Resident Evil 2 Remake

Just played it again because I can’t help myself, a few more things.

-I shot both arms off a zombie again to see what would happen. They lunge at you and bite randomly, it’s not a grab, and actually has a decent sized hitbox. So it’s actually worse than being grabbed because you have no way to use a defensive item.
-You can’t use a defensive item if grabbed from behind.
-The knife cuts off legs, usually in around five swings.

>lickers
That would be intense. I think horror games across the board could maybe benefit from unpredictable elements like that. That way you won’t just be sprinting back through areas when you’re backtracking without a care.

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Well, it looks like A/B scenarios are back afterall, according to reviews. This is great news! Only three days left.

I heard there were no spiders.

Spiders and crows got the boot it seems. Shame.

Notes are that's due to PETA giving them issues probably, but it might just be issues with production and not wanting to introduce Poison again. Pretty deep into the game as we speak, love it, started on Hardcore though! How's everyone liking it?

Getting the patterns of the zombies down is hard, they feel very random and it's hard to notice when they are actually dead. We'll see!

Played a couple hours at midnight, I was completely giddy. The way the police station is remixed is great. I also love some of the things they’ve done with the zombies. There’s been a couple times I thought one was dead for good, I pass back through that room and they’re back in a different spot. Seeing enemies flood through windows is pretty intense too.

I started on Normal and am really enjoying myself. Can’t wait to get off work and binge.

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Notes are that's due to PETA giving them issues probably,
OMG these degenerates. Didn't they go nuts over Mario's animal costumes? Why would anyone pay attention to these fools?

but it might just be issues with production and not wanting to introduce Poison again
Any reason why that would be the case?

Seeing as how they've introduced quite a few new mechanics, they could've made spiders use webbing or something to block hallways so you need to bring something to burn it down or else you get stuck or slowed down.

How's everyone liking it?
Might grab it next week but not sure. I used my 'game money' on AC7.

they feel very random and it's hard to notice when they are actually dead
There's no huge pool of blood anymore. Maybe there's a timer before they get up again. I shot this fat guy in the demo and dropped him, waited around, walked all over his body, and he didn't move. Then he got up later lol.

Seeing enemies flood through windows is pretty intense too.
Any idea if they're infinite?

Some more notes, I'll do spoilers in the tags so don't worry:

- game is no push-over, enemies hit like trucks and tank like them. Even when upgraded some mooks can take up to 7-10 headshots before going down and 5 more before dying. Seems to differ wildly though, some mooks have almost zero HP and die in one shot.
- Lickers are extremely durable, tanking at least 5 shotgun shells before dying. They die in a single headshot of that weapon though, and are still blind (so walk, don't run). Apparently getting grabbed and knifing them during it via defence also destroys their hearing.
- you can avoid dog attacks mostly by zigzagging;
- I don't really like the way items work, you really need to hug them to get the pick up notice and there tends to be a delay with that - not fun in fights.
- zombies are really hard to avoid thanks to their reach and speed, surprised me tbh.
- love the way you move and how everything looks and is animated.
-

Spoiler:

- really not a fan of how the activation of the flashlight is automatic, there were plenty of times I'd wanted to use it but couldn't.
- not a fan of the big walky talky bit near the middle of Leon's campaign. With ink-ribbons I had to replay that part a few times and it got old fast.
- not sure I like that the game tells you if you've fully looted a room, but it is handy since items are a lot harder to see.
- Really love the challenges, though I assume most will cheese them on Easy with Infinite Weapons.
- The knife mechanic is interesting, never saw this before. You can kill around 2-3 zombies with it before it breaks, if it is in the red-zone it will break when used to 'break free'.
- I think the window-board mechanic will be insanely useful on repeat playthroughs when you know what rooms you'll be going through the most and which windows are the biggest dangers.
-

Spoiler:

That all said, it is a fantastic remake and very faithful. They managed to keep it tense, exciting, the levels are very similar but just different enough to confuse etc. Enemy variation is dead though, which is a shame.

> Poison
Forget I said anything, it's in the game.

> zombie gettup
They will get up randomly yeah, but if you knife them you can see if they are still alive. If they are dead they stay dead.

> window enemies
Like certain other enemies they (re)spawn if certain events are triggered in the story.

Enemy variation is dead though, which is a shame.
What's missing? Enemies and in general.

Played for a few hours tonight and I can't wait to get back into it tomorrow. The station's atmosphere is top-notch and I'm constantly on-edge. Every corpse I walk past, I'm waiting for it to get up; every ambient noise I hear, I'm expecting a licker, or a zombie busting through.

Just some impressions/notes:

- You can't use a defensive item if grabbed from behind; can't remember if this was true in REmake 1 or not.
- Regarding zombie hp, the police zombies seem to have a lot more hp than the civilian ones; I've killed quite a few civvies in about five shots or less, whereas the police guys always seem to take more than that.
- Flashbangs are great for dealing with lickers. I think they also destroy their hearing? Even if they don't, they're left completely vulnerable for about 5-6 seconds. Also, a single shotgun shell to the head will kill them? I must've been too far when I fired, or I just missed the head, because it took 6 shots for me to kill one.
- Leon's noir costume has to be a reference to Sebastian from Evil Within lol.
- Claire's noir costume has no fucking right to be as hot as it is.

Soundtrack-wise, what are you guys playing with? I'm mainly going with the OG one, but every so often I switch back to see what the REmake one is like. Have to say, is it just me, or is the REmake OST very barebones, at least when it comes to the music for the rooms?

Hey Cryo! Cool to see you back mate!

> defence
I think it was in REmake that you could use them from behind, so it's an interesting change. Also interesting is that enemies have a lot of physical attacks now too, so a defence item isn't nearly an easy get out of jail free card.

> lickers
You really have to be up close and get all the pellets in his head, not easy.

> Noir costume
Thought the same thing about Leon's. He even does Seb's infamous "What the" line once.

I'm playing REmake OSt right now...if that means there is any. I haven't heard a single song outside of boss encounters.

Quick question to those who reached it: there has to be a trick to the first boss right? I'm seeing a ton of complaints about it being too hard, spongey etc. and I even echo those complaints. Are we missing something?

Nice notes!

Played for a few more hours, still pretty early to say but I really love it. Was worried they wouldn’t be able to translate the classic RE feeling into this remake but I think they’ve done a great job. When I got back to the police station and had a ton of rooms to try to get to and was running low on ammo, it really brought back that classic feeling.

I have a few random thoughts:

-I like that the magnum’s reticle takes longer to focus.
-If you kill an enemy as it’s coming at you, it’ll just fall on you and Leon will shrug them off. This animation actually leaves you open to being grabbed, so I’ve stopped shooting enemies point blank with the shotgun when there’s more around.
-The knife is strangely useful against dogs. I would just swipe at them as they jumped at me, worked out well.
-It seems like items show up on the map when I didn’t even know they were there. Not a fan of this.
-Might be a controversial opinion here: I like how spongey the enemies are. Deciding between using a little bit of ammo to temporarily down them or a lot of ammo to permanently kill them is a constant choice I have to make, and again, it’s something I really wasn’t expecting to see. I’m sure that like all games in the series, when I get closer to the end this won’t be as prevalent since I’ll have more ammo, but I still really like it.

>first boss
He was decently spongey for me, and I’m only playing on normal. I actually used the knife for a bit of it so I could save my shotgun ammo.

