Resident Evil 2 – Level/Puzzle Design Discussion

April 8th, 2010

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I’m a bit stumped on how to discuss Resident Evil 2. Make no mistake, this is a fine game and I’d sure as hell like to probe into the design, however, the most attractive part of this title (the construction of puzzle elements) requires micro-level analysis. That is, analysis of pre-supposed routes, the respective associations of the “puzzle pieces”, the ordering of environmental hints and notes, the positioning of safe and danger zones and how all of these parts work together to guide the player. As you can imagine, for me to deconstruct Resident Evil 2 at this level, I’d basically be reverse engineering large chunks of the game and that’s an enormous undertaking. So instead of printing off maps and scribbling all over them, only to share my esoteric analysis, I’ve decided to just talk generally about the puzzle and level design.

The Spencer Estate and Onions

I wish I had a better memory of Resident Evil 3 because of what I can remember it strayed away from the mansion-orientated design pertinent in Resident Evil 0 through to Resident Evil 2. In Resident Evil, the design of the Spencer estate works like an onion. The player remains in a solitary place, peeling off layers of access (via the solving of cryptic puzzles) until they reach the core. The puzzles are designed around exploiting one iteration of the mansion, peeling back a layer, gaining some new items and mining further into new areas or taking their new-found tools and re-applying them to the newest iteration. (Iterations, for example when you leave the mansion to go to the graveyard and come back in, enemy placement is different and you have new tools to use within the environment).

Resident Evil 0 and 2 diverge from this formula, but only a little. A large section (generally close to half) of each title is spent in an area akin to the Spencer estate (the Umbrella Training Facility and the RPD Police Station). This estate is then connected by a linear path to smaller “estates” with fewer layers of puzzle-solving (sewers, factory, water filtration plant, Umbrella labs). Resident Evil 0 and 2 diverge by the way of chopping up the mansion and spreading it out over several interconnected areas.

Resident Evil 3, if I remember correctly, mostly eschewed this design in place of a very fragmented, linear design on the streets of Racoon City. There were a couple of smaller “estates” (the clock tower and the RPD Police Station), but they were much more open-ended. I might be completely off my mark here, but I remember Resident Evil 3 being far more linear than prior games, substituting this freedom in the form of the run or die choices occasionally presented when faced against Nemesis.

Posing the Question of Playability

A few weeks back, I discussed how the Ecliptic Express section preluding the Research Facility at the start of Resident Evil 0 worked as a good tutorial to ease players into the experience. Besides a brief skip through the Racoon City streets at the beginning of the game (part of the only time you actually experience the city outdoors), Resident Evil 2 begins just as Resident Evil did: by dumping you in a large house with riddles to solve—there is no tutorial. On my first play session of Resident Evil 2 though I played for several hours straight, constantly making progress throughout this time and, in fact, only ended my play session because the hours were rolling past midnight. Contrary to Resident Evil where I was frequently drip-fed on a FAQ. I enjoyed Resident Evil 0 and 2 because they made me feel intelligent without sacrificing challenge, however Resident Evil was simply a lesson in frustration. It constantly made me feel stupid. The strange thing is that Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 both start off on the same foot, design-wise, so how is it that my play experiences were so radically different?

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To answer the question generally, I think Resident Evil 2 has a much clearer, obvious design than Resident Evil. In Resident Evil 2, the logic puzzles are—surprisingly enough—based on logic. If you have a crank handle, it goes in a hole. If you have a red gem stone, there will only be one spot where putting that gem stone would seem appropriate. If you have materials for explosives, a note will tell you explicitly that if you put those items together you will make a bomb. While not exactly obvious, Resident Evil 2′s puzzles are far from cryptic; they actually give the player a fighting chance at solving the problem for themselves. In Resident Evil, you’re often presented with items which have no context within the areas you’ve just visited (stones, dragon heads) and clues tend to be more confusing than helpful. In contrast, almost every time I found an item in Resident Evil 2, I knew exactly where I could apply that item and if I didn’t, the item was practical enough for me to assume where it could possibly be used later in the game.

