Resident Evil: Won

Ah, to finally see this after so long.

This session starts off with an interesting decision. Try to knife the hunter next to the way out, or just go out, hoping that there'll be an item box before it's too late? Or...consider it later and explore as much of the area as possible now? The question proves moot when I reach the outside hallway, there's another hunter there now. Why deal with one hunter when that means you have to deal with several? Running past everything continues to be the best strategy here, even with the winding paths past the zombie dogs. Ironically enough, making enemies that are not zombies the easiest so far.

What a strange thing to offer as a choice.

The...cave system...has a strange look to it. Almost like an ancient temple. The uneven bricks seem weirdly put in, like they didn't quite model it correctly. The uneven ground also works poorly with how the player is always moving on a flat surface. No time to talk about graphics, because the room next to the ladder down has Barry. Jill startles him, but then he talks about exploring the cave system and how they should go together, since it's dark. He's done nothing to make me think otherwise. I then have the option to decide if he goes first or not. I decide I should, but then accidentally press the wrong option.

What did I contribute here?

He goes off in one direction, and surprise of surprises, gunshots go off. I go to the room he went into just as he finishes off a hunter. He now wants Jill to lead, just what I wanted to begin with. This is a weird room, in the middle is a pit, thankfully you can't go in, and off to the side is a power generator; Which, has a first aid spray and grenade rounds in front of it, in what I have to assume was someone's bizarre plan to blow the place up. The only path not backwards is a hallway leading south...which also has a door back into the room I came in from. This room is a dead end with nothing in it.

The highest number of STARS members in one place since the intro, funny.

Only, it has Enrico, the captain of Bravo team. Jill approaches first, and while he's glad to see her, he asks if she's with anyone else. Barry then walks in, and Enrico reveals that a member of STARS is a traitor. Could it be Barry...? None of his actions so far really suggest it, unless you really want to read into him dropping the rope last time. "Everything was plotted from the start by Umbrella..." that is, the pharmaceutical company who owns the mansion. (I don't think that specific part is explained yet) Possibly the company is called "White Umbrella" in this game, judging by the note with the orders for the traitor. Speaking of which, Enrico gets shot and we hear footsteps running away; They're not Barry's, he goes to examine the corpse. I don't know if I'm supposed to stay with him now or try to chase after the steps.

(side note, this obviously reveals who the traitor is, since Chris can't be the traitor since he's playable)

I also examine the corpse, and get another pistol magazine for it. I'm still carrying the pistol, though I'm not really sure I need it at this point. I walk back out, there's another path I missed at the start of the caves. Only to discover that the fleeing man dropped a crank. I don't have any room right now. Right, back to the mansion to drop off this crap...and now there are hunters in the caves. I get hit a couple of times, but this isn't that much trouble since I can always pick up more green herbs later. I've basically been really lucky as far as keeping my health up goes.

The part of the hallway I didn't go down before has a typewriter, because why wouldn't you bring an ink ribbon down here? Then a rotating wall you need the other crank for, the one I picked up earlier is square or something, the one the traitor dropped is hex shaped. This leads to another hallway...with another dead end. This has to be a trick.

Whoops, accidentally put in Tomb Raider!

It is, a boulder is at the end of the hallway, approaching it causes it to go towards Jill. It moves slowly enough that you can get out of the way, which causes it to smash into the other wall. Must be very weak then. There's a hunter in this hole, who I accidentally burn three acid grenades on, when one was good enough. Great, reload. After I return, taking care not to awaken the hunter, I make my way behind the area the boulder was...and a hunter pops out from the doorway I just came from. This guy takes two acid rounds, but the good news is this makes the hunter where the boulder crashed disappear. Behind the boulder was some flame rounds, at least.

I seem to have swapped out Tomb Raider for a Lord of the Rings game.

...which quickly come in handy. It's a giant spider, at least one bigger than the others. It mostly just shoots a shotgun blast of poisoned spit at me, easy enough to dodge, but tricky to get a shot on before it shoots again. Still, I survive pretty well with the the rest of the grenade launcher's acid rounds and a few of those flame rounds. I expend a couple more on the web coated door. In theory you can get the giant spider to destroy the web for you, it's even better for your health to do so, but alas, I couldn't get that attack to activate. Even using the grenades I would have been better off just firing them at the door. But, whatever, there's a save room in the next hallway. Which also means I finally used one of those blue herbs...only to get another one right away. Also in the save room, a first aid spray and an ink ribbon. I save here, unload some stuff in my inventory and continue on.

