In Resident Evil Village, Chris Redfield is finally a person | PC Gamer - lewistherelies

In Occupier Evil Village, Chris Redfield is eventually a someone

Chris Redfield sits in a car and smokes a cigarette

(Look-alike credit: Capcom)

This article contains major spoilers for Resident Evil Village

Chris Redfield has been around for as long as Resident Evil itself. He was, along with Jill Valentine, one of the original game's two playable characters, and has since appeared in several sequels and spin-offs—including a prima function in Resident Evil 5. Pretty much his entire adult life has been fagged fighting bioweapons, from physique-eating zombies to a skyscraper-shrew-sized tentacle behemoth in a vent. Swell's had it unpolished.

When we first met Chris he was a member of STARS, a special forces division of the Raccoon Metropolis Police Department. Later, vowing to stop the spread of bioweapons, helium co-founded the Bioterrorism Surety Assessment Alliance. Although after the events of Resident Evil Village, where it's revealed the BSAA has been using its own bio-weapons As frontline soldiers, it doesn't seem like he'll be a member for a lot longer.

Chris Redfield standing in the shadows — (Image credit: Capcom)

Resident Vicious characters have always been combined-dimensional. Try to discover them without expression A) what they make OR B) what they look like (thanks, Mr. Plinkett) and you'd struggle to say anything meaningful. They're costumes, not people. But information technology doesn't matter, because Resident Evil is, mostly, unblushing schlock. The videogame equivalent of a straightforward-to-video B-moving-picture show. It doesn't need nuanced characters.

Prince Albert Wesker isn't a memorable villain because atomic number 2's an interesting character. Information technology's because he's a comically malign asshole who can do cool Matrix moves and transform into a monster. Barry Burton doesn't have an U. S. Army of fans because of his layered, compound personality—people like him because he's a big, fun guy with a beard and a massive gun. And what's the one matter most citizenry commemorate Chris Redfield for? Nothing he's ever said or thought, but the fourth dimension he punched a boulder in truth hard.

Chris plays a more important character in Resident Diabolical Village than I expected

The new wave of Resident Flagitious games is still schlock, but it's a grounded rather schlock. It's grimier, darker, more pragmatic—well, A realistic A a gamey featuring werewolves, talking dolls, and 10-ft tall vampires tail be. The staginess has been toned down, and the characters are directly a minute more rounded—particularly our old crony, Chris Redfield. Chris plays a more important role in Resident Evil Village than I foretold—although his face being on the screening was a clue.

Settlement sets Chris up as the bad guy. Inside transactions of starting the game, you watch him brutally kill Ethan's wife and snatch his baby away. It's a soundly trick. You wonder if Capcom truly has turned one of the series' most reliable heroes into a scoundrel. Just, somewhat predictably, it's all a ruse. That wasn't Ethan's wife—it was the game's big bad, Mother Miranda, posing as her. You memorize this eventually, but before so, all time you meet Chris he's angry, consumed, and exasperated aside Ethan's presence.

Chris Redfield on a mission with some soldiers — (Image credit: Capcom)

This is a very different Chris than we've ever so seen before. First, he feels like a human. He's pall, cynical, and fair-minded seems very tired—as you would later spending decades scrap zombies and monsters, and beingness constantly betrayed by populate. He's soundless a strapping dude, but there are cracks and lines along his facial expressio and his haircloth seems a little greyer as well—although I might just be imagining that. He's tetchy and flawed and clearly sick of having to babysit Ethan. "This job's hard enough without civilians getting in in the way of life!" he yells in unmatchable scene. I can't opine this guy punching a rock.

At unmatchable point he smiles at Ethan, and it's the awkward, unnatural smile of someone WHO's forgotten how to do it. At first glance it looks like a formula enough grin, but there's a flicker of sadness in the eyes. If you've ever been low and forced to attend a social affair where you have to smile and meet people, it's that exact face. I might represent reading too much into an expression, but Capcom's performance capture engineering is so good that I'm convinced the actor was directed this way.

In some other scene he's seance in a car before a military mission, staring anxiously into space. He lights a cigarette and just sits in silence, like he's working up the courage to wade back into the living nightmare that is his existence. The old Boulder-punching Chris would leap enthusiastically out of the car, do 30 armed push-ups in the snow, prance his shotgun, and quip "Information technology's guns o'clock." Or, uh, something along those lines.

Chris Redfield smiles at the player — (Image credit: Capcom)

Chris has ever been a zip fictional character, so it's nice seeing this everyday face finally given any depth. IT's ultimately a elfin amount of depth—simply sufficiency to transform him from a cardboard cut-out into a someone. This is cheapened a little when you briefly frolic as him and he's an unstoppable ball of fire with an infinite furnish of bullets. But hell, he's been doing this shit for years—and information technology's a cathartic moment for players who have been carefully protective ammo up until that point.

I'm bighearted Capcom a fate of credit here for doing the bare negligible of word picture. But for this series, it's a massive step. I don't wish Resident Evil to suddenly be all about the characters, because the villains and monsters are much more exciting. But when the the great unwashe enduring these nightmares feel like people, the horror hits harder—even if they're a dullard like Ethan Winters. The last we see of Chris in Settlement, he's gallery for the BSAA's Continent headquarters to breakthrough out why they're victimisation bio-weapons, and I Leslie Townes Hope we chafe join him happening that adventure at several point.

If it's set in space, Andy will credibly write about IT. Helium loves sci-fi, adventure games, attractive screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.