Potentially Spicy thinky thoughts

So got to the point in a no commentary playthrough on youtube where Lucas makes Ethan shove his hand elbow deep into a dead dude's neck/chest cavity so no spoilers from there on out HOWEVER

Man, might be just because all I know is 2 and 4 but this...doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game???

I do not like the "baddie shoves their gross face in yours for no reason and screams a lot" thing

Could have ABSOLUTELY done without all the screaming swearwords but that's a me specific anxiety button so let's put that aside

Also why did they have to put momma baker's bug hive there and then have it front and center

This game so far has not scared me just been super gross and I can't see for beans because everything is pitch black on screen half the time

(Though I do remember being FURIOUS with the fake Quick Time Event at the beginning when Ethan's trying to yank the screwdriver out of his hand but you're scripted to fail no matter how hard you button mash)

I remember playing as far as the garage back when the game was new and then I did not get to see that friend who owned the Playstation again for a while

Ethan is a great protag!!! I like him, he's clearly the One Sane Person dropped into the Wacky Slasher Flick Hijinks and he's doing his best, bless him (affectionate)

But you can definitely tell this was made for VR (derogatory) and I'm trying to figure out why they made this a Resident Evil title when it might have faired better on it's own? Not sure, I'm here so I can have Context for Lady D dating sim RE8

But I will finish sitting through Ethan Waters' No Good, All Wrong, Very Bad Day

There will be more baffled voidbeast takes as we go I am not impressed with Lucas's grossly enthusiastic flavor of "puzzles" but there is a wife that we need to make sure doesn't turn into a clicker fungus zombie and mysterious local nice girl who is also infected

wouldn't lady D be re8

oh wait the rest of the comments didn't load

i'm dumb

NO NO IT'S FINE very valid of you 🤣

and you are right that when 7 came out, it was very unlike what had come before it, though for many (many) people, that was a breath of fresh air given what RE had been just prior to that

5 and 6 took the wrong lessons from 4's success and doubled down on a lot of things that became increasingly annoying

Whooops

7 evokes the first game in a lot of ways, but it's also kind of doing its own thing

Okay was the happy birthday video recorded BEFORE or AFTER the family got hekked because if it was before, Lucas wtf???

Also the fact that young Lucas locked another kid in the attic and the other kid died whAT

The fact that granny is always in the rooms or areas Ethan has to go to and just happens to be facing him most of the time is so suspicious

Like, even if I hadn't been spoiled on who she is I would've been SO suspicious

Oh my gosh I think it finally hit me what one of my biggest problems is

Because everything is so dark, and all the enemies are various versions of "googy human shape" there's no way to really get a good, recognizable silhouette???

Like I can't tell you what distinguishes any of them from each other other than "slightly different heap of blob"

There's nothing really striking or anything that'd really stand out on any of them

Maybe if I saw clear concept art or a model ripped from the game I would take it back but man

The frog hopping zombadoos sure are people shaped but made of roots?? Guts??? Who knows I sure can't tell in this lighting

Maybe we lost some of the easily recognized style of Bad Guy when everything becomes hyper realistic. How do you make something iconic if you just go "it's a person but slightly wrong" and just throw the gooey wet textures on it

Idk maybe I'm being too Character Design Is My Passion about it

Coming to you liveplurked from me seeing Ethan take down some vaguely misshapen large blob of a thing that Lucas called the fat man

1) the dlc makes much more clear the timeline of events, but "happy birthday" is definitely recorded post fuckening

2) the "blending into the dark and being indistinguishable at night" was an intentional design choice, though the different types of enemies are loosely based on old RE enemies

the basic zombie, the licker, and the hunter, specifically

that's not a defense more of an explanation, to be clear, lmao

there's a reason they didn't really use these guys again in re8 despite how they wouldn't have been out of place, plot wise

Yeahhhh it's all just. Idk everything is very forgettable or a bit silly looking (the jack fight where he's covered in glowing orange eyes when I was expecting Lucas???)

Also rest in pepperonis, Zoe

Ethan chose the wife and now he's the distressed damsel while Mia runs after him yelling his name

I'll admit I was a bit surprised with that!

Ohhh hmm hmm hmm seems like Mia was part of the group that was from the ship

it's also worth noting this game was essentially the testing ground for everything the RE Engine was going to be capable of. that's a big part of why the enemies are like that, also why there's a lot of facial closeups; to show off their ability to animate them in real time

SUDDENLY EXPLANATIONS I KNEW MIA WAS PART OF IT

I mean, technically Mia didn't lie about it being a babysitting job, just not that she was babysitting a walking bioweapon

This elevator keeps sparking and no joke I keep expecting it to drop like a stone

Okay it was much better once it was on the ship and the bit after that. Hmm hmm hmm. Still feel bad about Zoe though, she just kinda got fridged off screen

she features in one of the DLC campaigns, she'll be okay

Oh nice!!!

the dlc campaigns are very much about fleshing out the story of the baker family, though not strictly through playing as any of them

another interesting detail; the molded were originally supposed to become progressively grosser as the game went on, starting as more obviously zombie like and wearing makeshift masks and scraps of clothing to cover the mold rot, before giving way to the black goo creatures that were in the final game

cut to their final stage for time reasons, though justified well enough through in-game lore

we see a bit of their original early-stage designs in the dlc

lucas was also, instead of an inventor/mad scientist type, was going to be a hunter/doomsday prepper type with a mold-infected dog. tbh i'm kind of glad for the change if only because the idea of fighting the dog sounds deeply unpleasant, even if zombie dogs are a series staple

the Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspirations are all still there, but i think the version of the family in the final game is more distinctly its own thing

Yeeeeeeahhh...

Okay I'll have to see if I can find no commentary playthroughs of the DLC!