"Jill, why don't you, the master of unlocking, take this lock pick."

For this entry I decided to veer away from the usual and delve into the world of videogames instead of film. I myself enjoy horror in any medium I can get it, be that in music, comics, television shows, and of course videogames. I’ve played games since I was very young, starting off with the Atari, which most children would gouge their eyes out if they were forced to play on such ancient technology. Of course I moved on to Nintendo and Sega Genesis eventually and I played the classics like Mario and Megaman, but I didn’t really stumble on to horror gaming until I played the original Splatterhouse. My fragile young mind was never the same. Thinking back, it might have been Splatterhouse 2, but I’ve slept since then so give me a break. Anyway, the mix of blood and guts was something I’d never experienced in gaming, and although I’m sure other horror games came and went, my thirst for horror gaming was not sated until I played Resident Evil. The voice acting was terrible, the graphics are now laughable, but at the time I was completely enthralled with the story surrounding the S.T.A.R.S team. Before I go much further there are some major spoilers ahead for those who haven’t played the game, so reader beware.

The first game in the Resident Evil series follows the exploits of the S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) team. Bizarre cannibalistic murders have taken place in the forest surrounding the small town of Raccoon City and the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team is sent out via helicopter to investigate. Not long after their departure Bravo team crashes and the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team catches the distress message. Alpha team is sent in to the rescue only to find the remains of the helicopter and a severed human hand before all hell breaks loose. The team is attacked by simplified dogs and as the flee farther into the forest the stumble upon the Spencer mansion. So the great conflict of being eaten alive by monster dogs or taking cover in a creepy mansion arises and of course creepy mansion wins. This is where the player begins. You either choose to play is Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. Jill carries better weapons and has more item space, but Chris can handle more of a beating, great play mechanics right? Well it’s not long before you stumble upon a zombie and as you return to the only real safe part of the mansion you find that the rest of your team has pretty much abandoned you, well that’s true if you play as Chris. If you play as Jill you get the help of one Mr. Barry Burton, who resembles a burly lumberjack. At this point you might be blaming your plight on your fearless leader Albert Wesker, as well you should. Well long story short, a bunch of monster fights, bits of horrible dialogue, and one giant shark later you find out that Wesker was working for the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation, who has secretly been developing biological weapons. The whole point of your little mansion adventure was to run a military team into zombies and mutant freaks to see if said mutant freaks were combat ready. So in a very James Bond like situation, Wesker corners you and explains his nefarious plan, while holding you at gunpoint of course, and in a very stupid move, releases a behemoth known as the Tyrant, which resembles Vin Diesel if he had a bad skin condition and a giant claw for a left arm. Well the Tyrant evidently isn’t to happy to be woken up, and chooses to impale Wesker before setting his ugly sites on you. Cue climatic fight in a creepy laboratory. Well make that anti-climatic. The fight is pretty easy and when I first played the game I was utterly disappointed. Of course this was before I learned the Resident Evil formula, which is first anti-climatic fight leads to actual climatic fight with a time limit. That’s right the whole mansion is set to self-destruct and you have to make it to the helipad. Of course once on the helipad Mr. pissed off Tyrant makes his return to make you crap your S.T.A.R.S. issued britches. This fight isn’t really all that difficult either, but it does have a satisfying ending consisting of a rocket launcher used to make Tyrant a big ass stain and a horrible memory. Although it really goes without saying, the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members board the helicopter and make it out of the mansion just in time to watch the fireworks from afar.

Now for fans of the game we all know that Wesker managed to inject himself with some kind of super T-Virus and ended up escaping the mansion and became an evil super human killing machine. I mean that’s plausible right?……Well even if it isn’t, it’s still a part of the enthralling and sometimes very strange Resident Evil lore. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not comparing the story to the works of Shakespeare, but for the horror game fan, it’s pretty damn cool. I myself have played Resident Evil 1-5 and Code Veronica. I know I tried a few of the off shoots from the main story, but let’s just say there’s a reason those games aren’t popular. The story has grown and grown and while I still consider myself a huge fan I have to say that I miss the zombies. Sure 4 and 5 had some eerie villagers with a bad parasite problem, but they just don’t have the same flare. Anyone who’s played the original games knows that while 4 and 5 may be creepy they lack the scares, such as zombie dogs jumping though hall windows or the first sight of the hideous Nemesis in number 3. And on that I do have to say that’s it’s really to bad that the second Resident Evil film had to ruin Nemesis, sorry, just saying. And as long as I’m just saying let’s move on to the films.

Oh Resident Evil movies, where do I even begin. I still remember the day I saw the preview for the first Resident Evil film. My fourteen year old brain almost shot out of my skull in excitement. I wish the preview would have been as far as I went because my curiosity only lead to great disappointment. I remember sitting in the theater and continually asking myself why they couldn’t just stick with the story from the game, why no leave well enough alone. Well they’ve managed to not follow the storyline for four movies now. The only similarities are some of the characters, Raccoon City, and the Umbrella Corporation. Other than that they are completely different entities. Now some years later I rewatched the first Resident Evil and managed to come to terms with the difference between the film and the game. Although I’m not nearly as interested in the events or characters, the film did manage to capture the same isolated feeling as the game as well as the idea of a militant team facing off against Umbrella’s monstrosities. Now I view the film as somewhat of a guilty pleasure, but that’s not to say I have any fuzzy feelings towards the sequels. For some reason unknown to even myself, I have watched each sequel and I have to say each effort just becomes more bizarre and more embarrassing. The plot is barely cohesive and it seems as if the writers just make up new rules as the story goes along. The worst part of all of this is that the studio plans to put forth more money into more sequels. Well I have a real swell idea. How about the directors and writers pull their heads from their posteriors and just start over again. Usually I hate the idea of reboots, but in this case they really just need to start again and actually follow the games. Of course the reason this doesn’t happen is because that would actually be something the real Resident Evil fans would want and we all know that isn’t important at all.

Well now that I have that out of my system I suppose I should draw this blog entry to a conclusion. Resident Evil is and shall remain one of my very favorite games of all time. Every once in a while I break out the old playstation and I put in my ancient copy of the game. The second I hear the horrible voiceover I feel the nostalgia and that’s something I can’t say for many games. Although Resident Evil 5 might not be the swan song of the series I still hope for more sequels, and Capcom please bring back the zombies.