Resident Evil: Desolation

Resident Evil: Desolation is a 2017 Psychological-Survival Horror game developed and published by Capcom. It was formerly announced-alongside Resident Evil: Revelations 3-during Capcom's TGS 2016 conference as part of the Resident Evil 20th Anniversary celebration. It is a canonical side-story in the Resident Evil universe following the whereabouts of Claire Redfield (TerraSave) and Jill Valentine (B.S.A.A.) during the events of Resident Evil 6 and the first Resident Evil title to feature the two characters, picking up where Revelations 2 left off. It also reveals the aftermath of Jill's ordeal in Resident Evil 5 where she served as Albert Wesker's test subject for Uroboros during her elongated absence. Ada Wong and Barry Burton are additionally featured in unlockable side campaigns along with Piers Nivans (Barry's co-op partner), the former of whom appears in the main story alongside Claire and Jill (meaning all 3 lead females are introduced for the first time in franchise history).

The game was developed from the ground-up using photorealistic graphics via Capcom's brand-new RE Engine. Directed by Resident Evil: Revelations 2 director, Yasuhiro Ampo and Silent Hill 2 director, Masashi Tsuboyama (formerly of Team Silent), it features unique elements never-before-seen in a Resident Evil title, taking on the moniker of a Psychological-Survival Horror game akin to Konami's Silent Hill franchise. It also lends players the choice of panoramic "fixed" camera angles from classic games or the over-the-shoulder view of the more recent entries (Resident Evil 4-onwards).

It was released on August 1, 2017 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Synopsis
After launching an attack on a Panama cruise ship containing Uroboros survivors during a TerraSave rescue mission, Alex Wesker, reborn through Barry Burton's daughter, Natalia kidnaps Jill Valentine from the B.S.A.A. testing facility where she's undergoing treatment for wounds suffered by her brother years ago. Jill and Claire soon wind up on opposite ends of the top-secret New Umbrella Research Facility on Zheabus Island where they find themselves in the middle of a deadly experiment along with the ship survivors: Alex Wesker's T-Incubo (latin for "Nightmare") Virus, created from mixing the T-Veronica virus with deadly hallucinogens coursing through the facility walls.

They'll soon experience fear like never before as they fight for survival and uncover hidden secrets. Perhaps there's more to the deadly experiments lurking inside this horrific laboratory than we ever thought possible...

Gameplay
Resident Evil: Desolation is a fill-in-the-blank side-story game explaining the whereabouts of Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine during the events of Resident Evil 6. It is, in many ways, a reimagining of the Survival Horror themes of Resident Evil, offering a unique perspective for the franchise. It borrows many queues from the Silent Hill games, such as foggy environments (due to hallucinogenic agents inside the laboratory), darkened, asylum-like hallways and rooms with limited light source, and psychologically-profiling you as you play, altering in-game elements for different choices and actions, thus becoming more of a Psychological Survival-Horror game.

Many of the core Resident Evil elements return, such as exploration, combat, item management, limited ammo and puzzles, but the traps and laboratory halls/rooms are so cleverly designed that solving one puzzle often leads right into another, potentially setting off a contraption in the process. For instance, facing an unpredictable wave of smoke-screened monsters, both real and hallucinatory alike as a result of the various hallucinogenic aerosols. During this time, it is commonplace for each character to run into a series of vanishing illusionary monsters before a real-or similarly hallucinatory-B.O.W. will appear and attack completely at random. Unlike past games, there are multiple ways to solve each puzzle, each method having different consequences for both the current and subsequent character's campaign. Characters can also perform the more recent series-renowned melee strikes to combat foes-such as Jill's signature roundhouse kick-but hallucinogenic monsters (Incubo) will dissipate and be absorbed into the character on impact, limiting its resourcefulness in order to add a sense of immersion and powerlessness to the game's gritty atmosphere.

