Resident Evil - Where Do You Stand?

[Razilin]

claire redfield is best redfield

re2 fte

 

[The Ghost Note]

Fair point. They do resemble Necromorphs, but I would prefer these more inventive 'Dead Space-y' designs to the old, in my opinion generic monster types of the older games. Im also a fan of the Dead Space series, so there may be a bit of bias there. Not quite sure.

I am a Deadspace fan too, but to be entirely honest, the older monster designs had more personality.

 

[Neon Princess]

I am a Dead Space fan too, but to be entirely honest, the older monster designs had more personality.

I'd have to disagree on that one. I find the older monster designs to be generic and boring, while the newer ones to me have a lot more interesting designs and concepts, especially in Resident Evil 6.

 

[GhostJoker]

Fair enough, but what about the older games do you enjoy more? What about the newer games do you not enjoy? What do you define as 'horror'?

It's a little hard to explain really, but it was more of a certain feel. The atmosphere to me felt different in the earlier games. They were more complicated than the ones today in my opinion. I guess I can't say that it had more horror because I was a kid when I played it and that had a factor in it unlike now in which i'm older so it doesen't scare me much.

 

[Neon Princess]

It's a little hard to explain really, but it was more of a certain feel. The atmosphere to me felt different in the earlier games. They were more complicated than the ones today in my opinion. I guess I can't say that it had more horror because I was a kid when I played it and that had a factor in it unlike now in which i'm older so it doesen't scare me much.

I see, I see. The atmosphere has certainly changed, though for me it changed for the better. I do agree that the older games were far more complicated, but I personally dont like complicated things, so I prefer the more linear, streamlined approach later games took.

 

[Pachamac]

REmake is my favourite game in the series. Cannot, cannot wait for the rerelease next year.

There's nothing inherently wrong with some of the newer Resident Evil games, although they have lost a great deal of the horror and atmosphere that the earlier games had, replacing survival horror tension with more shooty shoot mcbang mcbang, but it doesn't mean it's neccessarily bad. I've enjoyed every Resident Evil game to have come out so far, although 6 was just... a bit of a mess in a lot of ways, and good portions of it wasn't fun. But then you have Resident Evil 5, which was an absolute blast to play with my girlfriend, and Revelations which I loved a lot.

I think one of the things that irks me about the series is the storyline and how increasingly absurd it's become. Resident Evil has always been a bit over the top and cheesy, but the way in which the story has evolved is pretty... silly. From Wesker being brought back to life and given SUPER BADASS NEO MOVES to whatever the hell he was doing in 5 and having some clone/son thing in 6, not to mention an Ada clone/lookalike as well it's just... storywise it's kind of gone off the rails at this point.

I really wouldn't mind a Resident Evil reboot that did away with all this and started afresh. Gameplay wise, I'd like it to be a good mix of both the earlier games' tension and puzzle focused gameplay, but also give it some of the nice action gameplay and set pieces of 4-6. Revelations hit this blend pretty nicely, and I'm glad to see Revelations 2 coming out, but if they put a bit more of this kind of effort into a full reboot, it'd definitely have my attention.

Movies are kind of all over the place, for the reasons Derv mentioned. The first film is still pretty good, and I have a soft spot for the second (dat Jill), but everything after was just kind of subpar and poor.

On the topic of horror games, I've been playing The Evil Within at the moment. Any thoughts on that from anyone, considering it's by Mikami?

 

[iMisterH]

I only have Resident Evil 5, but I've played some of the older games before. I don't actually find the series scary at all, even though I'm scared quite easily by horror games. I personally prefer the newer Resident Evils.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Resident Evil 3 was the shit.

Seriously, what's not scary about being chased through a city by a massive, nigh-unkillable murder machine with a face that would make Satan shit his pants and a predisposition towards giant guns?

Resident Evil 4 was also the shit.

Kickass new direction for the series. The first time those villagers come piling in through the windows to the place you thought you were safe, you're guaranteed to get the fear. Also...