Perhaps not even incidentally, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 are cryptic and practical, respectively, for good reasons. Resident Evil is cryptic not only because it’s a “remake” of Sweet Home (which had arcane puzzle elements) but also because of the established of George Trevor plot arc. Trevor was intentionally hired to design the mansion on behalf of Umbrella head Ozwell E. Spencer because of his expertise of crafting puzzles, traps and secret doors. Resident Evil 2, on the other hand, is set in a suburban town, so the items available are practical commodity items and the puzzles are thereby more straightforward than the traps Trevor dreamt up.

The other point worth considering is the avenues open to exploration. Both Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 dump you in a large house and leave you to your own devices. Resident Evil leaves the player stranded with two floors with doorways leading all over the mansion. A gunshot steers the player in the general direction. In the Police Station in Resident Evil 2, access to the higher floors are cut off, there are three doors on the ground floor, one of them is locked and in Leon’s game, a police office lets out a scream which explicitly indicates that the layer best investigate. Once you’ve explored the respective room, you’re locked out, leaving only one other avenue to go down. So it’s very clear where to go next, yet it doesn’t dumb down the experience.

Conclusion

Resident Evil 2 breaks the mansion design into several linearly connected areas and in doing so streamlines the overwhelming nature of the original game. Due to the suburban setting, Resident Evil 2‘s puzzles focus on practicality over arcane mystery and as the crux of the title therefore improves accessibility greatly. Overall then, these factors help make Resident Evil 2 a more user-focused puzzle experience which explain why such a title is so highly regarded.

You know, now that I think about it, if I were a FAQ writer, I probably could have quite easily followed through with my original idea.

Visual Connection: Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles Vs Resident Evil 0, Remake and 3

March 27th, 2010

To prove my prior comments that Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles has a distinctively burn out appearance, it’s probably best to illustrate with examples. So, below are screens taken from the various chapters in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and the respective games they’re based upon. I found it tricky matching the screenshots room-for-room, but what I have gives a pretty decent approximation.

Resident Evil 0

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Resident Evil Remake

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Resident Evil 3

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Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles – Side Commentaries

March 25th, 2010

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Here’s everything I couldn’t add to what I said before. Some pretty substantial comments this time, unlike with Dead Space Extraction. So, dig in!

Faithful Enemies Types Stretched Thin

One of the unavoidable issues when adapting a survival horror franchise like Resident Evil into an on-rails shooter is the cast of enemies. The original Resident Evil games were rather sparsely populated, creating moments of quiet solitude which would enhance the ensuing scares. An action-intensive rail shooter, on the other hand, lives off its fodder, and as a result, the selective cast of bio-organic weapons are spread thickly and stretched thinly over the action to the cause of trite repetition. You’ll constantly confront the same slew of primates, hunters, dogs and zombies, because that’s all that the source material can afford. Balancing continuity with prior games and the enjoyment of the rail shooter is a tricky task, one that minor enemy variations (visually, in the form of attack patterns and/or weak spots) could have proved a sound solution. Another possible solution is a less action-intensive direction as with Dead Space:Extraction. This would be more akin to the original games, however, I have doubts that it would have worked quite as effectively.

Weapons Cache

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles‘ weapon cache of 15 unique weapons is spread across 5 main weapon types: shotguns, machine guns, revolvers, explosives, and uhh more powerful explosives. Only two types of weapons are ever all that useful: shotguns and machine guns. Shotguns are effective at clearing enemies quickly in tense situations and managing hordes of zombies ready for the critical shot. The machine guns are good for stunning enemies and clearing destructible objects. They both also double as functional main weapons. The other three types are too high-risk due to their destructive power and limited ammunition. Frankly, you’d be stupid to both using these weapons. I did for the final segment of the Resident Evil 3 chapter and wasted 40 minutes on Nemesis. And anycase, why use a magnum to headshot a zombie when the default weapon is equally as effective? As I said in the previous post, the critical shot system practically makes these weapons redundant.