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I'm loving the gamefaqs board right now. So many difficulty complaints. Not hard to see why games are going the cinematic route. Do you think they'll nerf anything? Wouldn't surprise me.

The game is a legit maze at some points and I even got lost when I got to the Sewers. Really great, and there's a lot of room for optimal pathing. Really interested in the 15.000 steps challenge, will be quite brutal on Hardcore.
Replayed the game from scratch today with some friends in the dark, very fun with some beers! We played this one on standard since they really needed the checkpoints. Surprised by how short the game is once you know the puzzles. Also loving how little cutscenes there are, things like the first Licker or X appearance tend to be cutscenes with drawn out "what's going on" dialogue but they let you figure it out here first. Also like how they tried to explain the logic behind the King plugs and the Station being like this old fashioned manor. It's cute.

INFINITY
> Magnum
There's an upgrade that gives it the fastest focus of all the weapons, it is really good later-on.

> dogs
Never fought one ironically, if you zig-zag while running they cannot hit you. If you use a checkpoint/savepoint reload they'll de-aggro and then walking behind them keeps them at peace.

> items showing up
Not liking how it allows for massive OCD by showing on the map which rooms you've fully explored. On the one hand it is nice to know I can just focus on the enemies etc, but it really takes away that tension and curiocity. I still remember in RE4 when after nearly 30 playthroughs I found one extra handgun drop in the Village I never knew existed. You'll never have that here.

> spongey
It has its ups and downsides. I'm more not a fan of how inconsistent it is. Some die in 1 headshot, others in what feel like 20. Have a sneaking suspicion there's a stealth-shot bonus if they don't know you are there. I'm not against using bullets to temporariliy avoid something, but it all feels so inconstistent. I want to cut off a leg or make them stumble, yet sometimes it takes 1 knee-shot, other times 3, sometimes 5. Sometimes a shotgun shell to the head doesn't even slow them down. It's preference maybe, but I like to know and remember how enemies respond with Y to X basically, and that's a big no-no here.

BIRDMAN

> cinematic route
The game has a pretty hefty "oh yeah, this game was released in 2019" moment around the middle that lasts about an hour on your first run. Really big change in direction suddenly, feels like a totaly different game. Lots of weird puzzles that don't fit the style, walky talky, waiting for NPC's to open doors and finish dialogue, a "typical 2019" boss 'fight', the list goes on and on. Feels so out of place.

> difficulty complaints
I can sort of understand it, a lot of series fans like myself started on Hardcore because we wanted Ink Ribbons. Really feel like it should've been a checkmark instead of part of the Hardcore mode which - by notes of other players - seems to double/triple some HP values in some cases. We fought the first boss on the Standard run and he died so fast. Big difference.
Hardcore really is pretty tough since you never know when you need to save and things hit like a truck.


Few questions myself:

- the first licker, can you avoid him by just walking? And honestly, it's a bit lame you can't damage him until he triggers even if you see him.
- what's up with the USB? I found it, used it for the Magnum, but it isn't 'finished' yet. What's the other use of it?

Finished it. Loved it overall, but I have some complaints:

-Low enemy variety. REmake kept every original enemy and added a couple more, the spiders and moths being cut were very noticeable. I really liked those new enemies in the sewers but their appearance was brief.
-Not quite as many new areas as I was expecting in the police station. Not to keep bringing it up, but REmake spoiled me with just how much was added into the mansion. I thought the sewers in this was a great area, though.
-No option to toggle ink ribbons on/off.
-Not to parrot what Raeng said, but that bit in the middle of the game was weird and out of place. It interrupted two wonderful sections of the game.
-The section in the streets of the city before reaching the station was too short, why remove so many of those areas?

I have other minor gripes but I think Raeng has covered them for the most part. Despite my criticisms, I’m very glad we got this game, and it was a really nice experience. Now onto Claire’s game.

>Spongey enemies
I agree about the consistency, it’s very jarring when I kill an enemy in one headshot when I’ve spent the last hour not being able to kill anything. In the context of this game I think it works pretty well though, which is funny because I despise games with spongey enemies for the most part. Maybe this will change when I play on hardcore...

>USB
No clue. Was wondering this myself.

Hello again, Roy, and thank you. Been awhile since I found a game that I just really wanted to get into. One of those periods where you just can't seem to enjoy -any- game, even old favourites, y'know? Anyway...

> First boss

I'm playing on Hardcore and I had to reload multiple times, purely because I'd ran out of ammo on him. However, when I -did- finally beat him, it was by using nothing but the handgun bullets you get from the boss arena + the occasional knife attack. I just played much more patiently and only attacked when I thought I could get a crit in. Not the fastest strategy, but it did get me past him.

>Spongey enemies

I like that they're durable, but I also wish that it was consistent. I don't expect -all- of them to take the same amount of bullets, but I'd like them to at least have some patterns, e.g. police zombies take more shots than the others; fat zombies take less shots to the legs, but more to the upper body, etc.

As for your questions, the first licker

Spoiler:

USB? I still haven't found it. Starting to worry that I may have missed it.

A few more notes on enemies:

- It seems that the good old RE4 strat of downing an enemy and knifing them to death is still very effective for killing zombies. Once they're on the ground, you can stunlock them to death with the knife, I've found; it has pretty good hitstun.

- Zombies also respond to sound. Walking lets you get much closer without alerting them to your presence. I managed to walk right in front of one before it started coming for me.

- Possibly linked to above, a zombie that was playing dead got up when I took the herb that it was lying next to on one occasion, but it stayed down on all of my future runs, where I tried creeping over to it instead of just running.

This is about one of the new enemies, from the Sewers:

Spoiler:

As for my run, I just ragequit after about the 20th attempt on the second boss. I'm all out of ink ribbons and have to keep repeating the same little section over and over. There are a few things I've noticed about this boss, but I'm tired and irritated, so I'll add them in tomorrow.

Infinity
There's no shame in having gripes, I'm still a bit careful with it on sites like Gamefaqs since I can't word them well enough yet but the game is flawed. As you noted it is missing a lot of areas (like the factory...) and some other parts are vastly lacking too. Actually played the original for a bit yesterday and it was so much bigger. But again, it is a fantastic game and one I can see myself playing for a long-long time. My biggest gripe is that it removed more than it added. Less enemies, less bosses, less areas, less weapons, less lore notes (and badly written it seems, no "itchy scratchy" levels of writing). The thing we got in return is a better Mister X, a new combat system and of course 2019 graphics. REmake1 spoiled us by not just improving what was there significantly, but also nearly doubling enemy variety, adding bosses, adding a whole new zone, expanding existing zones and much more.

> inconsistency
It is more annoying on Hardcore since you have less ammo and less pickups (lots are removed or replaced by Inks). Just now in the facility I head shotted OHKO'd a few zombies in a row only to have another one tank 3 shotgun shells to the face.

> USB
Figured it out. It's for that display case apparently ... way past picking it up.

Cryo
Yeah I know the feeling man, it is rare something like this comes to the table!

> First boss
He's super spongey. With critical hits you mean that zoomed shot?

> licker
Weird, I had one and I was behind him and walking did just fine, guy stayed still.

> USB
You get it by putting the gem into the gem-case. Gem-case is in the interrogation room.