This fucking guy

Resident Evil 5 was... fun enough, I guess.

It felt a bit more scattershot in it's direction and setting than the previous games had been. I get the appeal of a globe-trotting adventure thing, but Resident Evil 4 sticks to variations of the same general area and manages to do far more with this whilst retaining some consistency. Also...

Boulders

He's punching a boulder why is he punching a boulder what's even happening now holy shit Chris just beat the shit out of a boulder

Resident Evil 6... well, it was kind of a big steamy mess.

Consistency is out the window; Capcom is trying to make three very different games and mash them into one, failing to note that splitting your devs between three different styles of game is gonna make each of them lackluster at best. There's some cool character appearances in there, don't get me wrong (nice to see Sherry again, for example), but most of it feels like dull retreads of where the series has been before. Like that one BOW, Ustanak? Boring derivative of Nemesis if ever there was one.

 

[Neon Princess]

REmake is my favourite game in the series. Cannot, cannot wait for the rerelease next year.

There's nothing inherently wrong with some of the newer Resident Evil games, although they have lost a great deal of the horror and atmosphere that the earlier games had, replacing survival horror tension with more shooty shoot mcbang mcbang, but it doesn't mean it's neccessarily bad. I've enjoyed every Resident Evil game to have come out so far, although 6 was just... a bit of a mess in a lot of ways, and good portions of it wasn't fun. But then you have Resident Evil 5, which was an absolute blast to play with my girlfriend, and Revelations which I loved a lot.

I think one of the things that irks me about the series is the storyline and how increasingly absurd it's become. Resident Evil has always been a bit over the top and cheesy, but the way in which the story has evolved is pretty... silly. From Wesker being brought back to life and given SUPER BADASS NEO MOVES to whatever the hell he was doing in 5 and having some clone/son thing in 6, not to mention an Ada clone/lookalike as well it's just... storywise it's kind of gone off the rails at this point.

I really wouldn't mind a Resident Evil reboot that did away with all this and started afresh. Gameplay wise, I'd like it to be a good mix of both the earlier games' tension and puzzle focused gameplay, but also give it some of the nice action gameplay and set pieces of 4-6. Revelations hit this blend pretty nicely, and I'm glad to see Revelations 2 coming out, but if they put a bit more of this kind of effort into a full reboot, it'd definitely have my attention.

Movies are kind of all over the place, for the reasons Derv mentioned. The first film is still pretty good, and I have a soft spot for the second (dat Jill), but everything after was just kind of subpar and poor.

On the topic of horror games, I've been playing The Evil Within at the moment. Any thoughts on that from anyone, considering it's by Mikami?

Im not sure what my deal is, but I really do like how the story has progressed in the games. I dont find them off the wall at all, and I cant really explain why. Same thing goes for the movies. For some reason or another, I just find myself really loving the newer Resident Evil games and the movies far more than the old series, though I did enjoy Revelations quite a lot. Not my favorite, but I did like it more than Resident Evil 5. If I had to list them, it'd go #I: Resident Evil 6, #II: Resident Evil 4 and #III: Resident Evil: Revelations.

As for The Evil Within, I personally cannot stand that game. for a general consensus, those black bars at the top and bottom of the screen constantly get me killed during high tension puzzle combat, the characters I found to be lifeless and devoid of personality, the entire game felt like a really poorly done Resident Evil 4 retread, including the enemies, bosses and environments, and the story didnt make a lick of sense to me what so ever. All in all, I would rate The Evil Within a 2/10. Why a 2 and not a 1 or lower? Because the game is functional for the most part. I can actually play it without it constantly crashing or glitching out. Those are the only positives to the game for my personal tastes. If anyone else likes it, have a blast with it. It's just not my game~

 

[Neon Princess]

I only have Resident Evil 5, but I've played some of the older games before. I don't actually find the series scary at all, even though I'm scared quite easily by horror games. I personally prefer the newer Resident Evils.

Good Lord, im not the only person in the world who prefers the newer games! Hallelujah!

