The Mercenaries: Operation Greener Grass

The bill comes do…always.


The reaction to the relative value being exchanged depends
on which end of the transaction one finds oneself

My opening statement can be applied to a great number of ways one “pays” of course, as the currency at hand is not always cold hard cash that one ends up paying with, so to speak. With that in mind, and following up on my thoughts from yesterday about contrasting value on the heels of my Resident Evil 3 remake, I finish up ending in a tonally appropriate way, as I look at a final, key element that the RE3 remake lacked, in showcasing a relative value of something lost, per my utilization of the A.R.T methodology, in deconstructing what did and didn’t work in Capcom’s approach to remaking Resident Evil 3. That of course, brings us to the topic at hand, and one that Conker (see above) has already posited for us.


The absolute mad lads they are

My final moments in celebrating Resident Evil 3 involve the original (not the remake), as we have one last great example of what could be used analogously as “absent rain” in my assessment of the remake. Within that regard, what an experience or moment lacks does help make up it’s very essence, as has been observed in the idea of something like a vase, in that the internal void that helps to create the “-ishness” of what is a vase, is indeed part of what isn’t there. In my original conjuration of my theory of what helps to frame value, it was relative to the lack thereof that helps us form our perspective on what remains, though in this instance, I think what isn’t there creates a painful reminder of what was lost in translation.


Fitting phrasing: imagine a remake of this film lacking Murray

Perhaps I’m being unnecessarily heady right now in complicating what is essentially “just” missing post-game content in the form of a minigame, but “The Mercenaries” felt like an extraordinarily vital part of what made the Resident Evil 3 formula work so well. Within the realm of the tradition of RE unlockables, There was a battle minigame involved as a reward for beating the original Resident Evil, but it was a mode that was exclusive to the Sega Saturn, so not many people even got to enjoy it. With that in mind, many were first treated to this style of post-game RE awesomeness in the form of “The 4th Survivor”, after one fulfilled some in-game reqs involving beating RE2, which had the player controlling an Umbrella operative named HUNK as he escaped the RPD on the eve of Raccoon City’s destruction.


Hard enough to unlock, some considered the mode
a degenerate spawned from hearsay and rumor back in the day

There was also the much harder to unlock other secret character named Tofu, who was, appropriately, a walking bean curd .


Rare you see a zombie game offer up a vegan
alternative

However, and as briefly just mentioned, both characters were quite difficult to unlock normally, so while more people were exposed to the idea of the post-game mode in the Resident Evil series with 2, it really wasn’t until 3 that people likely got their first taste of true greatness, as Mercenaries was unlocked for simply beating RE3, even just on easy, and obviously, being available on the PS1 version, there was a good chance if one at least had the constitution to simply beat the main game, you probably got down on what ended up being one of the best unlocks in a video game I’ve ever seen.


*We’ve ever seen, comrades

That’s what ended up being *just so* fascinating about Mercenaries as an entity: such a simple concept, with such basic execution providing excellency through simplicity alone. For those not in the know, you essentially just controlled one of the three main mercs involved with Umbrella’s paramilitary group from the main game of RE3, the UBCS, in the form of either Carlos, Nikolai, or Mikhail, as you fought your way through the streets of Raccoon City. No real story, no focus on dialogue or cutscenes, just the meat and potatoes of the Resident Evil experience wrapped up in a fast paced arcade experience, full tilt. What was fantastic about Mercenaries was that it had more of a compellingly relentless feel of engagement, with the player fighting against time itself to finish the scenario before the clock reached zero. The different characters all had differing loadouts of weaponry, creating some variety in how you wanted to approach the scenario, and one could score more time, depending on how many enemies one killed, or civilians saved. You could always just “zombie maze” your way right past any encounter, helping to flesh out the strategy involved. Best of all, your final score could accumulate into unlockables for the main game involving super powerful weapons, further adding to the replayability for both the minigame and the main one at the same time


Carlos, learning a grammar lesson the hard way; the
pluralization of Nemesis is Nemeses

Fairly ingenious, albeit so simple, Mercenaries added such a tremendous value to the entire package, and even Capcom knew this, as they would go on to reuse similarly structured modes for other Resident Evil games in the future, and eventually just straight up bringing back Mercenaries mode for RE4, 5, and beyond.


Guess who’s back? Back again.

Capcom ended up seeing enough value in the concept to make it into it’s very own game, The Mercenaries 3D for the 3DS. While the game did meet with some controversy over what was seen as a shady business tactic by Capcom to curb the used game market by not being able to delete the save file on the cartridge, and many others decried the game for being overpriced for what was being offered, it was still a damn good time.


Raccoon City Reunion Right Here (and Krauser)

Aside from some small blemishes in Mercenaries history, it is largely celebrated as the piece de resistance in Resident Evil fame, and with good reason. Why Capcom thought it was at all a wise decision to not include it with the remake is beyond me, as Mercenaries seems like a vital part of the DNA that makes up not just the core fundamentals of what made RE3 so groovy, but it an integral part of the value of the RE series as a whole. I would posit the notion that after Capcom justified making Mercenaries into a full game experience, they would use that reasoning as a citation enough for the exclusion of the mode in the RE3 remake, but the RE4 remake eventually saw an update including Mercenaries as well, so that notion doesn’t hold water. Were it not for that fact, you could look at the absence of Mercenaries from the RE3 remake much like Nintendo omitting the old school NES games, like Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, available for play in future Animal Crossing games after the Gamecube version, operating under the assumption the company isn’t going to just give games away for free as unlocks in one of their titles, when they could easily charge you for a digital copy or the full price of a title. But again, the RE4 remake, with Mercenaries included exists, so any logic there after is whatever broken handwaving they wish to utilize.


The RE3 remake did come with a multiplayer
component, but it’s about as meh as meh gets

So yeah, that represents my celebration of what wasn’t, however queer of a notion that may be . As mentioned when I started, and as previously stated in my summation of my finalized thoughts involving the RE3 remake, what we ended up getting was a “respectable salute to the end of Raccoon City”, but a Mercenaries sized hole is left apparent in the heart of the entire experience. It’s true what they say. The grass is always greener, and you don’t really know what you had, until it’s gone. Gone.


Gone.

~Pashford