Resident Evil (2002) - The Zomb Before the Storm

 Zombie movies have a very touch and go relationship with pretty much every genre there is. There are zombie romance stories involving zombies, obviously, kids zombie movies, zombie comedies, animated zombie movies and pretty much any other you can think of. The idea of a video game zombie movie was not a novel one. This could be the first one ever and it honestly wouldn't be that impressive. Video game movies still had the stigma of being terrible, and this was a bit of a sneaker hit. It wasn't a masterpiece of any sort but it was enough to earn it a cult following. 

The big problem with it for a lot of people was its extreme lack of source material in the script. Not only do we not get any characters from the game, but there's barely anything about a house. Instead we get more of a mystery science fiction thriller movie, in stark contrast to the survival horror featuring giant spiders. Mila Jovovich stars as Alice, and yes, there is a lot of Alice in Wonderland symbolism that leads to literally nothing. All of it stems from an earlier version of the script, where the Alice stuff actually had something to do with what was in the plot. They changed so much of it, that it hardly matters at all. 

Alice has amnesia, which is always a terrible sign with any movie wanting to do cheap twists. Seriously, the house puts "Forget everything" chemicals in the air for no reason at all. So, we're whisked away on the plot as a SWAT team from Umbrella Corp and lead them from the house, down into the basement where there's an entire headquarters doing experimentation called the HIVE. She's taken with her... "husband" Spence who is played by James Purefoy and they go through the facility, which is now completely silent. 

The SWAT team has no idea what the HIVE was working on because Umbrella never told them, they just deployed them to the location and thought they could figure it out on their own. Again, this makes no sense, but they go through and within minutes, most of them are dead. How did they die? Laser trap security systems. By the time we get to the zombies, there are two SWAT people, one of them played by Michelle Rodriguez. 

What follows is a lot of confusion. One of the people they bring along with them (played by Matt Addison) was involved, but only because he was looking for his sister. Alice soon finds out that his sister was her contact and now she is a zombie who is dead. Sad day. The zombie hordes and the zombie dogs are fun for the most part, and the lickers come into play at the end. For the time, the computer generated images are pretty good. They're nothing to write home about but they do their job and the artists blended it pretty well. 

The plot is full of truck-sized holes. Paul W.S. Anderson is not known for his stellar storytelling, more for slightly following the lore while telling a passable narrative along the way. Keeping to that narrative, however, will prove to be his biggest weakpoint when it comes to the Resident Evil series that this movie started. Sad to say, it was all downhill from here. The moment that this movie took the brother of the zombie sister and sliced him in the arm, the words "Nemesis Program" got people hyped for a sequel that would... fail to deliver. There was Nemesis and he was a prominent figure, but the execution... we'll leave that for the next movie review. Virtua braaaaaains...

The Saturn vs The Arcade

There will be tremendous amounts of talk between gamers about what all caused the great arcade crash. Obviously, once the home consoles began to take on more power, the arcade machines, big and clunky as they were, were starting to lose their usefulness. The arcade was not just a place to play games. It was a place to go when you wanted to be alone with your headphones and thoughts, a place to go with friends to play games either apart or in local multiplayer, and it was a place to go for parties and a party-like atmosphere. 

Many houses did not have this, but then arcades were also not conveniently in your home, usually. So, over time, the convenience of the home console outweighed going out and socializing or pouring gigantic amounts of quarters into machines. Of course, today arcades have the good sense to give you free arcade machines at a door price, rather than the alternative: spend every quarter you can find. 

Once I got a Sega Saturn, everything changed. Where I loved the rail shooters of old, especially Terminator, Virtua Cop solved that problem for me immediately. I was never good at racing games, so I never was very good at reaching the checkpoint in the alotted time. Well, Daytona USA and Sega Rally Championship scratched that itch just fine. Every single 3D and 2D fighting game was matched with Virtua Fighter 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The Sega Saturn was already going above and beyond. 