> second boss
He's tricky until you figure out the pattern. The fight has everything you need to beat him though. Hit the button, dodge a bit, throw flash, shoot, button again - repeat. He seems to have a hidden weakness to both the SMG and Flamethrower.



Now this is more a general note, but about the Adult G. I think the name is weird enough to not have it be a spoiler, but I've found a method that makes them totally irrelavent it seems.
So when they grab you they will poison you, always. And if you are poisoned their grab is an OHKO. So what I did was just use a GRB herb after the first poison grab and then just keep running into them laughing at them. They will poison you again and again, but the herb's buff makes you immune to poison, so they can try all they want, they'll fail. Sure it costs a healing item, but really makes those areas easier especially considering just how much freak'n health they have.

They have a really weird hitbox on their grab too. I thought going to their right (our left) would be a deadzone but they can still get to you.

NOTE:

During the last G fight (A-route) you can

Spoiler:

So far RouteB is proving to be pretty intense. Lots of changes like:

Spoiler:

Pretty proud of this boss fight (Birkin1) on ClaireB.



Absolutely melted him down.

>First Boss
I was letting it zoom all the way in, yeah, but I just meant that I was aiming for the weak spot with every shot. (tangential, but I've noticed that zoomed in shots seem to have a much higher hitstun than zoomed out ones, at least with zombies; I tried it out on one and it would not stop coming at me when I was zoomed out, but as soon as I let the reticle zoom in, every shot staggered it)

>Licker
I tried it again today and I was able to get past one from behind; I must have been moving too quickly last time around. On another note, I like how they'll even respond to the sound of a door opening.

>USB
Yeah, I found it today. Very embarrassed to find that I had completely missed the staircase leading down to that area, lol. I did find the other use for it that you were wondering about, though:

Spoiler:

>Second Boss
Yeah, I think I was just too blinded by irritation to properly think about it. Had much better luck today. You mentioned an SMG? I've finished Leon A and never found it. Goddammit lol. (Don't tell me where it is, though; I'm sure I'll find it on a repeat and facepalm repeatedly when I do)

A couple of things about the boss:

Spoiler:

>Adult G
Lol, really? That's what they get for having such an annoying hitbox on their grab attack. I thought it'd be a deadzone, too, but nooooo. I took great pleasure in torching those bastards on the way back out.

>Last G fight

Spoiler:

> Licker
They do cheat a bit. Once you get too close they'll automatically start walking in your direction and they'll always go the right way (so towards you). You can manipulate this, but honestly it is a bit cheap the way they coded it haha!

> second boss
I heard talk you can do him without spending a single round. Now that I think about it you should be able to use two flashbangs to stagger him in that position. Good note on the lunge-dodge!

> SMG
Not a spoiler, it's a Claire weapon. The game has unique weapons for all characters which is pretty cool, I don't think there's a main weapon that both characters have. Each character also has a weapon that's unique to their B-route.

> last G fight

Spoiler:

>Licker
Yeah, they just seem to home in on you and never stop following until you either leave the area or get far enough away. You know the facility room that spawns a couple of them? There are a couple of random things lying around on the floor in there that you can knock around. I wondered if you could kick one of them towards the lickers to make a distraction, but they're very hard to control and it got stuck under a table for me. Be interesting to see if someone finds a way to do it.

>Second boss
I can believe that. The flashbang approach is what I was trying to do, until I realised that he had a long stun animation in this form. You'd need some good timing and possibly a bit of luck, since the flashbang stun is so much shorter than the damage-based one, but I think it's doable.

>SMG
Oh, I see. I had to revisit the station before going on to the second boss because I'd missed quite a few things, like I mentioned earlier. I figured this was just another item to add to that list lol.

>Big G Part 3 (I like the rhyme here)

Spoiler:

So they don't freeze and tense up when you walk now?

Almost done with ClaireB. Really cool how quickly you get thrown into it in this scenario, and playing around with her weapons is great. A couple enemy and item placements being different really threw me off too.

After this I’m going to play Leon A again on hardcore and eventually do some challenge runs. I have a few in mind so far: No healing, Handgun and defensive items only, No hip pouch pickups, and some stuff that would be good along with other runs, like no defensive items. Should be great, hopefully I can learn a lot of new things.

Are there differences between Leon and Claire, like there was for Chris and Jill? Stuff like health, run speed, etc?

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Birdman

You talking about the Lickers? No, the second you get too close they'll home in on you but not engage until you run, shoot or touch them.

Infinity

> Claire / Leon differences
Leon has a bucket load more HP, this is especially noticable on Hardcore where he can tank around 3-4 bites before dying while Claire dies in 2 flat. Not sure about movement speed. Claire does - technically - have more storage space. Her SLS is a Magnum and a Handgun in one, only taking up one slot. Meanwhile Leon's weapons take up far more space when fully upgraded. Claire also, and this is personal, has much better weapons. The GL's flame rounds are a true OHKO against zombies while Acid Rounds wreck Lickers and Birkin. She's more the 'glass canon' while Leon is the 'tank' basically.

> runs
So far my run ideas are:

- LeonA/ClaireB (almost finished B)
- ClaireA/LeonB with Classic outfits and Classic OST

After that my ideas in random order are:
- Jill Handgun only (weakest gun)
- no healing
- 14.000 steps
- S+ rank on all four runs on Hardcore
- no item-box
- pacifist
- kill all run

I do plan on doing a Knife Only run to close it off, but I'm not sure if I'll use the regular knife or Infinite Knife. I think the former.

One trick I've found is that you can run faster on the stairs if you tap the aim button from time to time. Handy when running from X.

>Differences
I think Claire might move a little faster actually. And Leon’s weapons feel pretty weak in comparison, though I didn’t even get to use the flamethrower haha. Weapons taking up more space with attachments will be an interesting consideration during a run without adding inventory spaces.

>Runs
Are you going to do knife only on hardcore or work your way up? I wonder if the knives have enough total durability to last the whole game.

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Infinity

> differences
Funny, noticed it yesterday too in the sewer-swamp area. Claire runs much faster in there, so she's probably faster yeah. Agree on the weapons, though the flamethrower is absolutely nuts on bosses. Most can be infinited with it like Birkin2.

> knife run
Like with TEW2 and RE4 I'll probably start on Normal to do pattern testing with checkpoints and work out an optimal run. Wonder if there are enough knives, I think so. You only need two for Birkin1 and Birkin2 needs zero if you play your cards right (though that would take a lot of retries).

In other stuff:


Trying to write down my pros and cons of the title so far. Just a random list of ramblings.
First to note though, having a blast playing and cannot wait to play again while typing this. But it is good to be critical. And as always, cons are always more detailed since you want to explain it while pros are like "yeah duh" things. Some of my gripes are EXTREMELY minor though or very detailed little gripes.

