Editorials
The ‘Resident Evil 2’ 1-Shot Demo is a Taster Full of Bloody Flavor
I must admit, I wasn’t sure I’d be into the concept behind Capcom’s ‘1-Shot’ demo for the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake. A one-off 30-minute taster of the game where once your time was up, that’s it. No replaying, just a thank you for playing and a new trailer for the game (which is a great one for fans of the original game).
Yet it’s actually the perfect sell. It’s just 30 minutes and you may not see the endpoint (I just about did) in that time, but Capcom really has packed a fair bit into that short time period, and it has the desired effect of leaving you hungry for more.
The demo begins with Leon freshly arrived in the Raccoon City Police Department station after surviving the opening onslaught of the city streets. The lobby of the station is staggeringly familiar to a long-term fan of the original game. Technology may have moved on rapidly in the 21 years since the original came out, but it’s the most immediate sign that Capcom has managed to retain the very spirit of a beloved classic and make it fresh.
Even though the layout of the few rooms you come across in the demo has changed a bit since 1998, each recreation is almost instantly recognizable whilst being peppered with new little touches. The station really does look like its been under siege, with shutters and barricades blocking the way to certain areas, stretchers and ammo cases lined up in the lobby, and signs of struggle splashed all over the walls of every dark and desolate corridor. You’ve clearly missed the party, but there’s still plenty of gruesome guests hanging about. With how tight and close everything feels now, you’re sure to meet them sooner rather than later.
In an age of sprawling open worlds, the confines of the RPD feel more claustrophobic than they ever did. The undead are greater in number than before and there’s an air of panic whenever you hear the crash of glass as you trundle down a long, dark hall. They’re fairly easy to dispatch, and it’s almost satisfying to see them fall apart as you target limbs (a shotgun to the face ends in dazzlingly grisly fashion), but you get the sense that you could easily be cornered if you let your guard down, and that perfectly epitomizes what makes the classic zombie experience tick. You certainly have better control of Leon these days, but the reworking of the controls falls in line with a reworking of the dangers you face, and it recreates the intensity of combat that made the series great, but in a totally different way. Again, the game manages to get that balancing act of nostalgia and modernization just about right.
It also helps that blood and guts is very much on the menu in this taster, as it shows off the game’s brutal and gory mean streak. A cop gets pulled apart, revealing his blood-slicked innards, the jaw of another almost slops off its face, and damaged zombie limbs dangle from threads of muscle. Resident Evil 2 is not fucking about when it comes to gore and it puts Resident Evil 7‘s admittedly great efforts to shame.
Resident Evil 7 has had a big hand in making the remake go smoothly though. Interaction, menus, and certain prompts all carry over from that game, which is itself, a fine update of Resident Evil’s survival horror roots. There’s no doubt Resident Evil 2 plays a lot closer to the original 90’s selection of Resi games, but it’s by integrating aspects of the 2017 title that it feels like a perfectly-revised throwback.
Now, there could well be issues in the full game. As far as obvious problems go, I’d like to see the interaction simplified a bit as currently, the inventory menu comes up for literally every instance, whether it’s needed or not. A relatively small grievance thankfully. Otherwise, my expectations for the full game are higher than they’ve ever been.
This 30-minute demo gets across exactly kind of remake we’re in for, and by denying you repeat bites of this tasty morsel, Capcom has done just the right thing to ensure people are hankering to grab the full feast at the end of the month.
Have you played the demo? What did you think of it? Let us know.
The Resident Evil 2 ‘1-Shot’ demo is out now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Resident Evil 2 is out on the same formats from January 25.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
Looking for New Episodes of “Chucky” on Peacock? Here’s What Changed
‘Mountain Man’ – Joe Manganiello Will Battle Zombies in Upcoming Horror Movie
‘The Blair Witch Project’ – Original Stars Release a Statement Asking Lionsgate for Residuals & Recognition
‘Trap’ – Official Trailer Previews a Wild New Horror Experience from M. Night Shyamalan
‘The Exorcism’ – Russell Crowe Stars in Horror Movie Formerly Titled ‘The Georgetown Project’
You must be logged in to post a comment.