New to the game are conditional health mechanics. The character's perception is altered in response to hallucinogenic stimuli while navigating through each area, i.e: the layout of hallways, rooms and monster designs are similarly affected differently depending on the choices made due to the presence of hallucinogens, including distortions within said hallways/rooms such as psychedelic windy halls. They may affect the character in other ways, too, such as the presence of blurred vision, screeching, echos, demonic voices ringing inside the character's head, baby laughter and apparitions. These effects reflect the psychological mind games Alex Wesker plays on each character throughout the course of the game. New items, such as medicines, are also implemented as a counter measure as the character will occasionally experience gradual heart attacks and seizures linked to the player's heart rate. Each character is also equipped with a heart rate monitor courtesy of Natalex.

While in the "seizure" phase, the character will see a bleed-out effect encompassing the player's screen, causing all surrounding environments and enemies to be increasingly blurred out until your heart rate flatlines.

Resident Evil: Desolation also introduces hallucinogenic cutscenes for the first time in franchise history. While passing certain hallways or entering select rooms, a hallucination-fueled cutscene depicting horrific visions through the eyes of the character will be triggered. These include, but are not limited to: evil telekinetic killer dolls hovering off the ground to a horrific nursery rhyme recital from a back-turned demon girl before turning around and crawling towards you, Franz Kafka passage graffiti on the walls in an asylum-like dorm, a montage of a gurney, bloody surgical equipment and a mutant nurse swaying towards the camera, even random horrific apparitions of the Weskers, often capping off these cutscenes. The same areas can also trigger a different cutscene when accessed by the other character, leaving many different ending possibilities depending on the choices made.

Like Resident Evil 2, the player can assign an "A" solo campaign for either Jill or Claire followed by a "B" for the other, allowing for 4 different scenario possibilities (Jill A-Claire B being canon). Each campaign is prefaced with a hallucinogen-induced nightmare sequence that the character wakes up from and occurs concurrently. Each character finds themselves periodically being preyed upon by the Weskers (perceived or otherwise), Jill being followed by Albert and Claire being haunted by Alex (their respective 'captors' from previous games) who dons an increasingly demonic figure with each appearance as the story progresses. Whether these are real or perceived is a mystery within the game itself. Each campaign is intrinsically linked to each other, in many ways affecting the other character. For instance, tapes can be uncovered showing the events from the other character's campaign as they actually occurred in real time as well as other plot devices affecting the other's story, such as the presence of select items and puzzles. Items valuable to the other character's skillset, such as Jill's signature lock pick, can be obtained during each campaign.

Each solo "A" and "B" campaign is followed by a final "C" co-op campaign where both Jill and Claire travel together after meeting up. The co-op campaign adopts Resident Evil Zero 's dual control system where the player can either control one character with the other controlled by the computer or both simultaneously as well as split them up. Splitting up is necessary to solve certain puzzles during the final "C" campaign. Both characters have their advantages and disadvantages over each other, i.e: Jill can unlock secret doors/safes via her lockpick and Genesis scanner abilities, but can only hold eight items to Claire's ten. Claire is more resistant to panic attacks, but suffers more physical damage when attacked. Both characters also have differing counter techniques. For example, Jill is more resilient and can dodge incoming attacks (similar to Resident Evil 3/Revelations) while Claire can counter monster strikes with a takedown technique.