For some reason there are snakes in this hallway the second time. Turns out they aren't anymore lethal when they're not falling from the ceiling. Anyway, next hallway, there's an elevator up, and oh, look, another boulder. What's curious about this one is that there's a slot for a crank, clearly needed for something? After activating this second boulder I find out why, there's a map, revealing that a hidden room is there. In addition, there's another MO disk here.

Really proud of this.

The secret room has another puzzle which could be summed up as sliding block puzzle. Only this time, you have to move the statue with a thing on the wall. Are all the puzzles in this game basically fetch quests or moving boxes? This gets me a book, which of course gets me another medal like the Eagle Medal. Guess these are going to be used soon. Back to the save room, changing out the grenade launcher for the shotgun and to the elevator.

Here's the finished map. Enrico was on the lower right, the spider room is in the middle, save room to the right of that. Fairly straight-forward compared to most areas in this game so far.

Upstairs, or rather back on the ground, is a welded shut door I think is supposed to lead back into the mansion. The game has generously given me four more herbs, two green and two blue. I mix them together since I need space and I don't want to go back and forth again. I suspect that enemies who can poison me are still ahead. Ugh. Anyway, we have this fountain, two slots, despite the design of it, one for the wolf and one for the eagle. This causes the fountain to open, draining away the water and revealing an elevator down. Welcome to the lab.

The first room is suspiciously empty. All that's here is a locked door, labelled for an emergency exit, and a ladder down. Down the ladder is even weirder, an item box without a typewriter. I appreciate it, but this is really unusual. I open the next door, ready for the worst, only to spot a regular zombie. Quickly coming in and out for the Beretta, so we can give old reliable a proper sendoff this game. Two zombies down, who knows how many more to go. This gets weirder, there are two more herbs, my suspicion is getting a lot higher than it should, and next to an electronically sealed door is a third MO disk. I left it there, since I suspect it may be used near there. If not, I'll need to rush back to the item box anyway. That's it for this floor, onto level 3. Yeah, down three levels.

I'm running free yeah, I'm running free!

Now there are these zombies. They're creepy, in addition to their weird looks, they make weird noises, kind of like a beached whale. They might even be faster, but worst of all, they respawn. Ah, crud. Hopefully I remembered how to dodge zombies, because it's been a long time since I needed to do that. Since there's a big hall in the center, I go one west. This leads to another hallway...in which a zombie spawns. I duck into the next room. Another herb, a clip, and a note from one of the researchers, to someone named Ada. He's going crazy, and is probably infected, but he tells her to take the material in the Visual Data Room, the sealed room upstairs, the to the Power Room to operate the "Triggering System" to escape, and make all this public through the media. All the locks should be opened then, and the system can be accessed through a terminal using his name, John and Ada as the password. Just in case you're questioning this password, there are some Norse runes as a second password. Which, if we're honest, is probably enough.

This is actually code, and by looking at a nearby painting with the same symbols written on it, you can figure out the code. Or you could just move a bookcase, which hides a switch that turns the code into real words. This reveals that the code is "mole". Now I just need to find the terminal. This proves to be an easier question than one might think, because all the doors on this floor are locked. Something I find out as I'm dealing with 4 zombies in the central hall again. I manage to kill them, and pick up an ink ribbon, but who knows if that'll stick.

I really expected some kind of nasty surprise in this room, but ultimately I was disappointed.

The one other door I can open...and what is that? Is that a landmine? Right, well, I'm not touching THAT yet. Let's look at this computer.

I love this, I love everything about this from how Jill doesn't type to the goofy corporate OS.

And now I can put in what I just learned. All I can do from the computer is decide if I want to unlock the basement 2 or basement 3. I'm going to just put down basement 2 for now...we'll get to basement 3 after that. Onto the locked room.

My first observation is that of a note on a bookcase. It details the security system of the place. I'm just going to copy this one.

HELICOPTER PORT
Executives and Government Officials only on helicopter port.
This restriction may not apply in case of an accident.
PASSAGE TO THE HELICOPTER
No one is allowed to enter unless they are attended by a Research Consultant or Security Director.
All others will be shot on sight.
ELEVATOR
The elevator stops during emergencies.
BASEMENT LEVEL 2 - VISUAL DATA ROOM
Visual Data Room is within the control of Special Research Division. Keith Arving, the Room Manager, is designated to have jurisdiction over room usage.
BASEMENT LEVEL 3 - PRISON
Sanitation Division controls the usage of the prison. Consultant Researchers (E. Smith, S. Ross, A. Wesker) must be present if virus is used.
TRIPLE LOCK DOOR
No one is allowed to enter unless he presents all pass code documents.
Pass code documents must be created on the specialized output machine by the Chief Researcher of each block.
(some bits that aren't important)
BASEMENT LEVEL 4 - TOP SECRET
Regarding the progress of "Tyrant" after the use of t-virus...(the rest of it is torn off)

