underwhelming and unremarkable. story is completely token and has barely defined characters. in particular, the main twist of the game is very and incredibly obvious to see coming, and there's not much to digest beyond that. gameplay is serviceable but it lacks the depth that you really need in a game this short. i'm not inherently against taking a pseudo-light gun game approach, but this game fails to take any of the unique selling points of the LG genre, like being able to target weakpoints (headshots did virtually no difference than just shooting the body, if any difference at all), or requiring more precise aiming in general (L1 literally will autotarget you to the nearest enemy). you're taking inspiration from a genre but keeping only the surface level aspects of it, none of the complexity. also, who is the dumbfuck who decided that this game didn't need save points? sure, it can be beaten in two hours, but asking someone to beat this in one sitting uninitiated is a tall order, even for something as simple as this. this game isn't on rails and you can backtrack, there was no reason to deny the player opportunities to save.
the biggest problem is that this game lacks an identity. virtually every enemy is something from the previous game with little explanation as to why it's there or anything distinguishing it from a prior appearance. i know most people don't care about RE lore, but i would at least like something in the way of why hunters and plant 43 are here. and where ARE we anyway? tvtropes has helpfully informed me that this game takes place on "sheena island", but where is that? i did two of the three routes, so if the third route gives more context to that, okay, it's on me, but otherwise. . . what gives? the most i could make out is that apparently it's somewhere in or colonized by britland. this game is really scant on details, and all the diary entries seem to revolve around vincent when i really just want more context and characters. it's a spinoff title, whatever, but i'm asking for some depth in gameplay, story, setting, or lore, and coming up empty.
i don't recommend playing this unless you have a very slow sunday and you don't mind killing some time. i haven't played every single RE game (yet), but as far as i can tell, this one's rarely referenced by canon and requires 0 knowledge of RE1-3 to enter. it's really the most disposable entry in the series, which feels somewhat harsh to say. the tyrant 1 and 2 cheese strats are genuinely some of the funniest exploits in any game ever, so at least this game has that going for it.
the biggest problem is that this game lacks an identity. virtually every enemy is something from the previous game with little explanation as to why it's there or anything distinguishing it from a prior appearance. i know most people don't care about RE lore, but i would at least like something in the way of why hunters and plant 43 are here. and where ARE we anyway? tvtropes has helpfully informed me that this game takes place on "sheena island", but where is that? i did two of the three routes, so if the third route gives more context to that, okay, it's on me, but otherwise. . . what gives? the most i could make out is that apparently it's somewhere in or colonized by britland. this game is really scant on details, and all the diary entries seem to revolve around vincent when i really just want more context and characters. it's a spinoff title, whatever, but i'm asking for some depth in gameplay, story, setting, or lore, and coming up empty.
i don't recommend playing this unless you have a very slow sunday and you don't mind killing some time. i haven't played every single RE game (yet), but as far as i can tell, this one's rarely referenced by canon and requires 0 knowledge of RE1-3 to enter. it's really the most disposable entry in the series, which feels somewhat harsh to say. the tyrant 1 and 2 cheese strats are genuinely some of the funniest exploits in any game ever, so at least this game has that going for it.