The Resident Evil games thrive on exploration. Or at least they used to, until Capcom went and ruined them by including user-friendly controls and enough ammo dumps that each encounter with a member of the undead wasn't a sweaty mess of attempting a one-shot kill before panicking, unloading a whole clip, and then not being able to use your gun again for five hours. Obviously the hordes of zombies were the main obstacle to you completing those early survival horror titles, but just as crucial were the labyrinthine and frankly obtuse puzzles that involved finding every glittering item secreted around the levels like a mad person. So by the time the second game swung around players had already been indoctrinated into the idea of pressing X on ever single polygon of the pre-rendered environment until you succeed. Still, that wasn't quite enough to nudge people in the direction of an Easter egg in Resident Evil 2 which wasn't found until a good few years after its release. Which is because it involved searching Albert Wesker's desk drawer fifty times. Fifty times. In a row. If you can stand to go through such a repetitive motion, you'll be rewarded with a photo of Rebecca in a basketball uniform, for reasons unknown.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
