Just finished RE8. I enjoyed 7, but for some reason didn‘t expect to like 8 very much. It didn’t make the best first impression: the first thirty minutes are cutscene-heavy (pejorative) and full of AAA scripted encounters, and I made the mistake of starting on hard mode—I had heard normal was “too easy” somewhere, my brother told me I‘d probably want to give hard a shot—and wouldn’t you know it, it ended up being too hard! I started over and interrupted the flow a bit. I enjoyed the device of the village acting as a hub and that the first time you run through it you run past all the blocked passages and locked doors, though I felt the whole wolfman horde + house fire set piece at the beginning was too much. You meet like four named characters who die all of four seconds later! And movement speed is so sluggish, it felt a bit ridiculous that the wolf guys (and every other enemy in the game) wouldn't be able to catch up with you in 2 seconds
Once you're inside the castle it's good stuff. I enjoyed taking a bunch of 4:3 shots in the photo mode
For level 2 they went and ripped off P.T., which worked pretty well. Game isn‘t scary much of the time but during this hour-long stretch I was definitely sweating. I generally don’t talk to myself while playing games, but at exactly one point during this level I said, out loud, in a relatively normal pitch and tone of voice, whooooaaaaaaa Jesus Christ
The “wacky” tone in this one felt a bit put on where it doesn‘t in the earlier ones. The merchant, for example. How he looks and the things he says feel like “this would be weird hehehe” design decisions where the merchant from 4 is specifically kooky because he looks relatively normal (for a cloaked, wandering gun merchant) and has an accent. Then 8 has this guy Heisenberg who talks at you like… Jim Carrey’s Riddler…? or something (that‘s who he felt like to me; googling around everyone apparently thinks it’s a Nic Cage thing, which maybe but the voice sounds specifically like someone else). Like yeso said the first-person perspective and more self-serious story focus clashes with the silly stuff to make the game somehow more ridiculous than typical RE fare, where you feel like the writers are in on the joke
I do love that there's an in-universe explanation for why Ethan is physically able to take so much punishment throughout the game (and retroactively 7).
AND IT'S GOT THE MERCENARIES HAHAAAAAA!!!
Curious JoJoestar if you recall well enough how you felt about this part of the game to explain a bit. I‘ve heard the sentiment expressed elsewhere and don’t really get it; certainly less interesting on a visual level from the other areas but I felt it a significant step up from the lake area, as well as an interesting test of the player's ability to navigate the mazelike space while juggling encounters with the drill guys