Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) - Zombie Horror Video Game Review (Playstation)

Last year when the remake of Resident Evil 2 was released I decided to replay the original one to see what the difference was. This year it is the turn of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis to be remade, and so again I found myself travelling back in time to play the original, which was released way back in 1999. Of the original trilogy the third game was the one that I enjoyed the least, despite that it was the one that actually had the most replay value. Each time you completed the game there was an additional epilogue unlocked, I think there was around ten of these in total, due to this it meant I played this one repeatedly until all were unlocked. I hadn't played the game since getting that final epilogue, and so was interested to see how it holds up nowadays. Due to this being kinda old I'm not going to hold back from spoilers for the purpose of this review.

The game takes place in Raccoon City and its first half takes place 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2. The city is in chaos, with the undead absolutely everywhere. Unable to delay it any longer, former S.T.A.R.S member Jill Valentine decides it is time she must escape the doomed city. During her escape attempt she discovers that the evil Umbrella company have sent in the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S) on the pretence of rescuing civilians from the unfolding disaster. This group were made up of mercenaries and were totally unprepared for what was happening, as such nearly all of them have been wiped out. Jill stumbles across the survivors of this group; Carlos Oliveira, Mikhail Victor, and Nikolai Zinoviev and decides to team up with them in order to make it to their designated evacuation spot. However, there is a nightmare hunting down Jill, a hulking, seemingly indestructible monstrous creation of Umbrella codenamed Nemesis who will stop at nothing to wipe out her, and the other remaining S.T.A.R.S members...

Initially this game was supposed to be a spin-off of the main series and it does show in its design. Where before you had tightly designed singular locations (such as the mansion in Resident Evil, and the Police station and secret lab of Resident Evil 2) here you have a variety of much smaller locations which never come close to matching the complexity of previous ones. On paper the idea of exploring a huge city instead of a single location does sound fantastic. In actuality you get to explore a series of claustrophobic alleyways, and smaller underwhelming buildings. These new locations are all fun to play through, don't get me wrong, it is just that I wish they had all been bigger than they were. The clock tower, the hospital, and the dead factory were all wonderful locations, it is just the reduction in size means there isn't so much in the way of puzzles and secrets to be found.

Resident Evil (2002) - Zombie Horror Video Game Review (PS4)

I was surprised myself to see that I had never reviewed the 2002 remake of Resident Evil (unfortunately a review of that one exists, albeit one written badly in this blog's infancy back in 2008). When the remake got released on current gen consoles recently I just knew it was time to revisit this lost game. In a twist on the norm I decided to live stream a single sitting play-through which I did yesterday, split into seven parts those videos shall be included after the review.

So set in 1998 the Raccoon City Police Department's Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S) send their Bravo team to investigate bizarre reports of murders on the outskirts of the city. After they fail to report in Alpha team headed by Albert Wesker, and including Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield and Barry Burton are sent out. Soon after arriving in the forest outside of town the group are attacked by a pack of rabid dogs, in the panic their helicopter pilot Brad flies off leaving them stranded. With the dogs hot on their heals the survivors of this attack flee to a mansion they spot in the distance, a place they think will be safe...

BloodRayne (2002) - Horror Videogame Review (X-Box)

BloodRayne is a game with a real grindhouse premise to it. Basically you are a female vampire who fights Nazis and that's about it.

Rayne is a half vampire who works for a mysterious group known as the Brimstone Society. The game mostly takes place in 1938 where Rayne's latest mission is to take out the German Nazi high command, including a man known as Wulf who is seeking out the lost body parts of an ancient deity known as Belial in order to obtain ultimate power.

The game is a third person action one, you are equipped with blades strapped to your arms, as well as able to use weapons dropped by enemies. Being a vampire you have fangs, pretty much any enemy in the game you can fix yourself to and drain there blood recovering lost energy in the process. You can jump ridiculous heights, as well as use your vampire sense to go into bullet time, locate objectives, and later gain a sniper style scope ability. You are quite brutal to your foes with the addition of a 'Blood Rage' mode (that you get from fighting) you literally cleave Nazis into little pieces, so quite a bloody game.

For the most part BloodRayne takes place in two locations (as well as a cool opening level set in the swamp lands of Missouri).  The first location that roughly half the game occurs in is a giant Nazi base made up of many different areas such as mines, factories, living quarters and submarine pens. During your assault on the base loudspeakers bark out instructions, while a second assault occurs from an unexpected source. The second half of the game takes place in a remote ruined castle in Germany where a family of vampires live. Nazis are your main enemy and come in many different flavours including jet pack Nazis and zombie Nazis. Other enemies include plant based creatures as well as a host of vampires that resemble cats. There are plenty of bosses, mostly Nazi commanders, with the exception of the end boss these fights are not too hard.