 

[Artorias]

The little 'black' bars in The Evil Within are meant so you can't see below you and above you. If you want to look up, then go ahead, but it removes your view of your feet. It was made like that to give a horror aspect and the story made sense. Also, It really is no surprise that The Evil Within seems like Resident Evil seeing as the director of the Resident Evil games directed The Evil Within.

 

[Neon Princess]

Resident Evil 3 was the shit.

Seriously, what's not scary about being chased through a city by a massive, nigh-unkillable murder machine with a face that would make Satan shit his pants and a predisposition towards giant guns?

Resident Evil 4 was also the shit.

Kickass new direction for the series. The first time those villagers come piling in through the windows to the place you thought you were safe, you're guaranteed to get the fear. Also...

This fucking guy

Resident Evil 5 was... fun enough, I guess.

It felt a bit more scattershot in it's direction and setting than the previous games had been. I get the appeal of a globe-trotting adventure thing, but Resident Evil 4 sticks to variations of the same general area and manages to do far more with this whilst retaining some consistency. Also...

Boulders

He's punching a boulder why is he punching a boulder what's even happening now holy shit Chris just beat the shit out of a boulder

Resident Evil 6... well, it was kind of a big steamy mess.

Consistency is out the window; Capcom is trying to make three very different games and mash them into one, failing to note that splitting your devs between three different styles of game is gonna make each of them lackluster at best. There's some cool character appearances in there, don't get me wrong (nice to see Sherry again, for example), but most of it feels like dull retreads of where the series has been before. Like that one BOW, Ustanak? Boring derivative of Nemesis if ever there was one.

Resident Evil 3 wasnt scary to me because I dont like not being able to fight back. If all I can do is run away, i'd rather just die. It's why I dont like games like Outlast and Amnesia. It's also why Resident Evil 3 is particularly low on my list of favorite Resident Evil games. Running away from a near immortal killing machine isnt scary to me; it's immensely irritating. I can think of a dozen or so ways to trap the damn thing, or attempt to poison it, burn it to ashes, the list goes on, but none of those things are available to you for the majority of Resident Evil 3, so I was constantly annoyed and pissed off playing through that game.

Resident Evil 4 is a masterpiece no doubt, but I still dont find it scary at all. When the villagers piled through the windows to the house, I thought 'Yeah, i'd do that too. Didnt think I was safe here.' And as for the chainsaw guy, I was actually more annoyed with him than anything. I kept finding myself saying 'Oh, fuckin' really? A chainsaw? God dammit.'

Resident Evil 5 was fun for what it was, and I did enjoy playing it. As for Chris punching boulders, I can understand why he did. He was desperate, and in desperate times, people's adrenaline will kick in to overdrive. Given Chris's already muscular build, im not too shocked he could move that boulder after giving it some serious physical effort. I think his knuckles should've broke, but eh. That's my only qualm with it.

Resident Evil 6 I never found to be a mess at all. Like I said, I followed the story without any confusion and the set piece moments were a joy to play through and witness for me. At least Capcom attempted to bring everything to the table for 6 and you know what, kudos to them. They tried their damnedest to appeal to all of their fanbase and for my view, they succeeded with flying colours. Also, Ustanak did bother me, but I'd take him over Nemesis all day long. I cant stand Nemesis.

 

[Ser K+]

The little 'black' bars in The Evil Within are meant so you can't see below you and above you. If you want to look up, then go ahead, but it removes your view of your feet. It was made like that to give a horror aspect and the story made sense. Also, It really is no surprise that The Evil Within seems like Resident Evil seeing as the director of the Resident Evil games directed The Evil Within.

Beat me to it.
It was specifically stated by the director that the black bars were there so you couldn't see what was on top or below you. "To add a constant sense of tension"

 

[Neon Princess]

The little 'black' bars in The Evil Within are meant so you can't see below you and above you. If you want to look up, then go ahead, but it removes your view of your feet. It was made like that to give a horror aspect and the story made sense. Also, It really is no surprise that The Evil Within seems like Resident Evil seeing as the director of the Resident Evil games directed The Evil Within.