So, A. Wesker, huh? Wesker isn't exactly a common name and even if Albert has a sister called Alice or something, I think we found our traitor. This explains why he's been missing for most of the game, and probably who killed Enrico. The more worrying matter to me, since I already knew who the traitor was, is the whole government officials bit. I haven't played anything after 4, but I don't remember any governments being on-board with the whole zombie outbreak train. Probably because engaging in chemical warfare is a no-no and engaging in zombie chemical warfare seems like a good way to unite the world against you. The kinds of officials who are crazy/stupid enough to do that are the kind of officials who get arrested when they step on US soil. This is some heavy stuff, because this implies that, in-universe President Probably Not Bill Clinton, knows something of what's going on here. This is a horrible revelation.

Uh, right, anyway, the rest of the room has a slide projector I can't do anything to yet and a hidden key. That means it's time to explore level 3 now that we know everything can only get worse. Better open the electronic locks...and that's just one door. Bleh. At least I get a map.

The door that just opened is north of that west green hallway, but first I went to the red hallway, since I suspected my key opens this door. Probably more work for me, but whatever. Because my attempts at just running past the zombies are failing, I'm going to gamble that I can start using the shotgun without worries of running out. This hallway has a zombie, but there's also a door next to the one I entered. It's another block puzzle, with a set of stairs that can lead up to an airduct along with two crates to put over poison gas vents. I didn't realize there was poison gas until I was already hit. Somehow not poisoned. There's a red herb here, along with another pack of shotgun shells. Bringing me to 72. Yeah, now I should be real worried about running out.

Meanwhile, east of that is a save room. Good. There's one blue and one green herb and flame rounds. Things are going to be extremely easy from now on, I think. The power room's south, but I should try to explore as much of the rest of the base as possible first.

I end up eating my words, these rooms with 4 zombies all either have a poor enough situation that you can't easily disentangle from it, or require you to use that serious firepower. Hopefully I won't need to come back into this room again. There's a fax, detailing how Umbrella messed up in estimating the damage caused by the accident. So, it wasn't intentional? Their special security guard squad was nearly destroyed, and they have to act swiftly before the press catches wind of this. An ink ribbon, like I need that now, and oh, a machine that turns MO disks into passcodes. Success!

Curiously, the codes are Bible verses. The one disk I had on me gives Genesis 22:16, after Abraham is held back by the angel from killing his son. Seems like it doesn't mean anything? I go back to grab the other two, and this machine only takes one. Damn. Right, so, what about that object I thought was a land mine? Why, it's a cartridge for the slide projector.

Don't bother trying to read the text, it's all gibberish.

IThese are slides of almost all the creatures I've seen in the game, including the as yet unseen Tyrant, and of the Umbrella research team, including some strange dude who's wearing sunglasses in a photograph. It's Wesker. I don't know why Wesker is always wearing sunglasses in this game, guess he's just that good. Right, well, before we go off to the power rooms, I'm going to see what's in that airvent. It's the most annoying of the block puzzles, because you have to shuffle around the crates quite a bit, then make sure you have a big enough gap for the stairs.

What could possibly go wrong?

After going through it, I'm in the room in the center of the square hallway. This is definitely going to go south at some point. There's more magnum ammo in the cabinet, bringing my total up to 24, or 30 including what's in the magnum. Jeez, could you give me any more ammo? There's another MO machine, which has Genesis 22:17, which is about Abraham's descendants becoming as numerous as the stars in the sky. Now I'll enter the power room.

How wormy.

In this section are creatures which I don't remember the name of, but I do remember that they're some kind of fly creature. You kind of have to gamble that you can just run past them most of the time, because they're on the ceiling and take about a full shotgun to take out. The power supply seems to be just right here, but because I suspect the game is going to be annoying, I'm going further south into these rooms. One south is the final passcode, good thing these fly things can't stop me from interacting with stuff. Genesis 22:18, naturally. Then, finally, one more south, next to the power generator, is a computer which connects power to the elevator. We'll get there in a minute, but I had to be getting these codes for a reason, and that reason is probably on that one door west.

Normally they're not on different sides of the bars.

It's Chris. Jill expresses a statement that sounds less like she's glad to see he's still alive, and more like she solved a particularly difficult jigsaw. Chris is slightly better. Jill needs a key, and tells Chris to wait here. Chris says he'll wait here. I'm suddenly reminded of the jokes about Claire Redfield not being all there. Either Chris didn't get a stupid joke Jill made or neither realized that sentence sounded stupid. Well, there's only one place left to go. The Tyrant room. First, let's swap out that shotgun for the magnum, and we'll see what Wesker has to say for himself. I activate the elevator and...

