A few years ago I tried to get an old copy of Resident Evil 4 up and running, but couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it to, which was basically to have mouse support. For whatever reason, the mouse patch just wouldn't have it.

More recently, I'd been having plans to try and install an older Windows on one of my more modern machines, to see if the mouse patch would work on that, while still having enough grunt to run the game with the HD patch.

Luckily, before I started mucking around with all that, I learned that the HD version of the game from 2014 already has mouse support built in. Unfortunately, it meant having to buy it again on Steam. Again, I got some luck, as when I went to check how much it cost, a sale was in full effect and I swiped it for a few quid.

With the remake coming out soon, I thought it was about time I got through this at last, so I can at least see what is the same and what has changed about the new game.

Though it has to be stated, I'm pretty annoyed that Code: Veronica is not getting a remake, when it needs it the most.

Even though I could finally use my mouse to tackle this, I also used the re4_tweaks add on, which pumped the raw mouse input into the game, without any of that acceleration crap. As well as this, it allows the mouse to turn the character in addition to turning the camera, so it would feel like a much more modern game. The only thing that was missing was strafe, and it felt weird moving around with what are essentially still tank controls.

I was much more comfortable being able to aim this way, but there were still a few little weird issues with the control scheme. Firstly, whenever I went in and out of aim mode, the camera would point in a different direction. Though I found some options in re4_tweaks that were supposed to fix this, they only partially relieved the issue. And when using the rifle, the problem was worse than with any other gun. For example, if I wanted to target an enemy who was up on a ledge, or down on a lower level, I would point my camera roughly in that direction, then activate aim mode. Rather than already be pointing in the desired direction, the camera would always reset to point straight ahead, no matter what. Annoying, but this is what we have to put up with when a game that was never meant to have mouse support gets it added at a later date.

The other slight issue with the mouse is that the activation button, in this case E, would not work at all if there was even the slightest movement on the mouse. The amount of times I would have to press that button sometimes just to open a door or pick up an item. I quickly learned to just spam the damn thing any time I needed it.

Back in the day, this game marked a big change for the franchise. Not only did it switch from a fixed camera perspective to an over the shoulder one, it also switched the franchise away from a more tense, "scary" feel, to a more action oriented one. Whereas in the past, you could learn to slip by enemies and conserve ammo, here the game makes you fight. There are so many times where a door will lock and it's only possible to open it again if you kill everyone. I've not watched anyone speed run this, but I bet it pisses some runners off having to do this all the time.

This constant need to fight brought up another problem, and this was available ammo. In old games, if you hunted for it all, there was more than enough ammo to kill every enemy in the game and have tons to spare. And in those games, you didn't even need to fight most of the time. In this game, I always felt low on ammo. I never fully ran out entirely, but there were always moments where I only had ammo in a single gun and the others were empty. I even ended up with something like an 82% accuracy over the whole game, which is not great on a mouse, but would have been much worse on a controller. I just would not have had enough ammo to get through this if I had not been able to aim the way I did.

The prime example of this ammo issue was a boss fight against two giants, which I got through with a single shotgun shell remaining. And this was after dumping the first giant into a pit of molten steel. I don't know if the game is designed this way, to just about give you enough ammo to get through things, but I didn't like it.

It didn't help that I often saw items dropping while I was in the middle of a big fight. But when I'd killed everyone and turned around to look for the items, they had all disappeared. The fact that this happened so many times fucking sucked. What the hell, game?

The other main thing that made this so different from earlier games was the step away from zombies and Umbrella. I guess Capcom thought those games were getting old, but I really missed them here. This game, with all of its differences, just doesn't feel like Resident Evil to me, and that's at least partially why I found it so tiresome to get through.

Games in this series have always had really strange settings, but this one was the most bizarre of any I've played. The puzzles and locks in this game made no sense. For example, there's one point where a villain runs away from you out of the room and sets a trap. Then when you escape the trap and follow them, the next door is locked. But it's not locked from the other side. Instead there's a pad lock on this side that you have to shoot off. How the hell did they get out then put that lock on?

There are also multiple times where you have to go through a maze of rooms and enemies to find an item that will open a door somewhere else. But the villains, Ada, and the merchant for that matter, can seemingly just waltz through these doors whenever they want.

There's one point where you emerge from a castle, to see two little islands, each with their own buildings on them. You, as Leon, pick up some binoculars to see Ashley being led away into the building on the second island. Now, the method of crossing onto these islands is a swing bridge, which can pivot around from its anchor point on the first island to reach either the main castle or the second island. For some reason, even though the villains and Ashley must have just crossed the bridge from the first to second island, the bridge is now back pointing towards us as we emerge from the castle. That was very thoughtful of the bad guys, don't you think? I mean, if they'd not sent the bridge back to me, I wouldn't have been able to cross, and the game would be over.
What's doubly confusing is, going into the first island's building, we see that the villains have tried to stop us from using the bridge by jamming wood into all the gears that operate it. Can't lie. I face palmed. Nearly knocked my glasses off too.

And holy crap, the game was so long and tedious. I don't even think I spent as long making all those maps for Resident Evil 2 as I did just playing through this one a single time. Fair enough, if you're a fan of this game you'd probably be happy to keep playing it, but I was fed up with the constant cycle of saving Ashley, only for the next villain in line to capture her again, and so I would have to save her again, and so on...

Urgh.

I know I probably should have played this years ago, but I guess it makes sense that I'm so late when you think I didn't even fully complete the original game until 2011.

