Tyrant on the Hunt

I have been logging a lot of hours in Resident Evil 2 which I have been playing on my Steam Deck. I never intended to buy it at first but something made me change my mind at the last minute.

I finished my campaign as Leon Kennedy and have now started Claire Redfield’s story. The result of going at this for a while is surprise surprise, having a dream about the Tyrant himself: Mr. X.

I already knew about this stalker in the game but wasn’t prepared for his arrival. I’ll spare you the details for now and save them for my review of the game, but in this dream I was Dragon Master for most of it, slipping in and out of my form. I was investigating a research facility after receiving a call of unusual activity reported from a nearby city. They were suspicious negative energy was involved.

So I flew in to check it out. After debriefing with the military on-site. I climbed down the ladder into the facility and was met with a dark industrial corridor with pipes running on the ceiling, wall, and floor. I walked forward carefully to not slip and heard loud thumping footsteps up ahead. When I looked around they sounded like they were coming from above as they passed me I assumed it was just some of the staff still going about their business as if there was no threat. As I pushed open the next door, there was a loud bang as if something or someone hit the ground and landed on their feet like a cat. If that was the case it must have been a pretty large cat!

The next room was empty and quiet but the footsteps were louder this time, just one floor above me this time. I ignited the blades on my gauntlets ready for anything. The thumping stopped briefly and began to shudder and suddenly, the ceiling split open as a towering figure slammed to the floor on one knee. When he rose to his feet I could see he was tall in a black coat and fedora but his face was inhuman.

My first instinct should have been to spit fire or slash at him, but in my current state of mind, he looked far too sturdy to get hurt by my blades. I was anxious at first but when he began to walk fast toward me and lunged, I rolled aside and began to run.

The corridors were too tight for me to fly and no matter how fast I ran, I could still hear his thumping speedwalk catching up. I turned left, then right, ran from one room to another, and after what seemed like hours of running, I pushed open the next two doors in front of me and barricaded it with a large file cabinet. The ceiling was much higher in this room so I unfolded my wings and flew up to the top, pressing myself against the ceiling like I was a spider, trying not to flap too much. It was the only thing I could do, lose him somehow and it would buy me some time to find another door and figure out a way to defeat him.

Banging erupted from the other side of the doors, I shuddered again and with enough force, the two doors came crashing down and the tyrant stormed into the room looking frantically. I waited for him to leave but he did not. Normally, in these types of games, if the stalker loses track of you, they will go back to patrolling, but this time he was persistent in finding me. I was not able to stay up here forever. He then began to grab the cabinet that had been knocked over from breaking through the doors. What was he doing, then after a few seconds I realized he was going to climb to me. I had not made a sound, I honed my blades, ready to fight.

Perhaps I could knock him down again and find another exit quickly. I wanted to ask myself why was I running anyway? Was Mr. X infected with negative energy or something that I feared? I wish I knew for sure if I didn’t wake up from this dream then and there.

Because I decided to play three horror games when October rolled around, some games that have been my main focus for the past few months have been put on hold. I was originally going to play Stray after Brutal Legend but when the leaves started to change colour, I couldn’t help myself. But, I just finished my run of Village so I will be starting Shadows of Rose shortly and that will be checked off the list.

👽Emily