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The ‘Mercenaries’ Mode Needs to Come Back to the ‘Resident Evil’ Franchise [Resident Evil at 25]

Published

3 years ago

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“These soldiers have lost their edge. They have forgotten what fear and survival mean. It’s time for them to remember…”

Resident Evil 3’s remake ended up being greeted by a mixed reception, straying too far from what made the original such a unique entry, even if it did have some of that original charm.

My feelings were very much in that camp when I reviewed the game last year. I explained why Nemesis was handled poorly and served the story more than the gameplay. 

It did have a multiplayer component to offer something different at least. Unfortunately, while the asymmetric experience Resident Evil: Resistance looked good on paper, like so many online attempts in Capcom’s franchise, it ended up falling flat rather quickly. Whilst originally writing the review of RE3 Remake and subsequently playing Resistance, it made me want to revisit the original’s bonus mode The Mercenaries, and that, in turn, made me want to write about it.

I’ve written before how I regard the original incarnation of Resident Evil 3 as a fantastic game, one which still holds up today. Its locations, multiple-choices when facing Nemesis, and of course…that first series appearance of The Mercenaries Mode.

Long after I’d moved on to PlayStation 2, I made sure to have a PS1 Memory Card slotted into the second-player port, just so I could load up RE3 and The Mercenaries. It was a special bonus game where you choose from three characters, and you had to get from the tram area, to the warehouse where you began the main game as Jill, shooting through multiple enemies to gain time and money, while racking up combos while rescuing hostages. It all added up to the money and valuable seconds you would earn, and once you reached the end, you were able to purchase a few items.

From Infinite Ammo to the fabled Rocket Launcher, it made you keep replaying it to build up your cash, so you could eventually own it all. Yet even when I did, I still kept coming back, as it was simply too much fun not to.

Once you completed the original game of Resident Evil 3, you were able to access The Mercenaries mode from the main screen. Right away it felt like a departure, as if you’re now in an arcade game, scrolling through the characters to choose from as if you’re about to play Time Crisis.

Here’s who you can choose from at this point, each with their respective items:

Rookie

  • Mikhail Victor
  • Rocket Launcher
  • Shotgun
  • Magnum
  • 18 Magnum Bullets
  • 21 Shotgun Shells
  • Mixed Herb

Normal

  • Carlos Oliveira
  • Assault Rifle
  • Eagle 6.0
  • 90 Bullets
  • 3 Mixed Herbs

Hard

  • Nikolai Zinoviev
  • Handgun
  • Combat Knife
  • 3 First Aid Sprays
  • Blue Herb

I would usually go for Mikhail, mainly because of the satisfaction of the Shotgun and the headshots you could do. But it didn’t matter which character you picked; the difficulty was the same across all three characters, and it simply came down to your skill with the tools available to you. Everything you had learned from your playthroughs as Jill came down to this. Time to earn some money.

A timer would kick in, and from the start, you felt under pressure. Pushed into taking gambles by running past a few enemies to save time and bullets, or to just shoot at some to gain some time and a bit of extra cash. Enemies had a varied value as to how much time you could gain, and how much money it would add to the pot at the end.

A zombie dog would add 4 seconds and six dollars, while a Hunter would earn you 6 seconds and ten dollars. All the enemies would be in locations different to the main game. So when I decided to go to a certain part where the ‘Drain Demios’ would usually be located, I was greeted with the giant spiders.

I had forgotten about this and as I was playing this close-up on a 50” HD TV, it was a shock, to say the least.

Of course, Nemesis appears whenever he likes, which also adds to the intensity of this mode. If you’re lucky/brave enough to defeat him, that’s worth between 10 and 20 seconds, and a massive forty dollars (If you want to find out more about the enemies and their worth, this fantastic wiki gives all the info, including where the hostages can be located).

Resident Evil 4 carried on The Mercenaries tradition.

Hostages were another aspect I had forgotten. There are six in each playthrough. If you rescue them, you gain more time and money, and maybe even an item from them. They’re not required to complete the mode, so you can leave them to fend for themselves, but it’s yet another great addition to a mode that was simply a bonus to the main game.

I loved this mode, and still do. It’s the ultimate example of great bonus content to me. Long after I finished the original playthrough as Jill, Mercenaries kept me going back for more to see what else the mode offered. This was when there was no internet in the house for me, only my trusted magazines of ‘Official PlayStation Magazine’, ‘PowerStation’ and ‘GamesMaster’, each to help guide me through with each character when it really did count.

When the reimagining was announced with RE: Resistance in tow, it was obvious to me that Mercenaries wasn’t coming along for the ride, yet still, I was disappointed that it wasn’t hidden away in there when I played through it for the review.

Capcom seems to have moved on from RE 3 Remake. Resistance is seemingly dead, and its multiplayer successor Re:Verse doesn’t inspire much confidence. So I hope that Capcom tries to bring back this mode again in some way at some point (it has made appearances in several other Resi games since), as it’s another important part of the series history that made it so beloved. It was ridiculous at times, but it was simple arcade-style fun. Story was put aside and the main objective was to get to point A to point T, making sure the combos were racked up, so when you either died or made it to the end, the suitcase of gold coins were ready to be spent on a Rocket Launcher.

Hopefully, Mercenaries returns in some way in the coming years (there’s always that Resident Evil 4 remake), but for now, you may have to head back to the likes of Resident Evil 3, 4, and Revelations 2, and see just how great it can be.

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Editorials

Finding Faith and Violence in ‘The Book of Eli’ 14 Years Later

Published

2 days ago

on

April 22, 2024

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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.

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