While Capcom is counting the revenue from the post-release sales, and the most thoughtful gaming media consolidate the latest ratings of the third part of Resident Evil in the world ranking, we studied the asymmetric multiplayer online action – Resident Evil: Resistance, which appeared to the world as an addition to the main game in the series (RE3 Remake).
What happened at Umbrella… again?
Everything that happens in Resistance multiplayer mode takes place during/shortly before the events of the second and third parts of the Resident Evil game series and generally is considered not canonical. There are six main characters who, due to an unfavorable combination of circumstances, learned about Umbrella something that the corporation would prefer to hide. As a result, young people are abducted and used as laboratory rats.
The developer prudently used the most recognizable archetypes for his characters: the modest Valerie – a student undergoing an internship in NEST2; informal journalist and hacker Jen; the good guy Tyrone, who works in the fire department of the Raccoon city; former young boxer Sam; Kinky nerd Martin and Becca a bare-footed ranger girl.
As antagonists, who are called puppeteers in the game, the players are represented by Annette, a laboratory assistant and Birkin’s wife; Daniel Fabron; Alex Wesker and one of the founders of Umbrella – Dr. Spencer.
For the genre in which Resistance is created, such an introduction of characters is pretty good. However, I would like to draw attention directly to how the project was implemented on the technical side.
How game should’ve worked (as initially intended by devs)
Each session is limited by the time that runs for the player controlling the villain. Four other participants play for the “prisoners”, who have to collectively find three conditional keys from several levels of the map, and then break the capsules with the mutants and evacuate.
For killing monsters and a number of other actions for the benefit of the team, the survivors get bonus time, and for mistakes and death of the teammates you will get the opposite. The fifth participant in the session – the puppeteer, who monitors what is happening through the cameras, has to do everything in his power so that the “good guys” won’t win.
And it seems like the idea is understandable and not bad, but Taiwanese developers overlooked an important nuance – the gameplay inherent in the RE remakes feels great in solo (especially if you had to try the original games), but it looks very clumsy in co-op and especially bad in PvP.
How the game actually feels and works (the end product)
Subjects (aka good guys) are divided into tanks, supports, and damage-dealing characters. At the same time, each of them has set of active and passive skills, personal ultimatum ability, and many perks which you can get from lootboxes, such as leveling, as well as a small customization of clothing items, and also each type of weapon in the game.
In this regard, puppeteers have not been deprived, but instead of special skills they have the ability to call a controlled boss, the ability to customize the playing field (puppeteers, by the way, also host the game; for good or bad – judge for yourself), choose super mutations (it is like modifications for creatures), as well as the creatures themselves.
All characters can be customized in advance through the introductory game menu. In the same place, you can buy a couple of boxes with bonuses for earned money and study the list of daily tasks. Some additional changes can be made on the hero selection screen – each player will have about a minute for fine-tuning.
And then the action begins: four players will scatter in search of keys, try to survive the monsters, help each other as much as possible and earn credits. In safe rooms between levels, money can be spent on new guns, cartridges and medicines.
The puppeteer, as shown in the video, has its own atmosphere: he tirelessly creates monsters in the way of enemies and sometimes dwells in them to capture a particularly zealous test-subject. The puppeteer uses turrets on cameras, sets traps and waits for the right moment to play the boss’s call. All this time, the system on the basis of the CCG (collectible card games) allocates puppeteer four actions from the deck he has selected in advance. Selection of actions is pretty random like the distribution of cards in blackjack, by the way, you tired of video games you may try your luck by playing real blackjack online here – https://www.casinonic.com/en-CA/games/blackjack
The difficulty is that the players obviously do not know what the sinister Umbrella employee has in store for them, and the keys, sometimes, are very, very difficult to find in such an atmosphere. However, if the players guess to stick together and methodically explore the sectors, the antihero will probably lose (at least if the puppeteer is not experienced in this game).
Something went wrong in this game
The first thing that starts to drive you crazy even at the training stage is the gameplay itself. Incredibly tight, poorly lit corridors, an unyielding camera, clumsy players who get lost in each other it all feels bad.
There are very few weapons in the game, most guns are ineffective and brittle, but the melee is the worst implemented, when your character simply cuts the air with a stick instead of finishing off a zombie lying on the ground or trying to hurt a dog that is gnawing at a friend it’s so annoying.
NeoBards abolished the idea of scattered ammo in a clips or boxes, now the only resource for the whole firearm is gunpowder which is pain in the ass to navigate in menu. The menu is inconvenient, you cannot sell excess weapons, you have to throw something out of your inventory, manually repair the broken one, and throw objects on the hot keys. In a word – spend a lot of precious time during clunky gameplay.
Another huge omission is the spawn system of traps and monsters. The puppeteer can spam monster cards in rooms where, in his opinion, the players are most active, and monsters at his command appear straight from the floor, instead of bursting through locked doors, climbing into windows, hiding in neighboring rooms, etc.
The picture is compounded by the mandatory involvement of all participants in the fulfillment of a collective goal. If at least one of the survivors thinks will leave the session, your team will not be evacuated in part, all your efforts will be in vain.
There are quite a few bugs in the game, some of which the players have already mastered to use. Among other things, the waiting time for a session sometimes reaches five or even ten minutes, and if you registered as a puppeteer, you can hang in queues for half an hour or more. Anyways, this game is just an addition to Resident Evil 3 Remake, so it’s ok to have, but I do not recommend to play it. Play it only if you have spare time to kill and there is nothing else you can do instead of playing RE Resistance.
