It’s rare that we play a contemporary video game around these parts, but it happens every now and then. As it stands, I’ve been looking forward to my next foray into the Resident Evil franchise.
While I haven’t completely avoided discussion of the game, I have mostly avoided gameplay. Thus, this will be a blind playthrough. Thankfully, my friend David Phillips is here to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Thumbnail by Sam Callahan.
If it seems like I’m being harsh on Mia after the events of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, that’s because I am and she deserves it. I couldn’t fathom a world where I stayed with someone after learning that they were fully capable of developing a deadly weapon. Even more so if their negligence led to that same weapon visiting horrors upon an unsuspecting population. Ethan is either complicit or an idiot, and it’s hard to tell. When Mia gets offed in the opening cutscene, I find it difficult to care about her.
As for the game itself, it’s felt good in my hands so far. The early enemies were tough to fight off, but after that initial section, it feels like I’ve started to get my groove going. This isn’t my first Resident Evil game, and while I’ve never been great at them, I’ve also never truly sucked either.
What fascinates me is that the trailers I saw for the game seemed to really focus on Ethan Winters as an important figure in the events unfolding. It seemed like there was something about him specifically that made him the perfect person for the job. And yet, here it seems like Ethan just accidentally stumbles into this village. Sure, he’s out to find his daughter, but he doesn’t really do things so much as react to things being done to him.
That said, I have to give him credit for his tenacity. If he has anything, it’s an ability to endure even the most severe pain and torture to make it through dire situations, despite the odds. It’s so bad for poor Ethan that being horribly maimed and disfigured is core defining character trait.
Hopefully, as we progress, we becomes a bit more handy.
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