Questionable Design Choices

[RabidBurp]

After playing through the Campaign for a while I've noticed some bizarre, yet frustrating gameplay elements that need some explaining.

1.) Random Health Regeneration

At -x- point in time, either character will regenerate health with no logic behind doing so. At -y- point in time no one regenerates health at all.


2.) Retry Checkpoints

The game respawns you under the SAME EXACT conditions in which you died under (ammo count, health, bleeding, etc.). Not sure if this is intentional or not, but it sure is aggrivating to respawn right next to a group of enemies with a sliver of health and an empty clip.

3.) A.I. Functinality

The A.I. is absolutely AWFUL. It is not uncommon for your partner to stand right in front of an attacking enemy and do nothing at all (except die). I understand you're supposed to switch between characters to get the most out of combat, but when A.I. Claire runs up to the Executioner Reskin enemy and starts knifing him while he smashes her head in with his magical bleed hammer, I dare say there's very few options at your disposal to "fix" this situation.

4.) Melee Button Prompts

I've noticed that when you are trying to melee a downed enemy with Moira's crowbar attack, the button prompt to initiate it does not stay on-screen for more than 2 seconds before the enemy gets back up again. This forces you to get very close to the enemy and take a gamble that he won't switch targets while you set up the co-op attack. The button prompt itself seems fickle when you do manage to catch it on screen. It's VERY frustrating to discover that I end up performing the weak standing crowbar attack instead of the button prompt melee.

4.) Item Stacking

For some reason you can stack Green Herbs to the heavens above, but empty bottles and certain other crafting ingredients do not. Why?

5.) Dodging

Exactly WHAT part of the dodge animation actually lets you dodge? Is it only the first few beginning frames?

[Cellardoor]

"Sub" characters regen health when not been used by the player - Nat and Moira.
"Main" characters never regen - Claire and Barry.

[RabidBurp]

There's also an annoying scripted set piece right before the chef boss in Episode 2 where the enemies in the area instantly see you and move in to attack while you're stuck in it.

[𝕮𝖗𝖎𝖘 𝟕𝟏𝟓]

The AI is not awful, everything there is done on porpouse. Let me explain:
Imagine the following situation: You are using Claire and you have two shotgun shots in your mag and these are your last shots. You decide to try and kill the enemy without wasting ammo, so you switch to Moira in order to stun him with the flashlight. But when you switch back to her, you discover she just wasted your last two bullets on another enemy AND as moved away from you in order to attack this enemy. This would be extremely frustrating. The AI is such games has to be different, because unlike previous co-op RE games (5 and 6, more specifically) you did not control the other player, so he could waste as much ammo he wanted, it would never affect you, but now these are both characters you control.
There is a skill that allows the AI player to use weapons, but it does not wastes any ammunition and the firepower is low. After obtaining this skill I found it much easier to handle enemies, because apparently Moira also started using her flashlight better. This is a feature meant to make the game harder, not a design flaw.

About the finishing move, it is also meant to be quickly executed in order to raise the stakes. You are right, it is much a gamble on wether or not he will rise before you can finish him. There is also a skill that allows Claire and Barry to use finishing moves in the enemies making it a whole lot easier. Though I do find it rather buggy in Raid mode. When I'm using Hunk, several were the times I was atop a fallen enemy and yet I could not finish him, or the attack prompt was on screen, but pressing the button merely resulted in a normal meelee attack.

About the regenarating health, Cellardor explained it very nicely:

Originally posted by Cellardor:

"Sub" characters regen health when not been used by the player - Nat and Moira.
"Main" characters never regen - Claire and Barry.

About the checkpoints: Made to make the game harder. RE6 and many other games had this very annoying exploit where either: You die and come back with full health or You die at the right place and the enemy you were supposed to be fighting vanish because he came from another checkpoint (it happened to me several times on RE4 HD)

About dodging: It is not much about the animation and yes about the direction. If an enemy is heading towards you, dodging forward isn't exactly a good idea. When the afflicted jump towards you, the best idea is to either wait until they are very close and then dodge forward, going below them, or doding back so they hit empty space but it doesn't always work.

About stacking: A slot can keep up to three green herbs, so you cannot stack to heaven and above. In the game you hardly ever keep more than 5 or 6 herbs so you do not feel they are taking space. Also, might be a good idea to keep at least 2 or so herbs with Moira/Natalia since they will heal you when you come to danger without the normal herb using delay and they can do it in the middle of a battle situation very nicely.

[Dad Joke Champion 2025]

1. There actually is. There are different status effects that sap heath/vision and disappear on their own or with the use of items. I'm not a fan of it, but it's still not random.

2. I have no issue with this since I like a challenge? If you're having trouble, I would recommend casual mode. You get extra ammo and there are less enemies.

3. Again, it's meant to be a challenge. I suggest switching your character frequently or replaying the first episode to get more BP and upgrade your skills. The game isn't meant to be beaten by the AI, it's meant to be beaten by you. (That being said, there is some strange AI pathways, but I'd rather Claire randomly knifing something she should be shooting than do all the work for me.)

4. How long do you want it to stay up? As long as when you acquire a new weapon or part on Raid? It does trigger a little awkwardly, but the learning curve is nothing compared to old tank controls. When it comes to melees, you usually have to take a gamble. What's the point if it's 100% successful?

4 (5). This sort of thing is done so your inventory is more limited. Ditch some items if you want more bottles. When you throw an item away, it isn't gone permanently so I suggest making use of the combine skill.

5 (6). As others have said, if you're dodging, you want to move in a different direction than the enemy is heading. Are they to the left and forward? You want to go to the right (and possibly back a little). Otherwise, I would put some distance between the character and what you're fighting, possibly using obstacles in the process. If you're having issues with episode two, I recommend running if you don't want to fight.


Basically, from what I'm reading you just want a game that will play itself? This is definitely one of the easiest, breeziest RE games I've played thus far; I'm finding all the collectibles without a guide, I managed to fell bosses with little effort on normal mode (including Pedro on Claire's side on my first run) and I'm consistently getting S/A scores.

Again, if you're finding this really difficult, I highly recommend casual mode and maybe replaying the first episode to build up BP and skills/items in the process or getting a controller if that is what you're comfortable with.