This is one of the most hilarious games I've played in quite a while. It was only $1 and it was damn worth it.

It really does show that indie developers and random nobodies are able to whip up something far more enjoyable and with little to no budget than a multi-billion dollar AAA corporation with hundreds of developers behind the studio.

I have played this game for a good 5-10 hours and I honestly can't get enough of it.

This is obviously a parody of Battlefield 2042 except that unlike Battlefield 2042, it's actually fun to play.

The best comparison I can make with this game is Phantom Forces from Roblox, just not as functional as that.

Unlike 2042, you can actually run this game. I play games with a low range graphics card, but despite this, I can still run the game relatively well.

It's actually well optimized which is pretty surprising to me regardless of the overly simplistic graphics.

This is a game that was made under the Unity engine, which might sound like a red alarm since engines like Unity and Unreal Engine 4 are quite infamous for many college intern bathroom projects with asset flips being sold on Steam when they should be free to play, but, this game feels like it was made by people who actually gives a shit about making a good game, or at the very least try.

Unlike Battlefield 2042, this game actually has

-No microtransactions

-ALL text chat

-Named teams like USA and Russia

-Functional gunplay mechanics

-No profanity filters

-A scoreboard with stats for every player in the lobby

-A region changer and fully working server browser

-Hell, you can even add your friends to an in-game friend list and join on them (though you have to make sure you have the same region selected as them)

The game also has voice chat, and again, this makes the experience even funnier.

You are also able to customize loadouts before you jump into a match as well. You get a total of 5 loadouts.

There are a total of 3 assault rifles
(M4A1, AK-47, FN SCAR)

One shotgun
(M3)

5 SMGs
(Vector, MX9, Uzi, P90, MP5)

3 sniper rifles
(M40A1, M107, SVD)

An RPG-7

And 4 Pistols
(Glock 17, M9, M1911, P250)


All of this adds up to a total of 17 weapons.

That's almost as many as BF2042 (the game has 22 weapons).

DICE… Seriously? Already it's a bad sign when a $1 indie game has just as many weapons as a AAA game that must have cost $100M or $200M to make.

So about the weapons, they all feel good to use. The recoil for some of the weapons are a bit high, but there is practically no bullet spread, and the hit detection, while it is wonky, is still functional.

The animations are quite well done. I especially like the reload animation for the M3 shotgun and the sound it makes when loading each shot into the chamber

Speaking of sounds, there are hitmarkers, but the sound effect is just the one ripped straight out of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

You thought I wouldn't notice? I know the sound of an old Modern Warfare hitmarker when I hear one. Lmao

Also the loading screens in this game are just great. Some of them made me burst out laughing. They're just meant to make fun of EA and DICE which is always appreciated.

There's also a cheeky feature that is meant to take a jab at Battlefield 2042 where you can purposely lower the frame rate and play the game at 20 FPS. That's just fucking brilliant lmfao

And there's even a mode where you can freely get into a hovercraft and fly it around like a fuckin' airplane which is meant to take yet another jab at the absolute joke of a state that 2042 is in at the moment.

It very well encapsulates the thought process behind releasing a game in a broken unfinished state, charging players full price for it, and then you have to wait 6-12 months for the patches and DLC to roll in before the game is actually in a state that is worth playing.

I like to call this the OYL Effect, or One Year Later Effect. Just like with Cyberpunk 2077.

Although, lord knows how much longer until that piece of shit is worth playing a second time.

As much as I have praised this game, there are issues I have with the game. Some minor, some major. The game is in Beta and it's only been out for less than a week so hopefully with enough support then the game will be way better.

Let's start with the weapon customization

[ 𝘼𝙏𝙏𝘼𝘾𝙃𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙎 ]

You are able to customize your guns with attachments. There are 5 different sights to put on your guns. Sights like the Red Dot Sight, Holographic Sight, Coyote Reflex Sight, and the 2x Scope.

However, the only other attachment that you can put on your guns are suppressors. However, I don't see the point of a suppressor because the game doesn't actually have a system implemented into the mini-map or in the gunplay where suppressors would actually have a purpose to be used.

Typically in Battlefield games, when you put a suppressor on your gun, you are sacrificing a certain amount of bullet velocity, effective damage range, and even bullet spread for the sake of keeping yourself hidden on the mini-map while firing your weapon.

However with this game, putting a suppressor on your gun doesn't really affect it in any way, the only difference is that gunshots are slightly quieter, which I guess is a bonus.

But this game also has a mini-map, however you can't actually see enemy positions on it when they fire their weapons.

So what's the point in using a suppressor?

Hell, what's the point in even having a mini-map if you can't see enemies on it? I'll get into that more in the next segment but since the only other attachment that you can equip is a suppressor, it makes me hope that we get more in the future.

Barrel attachments, extended magazines, a foregrip to reduce recoil, hell, give us the ability to change the scope on the sniper rifles.

Yeah, you can't actually change the scopes on the snipers. I hope this also changes.

Also I should mention this now but good God the M3 shotgun needs to be nerfed. It's the only one in the game but it's stupidly overpowered. The one shot kill range is flat out ridiculous. It ain't a shotgun, it's a goddamn sniper rifle. And it's spammed a lot. It can be genuinely really annoying to play against, especially since many of the full auto guns have high recoil and the character models have awkward hit boxes.


[ 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙈𝙄𝙉𝙄-𝙈𝘼𝙋 ]

Mini-maps in some games are pretty important. In Battlefield games, it's a very critical and vital tool for big picture situational awareness and allows for more complex decision making in the game. It also allows players to learn the layout of every map. It just makes navigation easier.

It can genuinely increase the skill gap and strategy to the gameplay and make the difference between a skilled or noob player.

However like I said earlier, you can't see enemy positions on the mini-map, and this is a problem because

1. It makes using a suppressor almost pointless

2. You can just get shot from out of nowhere but not know where you took the fire from, especially since the TTK (Time to Kill) is very fast and the kill-cam is broken at the moment.

Half the time I get shot I'm just like "Who is shooting me?? Where is it coming from?"

You could also use the mini-map to learn the layout of each map however it's not even zoomed out enough so you can actually see where exactly you are. You can't zoom it out, you can't make it bigger, etc.

One last thing, there are three modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Domination.

In Domination, you can see every capture point on the mini-map, however if you move too far away, the flag icons will disappear from the mini-map's field of view.

But you can still see the capture points on your screen anyway regardless of how far away you are. So then why would you look at the mini-map?? It's a waste of time and it could even get you killed.

All of this just makes the addition of a mini-map borderline pointless, especially since you can also see your teammate icons on screen as well regardless of distance.

[ 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙒𝙉𝙎 ]

The spawns need definitive work, since as of right now, some of these spawns are flat out fuckin' appalling. Sometimes enemies spawn right in back of me, other times they spawn right in front of me so I end up killing them the moment they spawn, so at times it actually makes me feel bad, even though I shouldn't really take it seriously.

