They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Howard Kleinman, whose Speculative Chic contributions focus largely on gaming. You may know him best from his most popular post, “Why This Man Prefers to Play Games As a Woman.”
What does Howard love when he’s not writing or gaming his thumbs off? Spoiler alert: a survival horror REmake, a manga that’s coming back into the light, and an unexpected Spider-Man. Intrigued? Read on to learn more!
Resident Evil 2: My first encounter with Resident Evil was with the remake of the original game on the Nintendo Gamecube. While I managed to make it through the 32-bit era without getting hooked on Raccoon City’s Zombie apocalypse, the remade Resident Evil was a day one purchase. It quickly had me hooked. Between its creepy atmosphere, its intricately designed setting and its sweat-inducing, challenging gameplay, I couldn’t put it down. The game designers at Capcom understood the language of cinema and how to use limited visual space to create a state of constant anxiety. They also understood how to build suspense through game design by forcing you to closely manage your inventory while your supplies of ammunition and healing herbs constantly dwindled, making you continually worried that you simply won’t have enough to get out of the Spencer Mansion alive.
After completing the first remake (or as it is popularly written REmake), I went back to play the original titles on my Playstation and Playstation 2 and of all of those games, Resident Evil 2 was easily my favorite. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield were better suited horror protagonists compared to Chris and Jill from the previous title. Making Chris and Jill SWAT team-esque para-military police experts lessened the suspense. Leon, a rookie cop literally on his first day on the job, and Claire, Chris’s younger sister who knew how to handle herself a bit but was no professional, simply made for more relatable characters, people who had an excuse for being able to handle firearms, but were in WAY over their heads. The Raccoon City police station made for a refreshingly different location for a zombie horror game than the Spencer Mansion of the first game or the overrun city streets of the third. I also found William Birkin to be a much more compelling villain than Albert Wesker as he had some more relatable and tragic roots as well as being a compellingly terrifying mass of evolving body horror. The interlocking of the A and B scenarios, encouraging you to play through both Leon and Claire’s campaigns to get the full story, was the icing on a very satisfying cake.
For years, Resident Evil fans waiting for a REmake 2 and — just over 20 years after the release of the original classic on the Playstation — it’s finally here. And I am HOOKED. Unlike most modern remakes, Resident Evil 2 doesn’t simply apply a new coat of paint to the original game. It remakes it from the ground up using the RE Engine that drove Resident Evil 7, a much celebrated return to form for the franchise. Resident Evil 2 brings back the more action-focused mechanics and over-the-shoulder perspective of the genre-shifting Resident Evil 4, but now the focus is much more on survival horror than on zombie-exploding action. The result is a game that plays as smooth as silk, and had me alternately tense and jumping off my couch cursing in surprise from beginning to end… before I decided to run through again with the other character.
The atmosphere in this game is incredibly thick and the level of detail is amazing.
While many long-term fans of Resident Evil 2 may miss the fixed perspective and tank controls of the original game, I’m happy to see them gone. They were creative compromises brought on by the limitations of the original Playstation. The primary focus of the fixed-perspectives, limiting the amount of information available to the player, is now handled through lighting, steam and rain effects, and hiding enemies above and below you. Tension is also built through the game’s near photo-realistic environments and incredible sound design. Unlike the the original Resident Evil 2, the remake shows signs of the failed battle between the Raccoon City Police and the T-Virus zombies, with makeshift barricades, blood-soaked floors, and broken, makeshift weapons littering the the environment. The sound is upgraded as much as the visuals. Indeed, it’s impossible to describe the experience of playing REmake 2, without discussing the invincible Mr. X, the Tyrant who stalks you, Terminator-like, through the Raccoon City Police Department. His incessant, mechanical stomping ups the ante on terror, letting you know that death is nearby and making you afraid of the sound of your own footsteps, never sure if they’re yours or the Trenchcoated Grim Reaper. More than once Mr. X’s relentless stalking led me to make a foolish, panicked decision that lead to my death.
Mr. X is like the Terminator. He will not stop hunting you until one of you is dead.
