#he gets caught and sent to rockfort Island

[geddy-leesbian]

sitting here unironically writing this angsty weird ass Luis/Alfred Ashford fanfic and suddenly my tinnitus got like really fucking loud for a few seconds?? (it's always there in the background but it's a genetics thing I'm p sure because I've always had it so I'm used to it) I should take this as a sign from god that it's time to stop but I won't. im way too invested in this concept i can't back out now im seeing this shit through

[troublemkr]

this timeline details Claire's story from july 1998 until the end of 2006. opportunities for plotting are labeled , though you're not limited to them. they are there just for both our benefits to signify that I want to add more there once it's plotted and developed. questions are always welcome.

1998 

July , Chris Redfield and Barry Burton helped Claire move into her dorm room in St. Louis , which was about three and a half hours away from Raccoon City. after settling in and getting ready for her freshman year in college , Claire realized that it had been a while since she'd heard from her brother. she knew that he was working very hard with the other members of STARS , but it was unlike him to not respond to texts or phone calls. 

September , Claire decided that she would take matters into her own hands. she decided to leave school and go back home to Raccoon City to search for her brother. along the way , Claire met rookie police officer Leon Kennedy who agreed to help get her to the RCPD and help search for Chris. together they discovered that the city had been overrun with an infection that caused people to have zombie ― like symptoms. while trying to find evidence of what happened to Chris , Claire found a note from him saying he'd gone to Europe to further investigate umbrella. while on the way to searching for an exit strategy , Claire met up with the daughter of one of the scientists who'd created the t ― virus , Sherry Birkin. Claire brought Sherry with her , and teamed up again with Leon to escape the city before the US's airstrike hit and destroyed the city. 

December , after ensuring that Sherry was safe , or as safe as she could be in the custody of the government , Claire arranged a flight to Europe to continue her search for her brother. a lead sent her to France where she infiltrated an umbrella facility that Chris had been targeting , but before she could gain any headway in her search , she was caught. Claire was interrogated by Rodrigo Juan Raval then knocked out and transported from the facility in France to another facility in Rockfort Island , off the west coast of South America. when she came to , she found that the facility was under attack by an air raid. the explosions caused certain buildings and structures to fall , which in turn caused the release of bioweapons created from samples of the t ― virus. while attempting to find a way to escape from the island , Claire came into contact with Steve Burnside and decided to team up with him. while looking around Steve found information that Chris was being surveilled by umbrella. Claire decided to contact Leon Kennedy , asking him to reach out to her brother and let him know where she was being held and that he was under surveillance. once she did that , she and Steve managed to escape the island but were only able to reach Antarctica before getting attacked again. at the end , Claire and Chris are finally reunited and escape to safety.

1999 ― 2002

after reuniting with Chris and ensuring , on both their parts , that the other was safe , Chris demanded that Claire go back to school and finish her degree. it was more important to him than it was to her that she try to maintain as normal a life as possible. she went back to St. Louis and continued her education.

* plotting opportunity *

May '02 , Claire reunited in person with her brother for her graduation of college and receipt of her bachelor's degree in journalism. a conversation was had about her future and what she wanted to do with her life. together , she and Chris expressed feelings of wanting the same things , though they would go about them differently. it was best the Redfield's would each play to their own strengths. with ideas in mind , Claire said goodbye to her brother again. 

2003

February , umbrella was finally found guilty for the terrors that had taken place in Raccoon City five years before , thus bankrupting and essentially destroying the pharmaceutical company. this , while a win for most people , bred the perfect climate for other companies to pick up umbrella's slack. 

in the wake of the events in Raccoon City in 1998 , and the news coverage of the city's destruction and the legal battle with umbrella , a group of activists began working together to create an organization to help once it became clear the government wasn't interested in doing so. this organization would come to be known as terrasave. very soon after the verdict against umbrella , agents of terrasave approached Claire in an attempt to recruit her. this was exactly the type of work that she had been looking for , and with her degree in journalism , she knew that she'd be able to make a real difference with them. 

around the same time that Claire was being recruited by terrasave , her brother and his partner Jill Valentine were busy founding the BSAA.

* plotting opportunity *

2005

November , after umbrella's demise , the threat of bioterrorism was increasing. former umbrella researchers were suspected of selling bio-weapons on the black market causing the US to form an agreement with yet another pharmaceutical company , the WP corporation. the agreement was that WP would mass produce a vaccine for the t ― virus , thus eliminating umbrella's previous effectiveness. 