Characters

 * Jill Valentine: B.S.A.A. field agent. Was being treated at a B.S.A.A. testing facility in Europe due to injuries/viruses suffered from her ordeal with Albert Wesker in Resident Evil 5, where she is believed to have suffered from severe PTSD and flashbacks of her captor. However, she's suddenly kidnapped by his "sister," Alex Wesker/Natalia's men, who raid the facility. She is taken to a secret facility in Rhysport, New Jersey harboring many dark secrets and deadly traps and experiments. Her plight with the Wesker family will soon come full circle as she's forced to relieve her nightmare as their pawn while experiencing a new wave of horror.
 * Claire Redfield: TerraSave agent, sister of B.S.A.A.'s Chris Redfield, who is out battling the C-Virus infection in China during the time of this game's events (Resident Evil 6). Her organization, TerraSave, helped stage an Uroboros survivor rescue attempt in Haiti, placing them onboard a Panama cruise ship. However, their ship was attacked by a nerve gas agent waged by Alex Wesker. She was later taken to the new Umbrella Research Facility where her and her men will be part of a deadly experiment along with Jill involving a new state-of-the-art hallucinogenic virus.
 * Alex Wesker/Natalia: Sister of the late Albert Wesker. Conducted experimentation on Sushestvovanie Island for the fear-based T-Phobos virus. She met her end when she was killed by Claire in the same way Albert met her end by her brother, Chris years ago via RPG. However, after abducting and transferring her consciousness inside Barry Burton's 6 year-old daughter, Natalia Korda, Alex Wesker is now reborn through young Natalia and she plans to wage revenge-and a new layer of fear on the world.
 * Barry Burton: Communicates with longtime B.S.A.A. and former S.T.A.R.S. colleague Jill Valentine over Skype during the Panama cruise-in response to her Revelations 2 e-mail-before the ship is attacked by Natalex. He is subsequently captured along with the remaining ship crew. After withstanding mutation from the T-Incubo Virus contamination (due to a non-matching blood type) at the secret Umbrella facility, he sets out to battle the T-Incubo outbreak in downtown Rhysport alongside Piers Nivans. Little does he know the secret of his missing daughter, however.
 * Ada Wong: After receiving a tip from Piers, Ada manages to track down the whereabouts of Alex's secret Umbrella-owned facility via her espionage skills. Believing Alex wasn't alone in her abduction of both Jill and Claire, she sets out to search the nightmarish facility on her own for a potential accomplice.

Enemies
Enemies come in two different forms: hallucinatory and physical. Hallucinogenic monsters will either appear behind or in front of the character and either vanish or attack when coming into contact with him/her. Attacking them head-on will cause them to be absorbed into the character on impact after dissipating.

Physical monsters also have multiple forms depending on your heart monitor or surrounding hallucinogenic agent. First, a base form (green health) and then appearing more horrific as your health depletes, growing an extra set of mutated appendages, deeper depressions in their body, etc.

Main

 * Phantasm-Hallucinogenic monsters. They come in many different shapes and sizes, representing the hallucinatory form of the physical zombies and B.O.W.s in the game.
 * Zombies-T-Incubo-infected humans that mutated due to having a compatible Blood Type (B). They appear more horrific to hallucinogen-induced infectees of the virus, donning extra appendages and exposing cartilage and muscle tissue in grislier detail.
 * Incubo-T-Incubo-mutated B.O.W.s engineered by Alex Wesker and the main line of B.O.W.s in the game. They have swollen, demon-like faces (as a nod to the mythical incubus creatures) with triangular depressions in both cheeks and their mouth encased in a webbing. They possess claws and an acid spray attack as their means of attack.
 * Condemned-A pair of humanoid chrysalid variant monsters spliced together from their spinal chord, forming a horrific hybrid. They have two mutant heads on both sides of their skull separated by giant blob extensions in their back, exposing many layers of their flesh.
 * Creeper-T-Incubo-mutated Lickers from previous games. They don extra appendages and large mandibles, similar to the Xenomorph. In addition to being able to crawl up and down walls and ceilings and having multiple forms of attack (leaping, swiping and biting their prey), they also spew out a deadly toxin that can poison the enemy.
 * Manta-Parasitic scorpion B.O.W. engineered from Las Plagas.
 * Necromongul-As the name implies, they are demonic ghoul-like monsters. They are purely situational monsters that appear in the unknown crevices and attempt to grab and drag you from underneath bathroom stalls or out of dark corners and hallways before attempting to devour you.
 * Manne-kill-Alex's evil killer dolls stashed in various hidden enclosures of the nightmarish facility. They are mainly featured in Claire's Nightmare, but can be found in select portions of the actual research facility, often appearing at random.
 * Pig Head-As the name suggests, they are mutated pig head monsters infected from the T-Incubo virus. They don mutated nostrils, jaws and ears and glowing, pupil-less eyes and are clad in a long, bloody trench coat.

Sub-Bosses

 * Cadavra-A bloodied skeletal corpse B.O.W. barring maggots in its exposed skull. It is, in many ways similar to the Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation in that it can't be killed and stalks the enemy around the lab at various intervals.
 * Magdala-A giant wall-crawling leech B.O.W hanging from the ceiling. Dons multiple mutant, tentacle-like mandibles and tongue and a horrific Licker/Nemesis-like skull separating its agape mouth. (NOTE: this is more of a "situational" boss similar to the Alligator in Resident Evil 2).
 * Baroness-A burning demon lady that, like Cadavra, also can't be killed when encountered in the main campaigns and stalks her prey, albeit through doorways instead of halls (in contrast to Cadavra). However, in the Ada bonus campaign, she reveals her "true" form and can then be defeated conventionally.

