Resident Evil 8 (village?)

[robdood]

Well I'm enjoying this though I'm gutted because I was hoping to play it through with the Mrs and daughter (who loved playing through 7 with me) but it's just too goofy and actiony for them. And I can't blame them. It is a bit stupid. Giant people, living dolls and a weird Bloodborne-looking reject with Magneto powers. Its particularly jarring since its framed as a direct sequel to the last one. Of course, resi 7 was goofy by the end, but the ramp up into it was way better paced. This feels like I'm on a dumb ghost train by comparison. 

 

And I can put up with the goofiness. I'm just not sure it's good in quite the same corny way reso 4 was so good.

 

This is probably because Ethan Winters is genuinely the shittest character ever, and the torture porn stuff is already tedious.  

 

Its definitely a very different game to 7.  I kinda wish the vibe was more like it.  They could've still had more of a combat heavy experience, just with more of that excellent tone and.. fear.  I felt genuinely tense and scared for a lot of 7, in this you basically start with a shotgun and it's like a shooting gallery. 

 

I'm gonna stick with it because I'm enjoying it, but I do feel a bit gutted it's gone so.. Anime. 

 

 

[Ran]

It's definitely more inherently video-gamey which I agree jars horribly coming off the back of 7 (which is what I did). One of the benefits though is I felt instantly ready for another run through to mop up challenges and start powering up the arsenal, whereas 7 is a game I've now played twice and will not revisit for a good year or two I think.

Going to spoiler some other thoughts in case:

Spoiler

Game suffers from not having a proper main villain. Mother Miranda barely pops up before the final confrontation and as a result I found the whole endgame from the little section with Chris through final boss a bit of a letdown. In comparison you get a lot more interaction with the lords as you battle them and those come off a lot better. The castle section with Lady Dimitrescu being my highlight, none of it is Shakespeare obviously but I thought she was excellent and a perfect Resident Evil villain).

It's a bit too in thrall to RE4 and in a lot of regards I found paled a bit in comparison (Even with the end credits which don't have near the same feeling or impact as the older game). In a similar vein the weapons are ok but don't feel as satisfying with some really odd decisions in regards to dismemberment. (The Lycans are the only heads that pop in that satisfying way making the other enemy types feel like spongey bullet mannequins in comparison).

Even so I still had a brilliant time with it and will no doubt replay it many times.

 

 

 

[robdood]

It's just weird to me that if they were going for such a different vibe that they'd choose to make it a literal/direct sequel.  It's incongruous af. 

 

Though I suppose it did start life as a Revelations spin off before the big brass decided it could be changed into a mainline Resi, which explains a lot, I guess! 

[merrychan]

I must admit I'm enjoying the mix of 7 and 4, 7 was just too grim for me on the whole and a game I doubt I'll ever go back to.

 

I love the wandering about in this, bit of combat here and there, leveling up weapons etc.

[Calashnikov]

Yeah, I really appreciated the return to camp silliness which for me is as equally important (or perhaps even more important) to the series as the scares. I missed it in 7, as silly as that got at points. VIIIage had me grinning like Nemesis throughout, not least because of the most hapless, bumbling, unluckiest shambles of a man of all time in Ethan Winters, the GOAT Resi protagonist by this point surely. He’s like Bruce Campbell’s Ash as performed by Old Gil from The Simpsons with a sprinkling of Frank Grimes. Amazing character 

[Calashnikov]

23 hours ago, Ran said:

It's definitely more inherently video-gamey

[Calashnikov]

On 29/07/2021 at 23:05, robdood said:

Giant people, living dolls and a weird Bloodborne-looking reject with Magneto powers.

[Hanzo the Razor]

[Kevvy Metal]

Yes, all the dumbness in 8 makes it feel far more like Resident Evil than RE7 ever did! 

[CarloOos]

5 hours ago, Calashnikov said:

Yeah, I really appreciated the return to camp silliness which for me is as equally important (or perhaps even more important) to the series as the scares. I missed it in 7, as silly as that got at points. VIIIage had me grinning like Nemesis throughout, not least because of the most hapless, bumbling, unluckiest shambles of a man of all time in Ethan Winters, the GOAT Resi protagonist by this point surely. He’s like Bruce Campbell’s Ash as performed by Old Gil from The Simpsons with a sprinkling of Frank Grimes. Amazing character 

The decision to have the entire game first person besides one single cutscene at the end, where they go to Austin Powers-esque lengths to hide Ethan’s face, was especially bizarre. They could have either done that scene in first person or finally given Ethan an actual face, and they chose neither with hilarious results.

 

On the other hand, changing Chris into Ray Stevenson was baller move. He’s the definitive Chris now.