Cons:
- the damage and knockback of weapons in general. Game really seems really focused on using a single headshot to stun a foe and run past them, but when a Magnum shot to the head doesn't OHKO a zombie, when a Flame Round needs its damage-over-time to OHKO a zombie, when a shotgun doesn't knock down or even decap a zombie, grenades aren't an OHKO and Lickers tank multiple Acid Rounds...you've got a problem with your core mechanics imo;
- inconsistent damage, as noted earlier;
- enemies have very lacking movesets;
- Mister X, he's far too passive. The damage he does is low, sometimes he'll even do his spawn-push which deals zero damage. There's no incentive to kill him since there are no rewards for doing so. He doesn't go through walls either. He's a bit more interesting in B, but once you know his first spawn location (just past Stars office) you can negate him easily. The only thing that makes him dangerous is pairing him with Lickers, but that never happens outside your own faults (and 4th Survivor). While I understand the mechanic, him not being able to enter some rooms is very immersion breaking and ruins him as a mechanic either;
- DLC weapons being absolutely ass since you can't upgrade them;
- DLC in general, most really should've just been in the main game;
- game feels a lot more like busy-work on higher level runs, get the key, go to the door, get the thing, do the thing, combine with the thing. Mostly due to the combat being on such a backburner;
- the middle portion of either campaign, feels very out of place;
- The sparkshot in general feels very pointless. Needs to be held to deal damage, full charge doesn't OHKO zombies either. Haven't found a solid use for it;
- Bosses are extremely one note damage-sponges with 2-3 attacks. Even compared to the originals they feel like a step back mechanically. They are pretty cool in terms of set pieces, but mechanically I'm very disappointed. Especially compared to the recent bosses in The Evil Within 1 and 2 being a step beyond in terms of hidden weaknesses, patterns, movesets etc;
- Grenade Launcher has less different grenades with differing uses, there's no splash on either of them for group options. Especially with TEW's Crossbow being a thing it feels like such a step back. Now it is just a fancy damage weapon;
- Weapon upgrades are a bit weird in terms of balance, some take up another slot and add very little like the GL's, while others take up zero slots and are insane like the Magnum rounds for the SLS or increased clipsizes;
- would've liked an Ink Ribbon on/off feature, now it is just Hardcore for me;
- no extra difficulties;
- over-emphasis on going fast. The whole ranking system is built around speed (and the highest rank towards low save-count). There's no First Aid usage, deaths, damage taken, accuracy etc taken into account, really promotes a single minded playstyle of rushing through the game as fast as possible.
- the lickers in the lab break the game's rules (forced jumpscare and they always fight you, even if you are totally silent);
- plant-men being only killable with one resource and having every attack be OHKO is a bit annoying, but they are an end-game foe but eh, but on the fence;
- lots of missing content. No factory, no super-lickers, spiders, crows, other missing weapons etc;
- would've liked a 'classic camera' mode, if only for fun;
- A and B aren't that different sadly, and padding out certain puzzles by scattering clues for puzzles you already solved in a previous run feels more like busy work than rewarding. Think if it was a tad more different it would've helped a ton.
- the wristband being an item;
- having to pick up the Cell in Claire's run. Leon's makes sense since you need two slots for a spoiler just after you put it in, but Claire doesn't. Forces you to enter the final fight with two slots short.
- way too many inkribbons. Usually have around 10-20 left after a run, and I save a lot.
- items being noted on the map when missed. I wouldn't mind this for things you interacted with but didn't pick up, but save this stuff for Standard or Assisted mode please;
- not being able to manually activate the flashlight;
- some of the new story writing is weird, like Annette's tale or Iron's. But I think that was done for DLC purposes. Lack of Brad hints towards RE3make wanting to focus on him more.
- would've loved Nioh's "Skip watched cutscenes automatically" button;


Pros:
- game runs and plays like a charm, very responsive, high framerate despite looking gorgeous (how do they do it...);
- just enough ammo, very well paced, really great survival horror setup.
- puzzles being interesting, fun and changing per A and B is a good method of keeping you on your toes.
- game is pretty short and thus extremely replayable;
- lots of unlockable content, fun challenges too. When's the last time you unlocked freak'n concept art in a game? I sure don't recall it.
- lots of patch-support coming up in terms of costumes (polygon Leon and Claire), new characters etc;
- no DLC for the big things. Really thought B-scenario, Hunk and Tofu would be DLC - they aren't. Fantastic. Cannot be more pleased;
- game is just difficult enough, not too hard, not too easy - keeps you on your toes.
- zombies are an actual threat;
- weekly challenges are great, though I dislike the menu and that they are weekly. But still, fantastic idea that I hope they expand upon;
- weapons have names again, making it much easier to make notes and talk about the game - unlike others where it was like "do I use the m5291 or the K83i10a". Lightning Hawk, Matilda, SLS, just much easier. Always liked that;
- story is a fun mixture of 90's camp with 2019 'serious business';
- every area is fun and mazelike enough without being tedious, loops around well, very well crafted areas with fun hidden items too;
- lots of references to the original like the filmroll;
- lots of moments are NOT cutscenes, nearly everything is during gameplay. Stuff like the first licker fight, Mister X encounter - all in gameplay which adds to the tension.
- I like how they expanded upon the Sewers without making it a chore or uninteresting to play. It is generally speaking a annoying area, but I liked it here.


I'll update this as I play more, just finished ClaireB. Did 4rth Survivor that everyone was complaining about on Gamefaqs. Got to the chopper first try.. it was tough but not too insane if you played smart.

As it stands it is probably among my top5 RE games, but barely. RE4, RECVX, RE2, REMake1 still beat it. I'm on the fence if I like it more than Zero. It still needs to grow on me, it isn't fair to compare it to games in the series I've played hundreds of hours while only playing this game for like 3 days.

Yeah, I agree with most of that. Pretty let down by the 2nd run scenarios, they’re a bit more difficult and start quickly, but they’re about 95% the same as the original scenarios. And the more I play, the more I wish there was some form of consistency with damaging the enemies. I strongly disagree with the idea that this game should have standard headshots, because the game would be a joke, but it’s so unpredictable that sometimes I change my plans on the fly because “oh, this enemy is taking 12 shots to kill for some reason”.

I do like that blue herbs give a defense boost. They probably had to do something with them since the spiders got removed.

Also found a couple more cool little things to do with zombies. You can lure them into falling over tables, and when they do, you have a lot of time to knife them. They also drown when you shoot a leg off while in water. Good stuff.

Booted up REmake last night and compared the two(which isn’t fair to any game because I consider REmake almost perfect) and there’s a couple things I have to nitpick:

-The shotgun. In REmake, the shotgun had good knockback, but also rewarded you with a very clean and consistent headshot if you let zombies get within grabbing distance. That balance is missing here, the shotgun hardly phases zombies and has no(?) knockback. I think the shotgun in TEW has spoiled me too.
-REmake ups the tension when retreading the mansion twice: once with crimson heads, and again with hunters. This is a great way to keep the experience engaging while traversing familiar areas, but this game really doesn’t do this aside from Mr. X.
-Not enough enemies at NEST. This whole section is shockingly barren, it’s as if they forgot to include half of the enemies.

This game is still great though(I wouldn’t be nearing the end of my 3rd playthrough in four days otherwise!). Unfortunately, the game is getting judged as its own experience, as part of the RE franchise, and in comparison to the original, so there are bound to be more complaints than your average new game.

Sent from Topic'it App

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I don't want a game to have a 100% headshot weapon - at least not in the pistol. I do believe a Magnum shot to the head should be a 100% crit to the head, which it isn't. But yeah having consistency is a bit important. I watched someone speedrun the Hunk scenario and some things literally came down to RNG as sometimes a shotgun shell simply wouldn't stagger a zombie even when hit in the face. It seems to be best used to aim at the legs, which has the highest change to make them stagger.

