Grave Gamer News & Views — survival horror

[Originally posted on When Nerds Attack.]

“You’re about to see something wonderful.” Jack’s freshly charred skin is peeling off his body. But he’s still alive, and strong. He’s clutching your wrist, pulling it to his face. He wraps his mouth around the handgun you just plucked from the desiccated cop now lying dead on the floor. With a resounding pop, a chasm erupts from the top of his skull. His body falls limply to the ground. You survived, but you didn’t win. Jack will be back. He deliberately ate a bullet just to prove a point.

It’s been a long time since Resident Evil has scared me. For the better part of a decade, Capcom remodeled the franchise that coined “Survival Horror” into gun-centric action games meant to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Familiar draws were included to bait fans that remember the fixed perspective, tank controlled days of yesteryear — whether it was tangential ties to the sinister Umbrella Corporation, hulking bio-weapons, or the franchise synonymous living dead. More often than not, though, these nostalgic additions felt like window dressing. While latter day sequels like Resident Evil 6 coated their levels in shadows and foreboding atmosphere, at their core, they were third-person shooters. True horror, the kind that the original trilogy is lauded for to this day, was left behind.

With Resident Evil 7, Capcom has finally returned to the franchise’s roots. It takes inspiration not only from its own past but from other stand-out horror experiences in order to rework and revitalize the genre they helped inform. The result is an expertly paced, incredibly tense hell-ride through a literal madhouse — and it’s actually pretty goddamn scary. Long-time fans have been yearning to hear this for years: Resident Evil 7 is pure survival horror.

Watch My First Session of Resident Evil Zero

If you thought Code: Veronica was the weirdest, most obtuse entry into the franchise, might I introduce you to an operatic villain in a bathrobe that sings to his cum slugs?

Leather-clad, super-powered insanity comes to Resident Evil 0′s ‘Wesker Mode’

One of my favorite treats added to this year’s Resident Evil HD Remastered was being able to tread through the Spencer Mansion wearing Jill and Chris’ BSAA garbs – a unit that supersedes S.T.A.R.S. in the games’ mythology. Yeah, it was a touch anachronistic playing as the duo’s future selves (Chris’ arm pythons and all) but it was a neat bonus.

This? This is fucking insane as far as bonuses go. And of course I love it.

Included in next year’s HD remastering of Resident Evil 0 is Wesker Mode, a run through of the prequel where Billy Cohen, Rebecca’s playable companion in the game, is replaced by Albert “Global Saturation” Wesker in all his sunglassed, Hell Bent for Leather glory. Even Becca, now sporting a stylish mind-control amulet on her chest, joins in on the leather-mommy fun.

This isn’t the weak ass, double-crossing Wesker from the original mansion incident, either. This is the bullet-timing, red hot coal-eyed Wesker as we know him from Resident Evil 5 –  a game where 70% of his appearances consisted of him using his cheetah speed to plant a knee in Chris Redfield’s gut, except playable.

His abilities are weird this go around, too. I don’t recall him being able to expel lighting out of his eyes like an enraged thunder god at any point in the series… but I also don’t recall anyone saying that he couldn’t. 

Resident Evil 0 is prime for digital download early 2016 across Microsoft and Sony’s current and last-gen consoles, as well as PC. But if you missed the sublime remake of the S.T.A.R.S. Team’s worst outing ever, January 16th sees the physical retail release of Resident Evil Origins Collection, a pairing of both REHD Remastered and Resident Evil 0 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Check out RE0′s Uruboros fueled ridiculousness below:

Hearing that Capcom officially commissioned a remake of 1998′s finest zombie shooting/plant cultivation simulator was a shock to my system. It’s my favorite game and, depending on who you talk to, the greatest game ever made (you’re probably talking to me at that point). Ever since 2002′s reimagining of the first Resident Evilproved you could catch lightning in a bottle twice, fans have derided...

Corporate memes feel dirty. So I did one anyway.