Resident Evil: Containment
released on Sep 28, 2023
A mod for Resident Evil
Spread across five episodes, Resident Evil: Containment is a still in progress overhaul mod based on the Windows PC Version of Resident Evil (1996). It is a prequel story set during the first days of the Arklay Mansion outbreak, and detail USS Agent Ghost's investigation into the outbreak alongside his partner HUNK. The mod features new mechanics including human enemies and stealth mechanics, in addition to entirely new environments based on cut concepts from the original game.
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This review isn't scored because I guess the game is incomplete. It's also a free EXTREMELY high effort and long fan mod for a game where most mods are just "Play as Barry instead" or whatever.
Resident Evil Containment is a very neat game. That's the best way to describe it. It has a ton of cool connective tissue that classic RE fans like myself orgasm over- the door on the helipad gets used, there's a blackout at the mansion resulting in really cool pre-renders, you actually get to see the front of the mansion in game, you get to go outside beyond the courtyard, you get to use some unused elements of the caves, the unused elevator in the mansion is given a purpose, and the cut tower and boathouse areas are included in the game (though not in a major way, one is a relatively small area, and the other is just setdressing for the finale- still cool).
This is COOL. REALLY COOL.
It's a shame the game is plagued by AWFUL DESIGN CHOICES. That's right, choices, plural. I love my man Aydan Watkins, but this has been an issue with his more 'focused' projects, not to say that he should limit himself, rather, he should crib more from the games he's modding.
Containment is a very objective based mod. Find out what's happening, and then investigate, OH you need to upgrade you gas mask, OH you need to turn off the poison gas, OH you need to do this and that, it goes on and on. It's constant fetch quests covered in linear design that fails to hide the fact that this is fetch quests with linear design. Resident Evil 1 and CV hide this fact by just having you be able to explore so much all at once, and the game only guideposts to you by showing off the key items, and (sometimes) later showing off where you put them. Resident Evil 2 just hides this fact by making the progression be fun, you don't have someone in your ear telling you what to do the whole time.
That's the other issue, the constant chattering. Cutscene after cutscene, HUNK telling you what to do, a dying scientist telling you what to do, your girlfriend telling you what to do, the player character telling you what to do. The game is straight forward! I can figure it out!
Look to Resident Evil '96, the game this is a mod of. It doesn't tell you shit when you leave the mansion, but it guideposts you in a natural way. You get the crank and you immediately have a use for it, you get to the guardhouse and can immediately save and store items, that kind of thing. Two doors are open, one is locked, and while those two rooms you can go into are useless, the game doesn't just say "Go down the hallway adjacent to these rooms to get the room key." This is hyperbole to be fair, but it genuinely does feel like that when I'm playing Containment and it just isn't that fun, I can imagine if Aydan cut out pretty much all of the cutscenes, just had HUNK disappear immediately and leave it to the player to figure out everything, people would've progressed just fine.
Next thing on the docket- fuck stealth levels. I saw this shit on the youtube channel and went "Please just save this for a cool Metal Gear Evil mod or whatever", and then I get to the Final Chapter in Containment, and there's a fucking RE stealth level. Where getting caught is an instant game over. Where you have to do each one TWICE because the other character can't just follow you. Fuck me, I'm sorry but this shit doesn't belong in limited saves Resident Evil! It doesn't!
There's an earlier stealth section involving dogs, but thankfully you can choose to keep running even if one hit will kill you. Nice touch, adding the RE2 limp when Ghost cripples himself by the way.
Another thing! That Plant-42 boss fight is the most annoying shit on the face of the planet, and I hope to God it gets fixed. For some reason, the flamethrower wouldn't actually register against it, look up a walkthrough because I just ragequit the game when I ran out of ammo, and I see fucking Kendozone running right into the middle of it and spraying for max results. There's also zero feedback when you shoot it with a handgun, it's absurd.
Speaking of boss fights- please for the love of God, don't randomly decide the doors are locked. What's locking them? Is Wesker looking through the security cameras and going "Hmmm yes, I should bully this USS soldier", what the hell is going on? Another instance of bullshit locked doors is the sole instant kill puzzle in the game, one you can access long before actually getting the clue for it, and you will get locked in and die. Yes, it warns you that you should be careful. No, that does not justify this type of design in a limited saves Resident Evil title.