The one shopping mall map is just an absolute clusterfuck, same with City 2042. Everyone just spawns all over the goddamn place, either in front or in back of each other. Those maps needs to have a serious rework with the spawns, because everyone just spawns on top of each other a lot and it can get pretty annoying at times.

And the flashbangs, oh my Lord, the flashbangs. The flashbang spam is enough to give me fuckin' tinnitus. Every time people spawn they just chuck all of their flashes and sometimes all I hear is the sound of a flashbang explosion, you know, that horrible ear raping sound that'll make your asshole bleed.

I hear it a lot. Yes it did make me laugh my ass off for 10 minutes straight because everyone lost their shit about it, but it just shows that both the flashes and the spawns need a rework. The effective range of the flashbang is just too high.

Also, the sound of the flashbang is just too loud, it's actually gonna make me go deaf.

Again, hopefully there are improvements to this.

[ 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙎 ]

There are no stat displays for any of the weapons, so this does make it difficult to know which guns are better than another (cause there are some differences between each weapon).

[ 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘽𝙐𝙂𝙎 ]

I haven't mentioned it up until now but damn this game is fucking buggy. I already talked about the awful spawns but in just my second match of playing, I fell through the map on City 2042 and died numerous times.

It got to a point where I was in a 1v1 with another player and I actually died many more times from falling through the map. He wouldn't stop falling through the map and dying either.

I mentioned earlier that the kill-cam is broken. When I get shot, the kill-cam actually pans in the opposite direction from where I got shot from. So I would get killed and the camera would just point at nothing.

There's also a bug where the text in the chat box when you're typing not only clips out of the box, but it even goes off screen if your message is too long.

I'm not sure if this is also a bug or not, but if you go into the loadouts, there are categories for melee, grenades, and player models, however when you click to change any of them, nothing appears.

This is either two things: a bug, or content that hasn't been released yet. Only time will tell.

I've also had a problem where sometimes when I sprint but then I stop, my character gets stuck in the sprinting animation and I can't aim down sights, unless I either shoot my weapon or I swap to my sidearm.

And then there is a bug where the game won't let me pick a team so I can actually spawn, but then I was able to fix this by just selecting to spectate teammates, and then the game will let me choose my team.

And lastly, choosing your loadout is jank as fuck. The only way to know what loadout you're gonna spawn with is to go into the loadout screen, click the loadout to customize it, then you back out of every menu until you get to the spawn button, then you can spawn with said specific loadout.

Why not have a loadout selection screen before you spawn?

[ 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 ]

I actually wasn't expecting to go so in depth into a game that is literally worth a goddamn dollar on Steam, but underneath all the issues that I have with the game and the glitches and bad spawns, is a game that has potential.

It's actually way more fun than any other EA game that I have played in a long time. This game genuinely made me smile and laugh my ass off multiple times.

Though by listing all the criticisms that I or anyone else has with the game will help support it so that it becomes better than what it is at the moment. Again, the game is less than a week old and it's still in beta, so only time will tell if big changes are made to it.

The game already has quite a cult following and pretty much every Steam review I read says that even this shit is better than BF 2042. So you know you done fucked up somewhere when even indie games kick your ass in many ways.

This is actually a game where I want to gift it to all of my friends just so that we could all play it together. And you should do that as well. Cause the game is actually worth it. You'll surely get way more value.

7/10

2021, which is 20 entire years since this game has come out. Are you feeling old yet? Cause I sure do. I was only 5 years old when this game came out so I ended up missing out on it since I was much too young to play games like this at the time.

Silent Hill 3 is approaching that ripe ol' age as well. I plan on writing a review for that game too since I did get a physical PS2 copy as a Christmas gift a couple years ago. After beating it a couple times and finding every secret and all the content the game has to offer, I consider it one of the greatest survival horror games I have ever played.

I played Silent Hill 1 many years ago and I enjoyed that game a lot as well.

In 2011, Konami announced to the public's excitement that Silent Hill 2 and 3 would be returning in an HD Collection for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

However the first red flag was how the collection was missing Silent Hill 1 and 4 entirely, due to the fact that Tom Hullett, the guy in charge of the franchise at the time, said Silent Hill 1 wasn't included in the collection because it's a PS1 game, and that porting PS1 games to current generation hardware was "difficult."

But then he would go on and say that Silent Hill 4 wasn't included because of "how polarizing it was to the fanbase."

Right off the bat something was wrong here. Then screenshots were leaked of Silent Hill 2 HD on Twitter, around one month before the collection came out, in which Masahiro Ito, the level and monster designer of the first three Silent Hill games, responded in complete shock.

The game looked like total shit compared to the original. Then the game came out, and it all went downhill from there.

Silent Hill HD Collection is one of the most broken and disappointing releases in gaming history that not only completely disrespects both the legacy of Silent Hill 2 and 3, but also the people who worked their collective asses off creating them to make them the absolute best they can be.

I actually made an in-depth review about both Silent Hill 2 and 3 HD if you are interested. I will post a link. I go in-depth about all of the bugs, glitches, graphical errors, the awful tweaks done to the voice acting and script in Silent Hill 3, and then I go into how this collection came to be and who is responsible. It's actually become my most Hearted review on this site.

https://www.backloggd.com/u/Katiopeia/review/106209/

The reason why I am bringing all of this up is because we are in the year 2021, and the HD Collection is still the most accessible way to get your hands on Silent Hill 2 and 3, but to this day, the HD versions are buggy, broken, and unoptimized.

To this day Konami has completely abandoned the IP for many years in favor of their Silent Hill, Metal Gear, and Castlevania Pachinko machines, which are basically their Japanese slot machines. They're basically the fuckin' EA of Japan. Greed is more important than the well-being of your most beloved franchises it seems.

Many people call Silent Hill 2 the best game in the franchise, and I was desperate as shit to play it. At the time of making that HD Collection review it was literally impossible for me to get the game because I didn't have a PC, and if I wanted an original PS2 copy, I'd have to trade an arm and a leg for one.

I refused to play the HD Collection. I saw the screenshots, I read articles online, and I watched reviews and gameplay footage on YouTube but without spoiling myself from story details. I did not want my first experience to be through the HD Collection.

But, I eventually did save up money and I just decided to buy my own gaming PC this generation for reasons such as exclusives and emulation.

So after this inflated intro, after finally playing through Silent Hill 2 for the first time, when I watched those credits roll, I felt very emotional, the likes of which I hadn't felt in a long time from playing games.

I sat there at my desk in total silence, in complete amazement. I felt terrible inside that I missed out on a game like this all those years ago, and at the same time I felt a serious anger because of the fact that there are people out there who first experienced these games through the HD Collection, and to this day, Konami has never fixed this gap because of their greedy anti-consumer business practices that still persist to this very day.

I imagine the people who played HD Collection for the first time wondered what in the hell all the fuss was about all those years ago and just thought of people like me as like a bunch of idiots, and this is something that Masahiro Ito expressed on Twitter to his disappointment.

So with that being said, I will do the standard critique of the story, gameplay, presentation, etc. I won't spoil anything major if you haven't played it yet. Though I would like to talk about how insane the narrative structure to this game is.