Bosses

 * Manj'aro-A giant, Uroboros-spliced arachnid-hivemind B.O.W. which is, in fact, the manifestation of multiple human corpses horrifically spliced into a single monster with the virus. Contains multiple mutant humanoid heads and spinal chords welded onto its body and blobs of Uro mass separating each of its joints. Each of its 8 legs are conjoined by 2 mutant blob tentacles drenched in Uro mass.
 * Ripper-T-Incubo Tyrant variant. Possesses a thick, skeletal exterior, needle-like spikes on both arms and a giant bone blade as a weapon.
 * Lyca-A mutant werewolf B.O.W. donning an exposed ribcage encased in Uroboros mass and a Plaga heart. It sprung to life when Tripp Haslem (FBC member encountered in the "A" campaign who "has bad memories of this place") was injected with the DNA of the werewolf Jill encountered in Raccoon City shortly before the 1998 Spencer Mansion incident.
 * Chrys-Alex-A portmanteau of Chrysalid (codename of the C-Virus used in RE6) and Alex, referring to Alex Wesker's C-Virus form and the end boss of the game. Alex, after terrorizing both test subjects through Dark Natalia upon assuming a scarier, more demonic form via the t-Veronica virus, then injects herself with the G-Virus, thus completing her evolution through the C-Virus (a combination of both viruses).

Plot
Game's Story Mode begins with either a Jill A/Claire B or Claire A/Jill B campaign followed by a co-op campaign where both are controlled at the same time. Ada's campaign can be unlocked after completing Story Mode and fills in the blanks, which can then unlock Barry/Piers' co-op campaign.

However, for storyline purposes, Jill A/Claire B is the canonical sequence.

Jill Campaign
After waking up in a holding room from a horrific nightmare, Jill enters the X-Ray room on the west wing of the A block, very much resembling a dilapidated steel mill. After picking up an axe pick from a cabinet, Jill uncovers a letter noting "X Marks the Spot." Jill goes to turn the power switch to half power in accordance with the note's instructions, causing flickering lights in exchange for a secret passage way being marked with a giant red X. Jill picks up a flash light hidden in one of the dark corners of the room, but encounters tons of horrific apparitions of Incubo approaching her from out of nowhere in doing so before encountering a real one and destroying it with her axe.

After smashing through the marked wall, Jill enters a room very much resembling a haunted execution chamber when she uncovers a security tape on the interrogation table and begins playing it from a CCTV monitor. A pair of scientists are viciously assaulted by a blurred out woman in the cryo lab using some kind of elemental powers. As the tape elapses, Jill sees a reflection of Wesker standing beside her in the glass, but turns around and is shocked to find the room empty.

Jill proceeds through a trap door in the wall leading straight into a rusty bathroom. Evading both wall-crawling Creepers and a near-invisible Necromongul creeping out of a bathtub, Jill finds a lockpick in the far corner and attempts to escape when a very disturbing demonic girl's face appears in the ventilation system behind her. After the creature disappears, Jill unlocks the vent with her lockpick and proceeds through the crawl space leading straight into the Maze of Light puzzle. Evading horrific creatures spawning from a hallucinogenic gas leak from the ceiling pipeline-and buried in a hazeous red fog-Jill restores resuscitating power from the facility after moving 4 corner supercomputer desktops into a single center piece.

Using her lock pick, Jill tries to enter the A2 dormitory, but falls off her feet when she's met with the disturbing site of Alex Wesker in her zombie/demon-girl form through the peephole. Assuring Jill "there's nothing to fear but fear itself," the hallway becomes long, windy and distorted. Along the way, she's haunted by terrible screeching and sinister laughter along with apparitions of Albert Wesker and scary Manne-kill dolls peeping out of corners and side doors. By the time she reaches the end of the loop, it transforms into a reincarnation of the Spencer Mansion, finding a piano at the very end of the hall. Jill plays the familiar Moonight Sanata piece, causing the Spencer Mansion hallucinations to end.