It didnt do anything but piss me off and get me killed, those stupid black bars..I dont find it good game design to remove vital view points from the player, especially during high tension segments. Also, the story didnt make sense to me at all. Ive played the game through twice and read up on the story from multiple forums and sites, and I still dont get it. That game is what I'd call a true abysmal, mess of a game. If you enjoyed it, then by all means enjoy it. I cant stand it, myself.

While it is no surprise that it felt like Resident Evil, it shouldnt have felt so much like one in particular that I felt it was a generic copy of one and to me, The Evil Within is a really poor attempt at redoing Resident Evil 4 without any of that games positives. I sold The Evil Within after I beat it a second time and I havent regretted my sale of it. With the money I got back, I bought the Destiny DLC 'The Dark Below' and some PS1 classics like Final Fantasy VII.

 

[Neon Princess]

Beat me to it.
It was specifically stated by the director that the black bars were there so you couldn't see what was on top or below you. "To add a constant sense of tension"

And to me, that's poor game design. The black bars didnt give me any tension; they pissed me off and got me killed a lot. Screw those black bars.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Resident Evil 3 wasnt scary to me because I dont like not being able to fight back. If all I can do is run away, i'd rather just die.

That's kind of a core tenet of a good horror game, though.

Horror's about disempowerment. It's about making you feel alone and isolated and scared, knowing that there's all manner of gribbly horror-things ready to fuck you up if you don't play your cards right. Some games (Outlast and Amnesia) achieve this by refusing to let the player use weapons at all, because you're playing as some unfortunate regular-ass Joe Journalist/Sam Scientist who didn't attend the Gordon Freeman School of Inexplicable Firearms Training. Or you can go down the Alien: Isolation route of giving the player access to firearms... but at the end of the day you're going up against a fucking Xenomorph, so that pussy-ass revolver just isn't gonna cut it.

A game isn't a horror game just because it's got blood and guts and other assorted grossness in it. A horror game needs to instill a sense of dread.

You shouldn't be able to win every battle in these sorts of games. Sometimes, you've got to run the fuck away.

And a giant, hulking mutant monstrosity is a good way to instill this in the player.

 

[Neon Princess]

That's kind of a core tenet of a good horror game, though.

Horror's about disempowerment. It's about making you feel alone and isolated and scared, knowing that there's all manner of gribbly horror-things ready to fuck you up if you don't play your cards right. Some games (Outlast and Amnesia) achieve this by refusing to let the player use weapons at all, because you're playing as some unfortunate regular-ass Joe Journalist/Sam Scientist who didn't attend the Gordon Freeman School of Inexplicable Firearms Training. Or you can go down the Alien: Isolation route of giving the player access to firearms... but at the end of the day you're going up against a fucking Xenomorph, so that pussy-ass revolver just isn't gonna cut it.

A game isn't a horror game just because it's got blood and guts and other assorted grossness in it. A horror game needs to instill a sense of dread.

You shouldn't be able to win every battle in these sorts of games. Sometimes, you've got to run the fuck away.

And a giant, hulking mutant monstrosity is a good way to instill this in the player.

Hm, I can see your point. A core element in horror is disempowerment, but I never liked this aspect because I could always think of a way within the universe and my surroundings to kill whatever it was I needed to kill, or at least trap it or slow it way the hell down, so I was always miffed when horror games wouldnt let me do that. As for Alien: Isolation, I couldnt stand that game for the same reason as Resident Evil 3. I dont like running away from something I know I can kill if the game would just let me craft whatever I wanted from anything and everything in the environment around me. Beyond that, I just found that game to be really really boring. I played it for about 4 or 5 hours before I sold it to a friend.