[ 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔 (𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨) ]

Instead of Harry Mason from the first game, the protagonist of this game is James Sunderland, who arrives in Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his missing wife Mary that she is alive, waiting for him at their "special place."

Three years before this she passed away from a fatal disease, so James wonders how in the hell she could still be alive. He knows the journey is insane but goes through with it anyway, seeking answers.

At a first glance he doesn't really stand out as a very charismatic character, in fact he is very stilted, especially when compared to other video game protagonists at the time.

However, from the way that he awkwardly conversates with others, his mannerisms, his disregard for his own personal safety, even the way that he's dressed, are all signs of a damaged man that has lost pretty much everything he cared about, a person who never really came to terms with his grief and hasn't moved on.

But deep down there is a glimmer of hope, that Mary is still alive, and that alone is enough to keep James pushing on. So I as a player not only relate to James' inner struggle, but I get invested because I not only want to see the truth as well, but I want to see James succeed.

Because James is actually quite a likeable character. He is not your typical one note passive aggressive douchebag like you see with other video game characters, but his mental state does come into question.

Because at first it's difficult to tell whether or not everything that James is seeing is real; the horrifying monsters, the empty fog covered town, the characters that he meets who are just as confused and lost as he is, and memos found in the world containing very questionable descriptions.

The reason that I say this is because at one point in the game James meets a little girl named Laura, and she doesn't seem to physically see any of the monsters that he does.

And at another point he meets Maria who strikingly has the same face as Mary. The difference being that Maria has a different style of clothing, and her personality is not the same. Despite this, James actually sees his wife inside of Maria.

It's even made more apparent due to the fact that Maria shows indications that she knows more about James and Mary's relationship than what she should, and this makes her a very intriguing character.

And this brings James into question as to how sane he really is.

Which made me come to the conclusion that Silent Hill is the physical embodiment of a person's mental state. What the characters see in Silent Hill is representative of what they feel in their minds.

It's similar to the first game with Alessa, in which the Silent Hill that Mason travels through is the culmination of the everyday pain and trauma of a poor girl who has been used by an evil cult to create a god to take over the world.

Silent Hill 2 expands upon this, and I believe it's absolutely fuckin' brilliant.

Every character in this game is reflective of James in one way or another, but each of them have their own inner demons, thus they all see their own fucked up versions of Silent Hill. All of them are on their own journeys through Silent Hill. And this is what makes the characters more memorable and relatable.

This is exacerbated by the voice acting. It is very schlocky, hell it's a bit terrible in some areas. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of awkward line deliveries. This game's voice acting just reeks of a game that came out in the early 2000s or 1990s.

But, the voice acting is intentional, and that's the key word right there. Everyone speaks in a lost, terrified, or even confused manner, but that's the point.

Everyone in this game is either sad, lost, or broken in their own ways. Everyone has a depressing backstory behind them, they're just complete strangers to each other, and most of them don't even know why they're here in Silent Hill to begin with, unlike James.

This is what makes James stand out above the rest. He knows why he is in Silent Hill, it's just the question of why he sees what he does. He keeps the details about his relationship to himself. But he keeps going forward even though he knows that he could end his life.

And he does still have humanity inside of him, because you can see that he wants to help all of these hurt people.

So with all of this being said, it brings into question what the true nature of Silent Hill really is. And this is an ingenious philosophical concept from a narrative standpoint, because it makes the town itself feel like an actual character, exacerbated by the horrific atmosphere, like it has a self aware twisted consciousness, like it's alive.

And that's a scary thing to think about. Because like I said earlier, and this is what my beliefs are, is that whatever trauma or mental strain the characters have felt is what they see in Silent Hill.

When you think about it, when you take a step back and think about the when, the why, and the how, it becomes so much more grandiose than just a story about stopping an evil cult from summoning a world destroying god, or a story about finding your missing wife.

These are simple setups. But they go much farther than that, and that's what I love about these games. You play through this game and you ask yourself at least once "What in the hell is going on?"

And that's the magic question that pretty much describes this whole franchise. The intrigue, the mystery, the character development, the tragic backstories of these characters, it all comes together like that perfectly written novel by someone like Stephen King, John Saul, or Dean Koontz.

This is a story that was designed to be questioned, to be discussed, to provoke the player's mindset. It's a game meant to challenge you, and I haven't even talked about the gameplay yet. This is how you make a game's narrative interesting, stand out, and make it the center of discussion for a long time.

Because everything that I have stated so far are just my own personal opinions. This narrative is subjective among the players. You may have a completely different opinion from me about the characters and the town and the sequence of events.

You could write a book dissecting the human nature behind this game's themes, but there will always be someone who will say "yes, but what about this, this, and this?"

But that's why I like this story so much. This is why it's still talked about to this very day. It is masterfully put together.

I started off questioning the world, but as I played and I unraveled these mysteries, by the end, it was insanely satisfying, and it made me want even more context.

And the multiple endings only just add the cherry on the top of the sundae.

The story alone makes this game one of the best games ever made. This storytelling is what sets these games apart from the competition, Silent Hill 2 just stands above the rest, it just blows the Resident Evil games out of the water in that aspect.

[ 𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔 ]

The gameplay on the other hand, while the game plays fine, the mechanics do work for what they are, they are very clunky, but that is to be expected from a 2001 survival horror game.

This is a third person survival shooter with fixed camera angles, although the camera does move around with the player like in Code Veronica. The game has tank controls, however you are able to turn the camera around to face James' back by just holding down the L2 button, if you want to see what's in front of you.

Also with the push of either L1 or R1, you can strafe left and right. I don't really use this because it can be awkward using this because of the tank controls and claustrophobic areas. You can't strafe shoot in this game either.

But, pushing L1 and R1 at the same time makes you do an instant 180 degree turn like in Resident Evil. Now this was very useful. I'm very glad this mechanic is also in these games.

It works perfectly for a game like this. Pushing up makes you go forward no matter which direction you are facing. Pushing down makes you go backwards, pushing left or right makes you rotate left or right. Which means that every time the camera angle changes, you don't have to reorient your movement on the control pad or thumbstick.

There are games that have this issue where the camera changes perspective but there are no tank controls, meaning now you are pushing the direction the opposite way, and it can get disorienting. You have to reconfigure your movement with each camera change. But you don't have to worry about that in any of the old Resident Evil or Silent Hill games.

Since this is a Survival Horror game, the goal is about making it out alive rather than fighting everything head on, because ammo and healing items are limited. Once you run out of resources, you're screwed. This is where the survival part comes in.

This means that every enemy encounter means that your brain has to make quick decision making. Do you waste ammo and shoot the enemy down so that you don't have to worry about them anymore? Or do you risk taking damage and running past them so you can save your ammo? But if you take too much damage you need to use healing items which are also limited.

This is a central theme in Resident Evil. However unlike in RE, Silent Hill has a much bigger emphasis on melee combat. Melee is actually a viable strategy in this game if you want to save ammo. But you should be careful since using melee is more risky than using guns. Or you could just do what I do and just run past enemies.