You sure came late again.

It's Barry. "You're here too." Well, where else would I go? The two head into the elevator. The cutscene continues.

Barry's a traitor too?

As expected, it's Wesker. As not expected, Barry points his...revolver at me. Wesker tells us that if Barry doesn't do everything he asks, his [kidnapped] wife and two daughters will be in danger. More subtly phrased, of course. After Jill calls him sick and asks why he's destroying STARS, he goes into the same information we already know. They were researching "deadly viruses" and an accident happened. It's very inconvenient that STARS is snooping around, which is why he's going to destroy the "virus monsters" (as Jill called them) in a blaze of fire. He then orders Barry to go up on the ground.

Wesker then reveals that he's about to go rogue, asking Jill what she would do if she was in charge of a powerful biological weapon. Then he says he'll show her the Tyrant...when suddenly Barry comes up from behind and pistol whips him. Guess it wasn't such a good idea to say he'd be a slave of Umbrella forever and call him an idiot, eh Wesker? The two repeat what we've just learned, before Barry, unwisely, asks Jill if she knows what Wesker was going to show her."Do you think we could see Tyrant now?" And we almost got out of here without a boss fight. "Barry, you're so optimistic." Yeah, that's the word, but afterwards he makes a good point with how it would be bad for STARS to let such a dangerous creature go loose.

This is such a weird cutscene because everyone now looks about twice as tall as it should be.

We see them approach it, talking about how strange it is. Barry notices the nearby computer...oh, I see where this is going. Maybe Barry is an idiot, coming in here and just draining the liquid in the tank.

It breaks out and slashes the hell out of Barry with his clawed hand. He might be dead, but that's a problem for later.

For now, I have to run around in a circle, dodging the Tyrant. He's slow and only slashes at me within a certain distance. With the amount of magnum ammo I have left, he's not really a problem. It's mostly about not pressing your luck. Six rounds later and he's dead. Better check on Barry.

Miraculously, Barry is alive. All he has to say about this is that he was clumsy. Now he's going to follow me through the lab. Now, I just need to find out how to get Chris out and how to get out of here. There's no key in here that I can see, so out we go. Wesker is nowhere, and there's an announcement that the lab is going to blow up, after which Barry runs off. Hopefully I don't need to follow him, and that the announcement opened up all doors.

Anyway...where's Rebecca?

A mad dash past those flies and now I can finally let Chris out. The two talk about this event like it's some kind of errand list. He follows for the next room, but quickly goes ahead whenever I'm about to go through a room with enemies. Subtle. Zombies have repopulated the upper stair room on the 2nd basement, but I packed the shotgun for such an occasion. With the random item box, I switch out the shotgun and give myself as many healing items as possible, in addition to hanging onto the magnum.

If only you guys were around for the entire game!

All three of us remeet outside the now unlocked door, Chris even has a gun now. To safety! The door leads to a long hallway, partway through we get a message from Brad, but as per usual we have no way to respond. Or do we? Curiously, there's a random battery on the floor here, no doubt an attempt to make sure the player has a spare item slot. You just use it on the nearby wall socket. Putting it causes an announcement that there are three minutes left, and oh, there's a screaming sound. Chris tells Jill to go ahead, so he can play nice guy. Seems suicidal to me, but whatever.

There's a flare just outside, I go to the middle of the heliport and activate it. Looks like victory...until...

Of course.

The Tyrant pops out of the ground. Now he has two charge attacks. Hope you brought along plenty of health. You really only dodge this guy, which is easier than it sounds, because he his primary attack is very narrow in what it hits. Hope you don't get hit by the secondary attack. Wait until Vickers drops a rocket launcher, and then blast him.

And they never saw him again.

He becomes quite the tidy pile of parts. The helicopter lands and the three of us escape.

Not seen, Barry off-screen looking lovingly at his revolver, also not seen, Rebecca.

There's another live-action cutscene, and the game ends.

And there's my final time. Bare in mind I reloaded quite a bit to account for the difference between game-time and my time. Still, not a bad score. Assuming I remember what some rooms contain next time, I could easily ignore some of this stuff as Jill. You could cut out big chunks of time by not getting the magnum or not trying to use the pistol in the lab. For the near future, the question is, how much of this will carry over to Chris's half of the game. I figure I should try to win as Chris now while the game is still fresh in my memory. Because it's just about Halloween now, we'll see that interspersed with other games.

This Session: 3 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: 14 hours 00 minutes