I suppose in that sense, I like the newer Resident Evil's more because I can always fight back and I always have an option of attack, as opposed to run. I also dont feel a sense of dread from not being able to fight back; like I said, that just irritates me. I get a sense of dread from things like the atmosphere or environment, namely places like the USG Ishimura from Dead Space and the Sprawl from Dead Space 2. Big, empty, eerie silent and isolated in outer freaking space? Yeah, I need the lights on for this one.

As for if one should or shouldnt be able to win every battle, I disagree. I believe any battle can be won if you just stay calm and use every little thing in your surroundings and arsenal to defeat whatever it is that is trying to destroy you. Even if you die trying, you were at least given the option to fight instead of just running away. That way, you can go back and stock up on ammo or materials or whatever and defeat said enemy in round 2.

Giant, hulking mutant monstrosities are certainly strong, but nothing and no one is immune to death. One way or another, those things can and will be killed, so they dont frighten me. The things that frighten me in terms of enemies are things like Gods that are divine and cannot be touched by anything we mere mortals can think up. THAT is the shit that scares me.

 

[Dervish]

Hm, I can see your point. A core element in horror is disempowerment, but I never liked this aspect because I could always think of a way within the universe and my surroundings to kill whatever it was I needed to kill, or at least trap it or slow it way the hell down, so I was always miffed when horror games wouldnt let me do that. As for Alien: Isolation, I couldnt stand that game for the same reason as Resident Evil 3. I dont like running away from something I know I can kill if the game would just let me craft whatever I wanted from anything and everything in the environment around me. Beyond that, I just found that game to be really really boring. I played it for about 4 or 5 hours before I sold it to a friend.

I suppose in that sense, I like the newer Resident Evil's more because I can always fight back and I always have an option of attack, as opposed to run. I also dont feel a sense of dread from not being able to fight back; like I said, that just irritates me. I get a sense of dread from things like the atmosphere or environment, namely places like the USG Ishimura from Dead Space and the Sprawl from Dead Space 2. Big, empty, eerie silent and isolated in outer freaking space? Yeah, I need the lights on for this one.

As for if one should or shouldnt be able to win every battle, I disagree. I believe any battle can be won if you just stay calm and use every little thing in your surroundings and arsenal to defeat whatever it is that is trying to destroy you. Even if you die trying, you were at least given the option to fight instead of just running away. That way, you can go back and stock up on ammo or materials or whatever and defeat said enemy in round 2.

Giant, hulking mutant monstrosities are certainly strong, but nothing and no one is immune to death. One way or another, those things can and will be killed, so they dont frighten me. The things that frighten me in terms of enemies are things like Gods that are divine and cannot be touched by anything we mere mortals can think up. THAT is the shit that scares me.

I only played the first Dead Space and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't really see it as a scary game. I think I jumped more playing online shooters where I got shot unexpectedly when I'm concentrating that I did in Dead Space and games like it where it's really empowering. There's nothing really scary about being able to hold your ground, mow down most of the bad guys, relocate when they get close, and then repeat the feat until the area's cleared, at least not to me. It just kind of kills the immersion.

The way you describe the whole Gods being untouchable and thus terrifying can be applied to most of the horror games you don't like. There's always going to be situations where you can't just shoot your way out of things and no matter how well you use your environment and weapons at hand, you will lose no matter what. Say you're fighting in a war and you're alone and there's a tank looking for you and you have nothing to attack with with, your only real choice is to retreat. You're in a classroom and a bear breaks in and starts mauling people, your only hope is to get around it while it's mauling somebody else. That last example's ridiculous, I know, but it's kind of the same thing with games. A lot of the games where you have to run from your assailants are terrifying because it forces your body to kick into the flight response (of the fight or flight reaction fame) where basically your body gets so hopped up on chemicals and hormones and you're convinced you'll die if you get caught, and this happens because your body's trying to save your life as a survival mechanism. The opposite of that is the fight response, which you seem to enjoy, which basically has you confronting your adversaries and getting pumped up for confrontation. The difference being instead of your body reacting like "OHSHITOHSHITI'MGIONGTOFUCKIGNDIIIIIE", it's like "OHHH YEAH! GONNA SNAP INTO YOU LIKE A SLIM JIM, BROTHER!" and the perception of danger diminishes. It's part of the reason in a battle, soldiers are able and willing to run towards danger because they condition themselves to turn their flight responses into fight responses.