[Goose]

Finished this last night. It wasn't a bad mix of RE4 & 7, and the first two thirds were excellent, up there with the best of the series. But the final third felt incredibly rushed and disjointed, almost like it was made by a different team. 

 

The Duke was great, and really added some lightness to some grim moments. The weapons felt good (not RE4 good) but there seemed to be an odd balance. I think I played the game with barely a new weapon in each area, then in the last section there were three or four guns available, which would have been fun earlier in the game. The opening village was well realised and good to explore, and I enjoyed messing around in the castle, and the section that came next (some proper genuine jumps). 

 

Even the section after that had its moments, and was at least different enough to what had come before. But - (major spoilers)

 

Spoiler

I think as soon as you got to Heisenberg's section the game stumbled badly and never recovered. The factory was boring, it all looked the same and the enemies never really felt as threatening as the Lycans. When Ethan died, the game really went off the rails and just got daft, and not in a good way. At times it felt like Call of Evil. I did like the very ending, after the main fight, and there was good stuff in and about. 

 

It was also a bit rubbish having what felt like one room of pure exposition - Here's four documents on each character, here's the link to the Spencer family and here's Mia! Within the space of a minute. 

 

Yes, a really strong opening, very, very enjoyable, let down by a poor ending. But well worth playing. 

[robdood]

Fuck this game and it's stupid 'you can't go back to this area you just left' shit. 

 

aaaaaaaand relax. 

[robdood]

Well there we go, it's done. That last section really dragged. And hilarious how basically the entire exposition of the game is splurged out in the last 20 mins. So daft. And not in a good way. 

 

Its just so mediocre. Its like they copied bits of resident evil 4 (and 7) in the most superficial ways possible.  Oooh let's have an  open village map for combat! Ooooh let's have some creepy characters who'll stalk you round the map!! But then we'll forget to put in the actual systems and design that made that so compelling in previous games. 

 

The combat literally consists of 'stand still and shoot' in 90% of cases. Where was the dynamic movement? Or good hit boxes? What's the point of flour sacks and dragging shelves? Where was the excellent crowd control and moment to moment decision making while being hunted? Where was the setpiece and encounter design? Such a wasted opportunity. The blocking made the combat trivial too. (and inb4 'play it on hard' or whatever, you didn't need to play Resi 4 on hard to see its genius) 

 

(The bosses were universally terrible too. I was gutted when I actually fought the 'giant' things.)

 

Why did they use the same inventory system as 4? I didn't fill my case once. I didn't even buy all the size upgrades. Seemed utterly pointless. And I couldn't combine stacks of things for the life of me. Infuriating. 

And then the actual meat of the game, the exploration and puzzles and stuff. Oh my god it was so basic. I did enjoy hunting treasures and making the map rooms blue, but in general I didn't have to engage my brain at all. You basically just have one way to go at any one time, and the majority of the time you'll find a key way before you find the door in which it fits. 

 

And you only really get to do any exploring like this in the first area. The castle was OK, if a bit huge and empty and forgettable, but God the cemetery / doll makers and then windmills /swamp were like elongated, boring fairground rides. I properly laughed out loud upon reaching the factory, it looked like something out of a Doom clone!! Absurd. And again, not in a good way.  Oh and! I was sooooo gutted after clearing the castle, the way the Duke talked made it sound like I could clear the remaining bosses / zones in any order I wanted (which would've been ace!) but nope. Such a shame. 

 

 

So many contrived puzzles that make absolutely no sense even considering the games insanity. Like there's one in the doll makers house where you pick the order for five pieces of film. You press play. You watch something completely unrelated, after which the projector screen falls from the ceiling. Inexplicably opening a secret bookcase door..?!?! Complete crap. 

 

And fuck me, putting collectibles in areas that inexplicably lock themselves off after you've been through them, meaning you only have one chance to get them, is shit design that belongs in the bin. 

 

People harp on about how goofy it is like that's a great return to the form of 4,but 4 was never this completely nonsensical. Resi 8 definitely has that weird Dark Souls 2 vibe to it, like it was slapped together from various prototypes and ideas, and the story tacked on at the end. 

 

I'm not even going to talk about the story, it's not really what I care about in the series, but the lame links to series history in that last 20 mins exposition splurge was cringe, rather than cool.  Ditto the explanation of the torture porn. 

 

Bang average. Looked and sounded great at times (the facial animation is properly superb) but ultimately fell really flat for me after the majesty and reinvention of Resi in 7.  I can't understand why anyone would want to play through it a second time, let alone on a higher difficulty. There's so little game here. 

 

I think I'm mainly down on it because the first 20 mins reeled me in with the nostalgia, only for it to wear thin immediately after that opening siege. 

 

Fingers crossed the team who made 7 are busy making 9.

