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Needs more gore...

Disclaimer I did not complete the demo.

Fangames are tricky to pull off, most attempts end up as lame wannabes disregarding the canon of it's source material. Whilst there are others that pay perfect homage to the series they seek to imitate, Resident Evil: After History is neither of those... It's an whole new terror.

Story

Based parallel to the events of the original resident evil the player takes the role of Vincent who wakes up alone in the surrounding woodland of Arklay Mountains. Once awoken he is chased by zombie dogs (sigh) into a convenient mansion. From there on out he encounters zombies, dogs, hunters and a stupid shark. The problem is that the events of the original game have been revisited so many times before why should the audience want to go back to it's humble beginnings yet again. Sure After History sells itself as an untold story from a whole different perspective, but wouldn't it be better as an fangame to explore other areas of Resident Evils lore?

For example I would totally dig playing as Rebecca Chambers as a member of the BSAA cleaning up biological terror attacks across the world, from a story perspective that would give the developer more room to maneuver. From the demo the story dosn't really pan out besides running around in the mansion and bumping into some freaky monsters, we learn nothing about the character of Vincent at all. However due to the status of it being a demo I'll let it slide for now.

Good
-Good pacing.

Bad
-Atmosphere feels nonexistent.
-The setting has been explored already.
-There's no real story (Yet)
I would also recommend to work with someone to help with the translation and dialogue.

Score 1.5/5

Graphics
Mostly ripped graphics which I've seen a hundred times before. However at the start of the demo the mansion from the outside does look large and ambiguous with some very nice "leaves blowing in the wind effect" going on here which is good. The zombie designs are hit and miss for me, the majority of them look like people with ketchup spashed on thier clothes. There are a few standout enemies for example the first zombie you meet has a large chunk of his head missing and there's a rather spectacular looking Hunter that you get to fight later on.

Good
-Looks consistent with all things considering.
-Nice effects here or there.
-The Hunter looks sweet as...

Bad
-Tilesets look familar
-The zombies look too human for my liking.
-Need more enemy variety.

Score 2.5/5

Gameplay
This is where the game fails, there is no fundamental problem with equiping weapons and firing them. The fault lies within the zombie hit detection and the difficulty, for example at the beginning stages of the game there is a ridiculous area you have to beat in order to progress (which happens to be the female toilets!). It's so bizarre you enter the enclosed room and slap-bang there are five hungry zombies wanting to eat you for lunch, the fact is that it's such a small space to maneuver you end up richocheting from zombie to zombie like a pinball trying to grab the key. I died ten times in this fruitless endeavour, also what is annoying that there happens to be a shotgun hidden away in this room not that it made any difference.

Throwing that curveball straight at the player would make them possibly ragequit in horror, but for the sake of the review I cheated and removed all the zombies from the bathroom. There were some instances where a zombie could hit me from afar across the room as well which is most likly a fault at how you setted up your events. Also I would suggest to be more kind with the savepoints, the whole reason I quit the game was solely to do with the one hit kill zombie shark (who happens to be faster than Vincent) and the last checkpoint was ages away to restart the game with a sane mentality. The puzzle that I encountered with the switches was good but I would suggest to add some urgency to it, maybe put a timelimit with a risk of death to add some extra spice (3 minutes sounds reasonable).

Good
-Shooting mechanic works!
-Plays almost like Resident Evil.

Bad
-Better spacing with savepoints.
-Need to clean that bathroom up!
(suggest to cut down to three zombies)
-Difficulty tends to spike suddenly.
-The shark is too overpowered,
At least make him slower.

Score 1/5 Because it made me angry :@

Overall
At the moment there is some major hiccups that might affect your enjoyment, however I would still recommend this game to Resident Evil fans. With some work on balance, story and difficulty this game does have some potenial but it depends on how much effort the author is willing to put into his game to achieve that goal.

Review Score 2/5 Rebecca Chambers or GTFO!

Posts

Pages: 1
NyxTheShield
He with custom CSS
907
07/14/2011 05:54 PM
Lulz total score 2.5 and only 2 stars XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Thanks for the review ^^

One thing, you can run with D :3
StarSkipp
2007
07/14/2011 08:49 PM
author=Felipe_9595

One thing, you can run with D :3

If I knew that then it would of proberly been 2.5 =(
Tabris_Macbeth
0
07/15/2011 02:38 AM
I really gotta ask, is it really necessary to recycle the beginning of the franchise yet again? I mean, how long ago was the first game? How many games in the series never left goddamn Raccoon City (which, by the way, I've never once seen a raccoon in)? And does no one else seriously think "Umbrella" isn't a retard-o name from...like, anything?! Umbrellas are those things you use when it rains!

And while we're on this subject, clouds are those white fluffy things in the sky!
Puddor
if squallbutts was a misao category i'd win every damn year
5702
07/15/2011 03:20 AM
@Tabris: Notably, 'Umbrella' is a term used today for corporations that cover multiple bases. Since Umbrella does do this, it's appropriate.

I hope you realize that people name their children after object all the damn time, too. Namely celebrities, but I've known people named Sky.

To be perfectly frank there aren't a lot of good zombie resources. I ended up using sprites based on Bioshock's splicers in Cosplay Crisis because I just couldn't find any good ones.

Felipe, maybe you could PM Dark_Gaia about the zombies? I'm sure he has some laying around that are set up for VX.

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