Amnesia, so far, is the only horror game that's actually scared me because I was able to get immersed in it, which is hard to who when your blowing holes in everything that moves. There's a feeling of apprehension of going forward because you have no idea what's waiting for you, and you're always trying to think of how you can get away and find a place to escape to when you enter a new area, so your mind is constantly running, and then your best laid plans go to shit the minute you encounter something because you have to react.

It helps to get into the mentality of the character you're controlling in the game and allow yourself to forget it's a game. In Amnesia's case, you're a scrawny middle-aged scientist who's encountering horribly mutilated creatures that used to be people that he helped create. Sure, you could pick something up to try to defend yourself, but we're talking about things that are impervious to pain and can break down doors in short order. You don't stand a chance.

Likewise, Alien: Isolation is supposed to be really friggin' scary because they nailed the atmosphere of the first movie and what the Alien is supposed to represent. The thing is the Alien isn't supposed to be easy to gun down, and your character is an engineer without combat training. Sure, you find a revolver and a shotgun and a flame thrower, but they aren't enough to wound the creature enough before it can reach you. You just need to have patience with those kinds of games and get in the mentality that you need to plot your moves to advance instead of riding in the comfort you can kill anything you come across. I mean, if I want to get scared of something, I don't want to feel like I'm playing any other shooter, I want to play something where I feasibly could be trapped in as a regular person and see if I have what it takes to survive.

 

[Neon Princess]

I only played the first Dead Space and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't really see it as a scary game. I think I jumped more playing online shooters where I got shot unexpectedly when I'm concentrating that I did in Dead Space and games like it where it's really empowering. There's nothing really scary about being able to hold your ground, mow down most of the bad guys, relocate when they get close, and then repeat the feat until the area's cleared, at least not to me. It just kind of kills the immersion.

The way you describe the whole Gods being untouchable and thus terrifying can be applied to most of the horror games you don't like. There's always going to be situations where you can't just shoot your way out of things and no matter how well you use your environment and weapons at hand, you will lose no matter what. Say you're fighting in a war and you're alone and there's a tank looking for you and you have nothing to attack with with, your only real choice is to retreat. You're in a classroom and a bear breaks in and starts mauling people, your only hope is to get around it while it's mauling somebody else. That last example's ridiculous, I know, but it's kind of the same thing with games. A lot of the games where you have to run from your assailants are terrifying because it forces your body to kick into the flight response (of the fight or flight reaction fame) where basically your body gets so hopped up on chemicals and hormones and you're convinced you'll die if you get caught, and this happens because your body's trying to save your life as a survival mechanism. The opposite of that is the fight response, which you seem to enjoy, which basically has you confronting your adversaries and getting pumped up for confrontation. The difference being instead of your body reacting like "OHSHITOHSHITI'MGIONGTOFUCKIGNDIIIIIE", it's like "OHHH YEAH! GONNA SNAP INTO YOU LIKE A SLIM JIM, BROTHER!" and the perception of danger diminishes. It's part of the reason in a battle, soldiers are able and willing to run towards danger because they condition themselves to turn their flight responses into fight responses.

Amnesia, so far, is the only horror game that's actually scared me because I was able to get immersed in it, which is hard to who when your blowing holes in everything that moves. There's a feeling of apprehension of going forward because you have no idea what's waiting for you, and you're always trying to think of how you can get away and find a place to escape to when you enter a new area, so your mind is constantly running, and then your best laid plans go to shit the minute you encounter something because you have to react.

It helps to get into the mentality of the character you're controlling in the game and allow yourself to forget it's a game. In Amnesia's case, you're a scrawny middle-aged scientist who's encountering horribly mutilated creatures that used to be people that he helped create. Sure, you could pick something up to try to defend yourself, but we're talking about things that are impervious to pain and can break down doors in short order. You don't stand a chance.

