Resident Evil II at Splat Tag
by Tim "Thalion" Underbakke on Dec 01, 2008
There are those in paintball who say the “big game” format is dead or dying, being replaced with woodsball tournaments or more complicated scenarios. Those people should re-evaluate their claims as we explore the Resident Evil game at Splat Tag and the 335 players who attended it this September.
Splat Tag is a field located strategically between the Minnesota and Wisconsin paintball communities in the small town of Burkhardt, Wisconsin. Because of this location, players from both great states attend on a regular basis. Among these paintball players, the “big game” format is still alive and well—albeit with a strange twist to it.
In Splat Tag’s Resident Evil series, players will play both as a human and a zombie through the course of the day. Players that are on the human team switch sides to the zombie team when they would in any other game be eliminated. This transition from the human team to the zombie team has an approximate fifteen-second window, allowing players who so choose to get some distance from their former fellow human teammates.
Members of the zombie team are eliminated from play only by hit to their torso or head. Once eliminated, the player returns to a large safe zone, complete with an air compressor for air fills, towels for wiping off old hits, and paintball sales for those who wished to remain in play as much as possible. Players would reinsert as humans every fifteen minutes, and begin the cycle over again.
The only players exempt from this cycle were the STAR team members, representing elite response group of the Resident Evil franchise. These players were given arm tape on both arms to differentiate them, and they had a constant reinsertion available to them at the “police department” location on the map. The scenario team Wild Bunch was chosen for this prestigious role.
I chronographed my Airow Gun and headed to the field, gathering odd looks as I walked by the other players in line. The game began with the zombies on the western edge of the field, the STAR units inserted at the police station at the approximate center of the field, and the humans began in the far southern part of the field. During the first hour of the game, much of the firefight took place in and around the large valley in the center of the event’s field. While the zombies were transforming humans into zombies, the well-equipped and well-supplied STAR unit won the first round of skirmishes, forcing the surviving zombies to retreat into the very steep and thickly wooded northern sections of the field. When the next reinsertion of humans came, we chose to make our way into the northern woods after the zombies, setting up along the ridge looking down at them.
The zombies were prepared for this move, and I was hit fairly early. However, no other humans had discovered this fact. I removed my armband and placed it securely in my pocket, and began to walk down the human skirmish line at the top of the ridge, barrel tagging as I went. I had seven new recruits for the zombie team before anyone noticed what was happening. By that time, the zombies were fighting their way up the hill, and the remaining humans either retreated or soon likewise became zombies.
For the next seven hours, skirmishes could be found everywhere in isolate pockets of the field, from the hills of the north to the pine forests of the south. New tactics would evolve with the gameplay as the advantage of numbers swung back and forth between the human and zombie teams. Meanwhile, the STAR members were out completing tasks that only they could complete. Their reward for a mission completed was a small amount of “cure” paintballs, paintballs with a special fill. Zombies who were eliminated by these cure paintballs were informed it was a cure paintball, and then replaced their arm tape and resumed play as a human. As I was playing with just my Airow gun and a handful of ten-round tubes, I was cautious to avoid extended firefights, preferring ambushes. I spent these seven hours traveling alone or occasionally in a small group. During the course of this time, I managed another ten barrel tags plus many well-placed shots.
With only an hour and a half left in the game, I decided I would stop my playing early for the day. I went to my vehicle, where I traded my jersey for my brightly colored photographer’s garb, and my Airow gun for my digital camera. My goal was to capture as much of the action as possible. I caught up with a human reinsertion, and followed them through the entire process—from their insertion as a human to their return to the deadbox as an eliminated zombie. After my “process photos” were complete, I received word of a massive conflict occurring near the police station in the center of the field. The zombies had surrounded the fort symbolic of the police complex and were attempting to fatigue the STAR unit into submission! Despite the dozens of zombies that would appear at a time, the small STAR unit would not surrender. With cases of paint being fired from both sides, this served as an appropriate final battle to a long day. In the end, the game time ran out and the STAR unit emerged victorious from their fortification.
It appears the big game format still offers great appeal to paintball players. Players came from all over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Manitoba to attend Resident Evil II. Large gatherings are nothing out of the ordinary to Splat Tag, which has had many successful big games in its years of operation. While the Resident Evil game had less than 350 players, Splat Tag’s Giant Big Game, a game set in a post-apocalyptic world where states and neighboring regions are at war, competing for survival. This annual event consistently draws anywhere from 600-800 players.
To those who argue that the big game format is dead, I ask them to consider this our defiant response.
Tim “Thalion” Underbakke is a member of the Sentinels Paintball team, and a new contributor to RECON Online. You can visit the Sentinels site here
Look for photos from Resident Evil II very soon