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resident evil summarized in a screenshot


Playing through Resident Evil: Revelations 2 at the moment and came across this special moment. Oh on the surface it's nothing at all really. Just Claire Redfield and Moira Burton making their way through a dimly lot decrepit relic of post-Soviet infrastructure. Very dark, very grimy, very Resident Evil as you might expect. However it's rare that a game gives you such a perfect one line summary of itself. Almost like the writer is simultaneously winking and nodding at us as the characters speak about something else entirely.

Or are they? For the most part Resident Evil doesn't do self aware humour too often. Oh there's the memes and the Jill sandwiches and the master of unlocking yes but within the games it's usually a more sincere, earnest affair where no-one really questions the absurdity of the setup, at least not often. For instance, the design of the Spencer Mansion and the Raccoon City Police Department are on the face of it utterly implausible. Yet by being so unconscious of it in a charmingly oblivious way, these game worlds endear themselves to us all the more.

Anyway Revelations 2 is proving to be a blast, arriving at a point in the last decade where 'episodic' games were all the rage and the RE series were somewhere between the underwhelming sixth and the much lauded seventh installment. Of course in my mind it doesn't seem like that long ago yet somewhere along the way the fascination for aping a TV series box set format kinda went out of fashion. One of those curious trends in gaming that all-consumes developers and publishers alike until All of a sudden it doesn't. All the best bits of RE are here though and you get to play as the man the myself Barry Burton for half of the story. I of course feel my testosterone levels rising as I proceed through it.

Anyway, it's a brief update this month as things continue to be hella busy all round. I am of course contemplating the most hotly awaited event of the year on this blog in my end of year round-up. The towering highs, the plummeting depths and all that is found between them will be recounted in detail very soon. 

Until next time!

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