Claire , along with terrasave , arranged for a protest against WP as they had been accused of illegal and immoral experimentation. while in the airport in Harvardville , Wisconsin , she was right in the middle of a purposeful g ― virus outbreak. unbeknownst to her , Leon was dispatched to work on the same outbreak that she was and they were able to team up again. together , they were able to keep the outbreak contained and get to the bottom of their mystery. 

2006

after the incident in Harvardville , Claire continued to work with terrasave on protests against biological warfare , medical waste containment and cleanup , and the distribution of medication , supplies , and food.

* plotting opportunity *

August , Claire learned about the accident that Jill was in. she , among other terrasave members , joined the search for both Jill and Wesker but were unsuccessful. the loss of Jill devastated her , both for her own benefit but also for her brother who'd just lost his partner. three months later , Jill would be pronounced dead and the Redfield's world would change forever. 

[radellama]

Resi Reviews pt2

Continuing with last year’s resi post, I’m gonna be talking about these games babeyyyy! I didn’t get to play much (and honestly I inhaled so much last year that even I’m surprised looking back…god I love this series) Like last time, I’m gonna get into it and although I’ll try not to spoil too much, expect some mild spoilers. Let's go!

Code Veronica X

This game is goofy and charming and I had such a great time with it. I found it at a decent price online for ps2 and bought it, and man this makes me want to get the older games on ps1 so baddd. There was just something about playing it with the controller and hearing my lil old ps2 whirring as I played that really immersed me; as much as I love emulation, there definitely is a ‘click’ when you play older games on older consoles. That said, lets get into it.

I hear a lot of debate about whether this was meant to be the ‘actual’ re3 or not, and there’s plenty for and against, but in my heart I’m taking this as the continuation to re2 lol. You follow Claire as she continues her investigations into where her brother disappeared to, when she’s caught and sent to an umbrella facility on Rockfort Island. All hell breaks loose as the virus spreads across the island, and Claire has to make her way out before it’s too late. Along the way, she meets a nasaly Canadian teen named Steve, whom she bumps into a couple of times before they decide to team up and get off the island together. They eventually end up in Antarctica, and if you couldn’t tell just by the locations alone, this game is a lil whacky. The main antagonists are the Ashford twins, and they’re a little strange, though enjoyable. I found myself laughing at the sheer absurdity of some of the cutscenes, and spoiler alert, you come across Wesker!!! I was so so so excited, he’s blonde, he’s skinny, he’s rich, and he’s a little bit of a bitch. (Honestly, that goes for the Ashfords as well :P)

While the plot is anywhere but down to earth, it was fun to follow and still felt like a resi game. While Steve was silly, I didn’t find him all that annoying, so a particular scene that happens near the end of the game regarding him succeeded in making me quite emotional. It was awesome to see the Redfield siblings together again, the set designs were honestly pretty rad and the music is very memorable.

I noticed a few things during my playthrough that were pretty cool. As this is an older resi game, it has all those door loading screens. They’re really slow and I got a bit impatient at times, but when you were heading in the right direction and it was ramping up to something like a boss fight getting triggered in the next room, the controller would rumble as though it were Claire’s heartbeat. This really excited me and added some more tension, and as it was only on occasion it was pretty fun! Another thing is that because these environments are 3D and not prerendered, there is motion in the (not so) static cam!! I know it's really simple but with subtle and smooth tilts and pans across some of the larger spaces, it made the areas feel so dynamic. It also reduced the need for so many camera angles as it could just move slightly to show more, so I never really found myself getting disoriented. Admittedly, it did take me a while to get used to the tank controls, as the only games that still have them are re0/re1make, and they’ve been refined, but once I figured out how to use my weapons properly, tank controls were pretty fun tbh. It makes me curious to play the ogs, and I’m definitely keen to try figure out a way to play them next year!

One thing I noticed that wasn’t as positive though, as this is an older game there are some spots where you can soft lock yourself in a corner or fuck yourself over with tedious insta kills. I remember the boss fight on the plane, I somehow fucked myself over entirely on that and was lucky to be able to brute force my way through it. There were some sections near the end that had me redoing the same sequence of events over and over because of an insta kill up ahead that was difficult to navigate. The worst of them all for me was the fact that Chris and Claire share item boxes - this makes sense and is pretty neat on it’s own, but this means if I wanted Chris to use a particular weapon or he was holding onto some healing that I really needed, I couldn’t access them unless I was willing to put them in the box and finish his sections without them if I wanted Claire to have them. There were some sections that I utterly fucked myself over with, and I because there’s no indicators of when the swaps are about to happen, how the hell was I supposed to know lol?? It’s obviously not that big a deal, as I did manage to finish it, but hmmm reeks of the bad side of this side of gaming…

