Resident Evil 8 - 4 X 2 = A village

[hanselthecaretaker]

Not just propellor head but the entire factory level is lifted from Frankenstein's Army wholesale. Even down to the German names in the lore entries. The zombie with the drill arm is also from the movie.

The factory is probably my favorite level in the game. They should have given credit to that Dutch bloke who made the movie and designed the monsters but it's just an awesome set-up for a Resident Evil game. I liked the village, castle and haunted house(the ruins sucked) but the factory felt like the only level that wasn't self-referential. The only thing the factory lacked was a proper mad scientist.

Or a mad/evil foreman. One that chases you around while you’re trying to hide/grab keys to escape or something, and yelling at you for not punching in on time.

ETHAN…ETHAN!!! Where’s your TIME CARD, ETHAN?! Do you know what happens to tardy boys, Ethan?? *propeller head swoops in making tsk tsk sounds, palm-thumping a gigantic pipe wrench*

 

[Catfood220]

There was one line that bothered me early in the game. Where you help a couple people escape the outer vilage to the inner part only to have them die like 4 minutes later.

Ethan screams "Why does everyone keep dying on me!" And i laughed. Like dude, you didnt even know those people and they are literally the first people to ever die on you. Nobody in re7 even died on him during the cannon playthrough. So this line makes no fucking sense and is just b-movie dumb.

Resident Evil has done this before in RE4. Leon gets saved from a whole bunch of goons in by a bloke, I forget his name lets call him Dave, in an attack helicopter in a scene that is both badass and cheese at the same time. Leon and Dave exchange some matey banter before Dave gets shot down and dies. Leon is like "NOOOOOOOOOOO, DAVE, WHY?". I was watching a friend play this bit the first time I saw it and we were both laughing and were like "Leon, you've known him for about 30 seconds".

So yeah, Resident Evil has a history of their main character reacting in an overly dramatic fashion to losing people they have only just met.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

You know this is been going on for a while but I'm surprised no one has been talkin about that scene.

Spoiler

Where Resident Evil finally remembers it's a horror game after so many years and you are chased by a horrific embodiment of Ethan's fears that Rose could be a B.O.W. It was like the game became PT for 10 minutes.

 

[MrCalavera]

I don't get the hate for Ethan. RE8 is so completely over the top that his incomprehension and hilarious one-liners add extra weight to the absurdity of it all. I'm a bit disappoint he never said ''grooovy'' in any one scenario.

I also got "early Ash from Evil Dead" vibes from Ethan. Down to all the hand trauma.

People compare him to other RE protags who almost all are trained badasses, that deal with bioweapons as a job. Ethan is just some dude with freak mutant powers.

 

[happyninja42]

I also got "early Ash from Evil Dead" vibes from Ethan. Down to all the hand trauma.

People compare him to other RE protags who almost all are trained badasses, that deal with bioweapons as a job. Ethan is just some dude with freak mutant powers.

Well I mean, I can totally empathize with cracking jokes in a stressful situation to try and maintain some semblance of a handle on what's going on around you. I tend to do that whenever I'm in one. Most commonly traffic accidents to try and keep people from spiking into a panic attack. I've had friends who just spiral out of control in those situations, and I'll just come in, act like Spock, but a sassy Spock, and make some dry observation, that just breaks their mood, and makes them snort and laugh, which usually helps them calm down and realize "this is just an annoying thing, it's not the end of the world".

Most notably I recall coming on a really bad accident, where a car of teenagers (4 of them) got t-boned by a van. It was bad. All of them were injured to varying degrees, from a likely broken arm on one kid, possible chest injuries as he said he couldn't breath (though he was yelling it so I think it was more he hit his chest on the dashboard, and was seriously bruised), to a kid in the back who was slowly in the process of dying. I had the driver down, while the EMT's dealt with the soon to be dead kid in the back. While that was going on, I was just chatting with the driver, who was in a panic about the incident, since he was, you know, the driver. I started making quips and light comments to try and distract him, and while he was laying there, waiting for the EMT's to get to him, he looked up at me and said "Hey so, do you think this means i'm going to fail my Driver's Ed class in school?" Which made us both laugh loudly. So, yeah I can totally see that being an emotional defense mechanism.

 

[Piscian]

I got about 5 minutes into it and took a break. The movement is some how more clunky and slow than I am at the bar circa 2am. Just walking feels like you're swimming through mud and fighting feels like youre trying to cook while drunk. They're really getting away from the more action oriented stuff and now it's Amnesia: Dark Descent, but you have a gun. Its just a shitty balance and I hate it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I got about 5 minutes into it and took a break. The movement is some how more clunky and slow than I am at the bar circa 2am. Just walking feels like you're swimming through mud and fighting feels like youre trying to cook while drunk. They're really getting away from the more action oriented stuff and now it's Amnesia: Dark Descent, but you have a gun. Its just a shitty balance and I hate it.