Avoiding enemies actually isn't that difficult in this game though don't get too comfortable cause there will be times where you have to fight to avoid taking damage, especially in the hospital with those goddamn nurses.

Speaking of enemies, man, the enemy variety in this game is goddamn astounding. They not only look terrifying but the sounds that they make actually gave me some shivers.

The acid spitting enemies are the basic enemy type but that acid does hurt. Most of the time I run past them to save ammo

I hate those goddamn cockroaches since the sounds they make just make me seriously uncomfortable

The nurses can be threatening since some of them can wield guns, fucking guns

But the best enemy in the game is the Pyramid Head. He is basically the Nemesis of Silent Hill 2 though he doesn't appear as often. Still, he stalks and attacks you throughout the whole game in some parts. He wields a gigantic axe and it doesn't have a face besides his head being a weird pyramid shape.

This guy is fucking amazing. He not only looks threatening, but the fact that he is prevalent throughout the whole game just shows how much of a great force it is.

There are a handful of different melee weapons. You first start off with a wooden plank, then you can obtain a steel pipe, a great knife, and when you beat the game you can obtain a chainsaw and a can of infinite aerosol spray in a second playthrough.

Basically, the more damage the weapon does, the more awkward it is to use. It takes James a while to swing melee weapons, you have to wait for a slight wind up animation before he swings, but it's even worse than using heavier weaponry.

The damage for the melee weapons is categorized from weakest to strongest

Wooden Plank > Steel Pipe > Great Knife > Chainsaw

So about the weapons, you only get three of them: a pistol, a shotgun, and a hunting rifle.

They all feel great to use. The sound design of the weapons is just deliciously good. The pistol is good for weaker enemies and the shotgun as you would expect is a powerhouse at close range.

The hunting rifle also has high damage and can be used at longer ranges.

Also, I find the aerosol spray to be pointless because while it can immobilize enemies for a brief amount of time, it can damage James if you use it too much.

When you use the shotgun or the rifle, you have to wait for the animation of James pulling the loading mechanism before you can move around again. This creates a gameplay strategy where you have to time your shots and get into a good position so that you don't risk yourself taking damage while you're in the middle of loading your gun.

Because unlike in other games where you seem to play as a super soldier who is deadeye accurate and reloads a gun like if they had a Call of Duty Sleight of Hand perk, Silent Hill games aren't like that.

James is not a soldier, not a police officer, or even a gun nut. James is just a regular civilian who has never had any combat experience. He has never been in a situation where he has to use a firearm or a goddamn chainsaw to defend himself.

Yes, James can miss shots, he moves around sluggishly while using a firearm, he takes a while to reload a gun. But this is all intentional.

The movement and combat mechanics are awkward and clunky.. because it's supposed to be.

That just fits James' character more.

Not to mention, James is a bit frail. It can be easy to lose a good chunk of your health in a short time if you're not careful.

For example, those basic enemies that spit acid at you, I think it only takes 2 or 3 hits from that to go from Green to Red health.

Also, the flashlight is a central mechanic since the majority of the game is set in the dark.

Although there's pretty insane attention to detail where if you have the flashlight off, James will miss even more shots, however it will be harder for enemies to see you.

I don't see why you would play with the flashlight off other than for a challenge run, but I love that this detail is in the game.

Some of the areas that you will be exploring are tight hallways in which avoiding enemy attacks can be tricky. I like to read enemy patterns and I just run as much as I can. I only fight and use up ammo if I really, really have to.

In Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3, you get infinite inventory space. You are able to pick up as many healing items, bullets, and other key items as much as you want. You may think this may break the challenge of a survival horror game, but it doesn't because there is a perfect balance of item drops, so that it doesn't feel like you can just carry 1000 rounds of ammo and 50 healing items.

This also reduces the amount of backtracking you would have to do if you had limited inventory space, so this keeps the pace of the game going.

Although there is a setting in the options menu where you can multiply the amount of ammo you can obtain, why would you do that other than for power trips?

Yeah, power trips can be fun, but I like to actually be challenged when I play a survival horror game. I mean, it's in the name, survival.

When you don't have that setting on, ammo is rare. Healing items are a bit more plentiful, but since James can take a lot of damage even on Normal difficulty, you still have to use your items wisely and conserve what you can.

So now about the difficulty, there are actually two different types of difficulty: combat and puzzle difficulty.

Puzzle difficulty is one of the greatest things to ever have graced gaming. See, I like puzzles in some games, although there can be times where a specific puzzle can be such a ball breaker that I get forced to look up guides on the internet.

And I try to look up guides as least as I can. I can't stand difficult puzzles. It's actually why I have had a hard time getting into the old Tomb Raider games, the Uncharted games, Resident Evil 1, and even Silent Hill 1. The puzzles in SH1 are legendarily difficult, requiring you to know fuckin' Shakespeare and all that nonsense in order to solve them.

And that game didn't have puzzle difficulty. Silent Hill 2 introduces this. You can select Easy, Normal, or Hard puzzles, so you can make them as easy or as hard as you want, either because you hate difficult puzzles like I do, or you're a glutton for masochism.

This is an ingenious system. More games need to have this.

In fact the customization in general is just excellent. You can choose both combat and puzzle difficulty, you can tweak how much ammo you obtain, and with the flashlight mechanic, you can basically make the game as easy or as hard as you want.

If you play any of the later editions of Silent Hill 2 you can play the Maria side story. But it's recommended that you beat James' story first as the Maria scenario contains spoilers.

Maria's story is shorter than James' however it gives more context and backstory into her character and the events that follow James' journey, which means that like I said earlier, she is an important character, with depth and weight to her personality. The fact that she gets her own scenario just shows how much the developers wanted to flesh out this character.

Maria's arsenal only consists of a powerful snub nose revolver and a butcher knife. Also, she doesn't ever get a flashlight. You would think this would be a pain in the ass because of the game being 80-90% dark, but the game does a good job at making everything bright enough that you can actually see where you're going.

Although fighting enemies without a flashlight can either make the encounter more intense or more of a pain to deal with depending on how you look at it.

[ 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝙉𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 ]

This game reeks of an early 2000s game. Graphics wise, it has aged alright. The character models look good for 2001, though the lip syncing leaves much to be desired. And the voice acting as I mentioned earlier, it can range from pretty good to just plain terrible, but like I said, I think that was the point.

The FMV cutscenes however look really damn good, beautiful if I may say. All of the locations are just horrifying.

If I was to give a video game award for best horror atmosphere it would be these games. All the story elements that I talked about earlier really elevate the dread in these locations. Exploring some of these areas can be soul crushing because of the amazing sound design, horrific enemy design, and the darkness.

But the best part about this presentation has to be the soundtrack. Holy mother of shit, this game has one of the greatest soundtracks I have ever heard in a video game. The music evelates both the narrative and the gameplay so goddamn much.

