What are you currently playing? 4.0

[Foggle]

Is there still a separate co-op story mode?

No. There's a survival mode instead, which I believe is arena-based co-op.

As far as the difficulty goes, it's definitely a lot harder than the first one. It's far more skill-based, though. Makes me realize how shitty I actually am at 2D beat 'em ups...

[Daxdiv]

After a few days of struggling, I was able to beat Mom's Heart with the Blue Baby in the Binding of Isaac. Why was this tough thing? Well Blue Baby is kind of special in the regards that he's almost exactly like Isaac playing style, but his health is in Soul Hearts. For those that don't know, Soul Hearts are basically temporary health you get from either random drops, items, or blowing up tinted rocks. When you get hit with a Soul Heart, there is no way to regenerate it unless you find a spare one around the dungeon. That means you have to be careful with taking damage. Even items that would grant you a health upgrade would just give you items in the form of Soul Hearts, so basically you got one free heart or 2 hits before entering Mom's Womb. Well, at least beating Mom's Heart nets me the D6 for Isaac.

Can't really beat Satan yet, he's tough as hell and I was lucky to beat him as Eve of all characters that one time. Considering Eve's playstyle of giving things up to become powerful, I guess it worked.

[Foggle]

Continuing with my Resident Evil playthrough. 2 and 3 were as excellent as I'd remembered while 0 was eventually able to grow on me.

Code Veronica, on the other hand... goddamn, this game is a piece of shit. I remember liking it four years ago, but I don't think I ever got past Claire's segment on Rockfort Island. And holy fuck does the game start sucking after you leave.

Where to begin? The level design becomes absolutely horrendous once you're in Antarctica. Until you turn the power on, which requires trekking through three different rooms after finding the right hallway and fighting around eight enemies, it is too dark to see anything. Literally. You will actually miss collectible items and even doors because the facility is so damn dark, which makes finding the key to the power room, killing the zombies and dogs along the way, and locating the power switch itself fairly difficult.

Then there's the puzzles. One involves pushing a bookcase that gives you absolutely no hint as to the fact that you can push it. Another requires you to find a barcode sticker and put it on a box before flipping a switch for absolutely no reason. But the worst one involves turning off the poison gas. Here's how you do it:
1) You have to examine an octagonal hole. If you don't do this, you can't trigger step 3.
2) Find a square valve handle.
3) Enter an unrelated room and use a piece of unlabeled machinery to turn the square valve handle into an octagonal one.

Of course, this is leaving out the utter rage that is the "moth hall." This hallway is filled with infinitely respawning flying enemies that have one attack; dodging all your bullets and laying eggs on you. The eggs will eventually break and poison you, forcing you to use blue herbs to unpoison yourself. Unfortunately, the eggs don't break until you leave the hall, while the blue herbs are stationary and located in the same hall with the moths. So this is what happens:
1) You try desperately to kill all the moths. The final one lays an egg on you.
2) You have to leave the hall to make the egg break and actually poison you.
3) When you re-enter the hall, all the moths have respawned. If a moth lands on you and lays another egg, start again from step 2.
4) Finally manage to kill all the moths and use the blue herbs.

This must be done nearly every time you enter the moth hall. This would be bad enough on its own, but no, it gets fucking worse. The ONLY save room in the Antarctica level is connected to the moth hall, meaning you are forced to go through it every time you want to save or use your item box. Brilliant.

Next up is the level boss, Nosferatu. His attacks consist entirely of cornering you at the edge of the helipad and then swiping you with his tentacles from nearly halfway across the map, knocking you off and effectively one-shotting you. And god help you if you take all your best weapons with you to the fight, because you're suddenly forced to play as Chris for the rest of the game and he shares his inventory with Claire. Did you take your grenade launcher with you to the Nosferatu fight? Joke's on you, now Chris can't use it! And if you save over your file before discovering this, get ready to play through the first 6-7 hours again. Great, huh?

This is completely ignoring the fact that Code Veronica is downright mean to people who have never played a classic Resident Evil game before. If you don't know how to dodge effectively or conserve ammunition properly, you will likely have to restart the entire game after roughly two hours of play. Additionally, you will not find your first magical item box until at least 45 minutes in, and that's if you know its location, which is at the very end of the last possible path most sensible people would take. Until you find that item box, the game can only adequately be described as inventory micromanagement hell. It's not fun.

There are plenty more reasons to hate Code Veronica, but I'll leave it at that for now. As it stands, there are precisely two ways to beat this game without getting mad at it:
1) Use a walkthrough.
2) Have previously beaten it.

So glad Nemesis got the honor of being Resident Evil 3 instead of this turd. Now, that one... that's one's a masterpiece.

[talonmalon333]

I think it was better than 3.

[Foggle]

If you don't like 3 and ignore Claire's Antarctica part, then I guess I can see that. Claire's Island section is actually rather good and Chris' levels are at least acceptable.

[talonmalon333]

If you don't like 3 and ignore Claire's Antarctica part, then I guess I can see that. Claire's Island section is actually rather good and Chris' levels are at least acceptable.