I felt that too with movement and aiming on PC, which makes me wish it was just a puzzle game. It would make more sense if there was any physics system in place, but no.

 

[Piscian]

I felt that too with movement and aiming on PC, which makes me wish it was just a puzzle game. It would make more sense if there was any physics system in place, but no.

Yeah I tried keyboad and mouse and Im thinking maybe this is just pretending to be an FPS and I'm still supposed to use a controller. Typical miserable capcom pc port issues. The irony being theres still wildly popular mouse& keyboard patches for Resident Evil 4 because Capcom cant do a decent PC port right to save their lives.

 

[Drathnoxis]

My favorite 'Ethan is a moron' moment was right near the start of the game: He sees a creepy old woman in a black cloak carrying a staff covered with human skulls, as he walks up to her she says "In life and in death we give glory," in a really sinister voice. Ethan responds with "Uh, hello? You shouldn't be out here, it's not safe." Ethan, are you serious?

 

[Drathnoxis]

Did anybody notice that when you switch weapons Ethan starts pulling out the next weapon before the previous weapon has completely left the screen?

 

[CriticalGaming]

Did anybody notice that when you switch weapons Ethan starts pulling out the next weapon before the previous weapon has completely left the screen?

He is made of mold so.....

 

[Dalisclock]

Did anybody notice that when you switch weapons Ethan starts pulling out the next weapon before the previous weapon has completely left the screen?

He has amazing hand powers.

I mean, he can get one sliced off and then just jam it back on and it works fine......because that's totally how hands work.

 

[CriticalGaming]

He has amazing hand powers.

I mean, he can get one sliced off and then just jam it back on and it works fine......because that's totally how hands work.

I mean it happened in the last game too. Injuries are meaningless to Ethan. He even lost a leg in the last game and just stuck it back on like a pirate.

 

[Dalisclock]

I mean it happened in the last game too. Injuries are meaningless to Ethan. He even lost a leg in the last game and just stuck it back on like a pirate.

Reading this I feel like it would have been almost as amusing if Ethan had a peg leg and a hook hand by the end of RE8.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Finished it yesterday. It was not unenjoyable but god, did it have an identity crisis. Mechanically and stylistically it was missing a strong foundation. Maybe this is an old fashioned and rigid way of thinking but I always felt that ideally a game should start out with some core mechanics that it should expand on continuously throughout, all the way to the end. Resi 8 felt more like it was rushing from one idea to the next. And it's not a very long game, so it frequently feels like none of the individual segments have enough time to develop. The games 4 minor villains were all fun and all could have used more screentime. Vampire MILF was the focal point of the games marketing but whether its her, creepy doll lady, sad fish man or evil Nicholas Cage, they are all introduced and discarded pretty quickly. They all bring some striking character designs and delightfully hammy performances to the table, so they are memorable despite their brief screentime but it's emblematic for the games hyperactive pacing.

The game feels like what would happen if someone took all of those quirky digressive gameplay segments in the DLC expansions of RE7 and patched them together into something that, well, feels more like a series of disconnected ideas, a jack of all trades, master of none, if you will. One moment you explore a castle, then you're in an escape room, then you're in am arena shooter, then you're in a military shooter. It very much sacrifices identity in favour of variety.

You know, figuring out what to do with Resident Evil is probably not that easy. If you think about it, what it is, i.e. a campy horror pastiche, doesn't exactly seem to have enough mileage for a long running series. That it managed to stick around for as long as it did at least speaks for the developer willingness to take risks and change up the formula. But that's how you end up with RE8, this weird chimera stitched together from everything the series ever was. It was, overall, fun, but also kind of a hot mess.

Also, I find it quite amusing that Ethan, trying to start a new life with his family where he wouldn't have to deal with monsters and the undead anymore decided to move to Transylvania, of all places.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Also, I find it quite amusing that Ethan, trying to start a new life with his family where he wouldn't have to deal with monsters and the undead anymore decided to move to Transylvania, of all places.

They moved their under orders from Chris and i assume the BSAA to monitor their mold infection.

Though the sudden kidnapping of Ethan and Rose probably could have had better set up. Because it comes out of nowhere and is pretty much never brought up again.

Like there is a handwaved explaination at the very end but otherwise it is forgotten.

I think the biggest falter the game makes is too much focus on the 4 mini bosses. With Meranda being the big bad, it would have been nice to see her fucking with events along the way more. Than way the drive to defeat her at the end would have been more meaningful.

Ethan is pissed at her at the end of the game, but she has been a non-entity for so much of the plot that trying to make Ethan and subsequently the player care about wanting to take her down just doesnt exist.

Overall though it is far from the worst game in the series, and after a second playthrough i feel like it does server the formula 2, and 3, built in regards to multiple runs, each run faster and better than before to build up into insane rewards that make additional replays more fun.

Like infinite ammo god guns and the like. It was one of the best aspects of replaying the 3 remake.

 

[BrawlMan]

Sphere Hunter: RE8, Three Years Later
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