[MacBlayne]

THE X-FILES: RESIST OR SERVE

The X-Files has a go at Resident Evil. Honestly, this is fantastic concept. The X-Files is moody, at times very creepy, series that wouldn’t really translate to a shooter, and most definitely not a platformer. They did make an adventure game back in the 90s, but the trial-and-error approach of the genre resulted in a sluggish experience that would lead to many game over screens.

But a genre that allows for slow, methodical exploration and investigation, as well as providing enough of a threat so that the gameplay never grinds to a halt? Survival horror is the perfect place for The X-Files. So, did the makers of PS1 classic Tomorrow Never Dies deliver? Let’s find out.

We’ll start with the positives. The X-Files: Resist or Serve lucked out by actually securing the talents of the writing team. Granted, this was in the later seasons era, but Resist or Serve (RoS from now on) delivers a competent little mystery. It does ties into the overall lore of the series, but has enough of its own ideas not to scare off newcomers. By having the actual writing team involved, RoS feels like a legitimate X-Files storyline, and not fan fiction. The game also offers two overlapping campaigns that fill in the gaps of each other. That provides the game with great replay value. That the game also offers the vocal talents of not just David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, but also Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis, Nicholas Lea, and the Lone Gunmen, elevates the game above cheap cash-in.

And then you see the presentation, and realise that after paying the fees of the talent, there was very little left in the kitty to make the game.

There is something very unrefined about the level design. It’s not awful, but feels extremely padded, with lots of lazy backtracking. The best survival horrors start you with a locked door, and send you down an alternative path that circles back to the locked door with all of the keys, and fancy gear. RoS's approach is to force you into another location, and backtrack with the key. Nothing new is unlocked. Nothing is gained.

Also, the game has many empty rooms that offer nothing. When making Resident Evil, creator Shinji Mikami stated that every accessible location must provide an item, or a piece of the story, or a combination of these. Silent Hill would also adopt this theory. That means for as slow as these games were, they never felt like they were wasting your time. RoS is the complete opposite, and the empty rooms repeated throughout wear your patience.

RoS is a remarkably ugly looking game. The characters have that paper-plate look to their faces, and their animations are hideous. Mulder runs like every limb is thinking independently of itself. The textures are a blurry mess, and those that aren’t look like they escaped from a PS1 development kit. Which is a shame, as the art direction is quite good. The town looks like the washed-out shithole that has seen its best days pass long ago, and the plot developments see the game move onto a bizarre direction, that the art team take on with relish.

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Sadly, the camera is pretty poor. RoS, for the most part, uses fixed angles that move on a track, similar to Resident Evil: Code Veronica. But where Code Veronica kept the player character in the off-centre of the frame, allowing the player enough time and space to deal with offscreen horrors, RoS’s camera will only move when the player character is humping the edge of the frame. This results in the enemy often getting a free hit, and the game’s clumsy combat system does not offer any help.

The combat in RoS is broken. Dealing with regular enemies is fine (they usually take three to five bullets), and its fine when you encounter one or two. But three or more? That’s when the cracks show. Enemies will swamp you, and there are moments in the game where you will encounter a never-ending swarm of them. And when they swamp you, you will get hit, putting you into a recovery animation. However, the game doesn’t provide a recovery phase, allowing the player to quickly relocate to a safer position. Instead, other enemies can still hit you during the recovery animation, resulting in a loop that continues into infinity (or until you reset in rage).

Compounding matters are some of the worst controls I have experienced. RoS uses 3D controls rather than the genre’s traditional tank-controls. No matter where you are facing, the movement is based on the camera’s position. Maybe some of you like this concept, but this causes major issues when transitioning between angles. Many a time, I would move down into a room whilst fleeing enemies, only for the camera to flip to the opposite angle, thus resetting the controls, and I’d run back into the enemies. Of course, this can arguably be blamed on my incompetence, but what is not my fault is the delay. To use a gun, you must ready the weapon before pushing the action button. If you try holding the action button before the ready animation is complete, the game will not register you are pressing action. And you have to wait almost a second after the animation is over before the game will register any button prompts. And many times, the game won’t acknowledge any attempts to remedy this, and you are forced to lower your weapon, and try again. Add this to the most frustrating boss battle ever, and you will be amazed to learn that I didn’t snap my controller in two.

RoS is not for players looking for a survival horror fix. If you are a fan of The X-Files, I can give it a cautious recommendation. It’s clear that Black Ops Entertainment lacked the time to polish it. It’s a mess of mechanics and sloppy design. However, the story and voice acting keep the game captivating, and it has enough twists and turns to keep me surprised.

So, if you are eager for more X-Files content, then consider this a C+. For everybody else, it's a D-.