brofist Moments in the flashbacks were sweet. >8 THE MEN IN THESE GAMES ARE JUST SO AWESOME.
Speaking of Parker, I love him so much. <3333 He won me over in record time with his "PFFFF MANUALS. WHO NEEDS MANUALS?" moment, and the way he buddied up with Jill was just so awesome. Not to mention he seemed to have a habit of saying what was on the player's mind. "What is that thing??" (Two minutes later) "...No, seriously, look at it! How is it even alive?"
And then when he apologized to Jill for having her run in circles, and she replied, "Sometimes I feel like running in circles is what this job's all about."
TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN, JILL. NEVER.
And I LOL'd when he kept cursing out the Draghignazzo (sp?) boss; "You son of a bitch!" "HOW'D YOU LIKE THAT, BITCH?" "Pain in the ass piece of shit!" ...which was made all the more amusing by his Italian accent. |Db
As for Jessica... hngh. I tried to give her a chance, really -- aside from her acting like a preteen idiot with all her OMG ARE LIKE YOU AND JILL TOGETHAR?!? thing at the beginning, I thought she was all right; her sniping skillz helped out a ton, and she at least got some amusing linefais/wtf-is-your-problem reactions out of Chris.
...Buuut then she donned that retarded diving suit.
...Aaaand then she was continuing to hate on Jill in front of Chris even when he was obviously worried like woah about her.
And then, you know, she shot Parker. >| At which point I was like
I was hoping SO SO SO SO badly that Jill or Chris was gonna drop down on her like Batman while she was standing there gloating for five minutes, but woe. Another time, perhaps.
Although, going back to that "funny reactions from Chris" bit, I did love this scene:
*ROOM SHAKES*
Parker/Jill/Chris: 8O /look around in surprise
Jessica: *YELPS* *THROWS HERSELF ONTO CHRIS*
Chris: *doesn't move*
And then Jill and Parker are just all "oh hey this place is coming down we should probably leave" and Jill turns to Chris and starts talking to him, and he talks to her... all while Jessica is still hanging off of him, and they're both just ignoring her entirely. |DDD And then halfway through Chris just shoves her off. BWAHA.
And the way Chris and Jill hooked up and headed off together like they'd never been apart was just so \o/ I can't even describe my geekfest in all but squeeing over getting to run around with Chris as my partner. |3 I swear, I don't even mind that these two seem to be doomed to forever being Platonic Life Partners -- their friendship is just so, so much win, and there's so much trust and love between them already that it kinda makes you step back and go "PFFFFFF, PAIRINGS. WHO NEEDS 'EM? THIS IS AWESOME ENOUGH, THANK YA VERY MUCH." I couldn't help an inward fist pump when the character profile in the book described Chris as "Jill's brother in arms ever since the Mansion Incident." YES. YES YES YES THAT JUST PUTS IT SO AWESOMELY IDEK.
...Even so, the accidental ass grab was hilarious and has made it onto my (mental) Top Favorite Video Game Moments Ever list.
Anyway. Back to the review.
Keith and Quint -- from what little I've seen of reviews, it seems like they're getting some serious hate. Which is sad. D8 I know they're extremely goofy and set pretty far apart from the main cast, but that was partly why I immediately loved them. THEY'RE JUST SO DORKY AND RIDICULOUS -- and the first time they showed up, I was admittedly like "Awww, lame new guys. 8( I wanna go back to Chris or Jill." But five minutes in, I was hooked and then actually a little disappointed when it shifted POVs all too soon. I was srsly sadfaising when it looked like they died, and then couldn't help a goofy little smile when they turned up at the end.
Raymond -- ....okay, seriously, it's like the developers went out of their way to make him as butt ugly as possible. What the heck. ...That aside, I liked his history bits with Parker -- and I'm hoping future games will explain why he was all double (triple??) agent and working with Jessica in the end despite that he outed her secret and she shot him (and tried to shoot him again when Parker jumped in the way).
Rachael -- yes, Rachael gets her own paragraph(s). I'd yelped many times up to that point (TY, Ooze monsters jumping out of everywhere INCLUDING A WASHING MACHINE), but oh, man. You're on your own, in a silent, pitch-black maze of hallways, walking along when all of a sudden
"...Fooouuunnd yyyooooouuuu..."
Dude, seriously
I now know what it means to feel your blood run cold. 8|;;;;;;;
To make it worse, I had my earphones on at the time, and those do REALLY good with the surround sound effect, so when that voice spoke, it seriously, seriously sounded like it was right on the back of my neck.
When that happened, I froze dead, paused it, and just stared in terror at the screen as I tried to get my heart back in my chest. NGL, I was shaking there for a minute, it scared me so bad. No joke, this was easily The Biggest Scare I have ever received during a game, which is saying something for me after all my episodes with the REmake and all the jumping and yelping I did during the Dead Space games. But then, all those moments were LOL SURPRISE RAWR! /jumps out at! moments, and this... was just so much more psychological, I think, because you still didn't encounter anything right away.