Overall, despite some things that didn’t age well, in both story and gameplay, I had so much fucking fun with this and am looking forward to my inevitable replay. I know that I’ll beat my ridiculous time that was 50+ hours cause I forgot to turn my playstation off and left it running overnight a couple of times lmao

Lachrymal / I Love You https://youtu.be/8Yo1DAxPflo / https://youtu.be/nsrOHuGUipU

A Moment of Relief https://youtu.be/mxq5ymqPAsQ

Suspended Doll https://youtu.be/0CFBV424a7A

~~

Re6

Wow, what a mess of a game… I’m sure anyone who knows of this game knows about the messy development schedule and how it kinda messed up everything (there's a good youtube video on it actually https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_uV6vCrBNY ) so I’ll spare that speil and just say: oh my god why do we need this many cooks.

This game is different to previous ones, in that there are campaign modes that have different but interwoven stories. The plot takes place over the span of about six months, though not every campaign takes up the whole six. The first one is of Leon and Helena, this is the closest to resi formula (think re4/5) - the second is Chris and Piers, which felt more like cod than resi - the third was Jake and Sherry, this one was surprisingly nice, kind of like a mix between the vibes in Leon and Chris’ campaigns - and the last one is Ada’s campaign, which aims to tie up all the loose ends. What loose ends, I honestly couldn’t tell you, because the plot was so strange and convoluted that I could barely follow, even after playing through every campaign myself and watching a few lore recaps. It's that bad. (I just watched another two lore recaps for this review just to make sure and man, I still don’t know what’s going on…)

In all honesty, this game is my least favorite so far. The soundtrack isn’t all that memorable, I found the gameplay to be ass and I didn’t know what was going on even as I was playing. Things just happened, and it often felt like plot points were competing with themselves on what could be more shocking instead of figuring out if anything made sense first. It’s clear that some hubris and the assumption that the name ‘resident evil’ would make it sell well, which sucks.

As I mentioned in my re5 review, 5 took so long for me to get into it, the start dragged on and it was only when the stupid plot stuff was stripped away and my main man Wesker started to reveal his plan for TOTAL GLOBAL SATURATION that I was really getting into it. Here for re6, I don’t think I even really had a moment where I could get behind anything. And I was trying, ok? I wanted to follow along and see whats going on, but everything was so ass that the most fun I had was making Leon trip over dead bodies and making everyone either do the tit-punch-of-life or a really homoerotic giving-of-the-tic-tac when I had dangerously low health. This review is going to be so long and vague cause that’s how the game felt, but to try stick to some kind of structure, I think I’ll just try to quickly recap each campaign and chuck out a few points I liked, and bitch about the things I couldn’t stand.

To start with, Leon and Helena’s campaign. This one tried to follow the more familiar resi formulas, with game pieces feeling similar to the Raccoon City outbreak and the whole gameplay path of ‘battle bioweapons, then they get increasingly more dangerous as you get deeper into it. Literally, cause you’re going underground into the pits of bioweapon hell.’ The familiarity of it was nice… I guess. I can’t commit to saying that it was nice, because honestly it was all stuff I’ve seen before, and it was done better in the other games! I did enjoy seeing Leon in his prime dilf-age, looking tired and miserable in his early middle-age, and I like that even though he’s clearly so jaded, there’s little flashes of that rookie cop who just wants to help despite it all. Helena was… fine. I just felt weird that she’s not familiar at all and it took way too long to figure out who she was and how she related to Leon. There’s a cathedral that you go to near the start of their campaign, and although the puzzles were a bit of a slog, I enjoyed the slower pace and having to work through it to open a secret underground. Leon’s campaign had some of the best music as well, two of the three song recs I’m doing are from his lol. This was probably the most straightforward of all the campaigns plot-wise, but it was still confusing, despite having it’s moments. I honestly think the most fun I had with this campaign was finding out Leon can trip over stuff and figuring out how to roll around on the floor. (I took a screenshot of his ass while he was crawling and then he looked back into the camera and now thats my playstation home screen :P) Overall…. Decent, but nothing original was good and nothing familiar was fun unfortunately.

