Back(log) to the Front: Weeks 27 and 28

Do you all ever have those periods of time where you just don’t feel like playing video games? That’s the rut I’ve been in the past few weeks. Neither of the games I’m about to discuss I was able to beat, and truthfully, I’m not too torn up about it.

I think the way I’m going to go about dealing with this the next couple of weeks by playing some smaller games. I have some bite-sized indies I want to tackle along with playing some more Rocket League which I also dipped back into for a few matches for the first time since 2017. It was pretty nice to play it again.

As for this week:

Destroy All Humans!

This is one of those games I saw repeatedly over the years but never really knew what to expect. When it became cheap enough on the PS2 Classics on the PlayStation 4, I bought it anyways adding it to the backlog. Finally getting around to it – I really enjoyed my time with it.

Starting out, Destroy All Humans! was far more open than I imagined. While there are main missions and side missions (which are less story based and more DNA-collection based), you are essentially dropped into a location and free to do whatever. Granted, there’s not much to do outside of collecting probes, harming humans and destroying buildings with your saucer death ray; but it still leads to a pretty carefree and fun time. That is until the army and Men in Black analogues come to take you out as they mean business.

I do like the array of weapons at your disposal although I would argue there isn’t enough of them. They spread the acquisition of them throughout the game, and upgrades such as ammo capacity or recharge rate are even more rare. Despite the lack and slowness of rollout however, I always found enjoyment in the goofiness of the anal probe or the ruthlessness of the disintegration ray. Even the basic PsychoKinesis skill is fun as lobbing humans or cars at other things put a smile on my face.

The tone was also pretty perfect. The campy nature really set the mood and both the over-the-top voice acting with goofy dialogue and the setting makes this a great B-Movie video game adaptation of sorts. I must say though, it was incredibly difficult for me to waive the idea of being commanded by Invader Zim. That’s entirely the fault of Richard Horvitz though as he did the voice of both Invader Zim and Orthopox. Great fit, but hard to separate.

Now that Destroy All Humans! is making a return, I’m glad to know what the game is all about. My time with the original has been mostly positive and it upped my interest in this new game by a large margin.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

This is the first Resident Evil game that piqued my interest in a long time. Outside of the controls, I’ve always had a thing against the action in the game as it was never what I wanted out of Resident Evil. It was many years ago that I realized I preferred games like Silent Hill where the atmosphere was more important than any action, and that was something I appreciated and enjoyed. In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, I didn’t get too far, but I noticed my engagement slowly draining the further into it I got.

Starting out, I was really digging it. No real weapons. A sense of terror in the air as you move around the house. Evidence of things happening in the house to give you a sense of dread and making you wish you had eyes in the back of your head. It was seemingly exactly what I was wanting Resident Evil to be. The first person perspective was exactly what they needed to succeed in setting the mood much like games such as Amnesia or Outlast. Working in the antagonists such as Jack Baker roaming the premises have you checking around every corner in fear because there’s not many places to hide, so it’s more important to run ahead and find safety in distance.

Progressing is sort of how you expect. Certain doors are unlocked by finding statues throughout the place such as dog heads, and once all are found, you can proceed into the next section of the house or outside. Some have special keys to locate and may either open the next area or hide secrets such as weapons. If neither of those do it for you, you could do a shadow puzzle that opens hidden passages by finding an object and maneuvering it in a way to match a white figure on a painting. I’ve never been fond of these methods of exploration, but that’s more of a personal taste than anything.

As I mentioned prior, I don’t like combat in Resident Evil games and this one is no different. The minute the knife was introduced, I knew exactly what would happen. It would be almost inconsequential as it would take far too many swipes to take enemies out and you would risk being killed. The guns make things a little easier, but then it comes down to locating ammo or items to craft the ammo. Either way, I never found satisfaction in firing the guns. I much prefer the run and hide approach, but again, that’s more of my own desires of what I wanted this game to be than a damning criticism of the game.

I could continue to play this game in the future, but I really have no desire. As much as I’m liking the gist of the game, I don’t really want to get into fights with anyone. The first two major fights involve really small rooms and running circles around a central area keeping the enemy at a distance while you unload into the head. It’s kind of disappointing, but I should have known they wouldn’t have made it an entirely different game. What they did do not only caught my eye though, but reinvigorated the franchise for many and rightly so. I may not have liked it as much in the end, but from what I’ve played, it is still a good Resident Evil game with a much more horror atmosphere than the last few games.

That does it for weeks 27 and 28. If you like what we do here, don’t forget to check out our Youtube channel and subscribe, follow us on Twitter, check out our podcasts, and everything else out on this site!