The Ghost Survivors uses Resident Evil 2's capacity for combat and escape as the starting line from which it fires its perpetually short-of-ammunition gun. Each of its frantic what-if scenarios favor acute strategy more than improvisation, each neatly transitioning from basic survival to a pursuit of perfection. Four run-based one-offs with transitory actors, somehow, is just what Resident Evil 2 needed.
Last month’s remake of Resident Evil 2 was not short on ways to draw tension from the player. Solving the labyrinthine police station, coping with the monstrosities in the sewers, and sorting out anthropomorphic plants at the Umbrella labs—combined with the duress of the calm Terminator, Mr. X—was more than enough to deal with. Combat was an added stressor, providing the player with a range of tools to ease the lingering threat of mortality.
The 4th Survivor, a run-based mode unlocked with the completion of either Claire or Leon’s second run, eliminated the exploration and puzzle solving and went all-in on Resident Evil 2’s combat encounters. It was like someone picked up Resident Evil 2 by its legs and shook it until every monster fell out of its pockets and crammed them all into Hunk’s trip through the sewers. Hordes of zombies, lickers, G, walking plants, whatever; it was all strategically deployed to hamper forward progress.
The Ghost Survivors, Resident Evil 2’s opening package of free downloadable content, works under the same principle. It takes four doomed bit players from the original narrative, imagines what would happen if they had survived their trauma, and challenges them to make it through an existing piece of Resident Evil 2’s infrastructure with limited resources and a shitload of zombies. Each can either take a newcomer an hour or an expert ten minutes. Like The 4th Survivor, Ghost Survivors is a run-based assault open to improvisation but geared toward repetition and strategy.
No Time To Mourn, featuring Leon’s brief adversary Robert Kendo, serves as the model upon which Ghost Survivors operates. Finding his way from his gun shop to the police station’s parking garage is a moment not unlike Resident Evil 2’s opening; idling zombies lunge in his general direction but do not offer a credible threat. The music—a feature that was largely absent in the bulk of Resident Evil 2—is a steady tempo dirge. As soon as he approaches the parking garage, and finds a zombie with an obviously-explosive red backpack, the music shifts into a percussion heavy monster with machine gun drums and never drops off. Resident Evil 2 is now an arcade game.
A new monster complicates three of the ghost survivor’s quests. Robert unfortunate enough to deal with glowey-eyed zombies who, when murdered, explode into a cloud of toxic gas. This inflicts a poisoned status, meaning Robert will sporadically lose control and stop to cough for a few moments. These wonderful creatures are deposited inside packs in larger rooms and individually along the linear course, compromising the directive to move as quickly as possible.
Trial-and-error was a major component of finishing Robert’s segment. Instead of the licker falling down on top of me, I shot out the knee of an explosive-backpack zombie up ahead, let the licker drop, and kited it to the zombie where I detonated both of them. In a room full of zombies that woke up as soon as a hit the elevator button, I kited another explosive backpack zombie down the stairs and into the same room and blew everyone up as soon as I hit the button. Compartmentalized, each sequence feels like a collection of challenges in which you find a way to pass through as safely and efficiently as possible.
Each character also receives a unique load-out. Robert begins with a handgun and a shotgun, different kinds of gunpowder, and a blue herb. Downing zombies with item-filled backpacks and encountering candy machines (in which you can take one of three items) are the only ways to acquire more. I generally favored more ways to make ammunition because it was easier to take out legs and keep moving forward. It’s a linear path and you don’t have to worry about dealing with stragglers hours down the line.
Runaway is a sequence starring Katherine Warren. Formerly known as the dead woman on the dissection table at Chief Irons’ residence, Katherine knifes Irons in the throat and must make it from Irons’ house, through the Raccoon City streets, and into the jail near the parking garage. Pale Heads, virtually immortal regenerating zombies who move way too fast, serve as one complication. Locked doors that demand a key from backpack zombies provide another. Katherine’s artillery (she gets the flamethrower) and the wide spaces of the streets and alleys makes her sequence the easiest, provided you have the patience to wait for a dozen zombies to step off a certain bus.
Forgotten Solider, where an Umbrella operative named Ghost must get from the labs to the cable car, serves as an alternate Hunk campaign. With an automatic weapon by default, Ghost is the most capable and prepared—and he also has the widest range of opposition. Heavily-armored zombies are not worth the bullets and displaced plant creatures continue to be exclusively interested in eating my head. In one particular melee, as I was waiting for the blast door to open and let me out of the forsaken lab corridor, I turned around and saw Mr. X making his way through the rapidly approaching carnage and jesus that was certainly an experience.
A fourth mission, No Way Out, is available once the other three are finished. This one positions Sheriff Daniel Cortini—the newly dead guy in the prologue’s convenience store—as a man with an infinite pistol and a heap of problems. Zombies spill out of the backdoor and into the front door of the convenience store at regular intervals, leaving ‘ol Sheriff Daniel with the task of eliminating a fixed number of zombies to grab a victory condition. Herbs, more weapons, and ammo are available from downed backpack zombies. I didn’t do this because I couldn’t do this, or, rather, I didn’t want to find a way to finish it after the previous four hours I spent grinding a single win out of the other three sequences. No Way Out, with its completely different set of rules, provides a nice alternative from the furious funerals of the other three survivors.
Maybe you’re not especially tuned for The Ghost Survivors combat focus. Thankfully a training mode—that I neatly discovered after I was finished with it—eases the enemy count, removes a few more powerful opponents, expands your inventory, and is more generous with its ammunition. As the name implies, training mode is geared not so much toward basic completion, but to increase familiarity with each scenario’s objectives, item pick-ups, and backpack zombies. It’s a memory shortcut and it’s an easy mode, which is an easy sell for both audiences.
Ghost Survivors is intended to be played and replayed. Time is a major focus and your clock is delivered in large numbers every time a run is completed. Performance is also good for a bunch of unlockable accessories, including a giant crocodile head and bunny ears that grant infinite ammunition. Time is also, obviously, great for bragging rights or, ideally, to watch this summer’s Games Done Quick videos.
Ghost Survivors is a free update to Resident Evil 2. Of course it’s worth your money because it’s zero dollars. Whether or not it’s worth your time was the objective I tried to solve. If you enjoyed the idea of The Fourth Survivor but couldn’t quite cope with the onslaught aggressive opposition, Ghost Survivors can be a bit friendlier. No individual scenario is quite as long and none of quite as hard. It’s more content from one of Resident Evil 2’s blood-soaked anxiety tree, and branch that has room to grow without worrying about running into anything else.
The Ghost Survivors uses Resident Evil 2’s capacity for combat and escape as the starting line from which it fires its perpetually short-of-ammunition gun. Each of its frantic what-if scenarios favor acute strategy more than improvisation, each neatly transitioning from basic survival to a pursuit of perfection. Four run-based one-offs with transitory actors, somehow, is just what Resident Evil 2 needed.