The next campaign is Chris and Piers’. I have quite a few problems with this one tbh, mainly cause they did Chris so dirty. I don’t know what it is with resi developers absolutely fucking him over in some way but bruh. I think I understand him more intimately than you developers ever could and I am deeply upset at the blatant shoving aside of his trauma and ptsd when it could’ve been a really interesting development through the campaign and for his character. While I just complained about Helena being a new character and finding it hard to relate to her and all, Piers was a little easier for me. And no, its not purely cause he’s a cutie and I like his scarf thingy, it’s more because we got to see him in flashbacks and stuff working with Chris so we see HOW their relationship worked in more context than we got with Helena. Piers was good to have as a companion character, (I actually played him instead of Chris lmao) but my one major gripe with him was… why on earth did you pressure Chris into going back into the field when you can see he’s clearly in need of a real holiday where he’s not an alcoholic amnesiac. HE NEEDED HELP! WHY ARE YOU PUSHING HIM TO REMEMBER IN THE MOST TRAUMATIC WAY POSSIBLE???? Because their plot was sorta simple and most of their gameplay felt like a cod rip-off, I was kinda bored for most the playthrough. This campaign reminded me why I never really played gun games growing up lol. However.. To end this chunk on a better note, the final boss looked cool af even though it was weird, and the um. Very spoliery plot point regarding Piers in the boss fight was fun, it was just a shame that all these kinds of fights (where you’re fighting a giant creature of some kind) really dragged out. And iirc correctly I think that I had a similar situation to the Wesker fight in re5 where the finishing blow is one you have to initiate with a qte so I kept fighting way longer than I had to cause I was trying to deliver the final blow myself… I might be wrong on that but. Hmmmm

The Jake and Sherry plot was interesting. It had a lot of silly stuff going on, and a lot of the pacing was janky or dragged out, but I enjoyed them. I was so enamoured seeing Sherry all grown up, and that she still loves Leon and Claire for helping her out of RC, she’s just such a cutie! While she feels like a retread of Leon’s naive-rookie routine, she has enough of her own uniqueness that I genuinely enjoyed her for most of this. Jake on the other hand, while I didn’t hate him, it did take a while for me to come around. In all honesty, I think it was just hard for me to imagine him being Wesker’s illegitimate son… I for one love to sexualise Wesker cause I think it is the ultimate form of entertainment, however I cannot fathom him canonically doing acts that result in a child……. Sir he is like a ken doll down there his only attraction is to power, he gives the same lack of sex vibes that light yagami does. Regardless, Jake has some serious daddy issues, and although I actually really liked the scenes where he and Sherry got to talk a bit, especially as they meet up after being experimented on, it felt weird and sudden that Jake had such strong and swaying feelings about Wesker. It felt artificial, like it’s only written that way to make more drama or something, not to actually develop Jake as a character. By the end, I’m glad to see how far Jake did come as a character, both from going through all this hell and finding out so much about his father and the bioweapon world, and from working with Sherry and learning about how much hell she’s been through as well. In this aspect, I think the Jake/Sherry campaign was my favourite, as the plot felt the nicest and this was The Unique Story for this game; not Leon’s way too familiar and contrived plot, and not Chris’ shooty gun one. If this campaign was fleshed out better, and had competent writers, I feel it would’ve been nice to focus on these guys for the plot of the game, and have the rest of the campaigns be delegated into quick side stories or bonus things like the Ada campaigns in re4.

Then there’s Ada… I really liked just playing single player as a single person again, this forced two player means that you have shitty ai partners if you have no friends (like me :c). Honestly, I found these guys worse than Sheva in re5 - I don't know how that happens, but Ada being alone was a fresh breath. Up till this point, there were so many plot points that didn’t make sense and hadn’t been fully resolved yet, and I was hoping that Ada’s campaign would clear things up, but it didn’t really. I don’t know if it was a net zero on things cleared up or if I had more questions than answers after completing. I don’t have much more to add that I haven’t already said so. Lol Ada’s a cutie.

Overall, this game was so clunky, and I don’t just mean plot wise. The UI was fucking awful and it changed slightly with every campaign. A strange scrabble wheel to select weapons is not helpful, and coloured lights that don’t fucking mean anything to me is annoying as hell. I know I can’t compare it to the more modern games like re2make where I just loved the ui, but bro this was abysmal. There was also no map, you just click a button and it points to where you’re supposed to go, and to me it made the already linear and railroaded maps feel moreso. This game just sucks lol, I might play it again just to play the other characters in each campaign, but its not really worth it. I can tell you a massive part I won’t look forward to in replays is all the shitty qte, they’re ugly af and feel like massive fuck-you’s to the pacing and intensity of the gameplay. Re4 got it right and made them enhance the experience (although they didn’t need to be there, they were a nice addition imo) re5’s were… less good, but they tried I guess, and here in re6… god I hate them so much.

