The Video Game Revue

Resident Evil DS

Big things are happening for me on the work-related front lately, and that has been keeping me really busy. Still, I've managed to find time to play through the first bit of Resident Evil DS. I haven't made it very far yet, but I have some strong early impressions. I'm impressed with how faithful this adaptation of Resident Evil is to the original PlayStation game from nearly a decade ago, although the graphics aren't as impressive as I was hoping for--I guess I've just been spoiled by the modern Resident Evil games, particularly those for GameCube. Resident Evil DS is quite challenging, particularly since the controls are fairly awkward (which is true to the original game, of course), and I have a hard time imagining how the game would impress upon more casual gamers than myself. It seems like a pretty hardcore title to me, not only because can be unforgiving and has a steep learning curve, but also because it is a more slow-paced game that focuses on exploration and puzzle solving rather than fighting and action. Then again, that's true of the other, more recent Resident Evil games out these days, except perhaps for Resident Evil 4 with its gorgeous "over the shoulder" point-and-shoot system. Serious Resident Evil fans will know what they're getting into with Resident Evil DS.

Another game that I've been logging some time with this past week is Day of Defeat: Source. Day of Defeat is one of my all-time favourite FPS games, and this adaptation of it for the Half-Life 2 engine faithfully carries on the tradition. DoD is by the makers of Counter-Strike and in many ways it is accurate to think of it as Counter-Strike in a World War II setting. There are important differences, however: in DoD, there is continuous respawn, and maps are won or lost based on the capture of objective points. The capture point system works a lot like Battlefield 1942 except that capture points do not double as spawn points; generally each side only has one spawn area that cannot be overrun by the opposing side (spawn camping is sometimes still possible, but it is considered cheating.) You don't have to buy equipment as in CS; rather, you choose a character class and that determines your equipment for the next time that you spawn. The maps in DoD are fairly small and dense--they closely resemble the style of Counter-Strike maps, but the theme is obviously World War II battlegrounds, particularly urban environments. The maps in Day of Defeat (and in Counter-Strike) are the best part of the game for me, personally, and I've grown quite attached to several of them, although I often get the names mixed up. Also, as with CS, DoD has great play controls and the overall "feel" of the game is very satisfying. There's a bit of a learning curve there, especially since you can only play online so there are no dumb bots to practice against, but once you get up to speed, I find that DoD provides one of the best FPS rushes of any game I've ever played. Counter-Strike is very similar, of course. :)

I'm mildly tempted to pick up Grandia III, but there is of course no way in hell that I'll be able to find the time to play it right now. I need to take some time to catch up on games that I already own first. I also happened to catch the preview of Generation of Chaos for PSP over on RPGFan.com, and man does that game ever look good. Those RPGs just keep piling up--in a way, it almost makes me pine for the good ol' days when worthwhile RPGs were few and far between, so when one did arrive it was a really big deal, and it was never difficult to give each one a lot of attention. But I suppose that you can't have too much of a good thing in this case.

posted by Parappa @ 1:18 PM