"πππ ππππππππ π²ππππππππππ'π ππππππ ππππππππππ’, "π½π΄ππ" β πππ ππππππ ππ πππππππ π²πππ’'π πππππππππ.
π·πππππ ππππ ππ πππ π ππ π½π΄ππ, π»πππ ππππ πππ ππππ πππ ππππ πππππππππ ππππ πππππ ππ πππππππ’, πππ πΆ-π ππππ.
π»πππ ππππππππ ππππ ππ ππ ππππ πππ πππππ ππ ππ, ππ πππ ππππ ππππ πππππππ ππ ππππππ."
I had the pleasure of watching Speed for the first time earlier this year, and I enjoyed it very much. My favourite thing about the film was Keanu Reeves, who played the role of the hero, Jack Traven. Jack is a naively good-spirited cop who talks down crazed gunmen via the appeal of "c'mon, we're just dudes... chillin' out together...", an honest babyfaced fella who is more concerned with saving old ladies in wheelchairs at the side of the road than he is with blowing off the heads of terrorists from lands far away. While deification of the great Keanu is obviously one of the most overplayed bits in the history of the internet, every cliche has to come from somewhere - and it's easy to see why we worship a guy who has the talent to make a cop so damn likable.
It goes without saying that no police officer is innocent, but I don't think that means mean every person behind a badge is irredeemable. Perhaps a contentious statement, but I find it too hard to believe - too hard to reckon with, even - that there isn't a naive subset of the force who got into the job because they genuinely wanted to protect goodness in this world. This is a theme that Resident Evil 2 deals with in surprising nuance for a game about a big zombie in a fedora who can walk through walls. Coming hot off a replay of the Stallonesque Resident Evil 4, the most fascinating thing about Resident Evil 2 to me now is how the game puts discernible effort into its First Blood, (re)building Leon S. Kennedy as a person who begins adult life as nothing more than a Saved By The Bell extra in a windbreaker, a cherubic little have-a-go himbo hero who is transposed through capitalist-realist circumstance into a vengeful terminator who ends up clenching his kevlar-gloved fists in the R.P.D.'s suit of armour as he comes to realise that even a global viral outbreak won't change the system.
π»πππ: πΈπβπ πππππ ππ πππ π΅π±πΈ.
π°ππππππ: ...πππ πππππ ππππ πππππ?
As Shinji Mikami alluded to in an interview, Capcom has gradually tightened the bolts that govern how the goofiness and scariness of these games interact and intermingle with each new entry in the franchise. In this installment, I think that's best exemplified in Leon's relationship with Ada. She begins the story in distant sunglasses that eye-roll deadpan disbelief at some of Leon's worst witticisms and navietes, but is ultimately charmed by his earnest nature, granting him the status of co-conspirator (at least in some matters) in a way that kinda reminds me how the uptight local antiheroes of One Piece arcs often end up dancing to the beat of Monkey D. Luffy's revolutionary drum once they come to appreciate just how stupidly heroic he really is. Ada is a New Game++ life-player who's seen the world's garbage at its most toxic, but even the most cynical of gaming veterans can't resist pumping their fists when Leon tries an unconvincing "Chew on that, you overgrown son of a bitch!" after stuffing an alligator's mouth full of explosive gas canisters. It's a relatively small thing in the grand scheme of a Resident Evil's world, but I think it goes a long way towards making the player feel like a character's protector and guide - which is important in a game that is explicitly about the horror of survival.
Mechanically I don't have a whole lot to say about how Resident Evil 2 plays because minusforever already wrote the book on this game in 2021, so lemme just call out a small detail I really appreciated here in comparison to Silent Hill 2, which I was playing at the exact same time - it's called the "triple trip". Like a foolhardy teenager trying to carry all his mother's shopping back from the car in one journey, one of my favourite things about the way this game's puzzle box unfolds is the constant opportunities to score three or more objectives in a single movement, executing on a well-laid plan like a chess master strapped with a desert eagle. For years I've abhorred survival horror and adventure games that force the player to go Point A<->Point B<->Point A<->Point B with individual key items, and it seems the designers of Resident Evil 2 have too. Almost every pairing of item and item-hole can be compressed into discrete sequences that call to mind the simplification of an algebra equation (if algebra was intermittently disrupted by a cancerous demon wrapping its tendrils around your neck), and the way the game enables these condensements - by showing you as much of the map as possible before handing over the first piece that will enable you to master a series of unlockings - is nothing short of masterful. Gonna be replaying this game for a while to come.
