Resident Evil: Desolation

Resident Evil: Desolation is a 2017 Psychological-Survival Horror game developed and published by Capcom. It was formally 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 2 new characters, 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). A special third person VR mode-utilizing 3D cinematic visuals-for the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets is also available.

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.

Game Modes

 * Campaign: Main Story Mode featuring Jill, Claire and Ada.
 * Raid Mode: Complete missions and reach the end point using a variety of different characters.
 * Mercenaries: Amass as many points as possible in the given time limit, expand time by smashing time crystals.
 * Survival: Enter a simulated reality from a hub room via Alex's Red Queen avatar. Withstand and kill as many enemy monsters as possible until you die. Monsters grow larger, faster, scarier in appearance (i.e: growing an extra set of mutated limbs) and greater in number as you advance through intervals.
 * Desperate Escape Redux: A first person, VR-compatible game mode set inside a dark mansion. Collect items and weapons and battle your way through a series of haunting puzzles, apparitions and enemies (including Alex herself) as you try to escape the mansion in one piece.

DLC

 * Devastation: A bonus chapter set after the main campaign. Venture through the city of Rhysport as one of two new characters: Chet Allison and Kyle Calahan, each with interwoven campaigns as you fight the infection head-on.
 * Hijack: A prequel chapter to the main game. Infiltrate the rival organization, Tentsu's ship as either Varuda or Birdwoman while completing deadly puzzles and encountering Molded B.O.W.s. Round up the hostages from an Umbrella hit list (using non-lethal means) as Varuda or find and obtain the Mutamycete sample in order to synthesize the hallucinogenic compound needed to complete the T-Incubo virus as Birdwoman.

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 his 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 B.S.A.A. Alpha Team member, Chet Allison. Little does he know the secret of his missing daughter, however.
 * Ada Wong: After receiving a tip from Chet, 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.
 * Chet Allison*: Operative of B.S.A.A.'s Alpha Team following Piers' death in China. Survivor of the Raccoon City outbreak that occurred many years ago. Joins Barry in a navigation of downtown Rhysport in an attempt to stop the T-Incubo virus outbreak.
 * Tripp Haslem*: Former member of the disgraced FBC. Was involved in an affair with B.S.A.A.'s lead researcher, Lena Janus and was integral to her capture after disclosing the whereabouts of her long lost sister via e-mail. Later transformed into the monstrous Lyca B.O.W.
 * Mike Albatross*: The man pictured in the portrait in Jill's S.T.A.R.S. office during the Raccoon City incident, believed to be her (ex-)boyfriend. Former partner of Leon S. Kennedy in the R.P.D. who was reported M.I.A. following his disappearance during the t-Virus outbreak (appears in cutscenes via flashbacks).
 * John Haggerton*: Acting President of the United States after Adam Benford's death in RE6.
 * Alan Richter*: CEO of TerraSave.
 * Joel Easton*: TerraSave member, and the only known male surviving member of the non-governmental bioterror support group.
 * Kyle Calahan*: TerraSave security officer. Assists Chet Allison in fighting the viral infection in downtown Rhysport.
 * Hugo Arnason*: B.S.A.A. operative joining Calahan and Allison, later infected by an unknown Umbrella plant at the medical facility.
 * Varuda*: A mysterious masked mercenary working for Umbrella. Her exact alias is unknown.
 * Michelle Haggerton*: John Haggerton's daughter.
 * Maria Haggerton*: President John Haggerton's wife being held hostage in Rhysport.
 * Allie Haggerton*: Michelle's secret sister.

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.
 * Cuj'o-A zombie dog in the form of a T-Incubo-mutated wolf. Name is a portmanteau of Cujo, the famous dog, and Incubo.
 * 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.
 * Helling: Airborne embryonic parasite B.O.W. Can only be encountered in the DLC chapter.

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).
 * Deathala-A giant tentacled B.O.W. that feeds off a deadly compound, Ven Muse, given to him by Jill while completing her tests. As a result, she continually grows larger and larger.
 * 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.
 * Varuda: A masked Umbrella agent with supersoldier-like reflexes.

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.
 * Juggernaut: A giant, multi-layered, regenerative husk B.O.W. encountered by Jill and Claire.
 * Mutant Hugo: A mutated Hugo Arnason injected with the T-Phobos and C-Virus and a Helling parasite (DLC only).
 * 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. Additionally, two campaign expansions, Hiack, set before the main game and Retribution, set after the main campaign, will both be available as DLC some time after launch.

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

Prologue
In June 2013, the B.S.A.A. opened a missing persons case following the sudden disappearance of Barry's daughter, Natalia. After a three month investigation, she had reportedly been found by fellow B.S.A.A. operative, Jessica Sherawat in a tip from Alpha Team member, Chet Allison.

During this time, Barry's affiliate organization, TerraSave had received an anonymous tip that a group of Uroboros survivors was found in Haiti. Joining his fellow TerraSave ally, Claire in a rescue mission, he kept in contact with Jill via Skype, accepting her invitation to meet her in an e-mail correspondence upon returning while Natalia was placed in B.S.A.A. protective custody. However, the reception was lost as the ship was attacked with a nerve gas agent, incapacitating all onboard. During this time, Jill was attacked in the B.S.A.A. testing facility by a masked Umbrella agent as the Skype feed went dead, incapacitating her with a syringe.

Development
The game was announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2016 event as part of the Resident Evil 20th anniversary, and it would feature Jill, Claire and later Ada, the three series lead females, in a bonus campaign. It was later revealed that Silent Hill 2 director, Masashi Tsuboyama would co-direct the game similar to Guillermo Del Toro co-directing the cancelled Silent Hills along with Hideo Kojima.

In the months leading up to its release, Capcom released a number of trailers for each of the main characters following chilling teasers set to "Ring Around The Rosy" and "The Raven" narrated by Alex/Natalia's haunting girl voice. The first gameplay trailer features Jill, set to Metallica's "Sad But True" (ironically the name of her RE5 theme). Later, a second trailer, set to Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams" featuring Claire's campaign was shown, followed by a third tape, "Ada" to the tune of Disturbed's "Down With The Sickness" featured in 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake.

At E3 2017, it was revealed that the game would feature a third person VR mode for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive users using 3D cinematic visuals. Desperate Escape, a bonus first-person, P.T.-like game mode featuring weapons, combat, exploration and puzzles would also be fully-playable in VR.

Release
The standard release, containing just the base game for $60, was released alongside a special Deluxe Edition. It contains a steel cover case, Resident Evil art booklet, digital codes for the two DLC side campaigns, Hijack and Retribution to be released at a later time, exclusive Jill, Claire and Ada DLC skins and a physical copy of the official licensed soundtrack for a discounted $90.