I actually didn't have a problem with most of the things you mentioned (for example, I always just ran past all those moths you mentioned, and I thought Nosferatu was a fun fight, with the atmosphere and rifle)). My only real issue with CV is that the Hunters are a little cheap... seriously, if they hit you once, you get almost no recovery time. They can just stand there and keep swiping at you non-stop until you die.

But before I ruin my own argument, I had no issue with Claire's Antarctica section partially due to the fact that it's, well, short. And Chris' half is my favorite part of the game. But I really like the game as a whole because of several things. One's the atmosphere, which is creepy. I also think it's less linear than 3, and you have more options for places to go. I also enjoyed the story more, what with Wesker, Alexia, and all that. It also set up the conflict between the series' main hero and main villain.

3 was good, but as a classic RE title I think it's kind of "meh" in comparison. I like the additions to gameplay it made, and Nemesis was awesome, but everything else just feels so uninspired after the masterpiece that was RE2. The areas are forgettable, puzzles aren't too interesting, only one character to really play as, atmosphere wasn't very interesting after the first 45 minutes... In fact, I liked RE0 better too, though mainly cause of it's atmosphere.

[Foggle]

I tried running through the moth hall like 5 times. Got eggs laid on me 4 out of those 5.

Nosferatu only killed me once, which was a one-shot cheap hit. It's an incredibly easy fight... hit him 7 times with the sniper rifle and then three times with exploding arrows. I do like the atmosphere of the fight that the fog brings, though.

The story is okay, but by god the characters are horrible. Claire, Chris, and Wesker are fine; no objections there. But Steve? Ugh. And Alfred is by far the lamest villain in the series -- he makes horrible antagonists like James Marcus, Salazar, Saddler, and Irving seem intimidating. I know this is done on purpose, but when 75% of the game has him appear to be the main bad guy, that doesn't really make up for it.

Personally, I thought RE 3 had the best puzzle in the series: the water purification machine puzzle. Yes, 3 does feel a bit uninspired compared to RE 1 and 2, but so do CV and 0, IMO, and to a much greater extent. 1, 2, and the remake were amazing because they were helmed by geniuses like Mikami and Kamiya. 3, CV, and 0 were made by B teams, and it definitely shows. 3 has scares but no atmosphere. CV and 0 have atmosphere but no scares.

[talonmalon333]

I tried running through the moth hall like 5 times. Got eggs laid on me 4 out of those 5.

Nosferatu only killed me once, which was a one-shot cheap hit. It's an incredibly easy fight... hit him 7 times with the sniper rifle and then three times with exploding arrows. I do like the atmosphere of the fight that the fog brings, though.

The story is okay, but by god the characters are horrible. Claire, Chris, and Wesker are fine; no objections there. But Steve? Ugh. And Alfred is by far the lamest villain in the series -- he makes horrible antagonists like James Marcus, Salazar, Saddler, and Irving seem intimidating. I know this is done on purpose, but when 75% of the game has him appear to be the main bad guy, that doesn't really make up for it.

Personally, I thought RE 3 had the best puzzle in the series: the water purification machine puzzle. Yes, 3 does feel a bit uninspired compared to RE 1 and 2, but so do CV and 0, IMO, and to a much greater extent. 1, 2, and the remake were amazing because they were helmed by geniuses like Mikami and Kamiya. 3, CV, and 0 were made by B teams, and it definitely shows. 3 has scares but no atmosphere. CV and 0 have atmosphere but no scares.

This is going to sound weird, but I actually didn't mind Steve. Yeah, his voice was grating, but his characterization improved over the game. And I liked Alfred, too. His voice fit his character, and I really liked that it had several layers to it. Just made him seem all the crazier. With the exception of maybe Salazaar, I liked him better than all those villains you listed, especially Marcus. I also enjoyed the Psycho references.

I think Carlos is far more annoying than both, actually.

As a whole though, I think RE1 has the best story. You're dropped off in a mansion. You have no idea what's going on, there's danger everywhere, you barely have any ammo, but you have near free roam. Now you could simply blow through the puzzles, slip past enemies, and reach the end. Or, you could unravel the story yourself, learn about what's going on and how things came to be the way they are (and REmake even added a bonus by giving you the chance to learn about the history of the mansion itself). There's very few mandatory scenes that drive the plot. It's almost entirely on you. THAT'S how a game should tell it's story, through the game itself rather than cutscenes.

I actually got a scare or two from 0 and CV, which isn't much less than 3. My favorites in order go...

1. RE1
2. RE2
3. RECV
4. RE0
5. RE3

I like 'em all though.

[Foggle]

Nemesis got me every time in 3. Code Veronica has some great build up moments that put me on the edge of my seat... and then nothing. I retract my bit about 0, though; there actually were a few scary parts in that one.

Steve's character is actually quite good near the end, but for most of the game he's obnoxious in a lot of ways. I concede that Alfred is at least better than Marcus, though.