π·πππππ ππππ ππ πππ π ππ π½π΄ππ, π»πππ ππππ πππ ππππ πππ ππππ πππππππππ ππππ πππππ ππ πππππππ’, πππ πΆ-π ππππ.
π»πππ ππππππππ ππππ ππ ππ ππππ πππ πππππ ππ ππ, ππ πππ ππππ ππππ πππππππ ππ ππππππ."
I had the pleasure of watching Speed for the first time earlier this year, and I enjoyed it very much. My favourite thing about the film was Keanu Reeves, who played the role of the hero, Jack Traven. Jack is a naively good-spirited cop who talks down crazed gunmen via the appeal of "c'mon, we're just dudes... chillin' out together...", an honest babyfaced fella who is more concerned with saving old ladies in wheelchairs at the side of the road than he is with blowing off the heads of terrorists from lands far away. While deification of the great Keanu is obviously one of the most overplayed bits in the history of the internet, every cliche has to come from somewhere - and it's easy to see why we worship a guy who has the talent to make a cop so damn likable.
It goes without saying that no police officer is innocent, but I don't think that means mean every person behind a badge is irredeemable. Perhaps a contentious statement, but I find it too hard to believe - too hard to reckon with, even - that there isn't a naive subset of the force who got into the job because they genuinely wanted to protect goodness in this world. This is a theme that Resident Evil 2 deals with in surprising nuance for a game about a big zombie in a fedora who can walk through walls. Coming hot off a replay of the Stallonesque Resident Evil 4, the most fascinating thing about Resident Evil 2 to me now is how the game puts discernible effort into its First Blood, (re)building Leon S. Kennedy as a person who begins adult life as nothing more than a Saved By The Bell extra in a windbreaker, a cherubic little have-a-go himbo hero who is transposed through capitalist-realist circumstance into a vengeful terminator who ends up clenching his kevlar-gloved fists in the R.P.D.'s suit of armour as he comes to realise that even a global viral outbreak won't change the system.
π»πππ: πΈπβπ πππππ ππ πππ π΅π±πΈ.
π°ππππππ: ...πππ πππππ ππππ πππππ?
As Shinji Mikami alluded to in an interview, Capcom has gradually tightened the bolts that govern how the goofiness and scariness of these games interact and intermingle with each new entry in the franchise. In this installment, I think that's best exemplified in Leon's relationship with Ada. She begins the story in distant sunglasses that eye-roll deadpan disbelief at some of Leon's worst witticisms and navietes, but is ultimately charmed by his earnest nature, granting him the status of co-conspirator (at least in some matters) in a way that kinda reminds me how the uptight local antiheroes of One Piece arcs often end up dancing to the beat of Monkey D. Luffy's revolutionary drum once they come to appreciate just how stupidly heroic he really is. Ada is a New Game++ life-player who's seen the world's garbage at its most toxic, but even the most cynical of gaming veterans can't resist pumping their fists when Leon tries an unconvincing "Chew on that, you overgrown son of a bitch!" after stuffing an alligator's mouth full of explosive gas canisters. It's a relatively small thing in the grand scheme of a Resident Evil's world, but I think it goes a long way towards making the player feel like a character's protector and guide - which is important in a game that is explicitly about the horror of survival.
Mechanically I don't have a whole lot to say about how Resident Evil 2 plays because minusforever already wrote the book on this game in 2021, so lemme just call out a small detail I really appreciated here in comparison to Silent Hill 2, which I was playing at the exact same time - it's called the "triple trip". Like a foolhardy teenager trying to carry all his mother's shopping back from the car in one journey, one of my favourite things about the way this game's puzzle box unfolds is the constant opportunities to score three or more objectives in a single movement, executing on a well-laid plan like a chess master strapped with a desert eagle. For years I've abhorred survival horror and adventure games that force the player to go Point A<->Point B<->Point A<->Point B with individual key items, and it seems the designers of Resident Evil 2 have too. Almost every pairing of item and item-hole can be compressed into discrete sequences that call to mind the simplification of an algebra equation (if algebra was intermittently disrupted by a cancerous demon wrapping its tendrils around your neck), and the way the game enables these condensements - by showing you as much of the map as possible before handing over the first piece that will enable you to master a series of unlockings - is nothing short of masterful. Gonna be replaying this game for a while to come.