The intro music, the cutscenes, the road to Silent Hill music, the Angela theme, the Maria theme, the bowling alley music, the hospital music, Silent Hill itself, the ending music, I love ALL of the tracks in this game.

This is Final Fantasy VI levels of goddamn brilliant in terms of music. This is one of the only times where I want to buy the official soundtrack for a game and put it up on a shelf as a collector's item, it's that good.

Akira Yamaoka, you're a damn genius composing this OST. The graphics, the voice acting, and the character models may have aged like milk stains, but this soundtrack never did.

[ 𝙃𝙊𝙒 𝙏𝙊 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔? ]

Like I have said a handful of times throughout this review, avoid the HD Collection like the Black Death, that is the absolute worst way to play the game.

The only way you can play this game is to either spend $65-150 on a physical PS2 copy, emulate it on PC with a PS2 emulator, or download the PC version online.

You can safely download the PC version from this link if you're interested.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/silent-hill-2-restless-dreams-bgd

However, the PC port of Silent Hill 2 is really buggy and unoptimized similarly to the HD Collection. Some examples would be a stretched out aspect ratio, weak fog effects, crashing issues, the FMV cutscenes being broken, the music getting stuck in a quarter second loop, and the key bindings are BEYOND appalling.

And that is where the Enhanced Edition mod comes in. Over the past 3 years or so a team of coders have created fan mods for Silent Hill 2 that both fixes and enhances the game in order to make it the definitive way to play the game. And to this day it's still being updated.

Enhances such as HD textures and backgrounds, a maximum resolution of 1440p, a fixed frame rate, modern PC key binding support, Xbox controller support, etc. These people are basically doing what Konami don't.

If you want to install this mod then here is a link.

http://www.enhanced.townofsilenthill.com/SH2/install.htm

Installing the mod is simple enough. You just download and unzip each file and then drag them into your Silent Hill 2 main folder, replacing any files in the process. Each file is displayed in order so you can keep track.

But if need be, you can check out this comprehensive guide I found on YouTube. It gets straight to the point and doesn't waste time, it even highlights just how bad the original PC port of Silent Hill 2 is.

https://youtu.be/PF1D6_shKIQ

[ 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 ]

Playing this game felt like an epiphany, that gaming is just nothing like what it was back then, and it made me miss this generation of gaming. But, with the rise of indie developers, there have been games being released that attempt to replicate these old games.

Some of them good, some of them bad, but you know it's bad when the community has to step up and create something because AAA developer studios like Konami are unwilling to either because they know they're gonna fuck it up or they just don't care.

To this day the HD Collection still haunts the company, I still consider it the worst thing they have ever done, which is further elevated once you actually play these games and you realize why so many people fell in love with them back then.

Because this game should be experienced at least a couple times. This game is a masterpiece, it was far ahead of its time. If I enjoyed Silent Hill 3 so much I wasn't expecting any less from this game, but damn, this game blows Silent Hill 3 out of the water in some aspects.

Maybe, just maybe, we will get a Steam version of Silent Hill 2 and 3, since Silent Hill 4 was added to GOG. Or maybe just a better console port of these games.

But to be honest, I am not holding my breath, because I am not convinced in the slightest that Konami is capable of doing that. Think about when the HD Collection came out. It's been 10 years now and the HD Collection is still being paraded around on digital stores like a corpse, just begging to be buried in peace in a proper coffin, and then reincarnated as a newfounded being.

It's even worse when you consider that now we have emulation and fan mods for both Silent Hill 2 and 3 like Enhanced Edition, made by people who put in the legwork that Konami have neglected for so many years now, and for free might I add.

I give this game 10 Pyramid Heads out of 10.

Oh ho ho my god. We meet again. My arch Nemesis (see what I did there?)

From the moment I started playing this game as a kid after playing RE4, Code Veronica, etc. I knew that something was wrong here. I never finished this game when it was still new on GameCube, so then I returned to it many years later.. and I can definitely see why I never finished it that first time going through.

This is one of the most underwhelming, repetitive, and frustrating slogs I’ve ever experienced in this franchise. Resident Evil 5 and 6, I’d play in an instant over this shit. What I can only imagine why this game is just so half assed, so rushed, and lacks what made the series popular to begin with, it’s survival horror roots, is due to rushed development and a lack of direction trying to connect it to the lore of the universe, but then again, you could also say that about many of the later RE games.

Up until now I have not spoiled any important pilot details in any other one of my RE reviews but for this game I have to make an exception, because the overall narrative is just a disappointing and confusing mess.

Trying to explain the sequences of events that happen in this game is actually difficult, which should give you a good indication of just how fuckin' jumbled this plot is.

[ 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔 ]

So this game is a prequel to RE1 and it takes place just before the Spenser Mansion infiltration. From the get go, the game is set up as an origin story that teases the question of what happened before the Spenser Mansion incident, where the T and G Viruses came from, and who created them.

After reports of those grizzly murders that took place on the outskirts of Raccoon City, the S.T.A.R.S Bravo Team are dispatched and I guess because of plot convenience, the helicopter decides to suddenly malfunction and crash, leaving the team stranded in the middle of the Arklay Forest.

Upon searching the area they find a crashed car with dead bodies lying there, and pick up a prison sentence file for an escaped criminal named Billy Cohen. He is an ex-military armed soldier who was sentenced to death for supposedly murdering over 20 innocent civilians in Africa.

So they not only find that, but they also find an abandoned train just sitting in the middle of the forest. And in typical Resident Evil fashion, it's infested with zombies. The protagonist of this game is Rebecca Chambers from Resident Evil 1.

After examining the body of one of the inhabitants, Rebecca just coincidentally encounters Billy, but Billy doesn't harm her. Once Rebecca reaches the back of the train, she gets attacked by a man made out of leeches, but is saved by Billy. That's when the main antagonist of the game is revealed, a.. very corny looking opera singer named Dr. Marcus.

It turns out he is the one who unleashed all the leeches on the train to infect all the passengers. He also for some reason manages to get the train moving again.

Despite Rebecca's distrust in Billy, the two still have to work together if they wanna make it out alive, considering the rest of Rebecca's team are pretty much fucking gone by this point. Once they manage to stop the train, it crashes into Dr. Marcus's training facility.

And here is where you learn about the creation of the T-Virus and the G-Virus. 20 years before the events of this game, Dr. Marcus creates the T-Virus, and throughout the next ten years he would continue to whip up creature after creature, one of these known as the Queen Leech. Shortly after this he gets assassinated by Umbrella under the orders of Oswell Spenser because he was using too many trainees as test subjects.

Albert Wesker and William Birkin were also party to the assassination plan. This was also due to the fact that these three people were in an arms race to discover the secrets of the Progenitor Virus, believing that whoever got to it first would be able to have full control over Umbrella.

After this, Dr. Marcus's body was disposed of along with the Queen Leech, and the credit for all of his work is given to William Birkin, and then William would go on to create the G-Virus. Over the next ten years the Queen Leech would then feed on Marcus's body and this actually gave him the ability to shape shift back into a newfound form and with his memories still intact. Now with a newfound hatred for Umbrella, he seeks vengeance. This is also how he has the ability to control the leeches.