One thing's for sure: I won't be playing it again any time soon. Talk about a drag.

I've been planning this blog entry for quite a while, and working towards it for the last 3 or 4 months. The reason for this is that it was exactly 10 years ago today that I finished and uploaded my maps for the original Resident Evil, and I thought it would be cool if I could do the same for the remake.

Unfortunately, while I've got Jill's map all ready to go, I've just not managed to find the time to play through Chris's mission and make that map as well. Yes, I've been busy doing other things, but it's mostly because I'm not really into Resident Evil games that much at the moment, and as such I've really lacked motivation to push through it. If this anniversary wasn't rapidly approaching, Jill's map probably wouldn't be ready by now either.

There's also the issue of how much of a slog it is to make these maps. As much as I like seeing them completed, their creation massively amplifies the play time needed.

Before this run, I'd never played this remake as it always used to be a Nintendo thing. So outside of map making, how was the actual game, and how did it compare to the original?

Well, as you would expect, there are definite improvements here, especially with the graphics which are much darker and more atmospheric. The writing and voice acting are only marginally better than the original's cheese-fest, though.

The main difference I found was the new control scheme, which allows you to control the character with the left analogue stick rather than using tank controls via the d-pad. This method was definitely better for combat, and allows very easy dodging of nearly every enemy, making the game waaaaay too easy. However, the new controls can lead to some confusion in areas with changing camera angles.

But all-in-all, it was just like playing a slightly better version of the original game all over again. I could have done without it, to be honest. I'd much rather see a remake (yes, another) of this in the current Resident Evil style, the way they remade Resi 2 a couple of years back. I know that game is full of Steam DRM, but every time I see it on sale I get very tempted.

In terms of my future forays into this franchise, I still have Resident Evil 0 and 4 to play, and I know very little about either. Who knows, maybe one day I'll fancy making maps for one or both of those, and that will motivate me to come back to this game and complete the set.
But for now, this is where my journey into Resident Evil Remake ends.

<Old Stuff>

By far the most popular things on my old site were all of the Resident Evil game maps that I made. My Resident Evil 1 Directors Cut maps were made in August 2011, which was a few months before I started doing my original computer gaming blog, and therefore they were never included in it.

It makes sense that they are the first things I bring back as part of my <Old Stuff> series of blog entries.

I got the Director's Cut of the original Resident Evil for the PS1 back in the 90s, but back then I only got to the underground section, and never actually finished the game. For some reason in mid 2011, I made up my mind that I was finally gonna get through it. And not only that, I was gonna make some detailed maps as I went on the adventure.
I started with Jill in normal mode, as that's what I tried way back then...

These maps were used by JPTR when making their Resident Evil mod for Skyrim called "The Evil Mansion", which can be found on Nexusmods and Steam Workshop. You should check it out. It looks freakin' awesome.

After going through Jill's normal mission, I decided to go through the Chris advanced mission, just for shits and giggles. Though it was more challenging (yes I'm talking to you, Hunters!) I much prefer this mode as it forces you to go to a lot of the parts of the mansion you could just skip passed during normal mode.

Now, I've never really been tempted at all to play over-the-shoulder style Resident Evil games, but all the hype surrounding the remade Resident Evil 2 got me wondering. I grabbed a very cheap copy of Resident Evil 4 from ebay, as it is widely considered to be the best of that type.
As it is an XP game, I first installed it on my old XP laptop, but couldn't get any more than 15 frames per second. Thinking it may be something to do with mobile graphics, I dusted off my old XP tower that has been in storage since the mid 2000s, and tried to play it on that instead. First I had to sort out a very noisy graphics card fan, which needed some much needed oil, before I could even stand to give power to the old monstrosity.
Unfortunately, after installing, I was again faced with a very clunky and slow game that just sat at 15 FPS. I ended up having to install it on my current computer, and luckily it seems to work ok. However, I'm unhappy that it doesn't have mouse controls, and the mouse control patch I downloaded doesn't seem to work, so I'll have to use a joypad. Sigh.
I've only run around a bit at the start of the game, and I'm not sure if I'll get around to this any time soon, but at least I know it will be playable.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been bashing my head against a wall, and laughing my ass off, as I've been going through Resident Evil Code: Veronica X for the PS2. This was the last of the old style Resident Evil games I could possibly play, as I don't do Nintendo, so have no access to Resident Evil Zero. It seemed wrong not to at least experience it at least once.

Wow, I gotta say this thing was a drag. All the old Evil games had plenty of going back and forth collecting weird items to solve weird puzzles, but they were mostly all in one big building. In this game, there were several fairly large areas, and not only was I running around within those areas, but running back and forth to other areas. Over, and over, and over again.
Add in all the re-spawning enemies, and I had myself the longest, most frustrating Resident Evil experience I've ever had.

Still there were some fun moments mixed in with the frustrating ones, mostly provided by the awful writing and voice acting. I couldn't help but smile and shake my head at most of it. And I was so glad with what happened to Steve. Damn it that guy was annoying. I definitely think they should have put a bit more focus on Alexia as the big bad, but her character got very little exposure compared to her brother Alfred, who you have to deal with throughout most of the game.

By far the worst aspect of the game, even over the running around and bad characters, was the graphics. It seems it's a PS2 problem, but it was so dark and misty in places that it was hard to see things. And in many places there was a weird motion blur that made it difficult to even move around at times.

Like for the first two games in the series, I decided I would make some decent maps for this game after skipping Resident Evil 3. After all, the maps seemed quite popular early this year so I must have done something right.