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Resident Evil Retold (Demo) by Zellphie

Casual Raider 8 9 10 9
DJ Full 8 8 10 8
manarch2 2 7 6 6
MichaelP 5 7 9 8
Mulf 3 5 3 5
Phil 8 8 9 9
Ryan 4 7 6 7
Treeble 7 8 8 8
Wolf7 4 9 8 7
 
release date: 25-Feb-2021
# of downloads: 278

average rating: 7.03
review count: 9
 
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file size: 292.00 MB
file type: TR4
class: Mystery/Horror
 


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Reviewer's comments
"A demo debut release and by the looks of it the full version may never see the light of day, as years have passed already. And I agree with DJ that it is underrated, because from a perspective of atmosphere it is really quite something. The intro movie and the intermediate FMV scenes are simply awesome, the 4 secrets to be found are cute, some of the artwork in the textures is impressive and the whole story telling mechanisms works quite nicely in the 30-45 minutes you will likely spend here in Racoon City. What spoils the experience is the generally boring gameplay, which is all about killing zombies, dogs and ahmets along the way (well, it is Resident Evil after all, but still...) and running around for a series of keys to find and use. There is one odd, but funny change of main character in the middle of it all and one rather too long backtrack because of it and there is of course the issue that you can only save at either of the 4 cash registers along the way. It was also odd to have an incorrect button press animation in an otherwise fairly refined setting, but I guess these are the things you excuse in a demo. Overall, this just needed some thought to go into actually interesting gameplay (maybe along the lines of the puzzle that was stated as not yet being in the demo) and from there could have turned into a spectacular level - ah well, maybe in a few years from now after all..." - MichaelP (20-Mar-2024)
"Quite underrated, likely because of unaesthetic fragments and restricted saving. But again, if you get used to it, you have a nice horror level here, actually one of better ones. I think the lengthy finale with running back and forth should be revised, as well as that fourth secret which wasn't fair. If the full version has the annoying parts cleared, it should be received well." - DJ Full (15-Apr-2023)
"Knowing absolutely nothing about Resident Evil, I approached this demo with a fresh eye. If you're into macabre, this is definitely the level for you. I found the spooky atmosphere to be absolutely convincing and not a little unsettling. Over the years I've become accustomed to saving my game wherever I please, so I was a little put out over having to find a cash register before I could take a potty break. And I agree with Ryan that having Lara say "this must be..." every time she picked up something became old in a big hurry. But I enjoyed the retextured monsters and the ability to kill dead things a second time. The scoring from most of the earlier reviewers has been a bit stingier than I believe this one-hour level deserves, particularly for its mood-setting qualities, but I suspect that the frequent backtracking you have to endure may account for some of the low numbers. Recommended for a change of pace." - Phil (08-Apr-2021)
"Visually, this is actually quite a charming debut effort. Although the textures are rather crudely applied in quite a few places, the custom textures, posters and little homages scattered around are rather endearing (although the meaning does somewhat escape me as a non Resident Evil player) and the various small shops and offices were quite cute too. Unfortunately the gameplay gets itself stuck in the same rut as other demos of a similar nature: rather too much backtracking across one end of the level to the other, very little in the way of puzzling and progression remains solely focused on gunning down any living thing in your path (although you can let the shop owner live if you're so inclined). Sounds aren't too badly utilised, although Claire's incessant "This must be!" when picking up an item got annoying really quickly. Not bad, but unfortunately not too exciting either." - Ryan (23-Mar-2021)
"We've had a fair share of Resident Evil themed levels over the years, but this is possibly the best contender so far. I have not played the original RE2 but I did play the remake released just a couple of years back and I could notice several similarities in design. Obviously it's not a 1:1 remake nor could it ever be, but it's a fun tribute to the original. I was ready to dislike this level after dying to the explosion at the beginning twice, having to start over every new time and having to wait for the FMV plugin to kick in to be able to skip it, but once I made past that bit I don't think I ever died. The fact you can actually get rid of the zombies with your unlimited ammo pistols actually helped mitigate that first impression, and I also enjoyed seeing other enemies converted to the TRLE engine (such as the tyrant Mr.X based around the Talion guardian or the lickers replacing ahmets). Generally speaking it's quite a linear affair, with a bit of backtracking for a couple of keys near the police station, but I can genuinely say I had fun. I also liked how the author included several faces from the community on the walls, although I only recognized Roli and Lito. 35 minutes, 3 secrets. 03/21" - Treeble (21-Mar-2021)