Oh and one last thing, one of the best parts of resi games is finding lore files across the environment and reading it IN THAT ENVIRONMENT. That doesn’t happen here. Instead there are these annoying blue medallions that you have to destroy and that unlocks lore files in an arcade cabinet screen outside of the game. Its shit. Re5 did this a bit, but it had a blend of some in game files and then BSAA documents to read from the menu outside the game. Why would they just get rid of everything and have all the lore files in a menu outside the game!! They’re not even interesting to read, and half the charm is coming across them in context! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Mercenaries Results Screen https://youtu.be/OR36QJnCS5E

Back for More https://youtu.be/mZ2SsWKls0A

Through the Fatal Gas https://youtu.be/9FiV9JF69Tw

~~

RE7

This game is the soft reboot the series desperately needed. This was the game that originally piqued my interest in the series due to it being VR compatible. No, I did not play in VR, but I had a lot of fun regardless. I think I’d like to try playing it in VR and see how it changes the experience, as I noticed that the fov was really narrow and everything felt right on top of my nose and way too close in a not so fun way. This honestly gave me a bit of trouble with navigating the space, as it affected my in-game spatial awareness - though I’m also not willing to hold that against this game, as I haven’t really played many first person games like this, at least not recently. Overall though, once I kind of got a feel for it all, I had a pretty good time.

Being first person, the player is meant to assume a more projective role onto our protag, Ethan Winters. He’s simple, he’s boring, he has some of the worst one liners in response to the shit that goes on around him - I LOVE IT. I have a few things to say about the whole Ethan thing, but I think I’ll save it for the re8 chunk. The game’s premise is that you’ve lost your wife, Mia, and haven’t heard from her until just recently, where she gives her location. Ethan rushes over to Dulvey, Louisiana, where he comes across the Baker estate, and encounters all the mouldy horrors that await him. You have to make your way through the Baker family, while the estranged daughter Zoe tries to help you through the trials on the property until you can finally escape.

All in all, I liked this one and it was the scariest by far. I got pretty spooked on my fist few playthroughs of re1/2make, but here in 7 there were times where I ended up pacing around the room before I realised it and had to play in much smaller chunks than I usually do. I ended up watching a playthrough alongside my own, not to spoil myself but just to see that someone else made it through in a similar way that I did lmao. Just mad props all round for bringing horror back, and realising that the true horror was Americans all along.

While the Baker family as bosses were fairly unique, and the plotline with Eveline was interesting for the most part, the enemy designs were really bland tbh. The first couple of times you see a moulded, its gross as fuck and a good spook, but then as you get further into the game and keep seeing the same moulded enemies, it really wears thin. It felt like there were only two or three variants on the mould design, with only a couple of other little unique things to fight - that gets really really boring really really quickly. I thought we had all learnt by now that the more you see the mysterious scary monster, the less scary and more goofy it gets…

There also wasn’t that many puzzles tbh, but after how abysmal 6 was I was so happy to see anything that vaguely resembled a puzzle in this game lol. Instead, my main gripe is with Mia, and the weird shit that happens at the end. It’s hard to talk about without completely spoiling the game, but there was a lot that just didn’t gel with me, and seemed to follow the classic ‘everything unravels into madness’ towards the end.’ Despite that, I enjoyed it a lot, and even though there are other resi games I’d rather replay more than this one, I think I’ll enjoy coming back to it on occasion.

I also gotta squeeze in a quick appreciation for the tapes, I thought they were so clever and a great way to add tension in a unique manner. Great reboot and I highly recommend playing or watching a playthrough if this game catches your fancy, I don’t think you’ll be too disappointed.

Saferoom https://youtu.be/lvsxfgABQss

Main Menu https://youtu.be/I9T-1VMzcNI

Go Tell Aunt Rhody https://youtu.be/IHwnNbJkXNw

~~

RE8

Whew, what a game. I was excited for this one to come out, and it was super fun to play it while it was fairly new. I say fairly, cause although I wanted very much to play it as soon as I got home from the shops, I unfortunately am an adult with things that take up my time so I couldn’t neglect all responsibility and play immediately. The three times I’ve played this already have more than made up for that. I had so much fucking fun with this game, that even though I have very real grievances with it, I’m willing to look past them a litlle cause I just had that good a time with it. I even streamed a playthrough on twitch, which was super fun, and I’m interested in replaying a few other resi games while I’m still in my uni holidays too.