So the main issues I have with this narrative are that, well, Dr. Marcus is one of the most forgettable villains in the entire mainline series next to Nicolai from Resident Evil 3. What you have to give credit for in Resident Evil is that almost every game has a main antagonist that you either love or love to hate.

Albert Wesker, William Birkin, the Alfred Twins, Salazar and Saddler, the Baker Family, all of these guys are legendary antagonists, whether because they have awesome line deliveries, they have iconic character designs, and have a lot of bombastic personality behind them.

But Dr. Marcus's motivations are very generic, and they don't have anything to do with the player, so I as a player don't see why I should care about Dr. Marcus succeeding. He also has a shitload of awkward line deliveries, even more so than the older games, so it's very difficult for him to develop as a character.

Instead he just comes off as a laughable joker of a villain like Cipher from Metal Gear Solid 5 because well, just look at him. I mean for God sake, he infects a train full of passengers for no reason whatsoever just to get back at Wesker and William by singing opera music. Oh and he puts a giant scorpion on there as well for some reason.

I mean, how can you say that out loud without chuckling? Marcus just isn't intimidating. I care a lot more about Wesker and William, and I think that's another problem. By having Wesker and William in the same game as Marcus, he immediately loses importance because Wesker and William are just the better villains.

I end up wanting to see more screen time with those two than him.

Rebecca and Billy on the other hand, while they do develop and grow to trust each other more, Billy is also just extremely forgettable. I mean he isn't balls to the wall annoying like Steve from Code Veronica, but he suffers from what I like to call Shadow the Hedgehog syndrome: a one note stereotypical edgy hardass who doesn't take shit from anyone.

I mean, I get that he was just convicted of a crime he didn't commit, but even during the flashback sequences he has that really deep, depressing, and edgy tone in his voice like he's about to snap a guy's cock in half if that person just looked at him the wrong way.

Also, it's very hard to care about Billy's inner struggle along with Marcus's because of a very important reason. It's because the game doesn't do a good enough job explaining it. Seriously, during your first playthrough, you might be confused on what's going on, and that's because the cutscenes are spread out very far between stretches of gameplay.

If you wanted to understand the story in full context you would have to either play through the game multiple times or go on the internet and do the research.

And even then, a lot of these scenes dump exposition that doesn't have much to do with the lore of the universe.

Also, this is the only game that we ever see Billy in. So again, why should you care about him? It's not like we ever see him again unlike Rebecca.

At least Carlos in RE3 was likeable because of his upbeat and caring personality who risks his life to protect Jill and the citizens of Raccoon City. You can see his inner struggle of watching all of his teammates around him die and being betrayed by his commanding officer who just sees the whole ordeal as another game or as an opportunity to obtain research to get rich.

Not to mention, you're gonna be so frustrated with the insanely repetitive gameplay loop that you're probably gonna forget about what's happening anyway but I'll get into that later.

There's also a pretty big problem with the narrative structure with Rebecca which has created a debate whether or not Rebecca's actions in this game are canon or not.

Right off the bat there is a problem with the continuity here. Because if you’ve played RE1 and then this game, you would know that Rebecca stumbles in the Spencer Mansion and bumps into Chris Redfield. But not once in the game does Rebecca ever mention Billy, the infected train, the Umbrella facilities she ran into, her comrades that have either died or have gone missing, or even Dr. Marcus, which I will get into.

And it's not like Rebecca gets amnesia, she heads straight for the Spenser Mansion right after she says goodbye to Billy. And again, we never see Billy again after that point.

Which I can understand because the original RE1 came out in 1996, and RE0 is a game from 2002, but even in the 2002 RE1 GameCube Remake, Rebecca never talks about all the fucked up shit she just went through, nor does she show any signs of trauma or PTSD after being in near death situations countless times. Maybe one time during the Hunter scene but.. ehhhhhh… that's subjective.

At times she tries to act tough but you can see just how frail of a character she is, especially when it’s been confirmed that she doesn’t like to fight but will do it if she has to defend herself, which is all the more reason to give the player signs of her distress.

Hell, even Rebecca's combat experience is just completely gone for some reason. She turns into a near helpless character. There is one part in RE1 where she just stands in one spot and nearly lets a Hunter kill her. She fuckin' fought tons of Hunters and other monstrosities in the previous game! This just doesn't make any sense.

You fought against giant tarantulas, a giant scorpion, leech men, mutant frogs, and a giant leech queen. You even got captured by a giant centipede. Now all of a sudden you're afraid to take on a single Hunter??

And furthermore, why would she even go to the Spenser Mansion after the fact? If I was her I would have been like “this mission is FUBAR”, and got the hell outta there. Who knows if the people that she was supposed to meet up with are already dead.

I'm assuming this is because of the fact that RE0 and RE1 were directed by two different people, two different development teams. But don't you think that the people who made RE0 should have done a bit more research on the game they were making a prequel to? This is just sloppy writing.

So with an interesting story that is poorly told, has a lot of plot holes, forgettable characters, retcons, and corny ridiculousness, it's hard to get invested in it.

It also really doesn't help that the gameplay loop in this game is very laborious, tedious, repetitive, and flat out aggravating, which actually brings down the story even further because most of your attention will be deviated towards that. THIS is where a large chunk of my gripes with this game comes from and why I don't even bother playing it anymore as opposed to the other games.

[ 𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔 ]

Once again, as old as the ol' Shirley Temple VCR tapes, this is a third person survival horror game with a large emphasis on limited saves, limited resources, puzzle solving, exploration, etc.

Tank controls, quick turning, door loading screens, limited inventory space, and fixed third person camera angles, all the shit that you would expect in an old RE game. The formula had been perfected by Resident Evil 3, and yet as these games go on they start downgrading the gameplay mechanics so that they could start replacing them with frustrating gimmicks in an attempt to revitalize a dying formula, and I'll explain what I mean by that.

Let's start with the absolutely appalling inventory system.

This is the first game in the series to have two playable characters in the same playthrough, both with their own health bars and inventory. Each character only gets six slots for a maximum of 12 which may sound like a lot right? Especially since the two characters can swap items with each other.

Actually, it's horrible for two reasons.

First of all, there are some items in the game that take up two slots of inventory when in previous games they only took up one, a few examples being the shotgun, the grenade launcher, and the hookshot.

And secondly, there are quite a handful of sections in the game where Rebecca and Billy get separated so you then have to manage inventory with just six slots, some items taking up two slots. It's fuckin' awful regardless of the fact that you can now drop items on the floor in this game.

Seriously, try to carry a gun with some ammo, or a long gun with ammo along with some healing items and a key item or two.

It's almost borderline impossible to do this without having Billy next to you, because the two characters can only swap items with each other when they're right next to each other.

This is also the first game in the series to not have the traditional item boxes to store your loot in. This was supposed to be the trade off for being able to drop items and pick them up whenever you wanted and also having the ability to mix herbs immediately without having to put them in your inventory first (but only Rebecca can do this).