Speaking of traditional Resident Evil, I need to ask. What is the point of having limited resources, and then just taking them all away anyways. Why? Also, why does you inventory gain two slots when Ghost cripples himself, and those subsequently disappear when Trent fixes him (I actually know why, I imagine you imported RE2 Leon for that, right? And his menu stuff carried over or something dumb).
SPEAKING OF TRENT.
Man I fucking hate Trent. SD Perry is such a massive hack and Trent is emblematic of that alongside Rebecca. I mostly don't mind him being in fan games, but MAN he's just omnipresent and that carries over here. Insane shit.
Another non-RE1 addition I hate? Lisa. People talk about Lisa like she's this really deep and haunting part of the remake, she's just worse Nosferatu, all these awful melodramatic notes, tons of scenes that don't make sense, they put her into the game in the most jarring way possible (mandatory extra areas that pad the game out and kneecap the pacing), and she goes "Moooootheeeeer!" in her last scene, like I'm not supposed to laugh at how stupid it looks, the immortal tentacle monster that lives 20 feet away from the high tech super secret bio lab, leaping into the abyss. Mikami thought he was cooking with this shit.
Oh, what about Lisa in Containment? She works pretty well as a boss fight honestly, I still laughed when she did her death cry, but at least I got to kill her. Second only to Umbrella Chronicles in fulfilling this wish of mine.
Other stuff to rant about... the voice acting is actually pretty good? Yeah, I was expecting phoned in, "Hey this is my cousin Randy, he's going to read half the script in his dull tone of voice he gained from being an alcoholic", but nah, semi professional, occasionally good.
On the FINAL CHAPTER as it is called, there's a door that's supposed to lead to an alternate ending chapter, but it just said 'Coming soon' or whatever so... guess we be waiting for that. HUNK knife fight seems cool, is a bit lame. Ah well, it is done in RE1.
All in all, a very admirable project, but one with many many many many many many many many many many flaws. But also OH MY GOD IT'S THE TOWER! THE TOWER IS IN RE1! HOLY SHIT WE GET TO USE THE FIRST FLOOR ELEVATOR!! THE FRONT OF THE MANSION, WE CAN RUN AROUND IT!!!!
Resident Evil Containment is a very neat game. That's the best way to describe it. It has a ton of cool connective tissue that classic RE fans like myself orgasm over- the door on the helipad gets used, there's a blackout at the mansion resulting in really cool pre-renders, you actually get to see the front of the mansion in game, you get to go outside beyond the courtyard, you get to use some unused elements of the caves, the unused elevator in the mansion is given a purpose, and the cut tower and boathouse areas are included in the game (though not in a major way, one is a relatively small area, and the other is just setdressing for the finale- still cool).
This is COOL. REALLY COOL.
It's a shame the game is plagued by AWFUL DESIGN CHOICES. That's right, choices, plural. I love my man Aydan Watkins, but this has been an issue with his more 'focused' projects, not to say that he should limit himself, rather, he should crib more from the games he's modding.
Containment is a very objective based mod. Find out what's happening, and then investigate, OH you need to upgrade you gas mask, OH you need to turn off the poison gas, OH you need to do this and that, it goes on and on. It's constant fetch quests covered in linear design that fails to hide the fact that this is fetch quests with linear design. Resident Evil 1 and CV hide this fact by just having you be able to explore so much all at once, and the game only guideposts to you by showing off the key items, and (sometimes) later showing off where you put them. Resident Evil 2 just hides this fact by making the progression be fun, you don't have someone in your ear telling you what to do the whole time.
That's the other issue, the constant chattering. Cutscene after cutscene, HUNK telling you what to do, a dying scientist telling you what to do, your girlfriend telling you what to do, the player character telling you what to do. The game is straight forward! I can figure it out!