You reprise your role of Ethan Winters, with significantly more spunk. Ethan’s been relocated to Europe now that he’s been reunited with his wife, and they had little baby Rosemary. The game starts up with their domestic stuff as you do the night routine and put Rose to bed, but just when you’re about to sit down to eat, Mia gets shot. A full on raid of the house as Chris Redfielf himself refuses to communicate and takes away Ethan’s baby right in front of him. The van he was placed in was destroyed, leaving him abandoned in the middle of a Winter-y nowhere, and he comes across the village. It’s here that you learn that Mother Miranda and the four lords have stolen your baby, and it’s up to you to get her back. Like!? That’s fucking awesome!

I mentioned something I wanted to talk about in regards to Ethan in the re7 section, and that would be the whole ‘projection onto protagonist.’ I know that it was a huge thing back in the 90s/00s, but I don’t think you can really get away with those kinds of games unless you have a custom character (even then, I’d still argue that). In RPGs with silent protags, even someone like Link from LoZ, they’re silent and were intended for the player to project onto them so that they feel part of the world and journey. I don’t think that can really happen though, as even silent protags can have quite strong personalities, which can break that ‘immersion.’ Ethan was intended to have this level of projection, however his personality in 7 was so boring and strange that pretty much everyone felt taken out of it. Also, if you want us as players to project onto him, why is he saying one-liners? Shouldn’t we have the option to choose what one liners we say, if we are truly meant to be ‘the protag?’ I think that the developers took that kind of criticism that was floating around from 7 and really fleshed out Ethan more in 8, and I appreciate that so much. Cause the fact is, I’m not Ethan Winters, but I sure as hell wanna make sure he gets his baby back. I appreciated that he felt much more like a person, and it honestly made some of his weird comebacks and dialogue feel better because they weren’t trying to go ‘oh but its you lol.’ The one thing that does bother me about Ethan here though, is the fucking lengths they go to to hide his face. I get it, he’s not supposed to be the star, but HE IS. Having distractingly obvious things such as drapes over mirrors, mirrors that are plain dirty or blacked out ect was silly in all the environments. I’d be willing to roll my eyes and get over it if we could’ve seen his face in the final cutscene, as the impact would’ve hit so much better if we could’ve seen his expression at the end of the game. Fuck man, I love this boring little dude, and these small and weird choices make it a massive roadblock for people to like him, which is clearly the opposite of what the devs were intending.

Back to the meat of the game - the four lords were all unique, both in their ‘realms’ and final battles, though it was clear that some were given way more attention than others. Lady D is obviously the fan favourite, her castle is super reminiscent of the spencer mansion from re1, and it was so fun exploring through it. I know I’m almost infamous for how cranky I get with modern stuff sometimes, and it feels like sometimes I’m the only one with these ‘outdated’ opinions, but this game got so much right. The attention to detail was so apparent in the castle, though I will say I loved stock sound effect #3 for the breaking vase sound.

Donna Beneviento is the next lord, and her house was really nice tbh, though I think it would’ve had a greater impact if she was at least swapped with Morau, as her schtick was that you were stripped of all your weapons and had to make it out alive. That kind of thing was effective, but not utilised well as it was so early in the game. If you’re going to strip me of my weapons and make me feel vulnerable, do it when I’ve gotten so reliant on them that it gives me a hard slap to the face to have them removed. However, I liked this, despite how short it was. It was fun playing hide and seek with da baby, and I liked the psychological attacks, I just wish she was given more… I feel she really fell flat and I flew through her section, especially after how grand Lady D’s place was, which was unfortunate. I would’ve liked to know more and spend more time with Beneviento, but alas…

Next is Morau, and he was just gross tbh lol. He was kinda sad and pathetic, which could elicit sympathy in some, but I was a bit more ehhh on this part. I remember exploring the village and having fun going ‘this feels like re4!’ but when I got to Morau’s boss fight I remember turning to my roommate and going ‘eugh, this feels like re6.” It was still unique and interesting, and ultimately it was more enjoyable than actual re6 boss arenas, so whatever.

The last lord, and my personal favourite, is Hiesenburg. He and Lady D had such a raw charisma that was so enthralling to watch, the actors did such an amazing job bringing these guys to life. Heisenburg’s battle theme was also one of my favourites, however his battle was one of my least favourites (can’t decide if I like it more or less than the Morau one…) I was saving my magnum ammo just for you ya manwhore, why did you have to turn into the kaiju mecha thing… Based on his powers with metal telekinesis, I thought I was going to have to get creative, but nah. Launch shit at his face with a scrappy handmade tank lol. At least the music was super banging. His factory was interesting, however it didn’t really feel like a resi location at times. There were some parts that felt like the science facility in 4 and the caves in 5, and while I enjoyed it immensely, it did feel just a little adjacent.