The map tells you what items you dropped are located so luckily if you drop something you won't lose track of where you left it if you just check the map.

However, with the item boxes completely gone and with less inventory slots than in the previous games, it creates a colossal problem and it's the fucking backtracking.

Backtracking is one of the biggest tropes in survival horror games, and Resident Evil games are mostly known for this, but the backtracking in RE0 is legendary. It is flat out egregious.

Because as a new player, you're not gonna know what items you are gonna need and at what moment, so most of your playtime will be spent with you backtracking to a specific room you leave all your items in and then trying to get Rebecca and Billy's stupid shit in order.

And if you don't know it, you're gonna end up giving important items to a character that gets separated or kidnapped. You're not gonna know!

For example, in the Centipede fight, only Rebecca gets caught by that thing. Imagine giving her the shotgun with all the ammo and healing items. Well fuck.

Guess that means you gotta reset the game and play up until that point again..

Or how about the Tyrant fight? Rebecca and Billy get separated again before that moment. If you gave Billy the Grenade Launcher or any other weapons and items before that fight, well then good fuckin' luck trying to beat him now. And I hope to God you haven't saved before that fight because oh my god, I've heard horror stories of people having to start the whole game over because of that. They didn't have the resources to beat the Tyrant.

Yeah Rebecca gets a Magnum after Billy is lost but you only get like.. 6 shots I think, and it's not enough to kill the Tyrant.

Also, you have to fight Hunters on the way there. Again, you need to have the resources to survive, so imagine the progress that could be potentially lost because you made the simple mistake of giving important items to Billy.

These types of roadblock moments are just infuriating, because even as a veteran player, the game mechanics make you feel underpowered, which I guess is the point right? But isn't it bad enough that Rebecca takes more damage from attacks than Billy, and Rebecca is the only one that can mix herbs?

Billy is able to take twice as much damage as Rebecca and is the only character that can push heavy things. Whoop-de-doo.

Seriously, why can't Billy mix herbs? Do you know how much time can be saved if he just had that ability? This is the only Resident Evil game I've ever played where only one specific character has the ability to mix herbs.

Even in Resident Evil 5 and 6, any character is able to mix herbs to free up inventory space. I seriously don't understand this.

While I'm on the subject of backtracking and inventory, I wanna talk about the hookshot.

What in the holy mother of shit was Capcom thinking with the hookshot gimmick?

The hookshot can just kill all of the remaining momentum that this game had along with all the other backtracking that you have to do.

Basically, the hookshot is an item that you need to progress to certain areas to get key items. It takes up two inventory slots so already there's a problem, but you have to use this thing not once, not twice, but THREE times across the whole game.

Meaning that through almost the entire game, you cannot get rid of or forget about the hookshot.

There will be numerous times where you are making progress but then you reach a point where the camera points at a hole, which is a sign that you need to use the hookshot on it. So you know what that means? You have to backtrack ALL the way back to where you last left it.

So it can take upwards of 5-10 minutes to go all the way back to where you left the hookshot, pick it up, then you have to travel all the way back to where that hole was, then use the hookshot.

You have to do this again, and again, and again. My god.

Couldn't we at least use the hookshot as a weapon? You know how cool it would be if you could just impale zombies in the stomach like a harpoon gun?

That would be awesome. Maybe then I would actually like having the damn thing in my inventory.

Speaking of that, once you leave the training facility and reach the observatory, you have to take multiple 5+ minute trips to and from the facility so that you can transfer all of your items to the next location.

There are quite a shitload of items to find in the training facility. Guns, ammo, healing items, key items, etc.

You have to manually grab all of your shit and take it all to the next area as if Rebecca and Billy were pack mules.

You also have to do this when going from the observatory to the Umbrella underground labs, unless you get lazy like I did and just don't take anything besides the important items. Why?

Well first off, it's a much longer trip between the observatory and the lab. You would have to travel so far if you wanted to bring all your items with you.

And second, Billy gets fuckin' kidnapped before you go there. So you get stuck with Rebecca and her lousy inventory of 6 slots. And did I mention you have to fight Hunters on the way there and then a Tyrant boss fight?

Remember, Rebecca can't take much damage at all in this game. It only takes 1 or 2 hits for her to go from Fine (Green) to Caution (Yellow).

Ugh…

Did I also mention this is all because there are no item boxes in this game? This is what happens when you remove the item boxes and barely give the characters any space to carry anything since they get separated a lot.

It's all a repetitive, boring, frustrating slog that can kill a player's motivation, or make the situation more intense if this doesn't bother you. All the power to you I guess.

Speaking of the Hunters, they are such bullshit in this game. They weren't hard to take down in the older games, but here they were buffed to the core.

In this game, Hunters don't stagger very often from gunfire, unless you use the grenade launcher. Also, when they hit you, the character gets staggered and you have to wait for the animation to finish before they can move and shoot again, and this shit draws out a lot.

Know what that means?

Stunlock City!!

Seriously, there are times that I die because I get infinitely stunlocked by Hunters and I just have to sit there not being able to do anything about it until my inevitable death.

Another enemy that can stunlock you to death, the monkeys, are an absolute bitch to fight. They're fast, they cling on walls, they jump around you, and getting swiped by one makes the character stagger like someone just kicked them in the crotch.

The movement controls and gun aiming just don't work for a rapid fire enemy like this. Again, they can stunlock you to death as well if you happen to get stuck in a corner.

Also, these things can tank shotgun rounds and keep going. I'm sorry, but if I took a shotgun to a goddamn monkey and it tanks the shot like if this were an episode of Dragonball, we've got a problem.

Why are enemies a pain in the ass to fight in this game? They either stunlock you, are bullet spongy, don't stagger when you shoot them, or you have to fight them in such constricted areas.

The tarantulas work the same as the other games but I just run past them to save bullets and to not risk myself from getting poisoned, because blue herbs are very rare in this game, and you have to manage resources between two characters instead of one.

But the best enemies in the game in my opinion are the leech men. These guys are actually scary. They look terrifying and the music that plays when they're around is horrific. You can either fight or flight, but if you kill them with gunfire, they explode which can damage you.

However you can craft molotov cocktails and kill them with those to save getting hurt.

Speaking of the enemies, this game has by far the most egregious hallway design I have ever seen in this franchise. It's bad enough that you have to manage inventory between two characters, but you also have no choice but to fight most enemies in the game because almost every goddamn hallway is narrow.

Narrow hallways are a trend in Resident Evil games. The gameplay shines where you have to make split decisions on whether you want to use up ammo to take out the enemy so you don't have to worry about it later, or if you want to run past it to save bullets but risk taking damage so then you'll have to use a healing item sooner.

That is the strategy and the risk/reward system that a survival horror game brings to the table.

But, because you have to control two characters at once, it is borderline impossible to run past enemies, so you have to take them out, meaning that you are forced to use up your resources to prevent Rebecca in particular from taking damage.

