I am going to do something I have not done since I frequented numerous Resident Evil fan sites years and years ago, and that is to take a deep dive into the footage released so far and share my impressions as a longtime Resident Evil aficionado to make of what you will. Some of these observations have likely already been made, but I have not read the entirety of this thread or the previous one, so I apologize in advance if anything I have to say sounds redundant. Also, my thoughts may not be as organized as I would like, as I am currently getting over a stomach bug and my head is pretty foggy right now.
So now, without further ado:
My initial impression when I saw the reveal trailer during Sony's press conference was, admittedly, "I am not sure how I feel about this." It took the second trailer Capcom released to really sell me on this remake. As someone who was hoping for something more akin to the GameCube remake of the original game, though I was still open to the possibility of an over-the-shoulder view, or even a first person perspective after how successfully Capcom utilized this in Resident Evil 7, I was nevertheless taken aback by the drastic change. But not being what I was expecting or even hoping for is not necessarily a bad thing, and I firmly believe what I have seen so far of this game illustrates that point.
Having said that, I am going to take a bit of a different tack with my impressions, as plenty has already been written about the graphics, artistic direction and design, gameplay, and so on. I want to take notice of some of the smaller details that may have been missed by the coverage at large. These are smaller details that many may not notice upon first glance. And if they have already been discussed, I apologize again for the redundancy.
Firstly, the demo seems to imply that the game will now begin at the gas station, rather than the crash site that separates Leon and Claire. In addition to presumably adding more content to the opening's Raccoon City streets portion, it appears from the footage that Leon may not actually start the game wearing his RPD uniform, as he did in the original. The footage is dark, and it is impossible to tell solely from his silhouette, but in the first trailer, when he is approaching the front gates of the RPD building, it looks like he is wearing a jacket (perhaps the new jacket for which Capcom is currently taking preorders online?). Even though he begins the demo in his full uniform, maybe in the final game, he will actually have to locate his uniform in the station and change into it. Could this speak to a possible armor upgrade element ala Resident Evil 1.5, or even simply the tactical vests in Resident Evils 4 and 5? Note that his uniform includes an actual bullet proof vest this time, rather than just decorative plates (I am not sure if it was ever established in canon if those plates were actually bullet proof or not, though).
His handgun, in addition, is labeled "Matilda" in the inventory screen. A nice nod to Resident Evil 4 and later appearances of his trusty VP70, but I do wonder if this means Capcom will not be recreating real world weapons this time around, because it does not much look like a VP70. Think the remake and Resident Evils 0, 4, and 6, where the weapons were loosely based on real world equivalents, but heavily modified or customized so as only to bear a passing resemblance to their real world counterparts. Unlike the original games and Resident Evil 5, which carefully modeled the weapons after their real world counterparts and even used their real world names (though, admittedly, sometimes those names were incorrect). It is also worth noting that Leon's handgun only hold 12 rounds as opposed to the 18 it held in the original. Interestingly, Claire's handgun in the original, the Browning HiPower, only held 12 rounds, as well. Perhaps they did this for balancing?
Speaking of handgun ammunition, you have no doubt noticed that they reused the same ammo box from Resident Evil 7.
Leon mentions to Marvin that he was supposed to start with the department the previous week but was told to stay away. I wonder if this means they are eschewing the plot point from the original where Leon was late to his shift on his first day because he was hungover. He had a bad breakup with his girlfriend the previous night, with whom he had been living, and got a hotel room where he drank his sorrows away. While this does offer an interesting explanation for why he fell so hard so fast for Ada over the course of the game, I would be fine with them doing away with this tidbit. I always thought it would have been a lot easier to just say his first shift was the, ahem, graveyard shift.
The way Leon gives himself these little "pep talks" as he wanders around the police station is actually rather charming, and I think it really goes a long way to hammering home the fact that he is just a young rookie barely out of the academy. I just hope they do not overdo it. A little here and there is just fine, but we do not need to have the characters narrating everything that happens onscreen.
I am not sure how many people have noticed this, but when Leon gets bitten by a zombie, you can actually see the bite mark on his neck, and while I am sure it is not permanent, it does appear during cutscenes and seems to last for quite awhile. Perhaps you have to be fully healed for it to disappear completely?
It appears the fountain statue in the main hall requires three emblems now instead of just one.
I am sure there is much more that I intended to include here that I have forgotten as I have been typing, but I think this post has gone on long enough for now anyway. Thoughts? Feelings?