But the audio-visual upgrades aren’t the only improvements. Most of the game’s characters are written and acted much more effectively than they were in the far cheesier original. Leon and Claire feel much more like real people, with their youth and inexperience being emphasized more than in the original game. Their occasional self-encouragement reflecting their lack of confidence. Both characters grow into heroism plausibly over the course of the game, their confidence growing with yours.
Raccoon City has never looked this good, or been this frightening.
Non-player characters are also much improved in this iteration from Lt. Marvin Branagh becoming more of an ally than a plot device to Ada Wong having a much more plausible cover story, the people who populate this story feel far more real this time around. Of course, the downside to the more realistic portrayals is that Chief Irons ends up FAR less creepy in this iteration, the one false step in a stable of greatly improved characters. A special shout out goes to Karen Strassman, who injects Annette Birkin with a great deal of complexity and humanity with very few lines.
I could go on for hours about how wonderful this game, but it would be better to experience it yourself. If the idea of a horror video game interests you at all, this game is a must purchase. It is once again safe to enter the world of survival horror.
The original cyberpunk death goddess.
Thanks to the impending release of James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez’s long-gestating film adaptation, Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita manga is finally back in print, and regardless of how the movie ends up, the manga is a justly celebrated classic. Set in what I’d like to call a Garbage-Punk world, Battle Angel Alita tells the story of a young cyborg girl with no memory trying to find herself in a city that is a literal junkyard, constantly bombarded by the trash of the city of Tiphares/Zalem (depending on the translation) above. She soon discovers that while she remembers nothing of her own past, she knows how to fight incredibly well which makes her both a hero and a target in short order.
I hesitate to describe the plot in any detail given its various surprises, twists and delights and horrors, but Alita’s journey is unforgettable. It almost single-handedly turned me into an anime/manga fan back in the 1990s. There is also a two episode OAV series that does an excellent job of adapting the original manga, which is worth seeking out if you have an hour to kill and don’t mind emptying a box of tissues or two.
Now, while the upcoming movie is rated PG-13, the manga is a hard R, so be warned. This is a story involving war, murder, betrayal, bloodshed, and all sorts of horrors. It is a bleak story told in a bleak setting, but it isn’t devoid of hope and it isn’t without its victories. If you are really into it, you might also want to look into its two sequel series. Believe it or not, this story is STILL ongoing. While the first story arc is completed in a satisfying, if rushed, fashion, there’s a lifetime’s worth of additional stories if you’re hungry for more.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is still in theaters, which means it’s not too late to catch this phenomenal animated spectacular on the big screen. You should not deny yourself the opportunity. No movie has ever looked like this before, throwing amazing, pop art comic visuals at you in a style that feels hand-crafted while pushing the limits of computer technology. But even better, these visuals are put in the service of a compelling story about new Spider-Man Miles Morales, finding his way into heroism with a few other Spider-People to show him the ropes. Peter Parker fans need not worry about the movie featuring Miles. There are no fewer than three Peter Parkers here (plus a Peter Porker), each of whom is memorable and amusing in their own way. Plus, they agree with me that Mary Jane is the only girl for him(s).
Spider-Verse‘s jaw-dropping visuals demand to be seen on a big screen.
But really, this movie does belong to Miles Morales, and his is a story you might not have heard before. His story is both similar and different from the classic Peter Parker’s and is filled with its own set of compelling characters, personal tragedies and moments of incredible triumph. I almost wish I went in without knowing the comics because my wife was audibly gasping at some of the plot twists that I knew were coming.
Also, this movie’s soundtrack is incredible.
Howard Kleinman is a writer, educator, and full-time nerd. His writing has been published in Tablet Magazine, The Forward, and the New Jersey Jewish News. He has also ghost-written as other people for other publications that he won’t tell you about even if you ask nicely. Additionally, he’s written TV promos for Spike TV and the Discovery Channel, DVD Trailers for Comedy Central and co-wrote a College Football Documentary for CBS Sports. His favorite Final Fantasy game is VI. Except when it’s IX.
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