The Shrine

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I rented it tonight. I'm returning it tomorrow.

Far too much time was spent managing items. I spent more time figuring out what items I could carry, where I left them, and what they did than I did exploring and fighting monsters - you know, actually <i>playing</i> the game.

The puzzles were annoying. I had to get a "sharp" item to Billy (I think that's his name), but I didn't realize this for a while because hey, he has a fucking <i>knife</i>. That's a goddamn "sharp" object, it's intutive for me to want to use it. They should have said something along the lines of "the knife is too big" or something when I went to use the only sharp item I had at the time. Then there was that fucking briefcase. One, it was not obvious I needed two goddamned rings - the ring I had had two prongs - and I had to "Examine" the jewelbox to open it. Um, hello? Shouldn't an attempt to use it cover that? It's not intuitive. There were quite a few places when it just should have prompted me "Would you like to use this item now?" instead of making me go to the menu and do it.

The controls were annoying at first, but I caught on pretty quick. I played RE2, so they came back fairly quick.

When I got to the point where I had to do all of these steps to get the brakes working, I just said "No." I shut the damned thing off. A friend was watching me play, and he would have given up a long time ago. It just wasn't fun. Maybe RE2 was enough, maybe I just don't want to play any Resident Evil games again, but I got nothing out of this game.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '>Rent Eternal Darkness! I hate survival horror games but I dug it.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Hmm, gotta try it. I've only heard about how great it was, but that's only from a couple of people and online. I did love the remake of the original though, that rules. Try it if you havent</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I remember when I was playing the original RE (not the remake, the actual original PSX game) I got stuck for a couple hours at the fountain where you have to insert the lion and eagle medals or somesuch. The thing that pissed me off was that I had the Book of Lion and Book of Eagle, and had looked everywhere to find where I needed to bring the books to trade them in for the medals...and then in desperation I went to examine the book, turned it such that I was looking at the pages, and hit the X button for shits and giggles - and lo and behold, the fucker opened, giving me the damned medal. Now that was a pain in the ass.

<i>-57</i></div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I played RE2 like five years ago. I forgot stuff like that.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Really? RE0 is my favorite one so far aside from maybe Code Veronica. I don't remember RE ever being about "killing monsters", it's about survival.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Why would you assume it would be automatic?</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Eternal Darnkess isn't a Surivival and Horror game. It's more like a Mystery/Adventure. It is a great game though, I very much enjoyed it, more than I did RE.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I didn't - I attempted to "use" it.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Yeah, which involves monsters trying to kill you. I spent the entire time managing items - that's not fun.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah, I can't imagine the lack of item boxes would add anything but annoyance to the game as well</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I understand the whole idea - you can't carry everything, hence "survival" is more difficult, but it's just plain less fun. It's also ridiculous when I'm not trying to survive, I'm just running around a train trying to get all of the items I need in the right place. There are other systems which would be far better than this.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Heh, it's really not that hard you're just not fresh to RE, the only time it bugged me was when I beat the first disc and I had to backtrack WAY to the training area to pick up my hookshot.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I didn't say it was hard, I said it wasn't fun. After the sharp item puzzle, I realized what kind of game it was, which is why I didn't bother any further.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '>I care not for your genres! It's closer to RE than anything else, and I think it's a pretty good bet that if you dig RE you'll dig it.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>The puzzles aren't that difficult, I mean yeah the first time I picked up the original Resident Evil on the PSX the puzzles confused me, but by Nemisis & Code Veronica however I didn't need a strat guide anymore.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>RE0 is more for advanced players. It might be a good idea to play part 2 and 3 first since they're the easiest.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Yet as I explained the scope of the game isn't dominated by the goal of killing monsters, that's not what the Survival and Horror genre is about. If that's what you're looking for, you should probably play something like House of the Dead.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>My favorite genre is Adventure in the style of the Zelda's or Vagrant Story though.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Now now, let's not be rude. But Seeker's right, RE franatics are so used to the puzzles it doesn't bother us that much. The only think I think it really lacked was the strong Plot.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Like I said before, it wasn't difficult. It just wasn't fun. "Go fetch me a sharp thing." "Go do these arbitrary steps to stop the train." No thanks.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Am I not speaking English? I didn't find it difficult. I just don't find it fun to jump through all those hoops.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I played RE2 and loved it. Puzzles don't bother me - I play RPGs all the time. But these just aren't fun. Is the "scope of the game" dominated by item managment?</div>

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>So why did you think it was so hard now? ;)</div>

<div style='font: bold 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>But it really wasn't that hard compared to the others. What was so difficult for you? Maybe you just suck at playing games. :)</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>No, but that's part of the reality of the genre. Perhaps this type of game is just not for you.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Shit, you've just described every RPG ever made. "Go fetch me a magic potion." "Go do these arbitrary things to find the dungeon boss."</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>The gameplay in every survival horror game ever made has been quite suspect, but that's not what you look for. It's ALL about atmosphere, mood, and the "experience" of going through it. That's why the graphics on the GC ones make a big dif, they enhance that big time</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>Just like how the plot in every horror movie is suspect?</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>It need not be.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>It was thinly guised in RE0. All videogames are simple if taken to a reductionist view (even the one I'm currently playing Metroid Prime) - it's all about presentation.</div>