I agree the blue-herb buff is great, also the fact that it's actually potent. As Hunk I tanked a few bites and didn't even go below Caution.

> B scenario
It feels hard to complain about it because on the one hand, it's a miracle it even exists in today's market. But that doesn't invalidate it from critiques honestly. It starts really good, different layout etc. And then it just becomes the same again really fast. The Sewers and NEST are identical with only one zombie added in that tunnel of Adult G doom - whoohoo.... really feels like a missed oppertunity.

> retreading
I was surprised Hunters weren't in it to begin with, and that the RPD wasn't B.O.W. city on repeat visits. The game plays it very safe, also in the NEST which was very barren as you note.

> third run
Same, the game is great. But as a Resident Evil and also as a game in its genre, it is lacking imo. But it is a great start to get the series back on track.

Btw I am a bit worried about the future of the series though. Fact that the first mod released was one that removes Mister X, that people are asking for Infinite Ammo DLC and things of a similar nature are very indicative. Game also is going for very cheap used (doesn't say too much though, but it adds up), only has around a 15% completion-percentage across systems, I think a lot of people bought into the hype only to realize classic Resident Evil isn't for them. And that's fine, to each their own. Personally it's great to see a third person classical(ish) Resi again.

I'm more worried that if RE3make becomes a reality, it will simply flop because a lot of people 'learned their lesson' with this title while Capcom expected that game to get similar results.

How was this during RE7's release? Did it get a similar reception? I wasn't really active when that game launched since I wasn't that interested in it.

>Crits
The magnum not destroying heads consistently is very weird. It’s as if Capcom didn’t know how to keep the zombies a threat with modern controls and went with rng to compensate.

>B scenario
I was very excited at the beginning of ClaireB, and then like you said, a little ways in and I kept saying, “oh, guess I’m doing this again”. Getting the extra gun and bouncing between two ammo types is neat though. I can’t help but feel Capcom ran out of time on this, or it was added very late in development. It just doesn’t feel...right. Again, I’m glad it’s here over nothing, but still weird.

>Future of series
I’m also worried, especially after seeing Gfaqs. Tons of complaints about Mr. X, when he isn’t that big of a threat, but can add a nice dynamic to routing. And yeah, people wanting enough ammo to just shoot everything in sight, defeating a purpose of the game. I really hope Capcom didn’t give this game a big budget and, more important, hope for the fans only to have those who don’t care for the original series to get the series changed yet again.

>RE7
For the most part, fans didn’t like it that much but it seemed like those who weren’t that in to the series liked it a lot. Fans had tons of complaints about stuff that didn’t belong in a RE, some of it was remedied here. RE7 grabbed the let’s play and VR crowd, so it managed to end up selling well. Who knows what’s going to happen after this.

As of now, my top 5 REs look something like this(could change as I play more):
5)REmake2
4)RE3
3)RE2
2)RE4
1)REmake

Never beat CV, only main entry I never finished.

Hahaha tried a low-save run, trying to aim practice for S+ rank and died to a single zombie that I forgot was there. Oh well, try again tomorrow.

> B scenario
Yeah like you mentioned, it felt really unique starting out. Fun differentation, Mister X is there to party, no crate in the hallway. Fun stuff. And then...it's the same again. I only saw one different enemy location which was the zombie in that tunnel, other than that it seems identical, especially later-on.

> top5
Surprised to hear you never beat CVX, I consider it one of the best. Still has that Mikami greatness. Never liked 3 for whatever reason, what puts it so high on the list for you?

the damage and knockback of weapons in general. Game really seems really focused on using a single headshot to stun a foe and run past them, but when a Magnum shot to the head doesn't OHKO a zombie, when a Flame Round needs its damage-over-time to OHKO a zombie, when a shotgun doesn't knock down or even decap a zombie, grenades aren't an OHKO and Lickers tank multiple Acid Rounds...you've got a problem with your core mechanics imo;
I think this is due to what I said earlier about making an old fixed camera game with slow enemies into a modern one with free aim.

In RE4,5 and 6 there was no issue because everything was faster, but since this is a remake of 2 they needed zombies to stay slow but needed something to stop you from freely gunning them down and making them pretty much pointless.

There you have a few options. Make shots inconsistent, make them sponges, or put more of them in to control space. I don't know if any of this is what they devs were thinking but that's what it looks like.

but when a Magnum shot to the head doesn't OHKO a zombie,
That's kinda odd, but then again, doesn't this remake allow you make your own ammo now? Maybe it's due to the same 'rule' as above, but it would still have to do insane damage. How many shots does it take anyway?

when a Flame Round needs its damage-over-time
This doesn't seem like a bad idea, but it depends on how long it takes. It's more interesting than just incinerating them on the spot, but if it takes so long that it doesn't remove the threat and you've got others to deal with, then it probably isn't worth using. How long does it take? The fire should spread to nearby enemies too. That would give it more depth and and make its use more tactical and interesting.

him not being able to enter some rooms is very immersion breaking
In Haunting Ground, they chased you anywhere, and you couldn't use items while being chased. Oh the complaints back in the day, I loved it.

There were still some places they couldn't go but these were places a cut-scene was about to play, like somewhere they were scripted to appear due to a trigger, but other than that they followed you until you knocked them out or successfully hid.

Imagine how people would scream if X could enter every room. They're already complaining about him non-stop.

DLC weapons being absolutely ass since you can't upgrade them;
How are the upgrades in general? Are they RE4 level where there's tons of guns with unique properties?

The only thing that makes him dangerous is pairing him with Lickers,
How do other enemies react to him and vice versa? I saw a vid where he shoved a zombie out of his way.

there's no splash on either of them for group options
That sucks. They could have made it so you could shoot the ground and make acid pools or fire barriers. Hell, make acid flammable, make a pool and shoot a flame round into it to create a temporary flaming barrier. Sounds like it's just different color ammo that essentially does the same thing.

The sparkshot in general feels very pointless. Needs to be held to deal damage, full charge doesn't OHKO zombies either. Haven't found a solid use for it;
Sounds like another wasted opportunity. They could've made it so you can turn on sprinklers, or like in TEW2, shoot at zombies in water to fry them.

no extra difficulties;
Criminal.

plant-men being only killable with one resource and having every attack be OHKO is a bit annoying

Those ones that spray shit at you? What kills them now?

items being noted on the map when missed. I wouldn't mind this for things you interacted with but didn't pick up, but save this stuff for Standard or Assisted mode please;
At least in RE4 you had to get a map and follow it, and could also come across enemies when you returned to some areas.

not being able to manually activate the flashlight;
Does it always auto activate in dark areas? Did you want to turn it on or off somewhere?

Reminds me, didn't Cold Fear and TEW1 DLC allow you to control it?

In Fatal Frame it's usually always on because the games are always dark. In the later games in Wii (4 and 2 remake) you had to use the flashlight to spot items.

Lack of Brad
I know they removed most of the streets, but did they also remove his area?
Maybe they're saving it for a nice DLC. $5.99 and he appears in front of the station entrance.

weekly challenges are great
What? Like what online multiplayer games have?

I strongly disagree with the idea that this game should have standard headshots, because the game would be a joke,

how to keep the zombies a threat with modern controls and went with rng to compensate.

Yeah, that's the exact issue with your main enemy being the slow zombie, modern controls, yet still keeping them the same, more or less, as the original.

