Rainbow Plays Resident Evil 2: Ultimate Remastered Edition
Shooty shoot with the Big gun
Author's Note
"HIDING SCARS BACK-LACED WITH SPLINTERS, AUDIENCE OF A CONGREGATION! MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT! CLOSE YOUR EYES AND GRIEVE! YOU PLAYED YOUR PART SO WELL!"
Shooty shoot with the Big gun
Rainbow watched the sun set from the concrete steps of her porch. Halloween was just around the corner. She could feel it in the wind, see it in the decaying leaves, and smell it in the air. The time was ripe for a season of horror, fear, and self-imposed seclusion.
"Guess it's about time to start."
The Pegasus rose to her hooves, strolled inside, shut the door, and locked it.
"Think I'll have a bit of fun before I get started."
Rainbow stared at the case on top of her PlayStation. Its contents contained a completely rebuilt version of Resident Evil 2. However, it was not the official remake released two years prior. This version had been developed and polished by Twilight using but an inconsequential amount of her financial acquisitions. The game before Rainbow was the only one of its kind, making it the ultimate collector's item. Twilight had gone so far as to port it to a console, overriding the system's intended exclusivity. She'd even made custom artwork, updating the eye from the original PS1 version. From what Twilight implied, there was a great deal more content than either of its previous incarnations.
"Let's test this bad boy out."
Rainbow opened the case, inserting the disc into her console. It booted up automatically.
On the start menu, Rainbow entered a code. It granted her access to automatic headshots which would supposedly make the game a lot easier.
"Let's see...I think she said it was up and...Triangle."
A guttural, throaty growl vibrated through the TV speakers, indicating she had entered the correct combination.
"That was Spike? Damn. Kid's got some lungs on him."
Rainbow configured the controls to her preference and hit new game. She chose easy difficulty to get a feel for the game's layout without having to worry about dying too many times. A second set of options appeared. She had the choice of playing with the original PS1 soundtrack, the Remake soundtrack, or a metal soundtrack not present on the other versions.
"Twi said there's a lot of stuff from the 90's hardcore scene with this one. No way I can pass up on that."
Rainbow made her decision and began the game. Twilight's voice echoed in a faded, dissonant, somber tone comparable to the devil may cry series, but hers was far darker and more foreboding.
The beginning of the game was exactly like the original, save for the music and graphics. The camera angle was returned to its fixed state: a feature not present since the early 2000's. The first real difference came into play in the alley on the way to the police station. Rainbow was instructed to enter a code on a panel next to a locked steel door. Normally, she would've found hints throughout the police station, but that wasn't necessary since Twilight had already told her. She entered the numbers 2, 4, 6, and 2. The locked clicked on the other side.
"Schweet!"
The apartment inside contained shotgun shells, two boxes of handgun ammo, and a first aid spray. It was just the first of many examples of the games depressive atmosphere, and Rainbow was loving every second of it.
The game continued as normal until Rainbow arrived outside the station. She encountered Brad Vickers, who had already been zombified by Nemesis. In the original, he could only be encountered on normal difficulty after fulfilling certain conditions. Here, there were no such limitations. Rainbow quickly picked him off, retrieving the key for the dark room inside. According to Twilight, there were ten different costumes available. Leon had four: his casual outfit from the official remake, his costume from RE 4, and the two original costumes from the PS1 version. Claire had the other six: her remake costume, her alternate from the original as well as a secret variant, her Code Veronica outfit, her Revelations 2 outfit, and a new goth costume Twilight designed, herself. Claire's campaign in particular had one major improvement over the original: her weapons could be upgraded like Leon's. She finally had decent firepower at her disposal.
The next cutscene showed off Shining's voice acting skills. He played the roles of Leon, Marvin, and William Birkin. Big Mac would come into the picture later for Ben and Chief Irons. Twilight took over for Claire while Fluttershy and Rarity voiced Sherry and Ada respectively. From Rainbow's perspective, it was an all-star cast. It struck a balance between the cheesiness of the old games and the quality control of the modern industry.
"Not bad. I can dig it."
As the game went on, Rainbow realized she'd accumulated a far greater amount of resources than either of the official releases. Unlike the original, which only had two clips of machine gun ammo, Twilight's version had multiple, not to mention the multitudes of shotgun shells, magnum bullets, grenade rounds, bows, herbs, and save ink cartridges. Borrowing from RE 4, Rainbow's max health permanently increased when all three types were combined. By the end of each scenario, she'd become a one-mare army, blasting everything in her path to pieces.
"Get fucked, nerd!" she shouted as she blew a zombie's head clean off its shoulders, "Eat lead, ya fuckin' bitches! WOOH!"
Rainbow felt like a jerk knowing the game's story, though in her defense, the zombies attacked her first. She figured she may as well enjoy the experience of escaping a terrifying situation with her life in a simulated setting.
"This...Is fucking awesome!"
By dawn, Rainbow had already completed all four scenarios. None of them were particularly hard considering the difficulty she'd chosen. She'd have to play the harder ones later to see if there were any differences. Knowing Twilight, they would be creative to say the least.
Rainbow called Twilight after catching up on sleep. She asked her about the variant to Claire's original alternate costume.
"There's another code you can enter during the title screen. Press square, circle, and x in consecutive order. The only real difference is that the red top is a full shirt instead of the regular crop top."
"Gotcha. I'm gonna try the harder modes later."
"Just be warned: Hard mode's fucking brutal. You only get the bare minimum gear you need to survive."
"Thought as much."
"Let me know when you're done so I can lend it to Applejack."
"Roger."
Later that night, Rainbow ordered pizza and went through the game again. Just as Twilight said, it was frustrating, but the quality made it worth the anger. When Rainbow finally beat hard mode, she stood up, turned around, and smacked her flank at the TV!
"Fuck yeah! Y'all wussies just got WRECKED, SON!"