Thursday, October 20, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
My Favorite Video Game Villain
Destructoid had a community blog topic about villains and I missed the deadline. Damnit! Here's my two cents:
Too often these days, villainy is all relative. Fallout, inFamous, and the Fables. In every one of these, I'll always slide down to my more devilish side. Given the choice, I'll usually follow the "evil" path, grow the horns, and proudly wear the title "Agent of Chaos;" where do I get that belt buckle?
What I'm saying is that, lately, I haven't met a villain who has motivated me to be heroic and vow vengeance on his/her evil ass. So I'm gonna dig deep in the bargain-bin/ratty cardboard box in my closet filled with jewel cases and cartridges to find my favorite evil-doer.
My loyalties to various game series have tapered off over the years, but one series has remained constant: Resident Evil and that is solely because of one man, Albert Wesker. Most of the heroes and villians introduced outside of the original Resident Evil and its sequel, I hate. Most of the badies crawling around (besides zombies and hunters) piss me off. But as long as I can still stick it to that manipulative, back-stabbing, power-tripping sonovabitch, Wesker, I'll keep playing Resident Evil.
I'll admit that one of my many mistakes in life was playing Resident Evil 2 before playing Resident Evil. I was young and didn't know any better; still, I managed to get through RE2 without learning too much about the "mansion incident," which means nothing in RE2 spoiled RE1 for me. Even though I searched his desk for bullets and saw S.T.A.R.S. group photo behind that desk, I didn't meet Albert Wesker until popping the dual shock version of Resident Evil in my Playstation.
And this is what I saw: Albert "Iceman" Wesker wearing his sunglasses at night. How badass is that? Anyway, the fearless leader and commander soon turned into someone I completely despised. My motivation to play and my interest in RE's story altogether grew from my general loathing for this character. Hell, I even read the S. D. Perry books to find out more about him. Then I went back to playing the games. Resident Evil 3 was a fun game, but I was disappointed by the lack of Albert Wesker. Nemesis was no Wesker, but the goofy recurring boss battles just turned into: Nice try Nemmy, maybe next time. I'm sure there will be one. Between Code Veronica and Wesker's Report, I decided that my real nemesis had his evil little fingers pulling strings in both RE2 and RE3. He wasn't there, but he was.
I can't say much about Resident Evil Code Veronica. It's my least favorite game of the series; I played it and beat it on the Sega Dreamcast and I never touched it again. It was awesome to finally confront Wesker as Chris, but in the back of my mind, I kinda knew things weren't resolved. Then the remakes came out and my hatred for Albert was rekindled. When Resident Evil 4 hit shelves, I was salivating for more story, more character development, and more zombies. Therefore, RE4 was a disappointment for me, but (and this is a big but) it was still fun to play. Like RE2 and RE3, Wesker was there, but he wasn't (And I'm not talking about the mercenaries, arg). The string-pulling was even more apparent with Ada flitting about in her pink dress and machine gun.
To wrap things up (probably not) Capcom sent Chris and Wesker to Africa in Resident Evil 5. That was way back in 2009, so yeah, by then I was ready for another rematch. I should have seen the ending coming, because what happened to Wesker happened to the entire rogues gallery (William Birkin, James Marcus, Lisa Trevor, Jack Krauser, Osmund Saddler, Ricardo Irving, Excella Gionne); he mutates into some crazy-ass monstrosity right before you kill him. And just when I'm settling into my couch, Wesker jumps up, grabs the helicopter, and I have to mash a button or two to kill him again. The end. If you're keeping track, Wesker dies once and comes back, he dies a second time and comes back. This is his third death and lava or no lava; I'm guessing he'll come back for another rematch.
In fact, I'm counting on it. This maniacal, yet cool and composed, super villain is the best thing about Resident Evil, especially since they ditched the zombies.
Too often these days, villainy is all relative. Fallout, inFamous, and the Fables. In every one of these, I'll always slide down to my more devilish side. Given the choice, I'll usually follow the "evil" path, grow the horns, and proudly wear the title "Agent of Chaos;" where do I get that belt buckle?
What I'm saying is that, lately, I haven't met a villain who has motivated me to be heroic and vow vengeance on his/her evil ass. So I'm gonna dig deep in the bargain-bin/ratty cardboard box in my closet filled with jewel cases and cartridges to find my favorite evil-doer.
My loyalties to various game series have tapered off over the years, but one series has remained constant: Resident Evil and that is solely because of one man, Albert Wesker. Most of the heroes and villians introduced outside of the original Resident Evil and its sequel, I hate. Most of the badies crawling around (besides zombies and hunters) piss me off. But as long as I can still stick it to that manipulative, back-stabbing, power-tripping sonovabitch, Wesker, I'll keep playing Resident Evil.
I'll admit that one of my many mistakes in life was playing Resident Evil 2 before playing Resident Evil. I was young and didn't know any better; still, I managed to get through RE2 without learning too much about the "mansion incident," which means nothing in RE2 spoiled RE1 for me. Even though I searched his desk for bullets and saw S.T.A.R.S. group photo behind that desk, I didn't meet Albert Wesker until popping the dual shock version of Resident Evil in my Playstation.
And this is what I saw: Albert "Iceman" Wesker wearing his sunglasses at night. How badass is that? Anyway, the fearless leader and commander soon turned into someone I completely despised. My motivation to play and my interest in RE's story altogether grew from my general loathing for this character. Hell, I even read the S. D. Perry books to find out more about him. Then I went back to playing the games. Resident Evil 3 was a fun game, but I was disappointed by the lack of Albert Wesker. Nemesis was no Wesker, but the goofy recurring boss battles just turned into: Nice try Nemmy, maybe next time. I'm sure there will be one. Between Code Veronica and Wesker's Report, I decided that my real nemesis had his evil little fingers pulling strings in both RE2 and RE3. He wasn't there, but he was.
I can't say much about Resident Evil Code Veronica. It's my least favorite game of the series; I played it and beat it on the Sega Dreamcast and I never touched it again. It was awesome to finally confront Wesker as Chris, but in the back of my mind, I kinda knew things weren't resolved. Then the remakes came out and my hatred for Albert was rekindled. When Resident Evil 4 hit shelves, I was salivating for more story, more character development, and more zombies. Therefore, RE4 was a disappointment for me, but (and this is a big but) it was still fun to play. Like RE2 and RE3, Wesker was there, but he wasn't (And I'm not talking about the mercenaries, arg). The string-pulling was even more apparent with Ada flitting about in her pink dress and machine gun.
To wrap things up (probably not) Capcom sent Chris and Wesker to Africa in Resident Evil 5. That was way back in 2009, so yeah, by then I was ready for another rematch. I should have seen the ending coming, because what happened to Wesker happened to the entire rogues gallery (William Birkin, James Marcus, Lisa Trevor, Jack Krauser, Osmund Saddler, Ricardo Irving, Excella Gionne); he mutates into some crazy-ass monstrosity right before you kill him. And just when I'm settling into my couch, Wesker jumps up, grabs the helicopter, and I have to mash a button or two to kill him again. The end. If you're keeping track, Wesker dies once and comes back, he dies a second time and comes back. This is his third death and lava or no lava; I'm guessing he'll come back for another rematch.
In fact, I'm counting on it. This maniacal, yet cool and composed, super villain is the best thing about Resident Evil, especially since they ditched the zombies.
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