And then the fact that Rachael kept coming back -- FOR GOD'S SAKE, IT WAS LISA TREVOR ALL OVER AGAIN BUT KIND OF WORSE BECAUSE RACHAEL MOVES FASTER DDDDDX Every time she showed up or I heard her creepy sounds right before hand, I immediately lost all confidence and backpedaled like
SCARRING STUFF, OKAY. And then the very last time she showed up, it was less AHHH and more OKAY ARE YOU KIDDING ME WILL YOU NOT JUST DIE and Parker and I pretty much both had the AUUUUGHHHH reaction of
at about the same time the axe is totally fitting and IC, btw, hurhur; I ended up just running for my life, though. Again.
I did, however, get a brief laugh at
Monster!Rachael: *CLAWS AT GLASS* "Foooouuund yoooou!"
Jill: "OH, SHIT!"
rofl. My reaction exactly.
And then, the ending: I liked how the epilogue wrapped things up, giving the summary of how everyone turned out (lmao Parker and that manual X'D), but augh, that last stab -- it's all happyhappyhappy, and then it just had to include that "As for Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine... they have no idea of the horrific fate that awaits them" screen, and then it shows them approaching the Spencer Estate and AUGH THERE WAS SO MUCH HEARTBREAK FOR ME THERE because it was just. Augh. This whole game, you get all this emphasis on how close the two of them are, only to be hit with the reminder that OH, WAIT, CHRIS IS GOING TO LOSE HER FOR THREE YEARS, BLAMING HIMSELF FOR HER APPARENT DEATH, ALL WHILE SHE GOES THROUGH AN ABSOLUTE LIVING HELL.
WHEE.
B|
Thank you for the heartbreak, Capcom. Thank you.
Then again, the fact that it made me so sad is really just proof of how good this series is, so -- sarcasm aside? Yes, thank you, Capcom.
Overall, the story was really, really good -- a bit of a new take from the usual RE formula, but it definitely worked. I liked the insight on the B.S.A.A.'s history as well as all the character interactions, but also appreciated how the horror element was kept very constant; it went back to the much more morbid days of the likes of RE1 and CVX, where you'd read different reports and go "....8|" at the depiction of particularly harrowing accounts of zombie transformations and such (there was even a strong throw-back to ITCHY TASTY). The catch this time, though, was that it was much more in-your-face: some of the monsters were still sentient to a degree, even able to talk, and it was a bit gut-wrenching to hear the security-chief-monster begging you to stop because he was still human (in between his creepy snarls of "TAAASSSTTTYYYY"), as were Rachael's agonized, broken screams of "It hurts!" and her occasional sobbing and whispers saying that she was scared and wanted someone to save her.
Overall, more often than not I was curling into a ball going
There was just a real psychological element to this game, in more ways than one, and that was just really, really welcome (even if it scared the daylights out of me and occasionally made me sadfais). Overall, everything about this game was so, so well thought out, and Capcom didn't skip on any detail. I give this a 10 out of 10, even.
As with the usual RE plot, though, there was a bit of Biology 101 fail -- most noticeably when Jill would quickly volunteer to reach into dead B.O.W.s/nasty, bloody corpses WITH NO GLOVES ON. 8| When checking out the Globster things, she reached in as far as her shoulder -- right after reassuring Parker with "Don't worry, I do this all the time! 8D"
....
8|
If she's the resident expert on dissecting contaminated materials, no wonder the B.S.A.A. had a shaky start. Orz.
Even so, overall the game game was very excellent, and I have very high hopes for future RE games. ♥ $40 was well worth the investment, and goodness only knows how many hours total I'll put into this game.
As for my RE6 speculations:
A) Jessica mentioned "the company." This can probably only be The Company, considering 1: she's a backstabbing bitch (lolAdamuch), and 2: she gets a hold of the T-Abyss Virus, much like the Company has been stocking up on every single bio-weapon since RE1. Considering the way she spoke about Lansdale, it was obvious she was never loyal to him, much like she was never loyal to the B.S.A.A., and it can be assumed that she went to work for him as a double agent from the beginning, or she was convinced partway through -- again, Ada much?
That said, it's looking probable that the Company is rearing its head (finally) in RE6, whether or not you believe the hypotheses that 1: Alex Wesker is behind it, and 2: that new dude is Alex.
B) Think back to the RE6 trailer: "How many of our men are dead because of THAT BITCH?" Chris has a "personal vendetta" against a woman who betrayed either him or the B.S.A.A. or both, and who obvs holds some responsibility for at least part of the worldwide outbreak that's occuring; Jessica fits this role, considering she (again, most likely) delivers the T-Abyss Virus to the Company.
C) Simply put, the game took its time to show that post-credits epilogue. If Jessica wasn't going to play a role later on, I'd think they'd have just given us the satisfaction of watching her pretty little head get bitten off. Not to mention Capcom does pretty well with having all the RE chapters, whether the games or the CGI films, tying in with one another in the last few years; each one builds on the last and leads up to the next. RE4 was tied to RE5 via Degeneration; even the T-A.L.O.S. chapters in Umbrella Chronicles tied into Wesker's Uroboros plan, although it was pretty subtle. Given how Damnation is looking, it obviously leads up to or follows closely after RE6.
Basically, I don't think Revelations' ending was a loose end. It has to be going somewhere, and several clues point towards its being tied with RE6.