 

Final thought, what the actual fuck did I shoot all those wooden goats for? I don't think it told me, ever. 

 

5/10

[Popo]

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it @robdood,  however many of the issues you take with it (immobile combat, contrived puzzles) are ones you could lay at the door of any Resident Evil game. What were you hoping for?

 

Also - giant mechanical Salazar. Resident Evil 4 is that rediculous.

[robdood]

3 hours ago, Popo said:

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it @robdood,  however many of the issues you take with it (immobile combat, contrived puzzles) are ones you could lay at the door of any Resident Evil game. What were you hoping for?

 

Also - giant mechanical Salazar. Resident Evil 4 is that rediculous.

The immobile combat irked because they dressed it up as Resi 4, which was so fluid compared with the others. 

 

Yes Resi games have daft mansions with silly puzzles to keep doors locked, but again 7 did a great job of not having anything that just seemed completely illogical like 8 did. 

 

I guess I was expecting more resi 7, as I went in blind. Then after the opening, I was expecting resi 4 reinvented to the same standard as 7 was a reinvention of 1.

 

Mechanical Salazar is the only thing that stupid in the whole game (and utterly forgettable for me tbh).  (aside from saddlers final form, maybe). Chainsaw guy, the ogres, the lake, regenerators, head tentacle ganados, spike hands guy in the castle, Mendez, Krauser. The tone and vibe of these enemies is so different to anything in 8. I was really hoping that this one would be darker and nastier and more scary in the same way at 7 was, just with more of that Resi 4 combat depth. 

 

These expectations were set purely by the game and it's prequel, I felt a bit like they bait and switched me. 

 

But hey, it's fine, I'm not here to debate my opinion or tell anyone they're wrong for enjoying it. I just needed to vent, man. 

[merrychan]

9 hours ago, robdood said:

5/10

Sad times, I'm way behind you and still enjoying it, although I was hoping for the action ramping up rather than down for Act 2.

I'll keep going, I'm a sucker for shops and leveling up weapons...which I hope will add to the replayability. If not it'll be back to recurring runs of 2 and 3 Remake

[robdood]

31 minutes ago, merrychan said:

Sad times, I'm way behind you and still enjoying it, although I was hoping for the action ramping up rather than down for Act 2.

I'll keep going, I'm a sucker for shops and leveling up weapons...which I hope will add to the replayability. If not it'll be back to recurring runs of 2 and 3 Remake

Don't get me wrong, there must have been something in there that compelled me to play through the whole thing.  It's not *bad*, just not excellent. 

 

And the game is still in my brain for some reason. 

[Don Wiskerando]

I've played it through to completion 4 times, so that I could get that achievement for completing on insanity or whatever it was called.   I enjoyed every playthrough until 

 

Spoiler

Giant Heisenberg.  Everything following including the Heisenberg fight was ,

dogshit

Spoiler

especially fighting through the village as Chris with the games least upgradable weapons.

I liked that a whole section of the game was dedicated to a puzzle rather than combat but it does start to drag on multiple playthroughs.

[robdood]

Omg they even messed up Mercs mode! 🙊

[Down by Law]

Just started this (PS5), got about 40 minutes in and it made me feel violently sick and dizzy, worse than any VR game did (even Ace Combat). So weird, never suffered motion sickness on a non VR game before. Turned the headbob off and aim acceleration to zero but made no improvement. Doom Eternal gave me no problems at all but my wife couldn't watch it, and couldn't take 15 minutes of this before having to leave the room. Hope to try again tomorrow because it looks amazing. Anyone else struggle with this? God getting older is shit 😅

[robdood]

9 hours ago, Down by Law said:

Just started this (PS5), got about 40 minutes in and it made me feel violently sick and dizzy, worse than any VR game did (even Ace Combat). So weird, never suffered motion sickness on a non VR game before. Turned the headbob off and aim acceleration to zero but made no improvement. Doom Eternal gave me no problems at all but my wife couldn't watch it, and couldn't take 15 minutes of this before having to leave the room. Hope to try again tomorrow because it looks amazing. Anyone else struggle with this? God getting older is shit 😅

I didn't personally, but both my partner and daughter also found it very nausea-inducing, for some reason!  The head bob did reduce it, but not entirely. It's the stupid narrow FOV, I think. 

[Professor Puzzles]

Maybe there's a more suitable thread for this,  but here's a SEVEN AND A HALF HOUR youtube video critique covering (almost) the entire Resident Evil series by the legendarily verbose woodpecker* known as Noah Caldwell-Gervais.

 

Yes I watched all of it.

 

Yes I think it was worth it.

 

https://youtu.be/CZUwmfeHB58

 

*For some reason I always think of professor Yaffle from Bagpuss when I hear his voice. 