Because like I said earlier, Rebecca is as frail as a sheet of loose leaf paper. It is very easy for her to lose a lot of health in this game.

You could just make her wait around but regardless, the hallway design is very slim in this game, and sometimes they just load these areas with enemies, so you have no choice but to fight just to get past.

Also for some stupid ass reason, if you get grabbed by an enemy but you get freed by your partner even if the enemy hasn't actually attacked you, you still take damage.

For example if Rebecca got grabbed by a zombie but Billy stopped her from getting bit, she STILL takes damage anyway. Why?! If I stopped someone from taking damage, they shouldn't TAKE DAMAGE.

Jesus Christ.

Not to mention, if you left your partner behind in another room, they can take damage from the enemies and the AI is too stupid to just run away and or run through a door to another area to save themself. So your partner can end up dying and you get a Game Over because you forgot that they were in another area in danger and they end up yelling for your help over the radio over even a single goddamn enemy.

Because there will be times where you have to split up and you have to multi-task: Fighting off enemies, making progress through areas, and solving puzzles.

So because you have to fight a majority of the enemies because the areas are so crammed up that you are forced to use up all your ammo, the survival aspect of the RE formula is butchered.

The only good thing about the partner gameplay is that switching from one character to the other is as simple as pushing a single button, and the loading times between switches are pretty quick, even if your partner is in another room.

But just try to control the second character with the right thumbstick and with fixed camera angles and tank controls. Go on, I dare you.

So about the boss fights, they're again, underwhelming. The theme here is that they take regular enemies and just make them bigger, like, a big scorpion, a big centipede, a big bat, a big leech, you get the idea.

And the tyrant right is cool and all, but we have fought tyrants time after time again in the previous games.

Some of these bosses are a joke.

The scorpion for example can be beaten by just aiming downwards and shooting it in the head, which makes it stagger indefinitely. Every other part is bulletproof, so again, just shoot it in the head and it can never hurt you.

The centipede isn't really much of a boss fight. All it does is move around in circles and doesn't actually attack you unless you touch it. It's more of a sequence of "kill the boss before it kills Rebecca."

The bat fight is total bullshit because it infinitely spawns smaller bats that are impossible to dodge, and some of them can even block your shots. So the strategy is to just stand still and spray at the big bat and try to kill it as fast as possible, taking damage non-stop in the process.

10/10 boss design.

The tyrant is the only fight in the game that actually takes skill to beat. It's fast, it hits hard, but it does have a readable attack pattern. Beating one for the first time makes Rebecca look like a badass.

And the final boss just sucks as well. All you do is distract it as Billy while Rebecca opens up some windows to shine the sun on it, because its weakness is direct light. It's not actually possible to kill it with gunfire, nor is there any indication of how much damage you are dealing to it. All you do is grab your strongest weapon(s), spray at the boss like an idiot, and hope for the best that it doesn't attack Rebecca and kill her.

After you beat the game you unlock a couple modes. The first one is called Wesker mode in which you get to play as Wesker and he actually makes the game more bearable to play since he can run faster, has a stun attack which staggers enemies, and an attack where he can one shot kill enemies but it has to charge up, but that means that guns are almost unnecessary.

Also, the exclusive costume that Rebecca gets in the mode is fuckin' incredible. It's one of the best skins I've seen in a Resident Evil game.

Although it's extremely off-putting seeing Resident Evil 5 Wesker in Resident Evil 0 and with Billy's voice.

Just, no. This is wrong on many levels.

The other mode is the Leech Hunter mode, which is just a mode where you run around the training facility and you have to kill as many enemies as you can in each room and then get to the exit. And then you are graded and you can get rewards depending on what grade you get, such as an assault rifle and infinite ammo for your weapons.

So because the gameplay is just so monotonous, tedious, drawn out, boring, and flat out annoying, the game becomes incredibly difficult for me to be engaged with. And the boss fights are just not that fun to fight. They're either way too easy or it's something gimmicky and annoying like the bat fight and the final boss.

Maybe if the story was better written then it would soften some of the grievances I have with the game, but because the gameplay loop is so shitty, it made me not want to go back to it.

[ 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝙉𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 ]

Now the presentation on the other hand, wow, just wow. Man is this game goddamn beautiful. In fact, this game is so gorgeous that it should be in an art museum. This is still one of the most pretty looking games I've ever seen for a console game. Even all these years later it still holds up.

The character models are the best for 2002 standards, the lip syncing is done very well, the weather effects like the rain on the top of the train looks insane, and the backdrops and pre-rendered backgrounds look absolutely amazing, they're so rich in detail. I miss games that look like that.

Other effects like fire, acid from the tarantulas, glass breaking, explosions from the grenade launcher, it all just looks so stellar. The FMV cutscenes in the HD Remaster run at a nice 1080p resolution.

Having the resolution upscaled brings out more detail than what you normally could have seen in the original version.

And the soundtrack is very ace, definitely one of the best. The save room music, the boss fight music, the final boss music, the training facility music, they're among my favorite tracks in the series.

So pretty much the graphics and the soundtracks are the best part about this game but that is a given right? I mean every Resident Evil game has excellent graphics and music.

Which tells me that this game has all the style of a Resident Evil game but it's seriously lacking in substance.

[ 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 ]

This game really needed to have either just one playable character or have a much better inventory system with the item boxes back. It's actually worse than RE5's inventory system. At least RE5 gives you 9 slots per character and there are no items that take up more than one slot.

RE0 also needed to have some better bosses, because they're just a letdown. And if the gameplay is to be as painful as it is, then the story needs to justify it, but it doesn't. So the game just falls over itself multiple times.

But, as much as I slagged this game, it did introduce mechanics that would become staples in the later games, so in a way, this game served as a blueprint for the future. If only it was just given more development or some things were scrapped entirely.

This game brought to the series two playable characters, item swapping, character switching, giving voice commands, telling your partner to shoot or not shoot, and to either wait or follow you, dynamic interesting puzzles that required both characters to solve, and having unique traits like pushing heavy items and herb mixing, something that would become a mechanic in the Outbreak games.

I own pretty much all of the mainline Resident Evil games, so I don't see why nowadays, during any day of the week, would I choose to play Resident Evil 0 over 1-4, or even 7 for that matter.

This game is just the epitome of average and or sloppy, it's below the standard of these older games. There are much worse RE games out there, but man, I was hyped playing this game for the first time, but looking at it now, it's disappointing, especially when we have the amazing RE1 Remake HD Remaster. Just go play that instead.

Or how about the RE2 Remake? That's pretty amazing as well. Like I said, there are many other better choices for Resident Evil games, so 0 just fades into obscurity for me. After I beat this game a few years ago I never touched it again, and that's not a good sign.

That is until a year later when some Discord friends wanted me to stream the game on Twitch but on Hard Mode. And that was.. oh my Lord, that was PAINFUL. But, I did do it. Of course I had to start all over cause I didn't have enough ammo for the final boss, but I did it in the end. And I'm never doing it again lol.

5/10