BloodRayne is quite fun to play but there are some annoying platform sections that are not helped in the slightest by dreadful camera and invisible walls that impede your progress to an awful degree. It's also a very murky game, it can be quite hard to see in a lot of places especially outside in the castle levels, though on the plus side checkpoints are numerous.

Not a bad time to be had with BloodRayne, but quite dated in look now with some dodgy CGI cutscenes and has quite a predictable, boring story. Lots of blood, Nazis and vampires create an enjoyable experience if not a great one.

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Alien Hominid (2002-07) - Sci-fi Video Game Review (X-Box 360)

Alien Hominid is a great cartoony looking run and gun game that is very funny, but also quite difficult. In the tradition of the Contra and Metal Slug games it is one hit kills, and with bullets flying around, dense numbers of enemies and tough bosses this happens quite a lot. It was made by the same people who did the excellent Castle Crashers, with the distinct look being very similar. 

You play as a yellow crazed alien, at the games start he crashes his UFO, before he can recover from his accident the F.B.I have captured the ship. The alien must run and gun his way to get back his UFO. The game is split into there 'worlds'. The first five levels see you in a city with the F.B.I, next you are in Russia fighting the Red Army, until finally you are at Area 51 fighting the U.S Army. The alien is armed with a laser which can be upgraded with limited power ups such as flame, ice, and laser rounds. Also the gun can be charged up to fire a powerful blast. Per life you also have five grenades to use.

The enemies are very varied, and each of the fifteen levels features unique features, mini bosses, and humour. Cartoony violence is paramount, enemies reacting in a Tom and Jerry style to the damage you inflict on them. The mini bosses and level bosses are really great, all are unique and fun to fight, from the hammer and sickle wielding red robot in Russia to crazy giant robot monsters all are great, and a challenge. Cool controllable vehicles such as tanks, robots, and even Yetis inject some variety in the levels, and are fun to ride.

Alien Hominid is very hard, but continues help, and you will definitely get to the end on easy, and probably normal mode. Feels a bit dated nowadays but is certainly inventive.

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Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002) - Horror Video Game Review (Gamecube)

This was supposed to be the future of survival horror. Critically acclaimed at the time, and considered a cult classic now, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is unfortunately a mediocre game put on a pedestal due to the lack of competition in the genre at the time on the Gamecube. The story is heavily influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and more specifically the master of horror H P Lovecraft.

After her grandfather's mysterious and bloody death, his niece travels to his mansion at Roade Island to try and discover who was responsible. In a hidden room she discovers a book bound in human flesh; a tome of the dead. Her grandfather had a secret interest in the occult. Each chapter of the book tells the story of various people throughout time who have encountered the book. Each level of the game is based on one of these stories, being bookended each time with the girl in the present day exploring her relatives house. As such you get to play as over a dozen different characters throughout time. From a roman centurion in 54 BC, to an amazon dancer, a medieval monk, a World War II american soldier and many more. Each time period contains a self contained story, mostly ending tragically ala' H P Lovecraft tales.

The plot itself is the games strongest point, each individual story is very well told, the best one springing to mind being an ancestor of the present day girls who discovers a hidden horrific desolate city of a past civilisation. This really felt like a version of the excellent short story 'At the Mountains of Madness' (by H P Lovecraft).

The graphics are smooth, but very bland. Considering the amazing looking Resident Evil games later showing up on the Gamecube there is no excuse for the graphics being so plain. The game was advertised as being at least twenty hours long in some previews, yet even on my first play through I had it finished in under ten (not that length of game determines a games quality!) To get the true ending you have to play through the game three times, but to tell the truth, I just couldn't be bothered to do that.

Much was made of the games sanity meter. The longer you spend around enemies in the game (mostly comprising of zombies) the more your sanity meter runs down. The lower it goes the more crazy stuff starts happening. The camera starts to shake drunkenly, a message pops up on screen saying the Gamecube's memory card has become corrupted, the game freezes and lots more random insanity occurs. This aspect of the game is kinda cool! (also aped in Metal Gear Solid 2).

Despite playing in many different periods of time, only about four different locations are used, with minor changes used to differ the look. This leads to many parts of the game becoming stale as you traverse the same locations over and over again. The characters are only physically different, and virtually all control the same. The magic system is terrible! Some parts of the game require you use spells in specific places, it can be really hard to use them in the correct spot, and I literally spent thirty minutes at one part late in the game repeatedly failing to use a spell in exactly the right spot, and then having to wait an agonisingly long time for the magic meter to slowly recharge again.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem does have an ace story though, and is very cheap nowadays, so it is worth playing, if only for the story.

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