great game, but not better than the first.
lets start with what i came here for, that sweet sweet remedy weirdness, cranked up to 11 in this game, now in a culmination of all their past works, even ones they couldn't add somehow they did in a sneaky way, a very good conclusion to a series i became very fond of, just not as perfect as i hoped it to be, i have a few points to discuss regarding my statement.
combat : this is a downgrade in my opinion, people have a misconception that the first game's combat is dull and clunky when in actuallity its simple yet hard to master, you had full control when you could stun the enemies, you had perfect way of planning things ''7 bullets for big guys, 3 for smaller ones'' with enough skill you could stun a whooping 8 enemies at the same time and have 2 seconds to focus fire on the more dangerous ones while managing your distance and your dodging game, rapid fire 4 bullets on lesser ones that get close and scrape by with relative safety and few resources wasted, the light was a rechargeable meter that you used , if you played skillfully you'd only have to use the batteries if you fucked up and needed a panic button, otherwise managing your stun game was great.
here however its a different story, its a clunkier and less reliable resident evil 2 remake, its ok i like re 2 r combat, but i feel the first game already had a great blend of survival and its own identity, here the game doesn't even have faith in its own system, if you die in a section with only 1 battery left, the game on hard difficulty will still give you 2 extra batteries, as if its saying ''its ok we effed up the ballance, have a freebie'', the camera is less reliable because they too wanted some of that re 2 survival style, purposefully making the tps camera a little more clunky than the normal one, i've seen people do crazy things with it, its still possible, but i don't feel this is a upgrade, its another thing entirely, there's also a few nitpicks about the menus, they are a bit clunky with mouse, they are not as clicky as the game they are trying to emulate.
the bugs : oh dear, getting stuck in geometry being forced to restart (in a game you save manually in safe zones..) geometry clipping so hard it covers the place you need to walk, i've seen it make all walls invisible and spoil me where items are supposed to be, an enemy refused to die at some point, a normal grunt took a lot of bullets and decided that he was not having it, killed me, upon respawn he died to 3 bullets, 3 times the mind palace refused to let me leave, i had to restart.
saga : i like saga, we need more video game moms, they are being shadowed by video game dads, but this ain't it chief, they done my girl very very dirty, as if to sabotage her.
for starters, her upgrades are nowhere near as useful as alan, alan is getting upgrades like ''chance of free bullet'' while she gets stuff like ''10% extra damage if enemy is stunned'', this is for the shotgun mind you, a weapon that will always kill in 2 to 3 bullets, the 10% doesnt make a difference and there are many of these cases, her upgrades are just not as useful.
her dialogue, while alan is throwing some poetic stuff ala mr.wake as usual, saga is throwing little quips and stating the obvious, i get remedy likes to be inspired but last i checked this was inspired by twin peaks, not avengers.
i don't like that it seems she got the short stick of the writing crew, it enchances my theory that she got sabotaged, specially with the fact that they also forced her to make a racist quote outta nowhere.
i'd love a crazy grumpy cop mom high on caffeine angry this is her 10th case this week because the higher ups don't give her a break, instead i got a rather bland character that feels inconcise with the other ones, saga deserves better, much better than what she got (it came to my attention as of late that remedy hired SBI to write her, and i now see the problem, come on guys i believe remedy and sam are very much capable of writing a great black mother character) inclusive characters deserve better writing, they deserve a spot in gaming, but they deserve great writing behind them to accompany, no one without the other, am i saying i wish she was annoying or grumpy ? probably, it worked for alex casey, why wouldn't it work for her ? make her weird, make her angry, make her tired, make her happy ! but make her interesting.
the mind palace : very weird addition, one that you can ignore most of the game and it will only be mandatory on two sections of the game, i played twice and second playthrough i was curious how much i could bullshit my way without touching that room, turns out the entire game, while the writing room is mandatory and influences the levels, not only that but they also give free items if you explore them enough, SEE HOW I FEEL SAGA GOT SABOTAGED ??
overall its a strange feeling, i like this game, i feel its a satisfactory conclusion, i like the characters but i don't feel it is an evolution of the first game like many say, i'd go back to the first game many times and get better at the combat to the point i can do a not hit run, this one ? two times and i'm already out of the loop, woops sorry, spiral...