My favorites in order:
1 (remake)
2
1 (original/director's cut)
3
0
Code Veronica

I actually do like all of them, including CV. It just has some really horrible design choices that suck the fun right out of certain parts. My only real problem with 0 is the incessant backtracking. If that was toned down, I'd probably prefer it over 3.

[talonmalon333]

Nemesis got me every time in 3. Code Veronica has some great build up moments that put me on the edge of my seat... and then nothing. I retract my bit about 0, though; there actually were a few scary parts in that one.

Steve's character is actually quite good near the end, but for most of the game he's obnoxious in a lot of ways. I concede that Alfred is at least better than Marcus, though.

My favorites in order:
1 (remake)
2
1 (original/director's cut)
3
0
Code Veronica

I actually do like all of them, including CV. It just has some really horrible design choices that suck the fun right out of certain parts. My only real problem with 0 is the incessant backtracking. If that was toned down, I'd probably prefer it over 3.

I think another thing I love about CV is Chris' music. Just listening to these tunes makes you wanna be a hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLrr3O1nlCg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfeEja6rfbg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79u36lbB0Yk

I forgot to list REmake in my list. I'd have it tied at #1, or maybe slightly below it.

[Foggle]

Okay, muscled through and finished Code Veronica. I have to say that it somewhat follows a pattern:
Rockfort Island (Claire) - Awesome
Antarctica (Claire) - Terrible
Rockfort Island (Chris) - Terrible
Antarctica (Chris) - Awesome

Unfortunately, I do take major issue with some of the stuff in the fourth (and final) section of the game. First of all, the scene where Claire is chased by the Incredible Hulk. It is literally impossible to avoid his attacks and he kills you in two hits, so if you don't have full health when you enter the room with him and don't have two full healing items on you, you actually cannot win. That is the definition of bad game design, IMO. While this will not be an issue for most players, I can definitely see people being forced to restart the entire game at this point simply because they don't have enough health items.

Then there's the final boss fight. It's just utter garbage.
First form: One magnum shot and you've won
Second form: Boss doesn't even attack you, you just get swarmed by annoying stun-locking bugs
Third form: Horrendous luck-based first-person shooting

Most of Chris' Antarctica section was awesome, though. But I don't know if a game where only 70% of the content is great is good enough to rank above 0. Definitely my least favorite in the entire main series.

[talonmalon333]

Foggle, it might be better to put spoiler tags there or something, as you might spoil a big plot point for some people.

Anyway, as for that certain axe wielding, giant monster you speak of that I won't name, I can get through that section getting hit only once, if at all. They intended for it to be very challenging, and it's not like they punish you a whole lot if you fail.

As for the final fight, it does attack you. Just not very often, as I think it's more happy with letting it's minions finishing you (considering what we know about "it's" personality)... But I'll agree that it's not a very good fight.

To me it goes...

Rockfort Island (Claire) - Awesome
Antarctica (Claire) - Good
Rockfort Island (Chris) - Good
Antarctica (Chris) - Awesome

The fourth section is one of the best parts of the entire series, in my opinion... Also, first time I played the game, I beat it in a single playthrough without a guide.

As for RE0, as much as I love it, I kind of don't like it as much as I wish I did. Because I adore the atmosphere, and I really like the Rebecca/Billy team... But something about the game feels a bit slow.

[Foggle]

Foggle, it might be better to put spoiler tags there or something, as you might spoil a big plot point for some people.

Unfortunately our spoiler tag doesn't work anymore. I fixed it, though.

Anyway, as for that certain axe wielding, giant monster you speak of that I won't name, I can get through that section getting hit only once, if at all.

What? How?

The fourth section is one of the best parts of the entire series, in my opinion... Also, first time I played the game, I beat it in a single playthrough without a guide.

Yeah, it's definitely the best part of the game. Best thing about it: no bandersnatches and only two poison hunters. No, but seriously, that section is damn good.

I only really used a guide to find out where to put the second Eagle Plate you get as Claire and how to get both tiger statue gems at once as Chris. But because of that, I encountered a lot of trial and error throughout the game. To the point where it stopped being fun for me at times.

[talonmalon333]

Unfortunately our spoiler tag doesn't work anymore. I fixed it, though.

I like it, better than had you been able to use spoiler tags.

What? How?

Like this (starts at about 2:10 mins in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atYZaTVUhcg&feature=related

That's only taking one hit though. I thought I remembered myself getting through without taking any hits, though I might be wrong.

You can also "glitch" the game and do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEcnrA6RIzo&feature=related

Yeah, it's definitely the best part of the game. Best thing about it: no bandersnatches and only two poison hunters. No, but seriously, that section is damn good.

I have no issue with the bandersnatches. Poison hunters are annoying as hell though.

EDIT:

By the way, what's your least favorite in the series overall? Combining old and new, I'm assuming it'd be CV or 5.

[Foggle]

Bandersnatches aren't too bad, but they can be annoying. The poison hunters actually made me rage, though.

By the way, what's your least favorite in the series overall? Combining old and new, I'm assuming it'd be CV or 5.

Gaiden. If you mean main series, then probably 5. I had more fun with it than CV, but CV is just a better game, IMO.