Look to Resident Evil '96, the game this is a mod of. It doesn't tell you shit when you leave the mansion, but it guideposts you in a natural way. You get the crank and you immediately have a use for it, you get to the guardhouse and can immediately save and store items, that kind of thing. Two doors are open, one is locked, and while those two rooms you can go into are useless, the game doesn't just say "Go down the hallway adjacent to these rooms to get the room key." This is hyperbole to be fair, but it genuinely does feel like that when I'm playing Containment and it just isn't that fun, I can imagine if Aydan cut out pretty much all of the cutscenes, just had HUNK disappear immediately and leave it to the player to figure out everything, people would've progressed just fine.
Next thing on the docket- fuck stealth levels. I saw this shit on the youtube channel and went "Please just save this for a cool Metal Gear Evil mod or whatever", and then I get to the Final Chapter in Containment, and there's a fucking RE stealth level. Where getting caught is an instant game over. Where you have to do each one TWICE because the other character can't just follow you. Fuck me, I'm sorry but this shit doesn't belong in limited saves Resident Evil! It doesn't!
There's an earlier stealth section involving dogs, but thankfully you can choose to keep running even if one hit will kill you. Nice touch, adding the RE2 limp when Ghost cripples himself by the way.
Another thing! That Plant-42 boss fight is the most annoying shit on the face of the planet, and I hope to God it gets fixed. For some reason, the flamethrower wouldn't actually register against it, look up a walkthrough because I just ragequit the game when I ran out of ammo, and I see fucking Kendozone running right into the middle of it and spraying for max results. There's also zero feedback when you shoot it with a handgun, it's absurd.
Speaking of boss fights- please for the love of God, don't randomly decide the doors are locked. What's locking them? Is Wesker looking through the security cameras and going "Hmmm yes, I should bully this USS soldier", what the hell is going on? Another instance of bullshit locked doors is the sole instant kill puzzle in the game, one you can access long before actually getting the clue for it, and you will get locked in and die. Yes, it warns you that you should be careful. No, that does not justify this type of design in a limited saves Resident Evil title.
Speaking of traditional Resident Evil, I need to ask. What is the point of having limited resources, and then just taking them all away anyways. Why? Also, why does you inventory gain two slots when Ghost cripples himself, and those subsequently disappear when Trent fixes him (I actually know why, I imagine you imported RE2 Leon for that, right? And his menu stuff carried over or something dumb).
SPEAKING OF TRENT.
Man I fucking hate Trent. SD Perry is such a massive hack and Trent is emblematic of that alongside Rebecca. I mostly don't mind him being in fan games, but MAN he's just omnipresent and that carries over here. Insane shit.
Another non-RE1 addition I hate? Lisa. People talk about Lisa like she's this really deep and haunting part of the remake, she's just worse Nosferatu, all these awful melodramatic notes, tons of scenes that don't make sense, they put her into the game in the most jarring way possible (mandatory extra areas that pad the game out and kneecap the pacing), and she goes "Moooootheeeeer!" in her last scene, like I'm not supposed to laugh at how stupid it looks, the immortal tentacle monster that lives 20 feet away from the high tech super secret bio lab, leaping into the abyss. Mikami thought he was cooking with this shit.
Oh, what about Lisa in Containment? She works pretty well as a boss fight honestly, I still laughed when she did her death cry, but at least I got to kill her. Second only to Umbrella Chronicles in fulfilling this wish of mine.
Other stuff to rant about... the voice acting is actually pretty good? Yeah, I was expecting phoned in, "Hey this is my cousin Randy, he's going to read half the script in his dull tone of voice he gained from being an alcoholic", but nah, semi professional, occasionally good.
On the FINAL CHAPTER as it is called, there's a door that's supposed to lead to an alternate ending chapter, but it just said 'Coming soon' or whatever so... guess we be waiting for that. HUNK knife fight seems cool, is a bit lame. Ah well, it is done in RE1.
All in all, a very admirable project, but one with many many many many many many many many many many flaws. But also OH MY GOD IT'S THE TOWER! THE TOWER IS IN RE1! HOLY SHIT WE GET TO USE THE FIRST FLOOR ELEVATOR!! THE FRONT OF THE MANSION, WE CAN RUN AROUND IT!!!!