Back again for our regular Sunday roundup of quick-fire reviews and impressions of everything under the spotlight at Retro Arcadia this week, old and new and a bit of both. And I’m reporting from what’s now turned into a building site right outside our back door, with around 130-sqm of ancient stables and huts previously attached to the side of our house now demolished after the bigger boys turned up to finish what we’d “started” over the past couple of weeks. Rather them than me in this heat too! Unbelievable amount to clear and get rid of but nice to be finally doing something after five years of planning approvals! Means I could also turn my attention back to finishing painting the outside of the house this weekend, which I’m pleased to report is now just about done after weeks of doing it whenever I can! Thankfully I still had time for a few games though, so let’s check them out…

I’m not sure why I bought Resident Evil Revelations in a PlayStation 4 sale a couple of months back, apart from it being cheap and I didn’t already own it, because it certainly wasn’t for its series-high gameplay and presentation! Okay, maybe I’m being unfair since it was originally released for Nintendo DS back in 2012, where it probably looked fine at the time and was as authentic a Resident Evil experience as you could have realistically hoped for, with the emphasis on survival and making the best of what you’ve got as you explore, fight and puzzle your way through a bunch of vaguely coherent, loosely cannon and mercifully mostly bitesize episodes in the single-player campaign, or go one or two player in the more action-heavy Raid Mode, based on alternate versions of those episodes. Some of them are decent too, especially in the more maze-like and claustrophobic recurring setting of an abandoned cruise ship, but others are as generic as the narrative and as shallow as the “modernised” gameplay, although in its defence, you can move and shoot at the same time! I love my 3DS, and can judge how it looks on those merits rather than those of a remastered PS4 game, but I don’t think it looks good at all in either context, whether in-game or during cutscenes, and although the sound is done well and gives a boost to what it’s otherwise lacking in atmosphere, it’s all just really dumbed-down, which is saying something for a Resident Evil spin-off! That said though, I still played it all the way through, and there were times I realised I was actually having a good time, and I’ll still play the second game sometime, so it can’t be all bad, and at the very least I got my money’s worth. 

All the way back to 1983 next, with Dracula from Imagic for Mattel’s Intellivision, which I believe was one of the earliest games to cause a bit of a stir for its inherent violence, as well as being a real favourite of mine on the system, not least because you get to be Dracula and cause all that violence! Don’t suppose many games had you playing the villain at that point either… Depending on your selected difficulty level (from three), you need to to rise from your grave at sunset and drain a specified number of townsfolk of their blood before you need to return to it before sunrise. While you’re on the hunt, you’ll need to steer clear of werewolves and the stake-throwing police constables, who you need to either escape from as fast as possible or, if you’ve got a victim to hand, turn them into a zombie to fight back for you, but there’s also the option of turning into a vampire bat for a swift exit, although this then makes you vulnerable to the vultures patrolling the sky. Everything you do also uses the precious blood supplies you’re gathering – even simply walking around – and running out means game over, but keep it topped up enough and you’ll live to fight another night, when your quota will increase and so will the dangers to you. It’s simple arcade stuff with a few twists and a lovely slapstick feel, thanks no end to some fantastic characterisation and animation, as primitive as it might be, and loads of attention to detail in the varied and vibrant scenery. Very cool music too, and sound overall is basic but cleverly and dynamically deployed. There’s not a huge amount to it but maybe more than meets the eye, and sucking blood was never so much fun! 

I didn’t know anything about a Heretic + Hexen remastered collection from Nightdive Studios when it suddenly launched straight to Xbox Game Pass last week but I’ve been over the moon with it ever since! These pioneering first-person shooters originally arrived on DOS from Raven Software back in 1994 and 1995 respectively, built on the Doom Engine but based around spell-casting, and offering distinct character classes, inventory systems and other more nerdy RPG-infused features, not least their intertwined, inter-dimensional fantasy settings. What’s included here is pretty special too, with the original Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders and Hexen: Beyond Heretic, then its 1996 expansion pack, Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, and two all-new episodes coming from an id Software and Nightdive collaboration, Heretic: Faith Renewed and Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur, all totalling 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps, and just like way back then, I can’t get enough of all of them! They play like Doom with magic (and up and down shooting), there’s an epic backdrop involving Elves, Serpent Riders, mages, clerics and all that nonsense, and as well as solo campaign modes throughout, we’ve also now got 16-player online and 8-player split-screen multiplayer too. There’s also graphical performance and resolution boosts, without messing too much with their timeless DOS aesthetic, as well as new or original soundtracks, tuning for modern controllers, quick-saves and a nice set of concept art and original development stuff, but as welcome as it all is, I could do without any of that because these games just remain fast-paced, almost-mindless, big dumb fun, whichever flavour you choose here, and whichever mode you play, and I couldn’t wish for any more than that! 

That really was perfectly timed too, right on the back of me finally finishing Death Stranding and being in that weird, post-big game void of neither knowing what to play next nor being particularly motivated to do anything about it! Anyway, that’s me for this week, but do check back again next Wednesday though, when we’ll have another instalment in an ongoing genre-spanning series that I’ve had so much fun putting together over the past couple of years, and this time we’ll be counting down my Top Ten Favourite Multidirectional Shoot ‘Em Ups! Hopefully see you then! 

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