Winding up back at the end of hall A2, Jill proceeds through the darkened asylum-like halls of floor A3 after obtaining the key via the deadly Inferno Trap. With only her flashlight to guide her, she's haunted by hallucinogenic monsters that approach her from behind and disappear on a whim, including a horrific werewolf before running into live Manta, zombies and Necromongul creeping around every corner unexpectedly.

Jill continues into the file storage room where she's once again faced with hallucinogenic monsters and is rescued just as she is about to be attacked by an actual zombie. The man introduces himself as Tripp Haslem, who warns "you shouldn't stick around here. Sooner or later, you just might open Pandora's Box. When that happens, there's no turning back." Looking for clues to open the nearby safe, Jill opens file cabinets unlocking the code via circular tabs. A quick scan of the cabinet and wall via Genesis Scanner reveals the stunning truth that this was the FBC's base of operations in collusion with TRICELL and Tripp was originally a member of the disgraced agency. Jill continues searching, and under the "W" tab, finds an updated Wesker Children file detailing Wesker's top-secret pre-S.T.A.R.S. project entitled "The Meta Twins". Contained in the file was a woman dubbed only L. Abernathy, leading to her next clue.

After following a walking apparition out the door, Jill completes a series of puzzles starting with a Manne-kill lying on a chair in the hallway. Proceeding through the Boiler Room via code, ventilation system, Dormitory, Examining and Security Rooms, Jill uncovers live CCTV footage of a tall, scantily-clad, raven-haired woman after obtaining the fuse. She's shown marching down the hallway in a sensual navy blue battlesuit outfit donning laced side leggings and a bikini undergarment with decaying TRICELL researcher corpses scattered about. The feed goes dead as soon as she turns to face the camera, reveling her in mystery. Jill turns around and finds Chris in a hidden part of the facility on one of the monitor screens across the room. However, her amusement is short-lived when a horrific Tyrant variant is seen marching down an unknown part of the facility on the monitor screen beside it.

After backtracking through the A1 area, Jill uncovers additional footage in the Computer Lab via disc of the mysterious woman being held hostage by a Alex Wesker in a gaseous room. Somewhere in the background, a black-coated man, largely unseen, watches. After rewinding the tape several times, Jill zooms in and catches a silhouetted, blurry shot of a man resembling none other than Albert Wesker himself. A shocked Jill utters "no, it can't be.... he's back." Jill nonetheless continues, eventually uncovering an e-mail file between Tripp and herself, though the recipient's name is redacted. After walking past glitched-out archive footage on the wall LED monitor of the mysterious woman totting a UMP, Jill finds a briefcase containing the very same UMP along with SMG ammo in a shocking twist of fate and a cassette tape hanging from a string behind it.

Jill snatches the tape and proceeds down the hall and finds a storage vault. Marked with "The Truth Shall Set You Free" in bloody graffiti, Jill finds ammo boxes, herbs, a keycard and tape recorder. Jill places the cassette tape inside the recorder and begins playing a recording of a B.S.A.A. woman vowing to find her sister. Identifying the woman as Lena, the woman's voice on the tape is soon replaced by evil laughter from a demonic Dark Natalia, who hijacks the facility controls after a hideous taunting. Experiencing a power outage and A Toxin leak, Jill navigates into the nearby Storage Room where she's faced with the disturbing Ventriloquist Trap. Fighting her way through smokescreened doll head cutoffs flying in her face and Pig Heads appearing from out of nowhere, Jill reaches a password-protected door. Using the Security Scanner, Jill finds the passcode "666," number of the Devil engraved on the wall (including an upside-down 6, marked in purple). Jill enters the code, but is met by none other than the Tyrant she witnessed earlier on security cams, codenamed Ripper, who rips the door clear off its hinges with its gigantic bone blade after unlocking. Jill exposes of the Ripper as it stalks her throughout the booby-trapped Storage Room and proceeds into hall A4, but the dislodged door allows the Toxin A gas to follow her.

Development
Coming soon.