They also drown when you shoot a leg off while in water. Good stuff.
hahaha Nice find! Why do they drown though? I didn't know zombies still needed to breath lol. I'm guessing this is at least knee high water where they can't properly crawl? But wait, I'm sure there were underwater zombies in RE2.

If something like this happens, the spark gun must do something in water.

This is a great way to keep the experience engaging while traversing familiar areas, but this game really doesn’t do this aside from Mr. X.
What about the barricade mechanic? Are open windows a real threat?

I do believe a Magnum shot to the head should be a 100% crit to the head, which it isn't. But yeah having consistency is a bit important. I watched someone speedrun the Hunk scenario and some things literally came down to RNG as sometimes a shotgun shell simply wouldn't stagger a zombie even when hit in the face.
This really sounds like the PC Vanquish problem, but in this case the devs tried to do something about it. I knew it was going to be like this long before release and often wondered how can zombies stand up to headshots from modern, free aiming controls?

I think a lot of people bought into the hype only to realize classic Resident Evil isn't for them.
And they'll bitch and whine until they get it nerfed anyway because a few of their precious trophies are too hard.

How was this during RE7's release? Did it get a similar reception?

For the most part, fans didn’t like it that much but it seemed like those who weren’t that in to the series liked it a lot.
I love it as a fan of the series. Before release, I didn't like the idea of first person though but that changed once I played it. Loved the atmosphere of the old house and swamp setting, but I share a complaint you'll hear often. Zero enemy variety and second half of the game kinda sucks.

Tons of complaints about Mr. X, when he isn’t that big of a threat,
Who are these people? Kids?
There's also non-stop complaints about Onimushe HD too, stuff that is just not hard at all. The water puzzle, or the Oni Spirits mini-game. It's easy stuff. Maybe not the kind of shit you get first try, but then again, learning in any shape or form is forbidden in gaming these days, isn't it?

>CV
I played it in 2010 or so but couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll give it another try soon.

>RE3
Honestly, it’s been years since I’ve played this, probably the longest since I’ve played any game in the series, so maybe my placement of it is inaccurate. I just always liked the use of Nemesis and some of the level design, even if some of it felt a bit uninspired.

What does everyone here think of RE6? I actually quite like it.

>Weapon upgrades
Not as robust as 4, but there’s some cool stuff, like making Claire’s handgun two guns in one.

>flame round
I’ve had it where one kills a zombie almost instantly, I’m assuming more rng stuff here. I’ll have to mess around with it more.

>Brad
Maybe he’ll appear in the Ghost Survirors. The streets are mostly there, just in a different part of the game.

>Spark gun
That’s what I used it for, shot it at the water by the G monsters, wrecked them.

>open windows a threat
There’s a couple spots where I thought I should’ve boarded up windows, and I did it on my next playthrough and it was very noticeable. It’s a nice touch, but not fleshed out extremely well.

>RE7
Agreed. Was really into it at the main house, it dipped bad in the last third or so. And not only is the variety really bad, the enemies aren’t very interesting in the first place, and the total enemy count is quite low until the end of the game

>Mr. X complaints
Like you said, probably those who don’t like learning the games they play. There’s some cool stuff about being chased by him. For example, if I’m in a crowded hallway and get grabbed by a zombie with him behind me, I’m not going to worry about getting my knife back like I normally would, I tend to just run. Everyone is mad about how he’s present while doing the library puzzle... there’s so many ways around this. Weaken him with the mag, use a flash bang, lure him to the other side of the hall, etc. You can also do this part in 30 seconds, not sure why it’s such a big deal. I really hope Capcom doesn’t nerf him.

open windows a threat
So it ended up being a ground floor only thing with only zombies coming in?

Watching some classic RE2 footage, I think the element that annoys me the most is that attacks are too homing. If we take a look at this fantastic article: http://stingermagazine.net/?p=12

The zombies right now are high threat, mobility, health, volume and resistance - which makes them a bit annoying to fight. Their grab for instance is a double lounge with quick start-up, you cannot 'dodge' the grab from the plants or adultG's (the swim grab) when they start, they are either homing or too fast with a big enough hitbox to grab you if you step back. This means the whole 'bait and run past' mechanic is already gone for most foes. Add their pretty high mobility (going over desks, they can be pretty fast, wiggle around to dodge shots etc), high (and inconsistent) health, huge numbers and inconsistent resistance and you've got a weird enemy.

The underdeveloped 'delimb' mechanic also doesn't seem too useful. Once you have their limbs removed they tend to already be near death - so just kill them anyway? The game gives you enough ammo to kill around the whole enemy count twice, so there's more than enough resources that those extra 3 bullets won't matter.

Personally what I'd do is the following:
- tweak the damage numbers first. A Magnum only does 10 damage now, with a unupgraded pistol doing 2 and a shotgun doing 5.5. In the original the pistol did around 5 and the Magnum 100(!). The values are simply too close to each-other now;
- make zombies immune to pistol shots in terms of stagger and knockback, but give it a % chance when shot in certain key locations to remove that limb.
- shotgun always - ALWAYS - staggers a foe no matter where they are hit, has a knockdown% and a higher % chance than the handgun to delimb.
- Magnum damage massively upped, decrease ammo count, much larger recoil and lower firing speed, unable to craft ammo for it (instead White+White gives Flamethrower rounds). Magnum is unlocked by beating Mister X three times (he drops it).
- FlameRounds (GL) are a OHKO against zombies, the fire staggers zombies that enter it (if shot in the middle of a pack) for crowd-control options;
- Acid Rounds deal very low damage to zombies but weaken their limbs, increasing delimb%.
- SMG has very low damage and delimb%, but stunlocks and due to high firing speed actually has good delimb.
- SparkShot doesn't require you to aim or hold the gun up to keep the damage going, it's a DoT basically;
- once a foe loses three limbs they die instantly;
- Mister X can be killed for rewards.
- hitboxes of enemies decreased to allow for dodges, but zombie speed is upped as a result;

That's purely in the combat department ofc. At least how I'd see it, what do you guys think?

BIRDMAN

> magnum
It takes 2-4 Magnum shots, unupgraded. Upgraded it is 1-3 depending on the RNG gods.

> Flame Round
It isn't 'too bad', but they can tank through. You can shoot a Flame Round, get grabbed and die while they die. Leads to a lot of glitchy situations. The fire doesn't spread very easily. Having the Flame DoT kill takes about 2-4 seconds I believe.

> Hauting Ground
I don't get it. The whole concept of the game is that the monster hunts you, but people didn't like that? Then...don't play it?

> upgrades
They are parts, some can be removed since they make the weapon larger. Most aren't that great, but some like extended clip-size for pistol, stable shooting for SMG and magnum-rounds for the revolver (Claire) are gold.

> enemies + X
Enemies just ignore him. He pushes zombies aside but that's it really.

> plant enemies
Not those guys, these are just zombies with some tentacles coming out. You need either Flamethrower or Flame Rounds.

> flashlight
More the reverse, I wanted to turn it on in some areas that were imo too dark, but the game felt they weren't dark enough. And yeah those games you mentioned allowed you to switch them.

> weekly challenges
https://www.residentevil.net/en/twochallenge.html

> cry for nerfs
The whole "I bought the game so I deserve max ranks + all trophies" mentality still takes me by surprise. It shouldn't, but it does. I never A ranked or higher the original RE2 because that wasn't something I enjoyed doing. It happens...