"Not a bad debut from a visual standpoint, with some interesting textures - that could've been better applied though - used here and some decent lighting (in most parts at least), and most of all good use of objects. Unfortunately, the gameplay is very similar to previous RE-inspired games in TRLE - mostly a very monotonous search for the next lever or key and a heavy overdose of backtracking, without serious puzzles or other tasks to absolve so that the 25 minutes I spent here felt like a chore rather than enjoyable. You might like the more or less obvious allusions to RE, as the cutscenes and scenes, but overall I think the builder has to work some more on the gameplay before releasing the full version to the public. A few problems with paper thin walls and object bugs are certainly more easily fixed. Found all four secrets." - manarch2 (04-Mar-2021)
"Given the previous track record of Resident Evil adaptations, the dread ‘demo’ tag, and the fact that the builder restricts the possibility of saving to specific tiles in particular rooms, this turned out to be less unpleasant than I expected. Still, I can’t say I’ll be looking forward to playing a full version of this, as the second half devolves into an uneventful, indeed outright boring orgy of backtracking between the places where you find keys and the distant locations where you use them. Gameplay isn’t exactly riveting in the first half either, since all you do is run through some rooms and use a few switches while killing stuff that’s thrown at you very much at random; but at the beginning it kept at least a forward momentum, and the game was still fresh enough to hold some promise; which, however, quickly evaporated.
The map is open in the sense that when you reach its end, you can retrace your steps back to the very beginning, so as to look for pickups or secrets you may have missed the first time round. Of course it then becomes very obvious indeed that apart from one or two jumps, the only move that’s ever required of you to perform is running. No wait, there’s also one ladder to climb (while monkeyswings and crawlpaces are for secrets only). It figures, then, that you can’t climb up onto or stand on pushable blocks or other objects which look like this should be possible (except in one case, which is, again, for a secret). The entire game also sports but a single puzzle, and it is (of course) a tedious pushable chore, upon the completion of which the pushable explodes; for no reason, just because the builder happens to know how to do it.
Speaking of explosions, it’s mainly these and one sentry gun (placed as a health drain you can’t avoid) rather than enemies that you need to look out for, as medipacks (which come in the form of pot plants and ‘health sprays’) are sparse and clustered in the latter part of the game. Enemies, meanwhile, never pose the major threat one would expect. They are restricted to specific areas, safe spots are within easy reach, and you collect a quite sufficient arsenal—it’s not so much ‘survival horror’ as target practice. The roster comprises zombies (sped-up mummies that take a while to dispatch with pistols; technically they don’t die, but they don’t get back up either), dogs (purportedly zombie dogs, but go down as quick as normal ones), a modified Ahmet that at least looks the part, and a modified Birdmonster (this latter is just some very tall guy in a trenchcoat; very weird).
Aesthetically, not a lot makes sense here. Despite some signifiers screaming ‘USA’ (police cars, hamburgers, a fenced-in basketball court), beyond the first street and the parking lot the place doesn’t look much like a US city, and only vaguely like a city at all. As the game progresses, it becomes increasingly less clear which sort of building you’re in at any given moment—the police apparently reside in some kind of church—, and it ends up as a typical conglomerate of nondescript Level Editor rooms and corridors. The builder’s anime sensibility and her obnoxious in-game self-promotion are major distractions, as they keep intruding massively in various ways, thus preventing the establishment of an atmosphere appropriate for the genre and the game. One extraneous, humorously-meant voiceover is particularly detrimental to atmosphere, but was apparently very important to the builder, as the entire building in which it is triggered serves no other purpose (except housing a secret). Many mismatched samples provide a bit of unintentional humour or annoyance as the case may be, and the replacement for Lara’s ‘Aha!’ (‘This must be…’) sounds particularly silly in the case of multiple pickups. Background audio, however, is reasonable most of the time, at least outside the ‘Video Game Center’.
