Game A1 : Resident Evil - Won!

Chris report entry 3 : We did it! We gained access to the underground laboratory beneath the mansion, saved Jill who was locked in a cell room, then proceeded to blow up the whole thing! It's a good thing Brad was still flying above us in his helicopter. It was not an easy task though : The laboratory was crawling with self-healing zombies and fast things with a lot of claws. And Wesker was a traitor! Who would have guessed he was working for this dark corporation Umbrella all along? Turned out everything was some kind of test for their Biological Weapons! He regretted his treachery when his own creation, the Tyrant (the biggest and meanest zombie around) put its claws in his torso instead of thanking him... Thanks to my beloved Magnum and the rocket launcher Brad tossed me, I was able to change it into minced meat quite quickly. Glad this is all over. I'm wondering where Barry is, though...


Total time played : 10 hours -- Total "you died" screens : 14

OK! Done! I'm glad I was able to get back on this blog with my first "Won!" status. This was a tougher nut to crack that I thought... Actually, I'll look into this, but I think the game is much harder when you play as Chris, or maybe I was just remembering the Director's Cut version, which has been tampered a bit to lower the overall difficulty. Or maybe I'm just getting old and the "difficulty of old times" may be too much for me now... nah I don't think so...

I've killed that thing so many times I think I'm able to do it in real life now...

The last part of the game really gets better. After the hunters appearance, it's all starting to make sense. You know the mansion whereabouts better and are conveniently armed (even if there is never a profusion of ammo, it's still a survival-horror after all). The laboratory is suitably creepy and the documents you read are a bit more coherent. The discovery of the treachery of Wesker is particularly well done, because you find clues in the documents before the "big revelation". To be honest though, anyone who has seen at least one horror/thriller movie in his life is able to see it coming from afar.

The end boss is correct, even if it's a bit on the low difficulty side. If you've gathered enough magnum rounds and didn't waste it on zombies, you have a lot of firepower on your side. The fact he comes back at the last minute after the countdown to explosion is set (that will become one of the trademark of the series) really is stressful the first time.

You thought you had plenty of time to catch your helicopter? Think again.

Overall, the end game is a suitable climax for the game, with more than its share of revelations and brain-teasers. There is a few different endings to see, depending whether you're able to release your partner from his/her cell before blowing up the place. Resident Evil has always been known for its post-game content (the mercenaries minigames or new game+ in a lot of the subsequent entries for the series) and it's good to see this one has a costume room to open too, where you can change the outfit of your character.

It's also of course possible to do another playthrough with the other character (which I'll obviously not be doing here if I want to see another game one day), which has a lot of differences in the path. Jill is kind of protected by Barry on the beginning of the game, and gets access to the shotgun really sooner (as far as I remember). I'm not sure there is a lot of differences about the endgame though.

So I'll go set my first COWARD rating, we'll see how it goes, then to land of Hyrule I'll go!

What a tough guy?! Love. It.