Oh my god! What a phenomenal game. I’m almost at a loss for words, this game felt like such a love letter to the fans. I’m just gonna go from start to finish, I suppose!
I wasn’t sure about Grace at first, but I grew to love her sections. She had the exact same reactions I did during gameplay but I definitely found her initial segment in the care facility very challenging. Made me rage quit more than once! Then swapping to Leon and getting to just sweep through there was such a satisfying moment.
Emily and her bond with Grace was sooooo sweet, absolutely a bit of a callback to Claire’s dynamic with Sherry. Speaking of which- where the fuck is Claire?! They implied everyone who survived Raccoon City is infected, yeah? So that means both Claire and Ada should be as well? Seems weird this was such a pivotal location for Claire and she’s not mentioned at all.
ANYWAY. The transition from confinement to the open ruins of Raccoon City was simply fantastic. Getting to return to the iconic locations (the orphanage, the precinct, etc) was great. AND THE TYRANT! Getting stalked again was SUCH a great callback to RE2.
Getting to play an orphanage section again was also so awesome! That segment was easily my favorite part of the game- it was soooooooo creepy. I hate creepy kids and that segment was chock full of them. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
This game wonderfully returned to the roots of the series, imo, without it being stale. I adored Ethan’s games, I actually found his personality pretty amusing, but it was nice to come back to the classic feel. I was also super happy we got to save Emily! It was nice to see Leon’s old optimism again, especially amid his rough experiences.
Adding this on since I wrote this during the credits- WHAT WAS TAKEN FROM THE RUINS AFTER THE CREDITS?! AHHHHHH I’m so pumped for the next game.
My ONLY complaint of this otherwise phenomenal game was that Claire/Ada weren’t mentioned whatsoever (Ada to a much lesser extent, of course). It seems to weird to me how little Claire is referenced nowadays- I really liked her character and it’s a shame we barely see her.