Joke's On Me! Back in the RCPD

 Welp, that didn't last long. Well, it sort of did: after escaping the RCPD garage, we go down into the sewers with Ada, and even wind up playing as her for a brief segment (here I think I had deaths 2 and 3, the first because I realized too late that I was trying to do the timed incinerator puzzle backwards, and the second time because Mr. X got me and Ada does not get any healing items).

Anyway, we're not quite into the high-tech laboratories, but it's very industrial and labyrinthine. Getting a tool to turn these particular locks, I should have realized that I was going to come back and use it in the old building (it mostly just lets us go back via the Goddess Statue).

Yeah, naturally the zombie outbreak is coming from a lab underneath the police department we've spent most of the game in, and they all integrate into one big map. I'm not sure there's been a loading screen (there have been cutscenes, and I'm sure there are some cheats).

Anyway, I have some film to develop back in the RCPD darkroom, and hope now springs anew that I will get my hands on that final Heart key.

Inventory management is pretty rough, though: I had to leave behind the Stars badge in a place where I got an enhancement for the magnum weapon (though here's betting that I'm just going to finally get back there only to discover that it's now got that red checkmark next to it).

I've also gotten a lot of blue herbs and have yet to encounter the poisoned condition. I'm curious to see what happens if you mix all three herbs together - in RE4 it of course boosted your max HP while also being basically a full heal.

Maybe I'm just playing smart, but I've found that I've got a surplus of healing items. Or maybe the game's going to get a lot tougher and I'll be thanking my past self for that later on. I'm on standard difficulty and wondering if the game has any adaptive difficulty - the way that Alan Wake II and Silent Hill 2 both let you find more ammo and healing items if you're struggling. (AWII I think does it a little awkwardly by letting Taken/Fadeouts drop little cubic boxes).

I do feel like I should revisit Alan Wake II after playing all of these predecessors (or at least remakes of predecessors). I adored that game's narrative, and kind of tolerated its gameplay, but now that I'm getting a little more accustomed to Survival Horror as a genre, I wonder if I'd do significantly better. For example, I was always trying to just maximize damage in Alan Wake II, and now I wonder if there's the same sort of staggering mechanic with shots to the legs.

I will say, RE2's Zombie don't seem to be slowed much by anything other than a headshot, though.