> window boards
A fun idea, but most windows that need to be boarded have a plank right next to them to use and it requires massive foresight that you don't have on your first run.


INFINITY

> CV
It's a big time favorite of mine, gets really good later-on. Great bosses too;

> RE6
Never touched it. Seems like a great TPS, but not something I'd play.

> MR.X
Saw the Library complaints, especially for B-scenario, too and was a bit afraid going in. I walked to the other side of the room, walked back, moved the shelves (note, you can push them together, no need to go one by one) and ... voila. The end. It's so easy. One fun thing is he can 'save' you. If you're grabbed by a zombie and he is close by he'll push the zombie away mid-bite.
Really afraid he'll get nerfed. Imagine if Itagaki made this game...we'd suddenly get four Mister X's running around that can enter all the rooms and run. Delightful.

>Article
Fantastic indeed! This really needs to be stressed imo, seldom do games get recognition or criticism for its enemies, and there’s some great examples in there. I know this isn’t an opinion held by very many, but I believe the focus on interesting enemies and levels is just as, if not more important, than what the player is able to do, depending on the game. Challenge runs, for instance, are built around limiting the player’s options, so naturally, the design of the enemies is going to carry out the strategies and decision-making. If you do a knife run in RE4, you end up learning a lot about the enemies and the best ways to maneuver through the areas. If these aspects of the game weren’t given as much attention as the weapons, these kinds of runs wouldn’t be enjoyable.

And I have to bring this up because I mentioned level design, but this rings especially true for Mario. My favorite Marios are Galaxy and 3D World, the two 3D entries with the smallest moveset. But the level design in these games are so damn on point that it makes no difference, because you’re using all you have available to you regularly, with the power-ups usually adding something to the situation, rather than taking away your existing moveset. Contrast this Odyssey, which features a huge moveset with lazy level design that makes almost no use of anything the game has to offer.

>combat changes
Agree with about all of this, good stuff man. Really like the idea for acid rounds. The shotgun also needs some kind of stagger, as it stands I use it for an almost guaranteed leg removal, but I should at least be able to get a quick point black shot and knock a zombie over.

I think it would be cool if damaging Mr. X enough made him leave, but also have him smash a wall or blocked off area, giving you access to some kind of secret or at least a new shortcut that could maybe help on speedruns.

>Mr. X
Yeah that happened to me too next to the lion statue, I was being grabbed with no defense item and he broke me out of it and I got away haha. One thing that was cool was I used a flash bang defensively, and shot it while Mr. X was near it, but it didn’t affect him. The next time, same thing happened, but he was much closer to it so it stunned him. I didn’t think that would work.

>Itagaki
Not only would there be four, they would all be able to jump up through floors and over balconies. I would love to see him take a shot at this kind of game, we would possibly get a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

Oh my god. 8 minutes too long. Third run this, ClaireA. Pretty happy with it but 8 minutes more and I would've had S+...

Will reply rest tomorrow, tired as hell hahah!

I don't get it. The whole concept of the game is that the monster hunts you, but people didn't like that? Then...don't play it?
The mind of the casual is a deep, dark place.

Same reason they want nerfs for everything instead of learning. They want it all handed to them and getting better is never on the table. They want to be able to say they've beaten the hardest difficulties, which is why the 'play on easy' answer isn't an option. It's all ego. Never their fault.

Here's a prime example. Particularly page 2, last few posts.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/924655-haunting-ground/77387134

Infinity:

> level design / enemies
Fully agree they get far too little love. We see it with Ninja Gaiden too, Razor's Edge was just corridors with bad and boring enemies, and the game suffered immensely for it. I like that Mario example too since those are my favorite titles as well (paired with regular World).
Great combat and traversal mechanics are fantastic to have, but if you have nothing to use them on it all falters.

RE2make is a game with great level design, but the enemies really hold the game back and turn it from an interesting TPS to a 'running simulator'. On my speedrun yesterday I was mostly busy managing resources to have enough bullets to nuke bosses, regular enemies were either: tank the damage, shoot the knee, run past or ... what's it actually.

Odyssey was a great game with great mechanics, but the rest was hollow. I actually had a blast going up a mountain without power-ups the regular way...but that was it.

> secrets
Think the secrest needed to be better as well. The game is more about 'ah, now I can finally open that thing' than 'how the hell do I open that thing'.

BIRDMAN:

That topic went places. You can see it going south fast with him starting off saying the game is fun, only to have it boil down to it being a 'bad horror game with tits'. I never get this mind-set. When I wanted to A rank RE2 back in the day, I decided "this wasn't for me" because I don't like to rush games. So I didn't go for it. Didn't make a topic "speedruns are dumb, A rank is dumb" or something. God...

>Razor’s Edge
Yeah, I always thought that game was pretty monotonous. I’ve seen complaints of NG2 having bad level design, but I feel the enemies go a long way to make up for it, both in variety and design.

>Running simulator
I’m trying to test things out and I don’t know what it is but I’m finding it difficult to do so. The flame rounds seem to have multiple outcomes when you fire it but I can’t seem to get anything to happen consistently(more RNG, possibly). As it stands, I’m less concerned with how to use the weapons to clear my path, and more concerned with just running. I really just need to play more and try other things out.  

To be honest, as much as I do like this game, after playing TEW1/2, aspects of the shooting feel very lacking and awkward sometimes. I’m somewhat hoping things get fixed/added in updates but I doubt it. The most likely change Capcom will make is to Mr. X.

Got back on Gfaqs, quickly remembered why I took a break from the place. If you like the original RE2 more, it’s obviously nostalgia guys. Doesn’t matter what valid reasons you have, just nostalgia. Place is a joke.

That topic went places.
I've come to actually see topics like that as works of art.

Got my S+ rank, pretty sweet to toy around with the Infinite Ammo Gattling Gun afterwards. Game is a joke on S+ though, it isn't about combat at all. It is about reducing item management, box usage and negating enemy encounters as much as possible. It simply isn't worth it to engage. The whole run revolves around having enough enemy at the end to kill the bosses.
Having Wesker's weapon helps immensely for damage.

In terms of encounters, I used Knife Defence against plant-men and just ran past (using weakness shots to stagger them if needed). I killed the Lickers near the end using flash+acid rounds. Grenades when I got them for groups of zombies to quickly clear a path. Otherwise used legshots with SMG to quickly remove a zombie from the equation.

> TEW
It's a classic example of the spiritual successor surpassing the original and nobody wanting to admit it. The Warden's Crossbow alone puts the series above RE currently in terms of mechanics. Just imagine having all those arrow-types against Birkin.

> skips
Saw those too, interesting but also extremely specific.

Reminds me of glitching Remember Me and Red Ninja. Seems a lot of the time, air walking glitches are started by certain actions on the edge of something.

Going more ham into the game, after my S+ run did a quick run using just the Gattling Gun and also now doing a no-item box in LeonA on Hardcore.