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Burnt Toast

I’m surprised that in all I’ve read about Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles not one person has commented on the overcooked visual presentation. Don’t read me wrong, I do like the visual presentation, but it clearly has a very dark, raw look to it, often bordering on monotone. Comparing the recreation of the Spencer estate to RE Remake reveals a weaker textual hue, the wallpaper is the most noticeable difference between the two. Furthermore, compare Umbrella Chronicles to its bloom-lit sequel Darkside Chronicles and there’s a remarkable gain in detail and richness. Also, the sound of the Samurai Edge, the default gun, is abhorrent and contributes to the style.

Cheating the Default Configuration

Anyone who plays this game with just the Wii-mote is a dill. The default configuration is plain horrendous, over-mapping actions to the most prominent buttons, requiring the player to reload by shaking the pointer and losing some minor camera control from the nunchuck. The best way to play is to use the Zapper configuration, but not to use the mold. That way reloading won’t throw off your aim and switching between weapons is easy. It’s unbelievable that this control scheme was not accepted as default, or at least firing off screen made available for those not using it separately (as much as the rapid movement isn’t appropriate to the accuracy-focus of Umbrella Chronicles).

Clear Visual Indicators

It’s almost funny how much information you can display on a firing reticle, in the case of Umbrella Chronicles the amount of ammunition held in your gun and the type of shot based on the hover of your cursor. Four dashes appear in each direction around the central dot to indicate that you are shooting an object, be it a zombie or a some destructible object, which is really handy for scanning rooms for hidden files.

Adapting Survival Horror to the On-Rails Format

On Twitter, if I recall, I said that I’d like to explore the differences between playing Resident Evil 0 (which I’d recently completed) as a survival horror game and a rail shooter. I hate to disappoint you, but the differences are pretty self-evident. What is interesting are the cuts made to adapt the original titles into a rail shooter. Chapters from Resident Evil 0 are more or less a straight conversion with some of the solo bits chopped out and re-thinkered, the other two games however are heavily redone. While it has been some time since I played Resident Evil 3, I don’t recall a hefty majority of the locations, supposedly much of the layout of Raccoon City was adapted from the Outbreak games which were made by the same developers. Nemesis also makes his appearance at the start of the third and final act, so the order is completely muddled and there is seemingly no intermission for when Jill is knocked out. The original mansion incident is more faithful, but at the same time, feels like a remade adventure where Chris and Jill’s story is meshed together (there’s always two players together and they are never apart, this justifies the co-op). Only purists are likely to complain however, and all of the adjustments and cuts are understandable.

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An Added Word on Cannon

Just as a rider to my comments above, the Red Queen computer system, as seen in the new Umbrella Ends chapter, was actually from the Resident Evil movies, and then we have dilemma. Capcom has denied the Resident Evil movies from ever being a part of cannon, yet, right here, Capiva have created a thread. Interesting to ponder.

Being Reasonable with the Game’s Intents

I was originally planning on writing an article taking another swipe at the enthusiast media’s silly criticisms of this game, but somehow I couldn’t find enough reputable sources talking unfounded trash to fill an entire article, so I will just talk generally to eschew any accountability. There are two comments used to discredit this title which have really frustrated me: this is not a “proper” installment in the franchise and there’s no Resident Evil 2, waaaaaahhhh! People, we need to judge this/any game on what it’s trying to do and not what it isn’t. Just because Umbrella Chronicles isn’t a new 3^rd person installment does not make it a bad game. Umbrella Chronicles is a great stopgap for fans to do their homework and experience the original games in a new format, or, alternatively, as a point of entry for new players. In fact, I think that Umbrella Chronicles fits in quite well with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and the Gamecube remakes and ports—anyone can get their Resident Evil fix (minus RE5) on the Wii, and that’s pretty awesome.

Widescreen, Dammit!

This game is the first title in my collection to have mandatory, forced widescreen. There doesn’t seem to be any way to play in standard box-TV view, and that kinda makes me angry since I have a nice, box-TV at home. One of those decently-sized flatscreen models that went cheap as HDTV and all that rubbish was coming into the market.

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