The best adjective I can find to describe this game is "ass". It's awkward, unpleasantly trial-and-error-y, basically unplayable without save-states, and the extremely difficult tank-control-based combat is just really unfun and it's very easy to get soft-locked by it.
That said, despite all this ass-ness, I kinda love this game and its sheer ambition. It's incredible-looking for the times, and leans in super hard in trying to be as cinematic as possible, but like, less in a last-of-us-boring-prestige-way and more in a "We want to be a 90s direct-to-video action movie for some reason".
The action flows from setpiece to setpiece seamlessly, streamlining the Resident Evil formulas in ways that sometimes feel a bit ill-advised but are still quite interesting and unique (I love things that are Interesting!), and the FMVs cutscenes that punctuate the action are full of impressively animated gore, implied nudity and cheesy one-liners.
Disc 4 is the, slower, more meaty survival horror part of the game, and while there's a lot to like there too (the surreal vibes of that final segment in part reminded me of Sanitarium), I will forever hate the video game thing of ending games with big mechanically complex sections. I always kinda just want the ending bit to be as smooth as possible. But maybe that's just me.
But yeah, regardless, I enjoyed this a lot. Honestly, once you learn to save state constantly and to accept that every 10 to 15 minutes there will be some absolutely infuriating bit, this game rules. It's glorious ambitious earnest shlock in a very specific combination that you kinda don't see anymore in games.
That said, despite all this ass-ness, I kinda love this game and its sheer ambition. It's incredible-looking for the times, and leans in super hard in trying to be as cinematic as possible, but like, less in a last-of-us-boring-prestige-way and more in a "We want to be a 90s direct-to-video action movie for some reason".
The action flows from setpiece to setpiece seamlessly, streamlining the Resident Evil formulas in ways that sometimes feel a bit ill-advised but are still quite interesting and unique (I love things that are Interesting!), and the FMVs cutscenes that punctuate the action are full of impressively animated gore, implied nudity and cheesy one-liners.
Disc 4 is the, slower, more meaty survival horror part of the game, and while there's a lot to like there too (the surreal vibes of that final segment in part reminded me of Sanitarium), I will forever hate the video game thing of ending games with big mechanically complex sections. I always kinda just want the ending bit to be as smooth as possible. But maybe that's just me.
But yeah, regardless, I enjoyed this a lot. Honestly, once you learn to save state constantly and to accept that every 10 to 15 minutes there will be some absolutely infuriating bit, this game rules. It's glorious ambitious earnest shlock in a very specific combination that you kinda don't see anymore in games.