Game is great, but it's biggest problem is still consistency and details. In a game completely focused around item management, especially in No Item Box, it is weird to not know how much resources you'll need. I'm currently sometimes just re-doing parts hoping the RNG of grabs, enemy location and damage will be better. Data-extracts from the PC version have recently shown that weapons deal a variable of damage (so for instance, pistol deals 100-120 damage per shot), weapons have preset damage numbers on certain enemies (so even a single weapon isn't consistent), crafting ammo isn't consistent (large+white can give between 4 and 8 shotgun shells), enemy and boss HP is randomized between 200 and 1900(!) HP. There's a dodge animation that triggers randomly, negating damage, that happens only on 'lower ranks' (more on that later).  Zombies sometimes spawn in certain locations, other times they're somewhere else.

The details are in how the game breaks its own rules from time to time. Lickers can't hear you if you walk, until they can. There are three Lickers that ignore this rule. You can always use defence weapons from the front, unless you are on a staircase..sometimes. Killed enemies always drop the defence weapon, but some still come back to life anyway. Mister X cannot enter certain rooms, but sometimes he can. Acid rounds always stagger Birkin, except during some animation activations. Most enemies will not respond to damage anymore after they've been killed, but some tough it out. The game rewards preparation, but killing all the zombies in the jail does nothing as they all respawn anyway for the 'big event'. Shooting Birkin in the eyes was always just for Bonus damage, until the G4 fight where it is the only place where he takes damage.

Then there is the 'ranking' system that's been unraveled.
Basically you have 9 ranks in the game's code, on hardcore you start at Rank 9 which is 10.000 points. Think of God Hand's difficulty scaling. If you die you lose 1000 points, getting bitten is minus 300. Every time you go a thousand lower, you go down a Rank. At Rank 9 all damage you do is multiplied by 0.6 (so it gets lower). At rank 1 it is at times 1.4 (so massive boost).

Some notes:
- a 'critical' aim simply boosts damage by 50%, laser weapons have this boost by default, making them better in nearly all cases;
- there is no 'location'-damage. A headshot deals the same amount of damage as a shot to the toe.
- the Magnum is absolutely horrible and if going for ranks should always be skipped. Fully upgraded a laser-sight shot deals 1220 damage. A shotgun shot deals around 700 unupgraded and a 3 burst shot of the Matilda a whopping 750 with far greater ammo capacity and DPS. A grenade even does more damage (1300).
- knife damage is based on the amount of frames the weapon connects with the enemy, making it insanely powerful on higher FPS machines like PC. This also means that knifing in a location that your knife hits multiple parts of the body, it deals massively more damage. For instance standing behind G3 after you get him to one knee, you can hit his two arms and body in one stroke.
- same goes for knife durability. You have 1000 durability points, but can lose between 5 to 60 points per swing depending on how many body parts you hit.

In other news, some cool mods in the works:

Classic Camera Mod:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSg-568gRAk

This is really sounding like a game I don't want to buy. Rent? Sure.

Too many inconsistencies. I don't mind randomly placed or wandering enemies, but the damage and framerate thing is dumb. Why would framerate have anything to do with it? Is it an accident or did they design it like this?

Good post, pointed out some things that have been bothering me. Very disappointing about headshots as well. Why can some lickers hear me walking quietly and some can’t? Why do two zombies take five shots to the knee, but when I load my game, the same two take two shots? Why does the shotgun only blow an enemy in half when it feels like it?

I’ve tried testing things by reloading a save file, and I always end up with different results, it’s pretty frustrating. I’m finishing up a fourth playthrough and then I may move on to something else for a little bit, I’m feeling a tad burned out.


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I'd rent it for sure, a lot of these things are already noticable on your first run but a lot less so. It's a fun game and of high quality - especially by this generation's standards - but under scruteniy it falters heavily. If you've never dived into the series I'd highly recommend others in the series before this one.

Also a weird complaint to have: ladders. Why can't I slowly climb up them like in TEW2? So many little things that game got right that this game just...stumbles over.

Why do you think TEW1/2 seemed to get such a lukewarm reception, while everyone loves this game so much? If anything, I would think that TEW is more something casuals and people unfamiliar with the genre would like. It’s weird to think about.

I also find it funny how often TEW is criticized for its story and other things not involving the core gameplay, yet this game seems to get a pass.

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It's a few things I feel. Hivemind mentality is one thing, thanks in part to bought reviewers and Resident Evil being such a big brand that can 'do no wrong'. But it is also because The Evil Within wasn't as polished or easy to grasp.

What I mean by this, TEW had the crossbow for instance. Lots of options available to it, setups, creativity. But xxx_underscopeNoscopeWeed247_2003 doesn't care for that. He wants a grenade launcher, preferably with one ammo type that just does it all. In terms of polish, we have to be real, the PS4 and X1 versions of The Evil Within ran abysmally (sub 30fps), had letterboxing, stealth emphasis (casuals beware) and a story without 'muh emotions' (sorry to those that like this, I do too, but you know what I mean).

Meanwhile those faults are in RE2, but it can excuse them with "it's a remake".

If you want a casual survival horror game: The Last of Us. That game ticked all the boxes. Zero weapon variety, borked balance (brick is most powerful weapon..what), tons of 'look, we're a story' segments, binary stealth and combat, no choices to be made tactically, lineair and scripted as hell. Sit your ass down, put it on Normal, chomp away your doritos and talk on Reddit about how avant-garde it was. Meanwhile, the second you play it on Grounded or Grounded+ the game is hated by nearly all who touch it or go "Normal is the best mode to play it on, it's fair".

Also, TEW1 was simply too hard for most players. I know many that didn't get past Chapter 3 or just quit entirely the second Laural popped up for the first time. This reputation is sowed and TEW2 already has a much smaller audience as a result.

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A bit of a seperate note, but RE is basically dead in the water now. RE2 is a classical style game in the series, and a lot of the 'fans' of the latest series of instalments (mostly 7) didn't like it. So get ready for an underappreciated sequel that doesn't sell nearly as well.

Also, this is a minor gripe but...why do the models in RE games always change? Leon hasn't had a consistent image or voice actor in a decade, Chris is basically a new character per game. Guy never looks alike.

>options and creativity
It really doesn’t appeal to many, it seems. Someone on Gfaqs told me MGS isn’t good because all the options and guard reactions mean nothing when playing on normal, and he wasn’t budging when I said challenge runs bring games to life. Part of me thinks the gore and shiny graphics in RE2 helps cover up the lack of playstyles compared to TEW or RE4.

>Last of Us
Funny you should mention this, I tried Grounded just to give the game another chance, but I hated that too. Gave up about a third of the way in. This game’s success has had a number of negative effects on the industry imo.

>difficulty
With all the complaints of OHKOs you would think that’s all the game had. Speaking of OHKOs, did you play Akumu on TEW2? I started a file but didn’t get anywhere.

>character models
The Redfields have it the worst. I don’t get why they can’t stick with one look. Chris looked similar in 5 and 6 but that’s about it.

>dead in the water
No one wants the classic style back it seems like and people hate the thought of 4-6, so we get this game, which, as much as I do like it, is a mix of both that doesn’t realize the potential of any style. Also, the more I think about it, what could they even do for a remake of 3? They already did the Nemesis thing(inconsistently) in this game and it wasn’t met with great reception. Plus 3 only has one campaign. I see that game being much different from the original if a remake does happen.

there is no 'location'-damage. A headshot deals the same amount of damage as a shot to the toe.
So if I ever play this, and want to kill a zombie, just shoot it in the chest then?

All of this is because they had to find a way to work around your main mooks being slow, and having modern aiming controls. Looks like they haven't really figured that out.