I never truly stopped going to the arcade. In fact, I went to the arcade as often as I could. Through high school, that grew harder and harder until the arcade finally closed. Now, of course the Saturn and the Dreamcast answered many of the problems that came about the arcade's demise. What it didn't do, was offer a proper substitute. Anyone will tell you that getting off your butt and going somewhere fun is a good way to kill an evening. You can game at home anytime you can carve out a moment to do so, but sometimes, you need to stretch your legs and check out some retro and new games at the 'cade, bro!

This was a great example of not knowing what we had when we had it. Even I was stupid enough to think that just because the games were getting more awesome and graphically inclined as the arcades, then why would I need to go somewhere to game? Well, arcades took a nap for a while, and there were some places that offered you to game on PC's in LAN settings, but those did not last very long. There were even places that let you game on a console for a door fee, but for some reason, those places were often overpriced and often did not last long at all. It seemed we were going through more experimental phases, leaving arcades in lobbies of theaters and other facilities instead of full on arcade facilities. 

It wasn't until in the past decade that arcades have started to gain more traction with the onlooking public. Real arcades with the aforementioned door fees started coming along and offering old arcade cabinets, consoles and new arcade cabinets with game menus that offer more games. The better arcades will even come back with pinball machines along with them, though they still require more expensive and elaborate maintenance. It is very nice to see people come to their senses and actually get up to go to these places, learning from their mistakes from the past. 

The arcades are just a fun place to be, whether it be with friends, family, or people you wish to get to know. Remember to not take them for granted, because they can die out as easily as they did in the early 2000's once again if we ignore them. Gaming graphics shouldn't affect our decisions on such a level that we forget we have friends and sometimes arcades just have the atmosphere we crave with a crowd we like. Just remember to not over do it on the soda and drink some Liquid Death... which is just water.

Doomverse #25 - The Spear and the Spia!

 Was six episodes of killing the third reich just not enough for you? Would you like to fight some more zombies and increasingly powerful supernatural beings? Well, here you go, not only did ID Software make the first episode of Spear of Destiny, but they outsourced to Formgen Corporation for the sequels lumped in with it. While the game sold rather well and the sequels met with some fairly bad reviews for shoddy graphics, that is only the beginning of what is really wrong with the entire sequel itself. 

The real problem was, as great as Wolfenstein 3D turned out to be for its time, it was also rather long and the quality dipped near the end. In fact, Episode 6 was rather exhausting, especially if you're having a full run of the game. This did not do the game any favors when Spear of Destiny came out. There were a number of players that were more than willing to return to the trenches and kill more of the Axis. The vast majority, though, had already had the full run and approached with a lot less enthusiasm. 

It was more of a good thing, but it was also more twisting and turning halls with a lot more annoying closets full of SS, guards and officers. Then, there is the return of the mutants and there inlies one of the game's biggest flaws. The mutants were easily one of the worst things about the first Wolfenstein 3D release. Wolfenstein 3D's original Episode 2 was a lot easier when you just went to kill the doctor. His many range attacks are easily avoided and he has around the same amount of HP as the other bosses. The mutants, on the other hand, make no sound to alert you of their presence. They begin shooting almost immediately whether you see them or not and two shots up close is more than enough to take your health all the way down. 

Including them in this sequel was an abysmal decision and the game suffers as a result. Once you get into the levels and the hallways, you get the good old Wolfenstein feel. If you haven't played in a long time, it's passable. You even get a good sense of nostalgia as you finally start finding the bosses within the levels. Their designs are rather different, but that's nothing compared to the next episodes. Formgen's designs were very, very strange all around and that only started the problems.

The new weapon designs, level designs and boss designs throughout Spear of Destiny's sequel episodes (sequels within sequels) were all just flat out off-putting. This was where the series took a dip for most everyone involved. Yes, it has a following and yes, there are fans who will live and die by the original Wolfenstein 3D games, but the guns look like cheap toys! They look like poorly made plastic renditions of the original guns. That may sound like a nitpick but it is so distracting. People compared this to a poorly made fan mod of the game, and there were already numerous fan made mods that were better than Spear of Destiny's sequel episodes. 