Likewise, Alien: Isolation is supposed to be really friggin' scary because they nailed the atmosphere of the first movie and what the Alien is supposed to represent. The thing is the Alien isn't supposed to be easy to gun down, and your character is an engineer without combat training. Sure, you find a revolver and a shotgun and a flame thrower, but they aren't enough to wound the creature enough before it can reach you. You just need to have patience with those kinds of games and get in the mentality that you need to plot your moves to advance instead of riding in the comfort you can kill anything you come across. I mean, if I want to get scared of something, I don't want to feel like I'm playing any other shooter, I want to play something where I feasibly could be trapped in as a regular person and see if I have what it takes to survive.

Call me stupid or reckless, but in the situations you named (The tank, the bear) I wouldnt run or try and get around it. With the tank, I'd look for anything I could to try and break it. Would I die? Yes, but I wouldnt run. For the bear, same thing. I'd look for anything I could find to kill it. Would I die? Most likely, but again, I wouldnt run. I dont run from things. My fight or flight response has always been fight, even as a kid.

Amnesia as ive said before bothers me because I cant fight anything. I get that they're immune to pain and such, but damage is still damage. Just because you cant feel your head being cracked by a bat, doesnt mean your head isnt being cracked by a bat. Pain is just a response to the damage; it doesnt stop the damage if you cant feel the pain.

The Aliens are stupidly easy to gun down from what ive seen of the movies. All you need to do is lay into them and unload, this being made especially easy if one has a Pulse Rifle. I cant tell you how many times I would burn the fucker, rush up on it and shotgun its face, and it wouldnt die. That doesnt make sense to me. I just put a fucking shotgun to your face at point blank range, and you dont die?! Even after I burn you?! Nope. Im done with that bullshit.

I am a regular person, and I know what it takes to survive. My father served 2 tours in Vietnam and taught me every single thing he knew about warfare, survival and combat. When I play average joes, I get so freaking irritated with their oblivious ignorance to the things they could use or to do survive easier and kill their enemies swifter. It's probably another reason I like the newer Resident Evils, because I have the full capability to fight back both effectively and efficiently, especially if we're talking my favorite game universe character, Chris Redfield. That man reminds me of my father in so many ways, its scary. The only difference is that Chris is a white guy, while my dad was African-American. (Adoptive dad, mind you.)

 

[Dervish]

Call me stupid or reckless, but in the situations you named (The tank, the bear) I wouldnt run or try and get around it. With the tank, I'd look for anything I could to try and break it. Would I die? Yes, but I wouldnt run. For the bear, same thing. I'd look for anything I could find to kill it. Would I die? Most likely, but again, I wouldnt run. I dont run from things. My fight or flight response has always been fight, even as a kid.

Amnesia as ive said before bothers me because I cant fight anything. I get that they're immune to pain and such, but damage is still damage. Just because you cant feel your head being cracked by a bat, doesnt mean your head isnt being cracked by a bat. Pain is just a response to the damage; it doesnt stop the damage if you cant feel the pain.

The Aliens are stupidly easy to gun down from what ive seen of the movies. All you need to do is lay into them and unload, this being made especially easy if one has a Pulse Rifle. I cant tell you how many times I would burn the fucker, rush up on it and shotgun its face, and it wouldnt die. That doesnt make sense to me. I just put a fucking shotgun to your face at point blank range, and you dont die?! Even after I burn you?! Nope. Im done with that bullshit.

I am a regular person, and I know what it takes to survive. My father served 2 tours in Vietnam and taught me every single thing he knew about warfare, survival and combat. When I play average joes, I get so freaking irritated with their oblivious ignorance to the things they could use or to do survive easier and kill their enemies swifter. It's probably another reason I like the newer Resident Evils, because I have the full capability to fight back both effectively and efficiently, especially if we're talking my favorite game universe character, Chris Redfield. That man reminds me of my father in so many ways, its scary. The only difference is that Chris is a white guy, while my dad was African-American. (Adoptive dad, mind you.)