also a little question, why when alan tried to strong will himself out of the dark place with his strenght of mind, he got beat up, mentally and physically into submission until he's but a husk of a man, but someone else can love themselves out of the dark place just like that ? seems mildly unfair
lets start with what i came here for, that sweet sweet remedy weirdness, cranked up to 11 in this game, now in a culmination of all their past works, even ones they couldn't add somehow they did in a sneaky way, a very good conclusion to a series i became very fond of, just not as perfect as i hoped it to be, i have a few points to discuss regarding my statement.
combat : this is a downgrade in my opinion, people have a misconception that the first game's combat is dull and clunky when in actuallity its simple yet hard to master, you had full control when you could stun the enemies, you had perfect way of planning things ''7 bullets for big guys, 3 for smaller ones'' with enough skill you could stun a whooping 8 enemies at the same time and have 2 seconds to focus fire on the more dangerous ones while managing your distance and your dodging game, rapid fire 4 bullets on lesser ones that get close and scrape by with relative safety and few resources wasted, the light was a rechargeable meter that you used , if you played skillfully you'd only have to use the batteries if you fucked up and needed a panic button, otherwise managing your stun game was great.
here however its a different story, its a clunkier and less reliable resident evil 2 remake, its ok i like re 2 r combat, but i feel the first game already had a great blend of survival and its own identity, here the game doesn't even have faith in its own system, if you die in a section with only 1 battery left, the game on hard difficulty will still give you 2 extra batteries, as if its saying ''its ok we effed up the ballance, have a freebie'', the camera is less reliable because they too wanted some of that re 2 survival style, purposefully making the tps camera a little more clunky than the normal one, i've seen people do crazy things with it, its still possible, but i don't feel this is a upgrade, its another thing entirely, there's also a few nitpicks about the menus, they are a bit clunky with mouse, they are not as clicky as the game they are trying to emulate.
the bugs : oh dear, getting stuck in geometry being forced to restart (in a game you save manually in safe zones..) geometry clipping so hard it covers the place you need to walk, i've seen it make all walls invisible and spoil me where items are supposed to be, an enemy refused to die at some point, a normal grunt took a lot of bullets and decided that he was not having it, killed me, upon respawn he died to 3 bullets, 3 times the mind palace refused to let me leave, i had to restart.
saga : i like saga, we need more video game moms, they are being shadowed by video game dads, but this ain't it chief, they done my girl very very dirty, as if to sabotage her.
for starters, her upgrades are nowhere near as useful as alan, alan is getting upgrades like ''chance of free bullet'' while she gets stuff like ''10% extra damage if enemy is stunned'', this is for the shotgun mind you, a weapon that will always kill in 2 to 3 bullets, the 10% doesnt make a difference and there are many of these cases, her upgrades are just not as useful.
her dialogue, while alan is throwing some poetic stuff ala mr.wake as usual, saga is throwing little quips and stating the obvious, i get remedy likes to be inspired but last i checked this was inspired by twin peaks, not avengers.
i don't like that it seems she got the short stick of the writing crew, it enchances my theory that she got sabotaged, specially with the fact that they also forced her to make a racist quote outta nowhere.
i'd love a crazy grumpy cop mom high on caffeine angry this is her 10th case this week because the higher ups don't give her a break, instead i got a rather bland character that feels inconcise with the other ones, saga deserves better, much better than what she got (it came to my attention as of late that remedy hired SBI to write her, and i now see the problem, come on guys i believe remedy and sam are very much capable of writing a great black mother character) inclusive characters deserve better writing, they deserve a spot in gaming, but they deserve great writing behind them to accompany, no one without the other, am i saying i wish she was annoying or grumpy ? probably, it worked for alex casey, why wouldn't it work for her ? make her weird, make her angry, make her tired, make her happy ! but make her interesting.
the mind palace : very weird addition, one that you can ignore most of the game and it will only be mandatory on two sections of the game, i played twice and second playthrough i was curious how much i could bullshit my way without touching that room, turns out the entire game, while the writing room is mandatory and influences the levels, not only that but they also give free items if you explore them enough, SEE HOW I FEEL SAGA GOT SABOTAGED ??
overall its a strange feeling, i like this game, i feel its a satisfactory conclusion, i like the characters but i don't feel it is an evolution of the first game like many say, i'd go back to the first game many times and get better at the combat to the point i can do a not hit run, this one ? two times and i'm already out of the loop, woops sorry, spiral...
also a little question, why when alan tried to strong will himself out of the dark place with his strenght of mind, he got beat up, mentally and physically into submission until he's but a husk of a man, but someone else can love themselves out of the dark place just like that ? seems mildly unfair