The supernatural elements they added did bring an interesting flavor to the game, but it is just not worth the effort to reach the bosses. It is a slog to get through these maze levels of very similar tiling and even more similar array of guards, SS and officers that all of the games are riddled with. Needless to say, Wolfenstein 3D is good, but Spear of Destiny needs tiny doses. It's still your run and gun third reich killing fun and it's playable. That's right, one good thing you can say about Spear of Destiny is that it is Wolfenstein and it is playable. Try it for yourself and remember, if you need to, you can drink the floor blood. Virtua Grosse.

Doomverse #24 - Weapons of Hindsight

Quake's creation is unique among ID Software's game library in several ways. From the very beginning, this game marked the very first time that a speed-driven, totally 3D game was made with full vertical and horizontal angle controls. They almost didn't go with the full mouse look. This was also the first time that John Carmack required help in creating an engine. He and Michael Abrash worked night and day in its creation, toiling through countless bugs, world holes and glitches throughout. Originally, the plan was to create a game where you are Quake, and you hold a hammer. There was a giant backlash against the hammer, and somehow it boiled down to a one-handed axe, hardly bigger than a hatchet. 

The idea was that this game was going to be a roleplaying style fantasy game with melee focused combat. There was such a different blueprint in the beginning, but John Romero was dismayed to find out that the complexities of creating his dream game just couldn't happen in the timeframe they were on. The game was already behind schedule and the chaotic creation of the game's engine and levels made the atmosphere already toxic. Instead, it was decided that they would bring about a full 3D shooter with a Doom style weapon arsenal. As fun as the original Quake sounds, let's be completely honest, would it have been better?

To be straight forward, Quake created a huge culture of Deathmatching because of its very tight controls and fast paced explosions going off as you drive nails into your opponent. The melee combat would have a lot to live up to. Speaking of nails, that's a perfect place to start, not only did this game bring back the Super Shotgun, but it introduced the Nailgun. If that wasn't enough, they also brought about the Super Nailgun in the same breath. Putting NIN on every nail ammo box was also a stroke of genius. 

Among its well known weapons is the Thunderbolt, more commonly known as the Lightning Gun. Hazardous to use in water, but also slightly overpowered, the Lightning Gun brought about a decent replacement for the Plasma Rifle from Doom. If you need to take down a Shambler, use their own weapon against them. It's cool that you start with a Shotgun, but if that's all you have, I hope you know how to strafe. 

The Grenade Launcher is a case of acquired tastes. They're obviously not especially accurate, but the grenades do explode as they touch the enemy. This is also true for stupid, stinky ogre grenades! For some people, this is their pride and glory among the weapons. It has its advantages, as it does a ton of damage and has a chance of killing multiple targets in one explosion. 

It goes to show that, while they bemoaned creating essentially the same game while mastering Doom beforehand, Quake turned out to be a very different game. It has a similar arsenal, but the many minor differences stack up to a unique experience. While John Romero has stated that the Super Shotgun is his favorite Doomverse weapon, many have cited Quake's introductory weapons as their primary choices. These weapons have been updated and changed to fit future games to great effect. 

Quake 3 Arena was the game that really brought some of these weapons back in style. The Lightning Gun and the Grenade Launcher are prime examples of this, but sadly, we wouldn't be getting a new Nail Gun until Doom The Dark Ages. Once they brought it back, though, they brought it back with some serious lavish. The only weapon that never really saw a return was the Axe, which isn't much of a surprise, but it would have been nice to see in The Dark Ages at least. 

It is plain to see that Quake had just as much to do with the culture of the FPS genre in Arena Fighting as Doom did. It added weapons for future use and it brought a literal new dimension to the gaming scene back in the 90's while still having a strong following to this very day. The best weapon arsenal among these ID legends would be a laborious task, as all of them have their own balance and pros. The best way to appreciate these weapons is to figure out which ones you'd like to use when you're in a scuffle or an all out battle. Whether it be Doom, Quake or Wolfenstein, choose which weapon you prefer when faced with the challenge of destroying evil. Just remember to destroy it with big explosions and shells, lot's of shells. Virtua Buckshot.