That's the thing though; you can say you'd react a certain way to such and such situation, but you never know how you'd react in the situation until you're there. I don't doubt you're tough and you haven't encountered many situations you wouldn't stand your ground, but everyone has something that eventually gets to them. Hell, even something like you stirred up a hornet's nest. You don't stand there and take your lumps, you get away from them because you're smart enough to know that getting stung pointlessly is much one of the dumbest things you could do.

Damage may still be damage, but how much do you have to inflict before it catches up to you? You may not even get a chance to swing said baseball bat before it kills you. It's just one of those things where if you're at a severe disadvantage, going at it just to die would be pointless and of course it isn't scary if you keep confronting these invulnerable monsters, and probably dying a lot. If you get in the mentality of "I gotta find a way to kill it and keep trying until I do" you're not going to enjoy the game because it's not it's intended purpose and you're purposely sabotaging the atmosphere. With Resident Evil 3 the whole Nemesis thing was brilliant because up until then, you COULD kill anything you came across, and in a series that's super stringy on ammunition, you'd have to reach a point where you realized the big bastard couldn't be killed conventionally, and a part of good horror is that the source of said horror isn't always in your face, it's lurking just out of sight and creating an atmosphere of dread. You never knew where the Nemesis would reappear, and you had to know your escape routes. It made it that much more rewarding when you finally did kill it because you goddamn earned it at that point, and it's a huge relief.

As for your Alien situation, keep in mind the second movie was directed by James Cameron instead of Ridley Scott, so the vision of what the monster was shifted. It was more of a straight up action movie with a badass female lead (which is STILL uncommon enough to be annoying. Live a little, Hollywood), but the flamethrower in that movie was only effective at destroying the nest, pretty much. The aliens are scared of fire, yeah, but it never really hurts them. Maybe their skin is fire-retardant, and the intense heat isn't more than an irritation. As for the whole shotgun thing, yeah, the xenomorphs in Aliens died after prolonged gunshots, but that's also with a lot of ammunition and a group of trained marines. You can probably wound the single alien with a shotgun, but maybe its hide his too thick for the buckshot to pierce to anything vital. It's one of those things where you can't really assign human values to it. I mean, these are creatures that apparently have no problem physically surviving the vacuum of space, other than needing air. Hell, even when you're playing a game like Alien vs Predator, you can usually take a few solid hits as an Alien without dying. At it's purest, the Alien isn't supposed to just be another faceless mook to gun down, it's a monolithic terror that represents a lot of things that terrify us, especially since it's entire character design is based around rape imagery.

I'm not digging against your personality or what you may know or anything like that, and it's great you have that kind of bond with your dad. It's a great place to prepare yourself for situations that actually pose a danger to yourself, but like I said, you don't know how you're going to react to something until you experience it, and everyone has a breaking point. There's a lot of historical examples of war veterans who after fighting months or years of war experience something that just breaks them down as a person. Maybe you adapt well to constantly being at threat of ambushes or mines, or entire villages potentially being hostile to you, or prolonged, hours long fire fights. Maybe you single-handed charged a fortified position and took out three machine-gun nests so your comrades could advance. Maybe all of that washes over you, but the thing that gets you is you see a kid being forced to fight, or you see a mother holding a dead infant or something like that. It's off topic and all that, I'm just saying from experience don't expect any amount of preparation to really give you immunity from anything you could possibly encounter, and I've been a soldier and I've been jumped by criminals and kept a cool head and my training probably made the situation a lot better than it could have been. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. You can always fill your toolbox with skills and experience you can draw upon when you need it, but all it takes is the one time you encounter a situation that you aren't prepared for and you mentally can't adapt.

tl;dr challenge yourself to get into the mindset of somebody else when playing those games where you can't Rambo your way through it and put aside all expectations you might have. You'll enjoy it a lot more, trust me.