Just played through RE8 for the first time and I gotta say: I love the game. I don't get why people are so down about it.
I played RE7, and while I like it enough and thought it was a nice return to a survival horror mindset, I didn't really feel the need to replay it again. I'm already on my second playthrough of RE8. For RE7, I was annoyed at all the unskippable long cutscenes, I thought the enemy and weapon variety was lacking, I was tired of the unbeatable stalker character that you would have to either outrun or wait out, the game felt short, and the setting, while interesting, was samey and boring after awhile. And I did not like the inventory system, which is bad considering that it became the basis for the inventory of the following two remakes.
This game fixed almost all of my issues with the last game. There is a stalker enemy, but she doesn't overstay her welcome. The setting is varied and beautiful, with some of the best gothic scenery I've seen in a video game (only Bloodborne comes close). The enemies are tough and varied, with commiserate intelligence so that you can't necessary just stand around and tee off on them. Weapons have more variety. The cutscenes are skippable and limited to certain segments, never fouling up the experience. The game itself is longer and more intensive. And this is my favorite inventory system in the series by far, as we have the return of the expandable attaché case, but a separate item storage for treasures, key items and crafting ingredients (which have their own dedicated crafting menu), so these game necessary things don't take up limited inventory space. An absolute necessity that should be in every Resident Evil game to cut down on frustration and needless backtracking.
If I had some critiques they would be:
- I shouldn't have to look at items all the time to pick them up. This is especially annoying after downing a lot of enemies, and I have to constantly look down to pick up stuff. I should be able to just walk over items and automatically pick up things like ammo, money, crafting materials, and treasures, like in other FPS games. I understand having to look around to pick up things on tables and in various containers. That's understandable from a content gathering perspective and because this is a staple of past Resident Evils. But for stuff enemies drop on the ground, I should be able to just pick that up.
- Bring back the item box. I really don't know why that was removed. I should be able to store weapons I'm not using, but want to keep, there, instead of selling them back to the Duke, so I'm forced to buy them again if I want to use them. I like to collect my weapons, so I shouldn't be forced to sell them. Thankfully, the RE4 remake is adding an item box, based on released trailers. Assuming RE4 remake's inventory is otherwise similar to this game, it has the potential to be the best inventory system yet.
- More weapons variety. At the end of the day, you had a pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, and magnum, with assault rifles as unlockable weapons and two special unlockable weapons, one of which was a useless joke weapon, the other of which was basically a magnum that used sniper rifle rounds. The Sniper and Grenade launcher were always the same. The Shotgun and pistol had three weapons each (the pistol got a special fourth weapon), and each gun you got later was always better than the gun you used before. So your first pistol was always the worst, while the last pistol you got was always superior (which was not the case in, say, the original RE4). And there was no Rocket Launcher! What RE doesn't have at least one rocket launcher?! Oh yeah, RE7. But this is one thing they shouldn't have copied from that game. At least they gave you a grenade launcher. But more than five weapons would be nice, especially if you make a longer game. Why not add more assault rifles? Or submachine guns? Or machine guns? Or another sniper rifle? There was another sniper rifle and a machine gun fully modeled in game, but only Chris's team uses them (you can see their figurines). Why is that? Also, making the weapons more realistic would be nice. Give them realistic damage and capabilities. And use actual real world guns with their names! RE did this before. The last game to use real world guns was, I think, RE5. Why not go back to that Capcom? Put in some work.
- Better weapon customization. This game's customization was a weird mix of RE4's or the RE2 remake's/RE3 remake's system, where you had actual parts you could buy or find for your gun to make it better, like you would in real life. And RE5's system, my least favorite, where you spent money to raise generic values like "power" and "reloading" speed (how upgrading your gun would make the character reload it faster is something I never understood). I don't get why they mixed and matched it like this. Those values mean little to nothing, and I'd rather spend money on actual worthwhile physical upgrades to trick my weapon out. Instead of these generic values, give me more parts to mix and match as I like. Give me different types of ammunition, like you already do with the grenade launcher, to I can decide how I want to dish out the death. In other words, be a little more imaginative.
- There should be a dedicated grenade throwing button, like in most shooters, and maybe a dedicated melee button, so you can map your guns to the D-pad rather than using that or having to go into your inventory to access things because there just isn't enough buttons to quick select everything. There's already a "Freaking heal yourself idiot" button.
- The village was underutilized. After the opening act, its basically not important to the plot and just connects the different areas where the bosses reside. There is little to no real exploration. Its only used as a place you go to get more items after you unlock the item necessary to access them. Very disappointing considering how the initial trailers implied that this game would be more open.
A lot of people still don't like first person, but honestly? It doesn't bother me at all. The aiming system took a little getting used to, and I think they should add looking down the sights, especially for trained characters like Chris (and even the main character of this game, since he's supposed to have gotten military training between games), but once you did, it was natural enough. Now, what I think they will do, taking the Winters Expansion (which I haven't played yet because I didn't buy it) into account, is that from now on there will be an option to switch from first to third person mode, probably on the fly. That should please everybody. Games have been doing it for years. The Next-gen versions of GTA V had this. RDR2 had it. Freaking Star Wars Battlefront II had it. Heck, gosh darn Thief: Deadly Shadows had this as an option, and that game came out in 2004!
But what do you guys think? Also, I'm curious as to which inventory system in the series was your most favorite and least favorite?
www.youtube.com