The builder makes use of many standard objects as well as custom objects that have been around for a while. Some objects are low-res, some high-res, some modified, some not, some presumably ripped from the game that this one imitates; it’s all a bit of a mixed grab-bag. The same goes for textures. Many are stretched or squashed; several look really bad, even in the first street; a few display mirrored patterns like actual wallpaper, or like website background images c. 2000. Lighting is adequate to begin with, but becomes increasingly bland as the level progresses, and there are lots of cracks throughout. Glitches and errors in construction are comparatively few: an invisible block in front of the door at the first save spot; that door itself later opened randomly; one wafer-thin wall is prominently on display; some objects vanish without a trace, presumably after reloading (the random guy who kept running into the invisible block mentioned above; the sentry gun; dead bodies may disappear after reloading as well); on at least one occasion, you may inadvertently drop into an object’s collision, which forces a reload. While the builder took care to create a perfectly daft-looking running animation for their Lara stand-in (her hands and feet keep flopping sideways like she has dead fish attached to her limbs), they neglected to properly implement some standard animations (small push switch, sarcophagus).
This builder obviously knows their way around creating an impression of professionalism (trailer, Title, FMVs), but—in a pattern not entirely dissimilar to a commercial game that’s being hyped up by a million-dollar marketing campaign while its actual developers have to work on a shoestring budget and crunch time—the game itself fails to live up to it and comes across as an amateurish exercise in self-indulgence. If you can look past that, and if you don’t get your hopes up too high, you may find the level mildly entertaining; it acquits itself better than previous attempts at adapting Resident Evil, but that’s a low bar to clear." - Mulf (01-Mar-2021)
"Interesting idea! I really love the way you manage to do the RE2 ambience, really cool and really fun to play.. cannot wait to play all the game" - Casual Raider (28-Feb-2021)
"I played this before it got over TRLE.net and I was hoping for it to come over here to give it a review, of course :3
A Resident Evil 2 remake? Interesting idea not gonna lie and what I can see here is a quite good and promising demo to a fuller game. It does have its problems but I am gonna get to them as I write the review.
Gameplay is ehh, actually quite non existant. You go in one place, clear one thing, backtrack to another area and do another thing and the gameplay goes on. Some of the rooms are way too big and do not convey almost any purpose. While this does work in Resident Evil, unfortunately Tomb Raider does not ... I would recommend the developer to scale down some areas and maybe add some enigmas, that I am sure tho they is going to implement in the full version :3
Enemies are quite a lot and fairly annoying to deal with considering they peel you off a lot of health but let us put them aside and look ove the object used in this game! I always adore seeing customisation in this department and this game does have some! The lickers, the models, the zombies (tho not created by the author I assume as I remember seeing them over TRSearch) and the furniture. I found cutsie the inclusion of the author's youtube in the level, but ended up finding it annoying for the exaggeration, as EVERY single PC you could see had it on ...
Atmosphere? Promising! A bit rough around the edges for sure, especially some camerawork entering inside the wall, but beyond that I was really satisfied with it, some rooms also looked a bit flat with lighting and in fact I would mention it here too. Claire sounds were quite cool to hear! But some of them are clearly out of place especially the opening double doors one.
Lighting and texturing? Promising too! I have found some mistakes and some stretched texture that truly looked bad, the lighting was a mixed bag between being pretty good and very pale. A ton of rooms would for no absolute reason look suddenly terrible, and other instead look pretty okay, I understand it is a demo but they ought to be pointed out of course!
Lastly an interesting experiment and I truly would be fond to see more! Do not lose motivation on your work Zellphie. You got a lot of work incoming, but you can do it! I would also recommend it but not to the casual tomb raider player in search of the typical tomb raider adventure. This is anything but Tomb Raider. Wolfy Regards :3" - Wolf7 (25-Feb-2021)