All in all, I loved going through the village, and all of the lords on the whole were super fun. I’ve had so much fun replaying that even though the story kinda falls flat for me, its a rare case of me enjoying it anyway. My gripes lay mainly with the main villain and Chris. Chris was done dirty yet again, and I’d like to formally request that capcom put him on the shelf or something until they figure out what they’d actually like to do with him before they destroy him even more. If looking like the saddest not-my-roderick in re7 wasn't enough, although he’s a smoking dilf here, he is so piss poor at communicating and makes some of the worst decisions ever that it frustrates me to no end. He really expected Ethan to just butt out of all of this, when from his pov this whole mess started with Chris raiding the house, murdering his wife in front of him and stealing his baby. There’s even a lore file (fuck yeah lore file!) that states that Ethan’s gone through military training at Chris’ request - how the fuck do you have this man who survived the Baker incident on his own with only the inherent gun knowledge that all Americans have, and whom you’ve now put through training, to just sit aside and be a civilian. He’s not a fucking civvy, he’s more tied up in this than you want to think, Chris, and it’d actually work more in your favour to let him fucking help and just support him. This is why Piers should’ve picked Chris up and sent him straight to rehab so he can work through his mental health and sober up. With the way things were going with the main antagonist, Mother Miranda, I thought that they were going to reveal that she has shapeshifted into being Chris to frighten and confuse Ethan.

Lets talk about Miranda, actually. She has the power to change her form, and she rules over this village like a religious figure, and her motivation is based on almost a century-long grief. It’s simple enough, but I felt that honestly it was a bit too simple in a plain way, especially compared with the kinds of backstories the four lords had. I liked Ethan standing up to her to fight for his baby back, and her many forms in the final fight were grotesque and fucking beautiful, but she felt like such a weak antagonist imo.

The worst offence for me though, is the way they tried to tie it all into the greater resi lore. There are lore files at the end that link her with the Eveline stuff from re7, that's fine and dandy, and I expected it would be closely linked with 7 since it shares protags. But there is this one file that completely retcons her into being the reason why umbrella exists. IT PISSES ME OFF SO FUCKING MUCH. I know this is just a video game and I shouldn’t care this much, but I do. It's bad, if you’re going to retcon it and make it that sloppy and ‘oh actually, she’s the reason lol’ then. Can you at least make her fucking origin story and motive stronger?

Sighhh…. I think I need to replay if I want to get any deeper into it cause it has been a few months now since I’ve played, but there are really big gripes I have with this game that pain me. Putting them aside though, this has been one of my favourite installments in the series. The fov and feeling like things were on the tip of my nose I brought up in 7 didn’t feel like that here, I don’t know if thats due to 7 being VR compatible and just meant to be played inside the helmet, or if they fixed up those kinds of things and really refined it here. Either way, I enjoy it, and my last pissy moment will be to say that the map was a bit eughhh, if you zoomed in or out too far it changed what kinds of thing you could see on the map, and it was really fucking annoying. I liked the whole hand drawn map aesthetic, but after being spoilt with how lovely the map was in re2r… bruh moment. One thing I really did love tho was that Ethan keep a dairy and draws little pictures for it and I think that’s awesome.

Highly, highly recommend playing, even if you haven’t played much resi before this, as its such a genuinely fun experience all around despite little things, and when you feel like you’ve got a grip over all the controls, boy does it feel good to play.

Yearning for Dark Shadows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpp_1J2jyjs

The Final Movement (Hiesy battle fuck yeah!) https://youtu.be/c7opH26BQio

Soundtrack Trailer https://youtu.be/bDVcgOaVyqw

~~

To close - I really love this series, and clearly have some strong opinions on them. I've really enjoyed playing this year, even though there were some parts that were slogs. I've almost completed my collection, only the two revelation games left :'( I will be sad to have played through my collection, and looking forward to playing more of the older games in some form or other. I have also been considering doing reviews of the movies, as I am a film student and all, and I've already seen most of them. I'll see if I can polish off the rest of them for next year, but for now, thanks for reading and look forward to more ramblings in the next instalment :P

[geddy-leesbian]

hey look it's all my Serrennedy fic (note that I did not come up with tags for the AU's until making this post, meaning I have to go back to retroactively tag the posts I've made, which is going to take a while because tumblr's search is hot garbage.)

and also due to tumblr's search being garbage, searching my blog for my tags won't give you shit, but if you click to search all of tumblr instead, every post will show up. idk man, that's just how it is.