[Down by Law]

The best part of this game is saying to the wife 'it's time to pillage the village!' every time i turn it on and watching her roll her eyes again

 

I mean it's pretty good, but unbelievably stupid and over the top. 

Ethan has taken enough punishment to kill about 10 grown men so far. The best was when he got completely impaled and lifted off the ground, RE1 wesker style, then a second later he's running around a rooftop firing a sniper rifle like the game itself forgot it just happened.

 

The environment designs are the true star, it's unbelievably gorgeous. The combat is frankly a bit boring and compared to something like RE4 feels like an amateur project. The weapon really don't pack a punch visually or aurally and that's such a shame because the weapons from 4 & 5 in particular are some of the most satisfying stuff in any shooter. I had a problem with the weapon animations for the Sniper and Shotgun, it's like they have been designed to make you think you're ok to shoot again, but you can't because the animation is quicker than the firing rate of the weapon. The amount of times I lined up the perfect point blank shotgun headshot only to squeeze the trigger for *nothing* to happen is infuriating. I kinda didn't mind the poor gunplay of RE7 as that game seemed to naturally push horror over combat but it's flipped here, and they haven't done enough to make it work.

 

Still, looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Just got my 3rd flask.

 

 

[Hodge]

12 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

Ethan has taken enough punishment to kill about 10 grown men so far. The best was when he got completely impaled and lifted off the ground, RE1 wesker style, then a second later he's running around a rooftop firing a sniper rifle like the game itself forgot it just happened.

 

 

LOL this is exactly my thoughts. Its brilliant watching it play out though 😀  

 

 

[Hanzo the Razor]

30 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

I mean it's pretty good, but unbelievably stupid and over the top.

 

That'll be Resident Evil then.

[Down by Law]

17 minutes ago, Hodge said:

 

LOL this is exactly my thoughts. Its brilliant watching it play out though 😀  

 

 

 

I can't believe he thinks Mia is dead. She was only shot around 15 times, 5 of those in the face. That's just another day for Ethan ! 

[merrychan]

3 hours ago, Down by Law said:

 

I can't believe he thinks Mia is dead. She was only shot around 15 times, 5 of those in the face. That's just another day for Ethan ! 

Ethan eats that just before a boss battle and keeps rolling.

 

'tis but a flesh wound!'

 

 

[Popo]

5 hours ago, Down by Law said:

Ethan has taken enough punishment to kill about 10 grown men so far. The best was when he got completely impaled and lifted off the ground, RE1 wesker style, then a second later he's running around a rooftop firing a sniper rifle like the game itself forgot it just happened.

 

 

Eugh, there's a 'reason' for this, which is explained at the end of the game...

 

Spoiler

He's not Ethan - Ethan died in RE VII by Jack during his first appearance.  From the moment 'Ethan' wakes up at the dinner table, he's just a clone created by Eveline, who was in turn created by Mother Miranda, so when the latter dies 'Ethan' finally dies too.

 

Don't click if you haven't finished Village, obviously.

[Meh]

Bit late to the party (thanks Capcom and your fucking PC port), but if anyone is still struggling with ray-tracing gradually dive-bombing their performance on PC, set a manual page file size.

 

I can finally PLAY THE FUCKING GAME.

[dumpster]

I posted in the Abandoned Games thread about my major disappointment with this game.  I left it around the part where you get on the boat.  It's just so ridiculously front loaded. The story sets up characters and the village and the castle, then you kill all those characters within the opening couple of hours and from there the game becomes a major chore.  The puzzles are boring, there's loads of back tracking and most of the time there are no enemies.  When enemies do appear, there's about four types in the whole game.  

 

Anyway, I went on to complete it and found myself enjoying Mercenaries mode a lot.  Also Im playing it through again with my infinite handgun and it seems more tolerable now.  So I was gathering my thoughts at what it is that I don't like. And it came to me...

 

The games major issue is that it's Resident Evil 8.  

 

Eight.  We've been putting stone reliefs in walls, turning crank handles and finding keys for so long. It's been done to death. 

 

And I'm also convinced that at some point, the next gen was planned to launch with a VR headset. Because this would be great in VR, and Resi7 was a VR experience primarily.  I'm sure they wouldnt  have switched to first person if they hadn't gone VR so it seems weird they made a whole new FP game now.  But ultimately, there's not as much "wrong" with RE8 as I initially thought.  It's just part 8 and I don't think I care at all.

 

But it definitely gets a new lease of life once you complete it.  Infinite weapons, challenges etc.  Mercenaries.  It's a game changer.  

 

Otherwise, I completely agree with everything @robdood said above. It's the worst Resident Evil game.  Even Resi6 is better.