RE2 AU

started as a one-shot and then spiraled into a whole RE2 AU. the only thing I've written where things pretty much go right for them 💖 Leon isn't a government agent, Luis is a stay at home dad, and Claire and Luis lovingly bully Leon together.

tag: 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆.

How Do You Talk To Girls? (2/3 chapters posted)

❝Don Juan, eh? Always thought of myself as more of a Don Quixote, but if the shoe fits… How about we try some practice anyway? I can talk to you like I'd talk to a girl, give you a first-hand demonstration.❞ OR Leon tries to learn how to pick up women from Luis, and instead has a bisexual awakening and picks up Luis. Task Failed Successfully.

“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒅” (unpublished WIP)

Claire and Luis are getting married.

Something A Little More Plain

Not in the same continuity as the other two fics, but it is an RE2 AU, so I'm putting it here. Just really soft Luis being a dad to twins content. The only thing I've written about them that is just fluff and no angst.

❘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘🖤⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘❘

Signals // Childhood Friend AU

playlist

tag: 【𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝖽𝗈 𝗂𝗍𝗌 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗂𝗇𝗀. 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙜𝙤.】

𝑇𝘩𝜀 𝛥𝜋𝛼𝑙𝜎𝑔 𝐾𝜄𝜕 (1988)

you move me, you move me. with your buildings and your eyes, autumn woods and winter skies. you call me, you call me.

»»————-💙————-««

somewhere out of a memory, of lighted streets on quiet nights… (1988)

»»————-💙————-««

ΠⴹⰞ Ⱎ⎕ᒥᒪᗪ ᎷᗅΠ (1988-2004)

he's old enough to know what’s right, but young enough not to choose it.

»»————-💙————-««

Digital Man // Open Secrets (2004) (1/? chapters posted)

Well I guess we all have these feelings we can’t leave unreconciled. Some of them burned on our ceilings, some of them learned as a child.

The things that we’re concealing will never let us grow. Time will do its healing, you’ve got to let it go.

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BU2B (aka Leon Fucking Dies)

(2/3 chapters posted)

❝That Agent Kennedy is proving to be quite a thorn in my side, much like you. I need him to live long enough for him to appreciate his gift and go home and begin to spread it to the rest of the world, but he's starting to cause a little too much trouble. But still, it would be a shame to have to kill him. Such a 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 it would be. If only there was some distraction to keep him occupied and out of trouble… You 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 him, don't you?❞ ❝This isn't about him. Say whatever you want about 𝘮𝘦, but keep 𝘩𝘪𝘴 name out of your mouth.❞ ❝But you'll want to hear this: He's quite fond of you too. He doesn't want to admit it, but I've been in his head. He likes it when you tease him. He 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘴 you. You could send him on wild goose chases over and over, and he'd just keep following you, until time ran out.❞

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𝐌𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 (𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒓𝒆)

My very first Serrennedy fic,,, someday there will be a second chapter, but I have zero idea of when because I've been fighting demons tbh (by demons I mean various rough drafts because I can't figure out what the fuck to do with it. The ideas are there,,,,, but the execution is not 🫠)

Luis thinks he's a shitty person. Leon disagrees.

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Other random stuff kicking around in my drafts (and feel free to ask about any of these because I love talking about them):

AU where Luis sabotages the Nemesis Project, gets caught, and sent to Rockfort Island.

Alfred Ashford notices that Luis was a child prodigy and thinks that's neat because he's a weirdo and Alexia was a child prodigy. So instead of being executed, Luis is forced to be his friend until Alexia wakes up from her cryo stasis thing. (And being his friend is not a good time, because he's a weirdo and threatens to get his sniper rifle and hunt down Luis for sport a lot.) Luis gets out when Claire does, and goes back to Valdelobos after to hide from Umbrella, meaning RE4 will still happen, although slightly different. Luis is much colder and very hesitant to help Leon, because trying to do the right thing previously got him sent to a concentration camp.

❘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘🖤⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘❘

DON'T WALK AWAY

Songfic. While Leon and Ashley are waiting on a helicopter to come pick them up post-RE4, Luis tries to quietly slip away, because he thinks he's a shitty person who doesn't deserve to have Leon. Leon notices him trying to leave and says fuck that and argues with him, insisting that he will come with Leon.

❘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘🖤⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘❘

Don't have a title yet, but a little thing where Leon gets a call from Chris right after he gets back from Spain. Chris says the BSAA has been conducting their own investigation into what happened, and they found someone ex-Umbrella they had been trying to track down for years severely injured, but alive while searching the place, who claims to know Leon and that Leon would vouch that he's a good person now.