One of the most iconic elements in the Tomb Raider saga has always been the Croft Manor, Lara's luxurious mansion, serving as a tutorial in the frist games, and evolving to part of the plot in the later ones.

The Beginning: Tomb Raider 1 (1996)

The Croft Manor in Tomb Raider 1 is big and with large rooms, but many of them are inaccessible. There are no exterior areas and there is not much to do in the house. However, there are still several rooms to visit: there is the bedroom, the music room, the library, the hall, the gym and the pool. Nearly all these rooms have very few items and furniture in them; of course we know Lara is away from home almost all year long, so she doesn't really have time to take care of the house's decoration.

The gym is thoroughly constructed with a training course so that Lara can practice her moves. This room used to be the ballroom but apparently Lara was too busy to host guests; so she decided to take advantage of all that vast space and have something that would actually be of real use to her.

The pool room is also made with detail; a pool in greco-roman style, with glass ceiling and beautiful decorations on the walls, lovely wall paintings in the outer room and greenery hanging from above. In the pool, Lara can practice her swimming on the surface and underwater, see how long she can hold her breath while in the water and learn to dive from the platform on the other side.

All the other rooms are vast, and there is even a mattess covering almost the whole floor of the music room. Lara prompts the player to jump around when she gets there. She also has a piano and a harp but she cannot interact with them, so we couldn't know, by that time, if she could play them or not.

• TR1 Lara's Home gameplay

Something Changes: Tomb Raider 2 (1997)

The game evolved - and so did Lara. Just one year later, their development is impressive, to say the least. Equally, the Manor is a very improved version of the previous one. Apart from the whole better design and texturing, there is also much more space to explore, as now we have the chance to see what lies behind all those closed doors.

We also have the chance to meet Winston, Lara's famous butler. Winston is as old as the sun, and has the somewhat annoying habit of following Lara around with a silver tea tray in his hands, several times getting in her way and cutting off her running momentum. What is bizzare about Winston is that, although he is literally dragging his feet, he is able to catch up with Lara in the most impossible places.

Lara's bedroom now has a private bathroom, decorated in the same greco-roman style of the pool room - Lara is an archaeologist, and has a great fascination for her field of science, so she somehow had to include all this in her everyday life as well.

The library, always present in Lara's home, is now imrpoved, with better textures, giving a much more realistic feel. The music room is there as well, with the piano and the harp, but now Lara also has a hi-fi stereo and can use it to listen to music.

The manor now has an attic, which for the time being only hosts a few random crates that cannot be moved. The ground floor is greatly innovated: the gym is gone and the ballroom is back in its place, and there is also a very large kitchen close to it, with a walk-in freezer where you can lock Winston if you are feeling devilish. The pool looks almost exactly like the one in the Tomb Raider 1 manor, but again the textures are a lot better, the water looks like real water and now the greenery is sitting in pots. The decoration of the walls and the pool is the same, only very improved.

What makes the biggest innovation however is the addition of a vast exterior area, the Manor gardens. This area surrounds the whole house and includes a garden, a smaller garden, a hedge maze and an assault course. So this is why Lara had the interior gym removed; she doesn't need it for now, as she can do all her practice and training outdoors. In the assault course she can perform all her old and some cool new moves.

The hedge maze is on the other side of the gardens. Despite its simple design, it's a real pain to make your way through it, to find a secret area, a secluded spot with two Mayan statues - a reminiscent of Lara's peruvian adventure from Tomb Raider 1 - and a button between them. Pressing that button, opens a closed door below the stairs inside the house, on the first floor, just before the entrance to the ballroom. This door is timed, so you have to make your way out of the hedge maze as quickly as possible - a task that still makes me lose my mind to this day - and just hope that the door will still be open when you get to it.

The room beyond the door is some kind of a storeroom of treasures, as it isn't an organized treasure room; you can see some familiar artifacts, but what really catches the eye is piles of gold scattered around. Is all this gold part of Lara's dowry, or a generous souvenir from her adventures? We will never know. But I guess it must also hint to the Gold expansion of the game, which was released a bit later; the Golden Mask, which is an epic northern adventure, and includes a level called Fool's Gold, possibly referring to the drifter goldminers who were looking for gold in the vast snowy mountains of the North.

• TR2 Lara's Home gameplay

It's an Ambush! : Tomb Raider 2 - Home Sweet Home (1996)

We are back to the Manor as part of the game at the very end of Tomb Raider 2. After Lara kills Bartoli and retrieves the Dagger of Xian, she returns to England in the Home Sweet Home level. We see her in her royal blue bath robe, examining the Dagger before she goes to have a shower. Suddenly the alarms go off, and we realize that we are under attack. Fiamma Nera goons are breaking in the Croft Manor, wanting to steal the Dagger from Lara.

Now Lara has a key in her inventory; this opens the door that was locked in Lara's Home, next to her bed. The room behind that door is the Armory, but for some reason only the Shotgun is available, along with plenty of ammo and some medipacks and flares. Lara has to kill all the goons and their dogs and walk carefully in the darkness so as to not bump onto any of them and be taken by surpirse. Some carry bats and other carry guns. Those with the bats are easy to kill, as they don't move very fast and if they don't get too close they can't hurt Lara. Those with the guns are quite tough however, as they start shooting as soon as they spot Lara and they don't stop even to reload their weapons (they were granted infinite ammo, obviously). Eventually the Manor grounds are free of goons, and you have some time to explore them in the dark with the help of flares, before the chief, a huge goon with two big guns in his hands, spots you. Of course you can try to lure him in the freezer, lock him there and run around the house at your ease. But at some point you have to face him anyway, as there is no other way to end this level than with killing him.

Where is Winston, by the way? I guess he either didn't hear a thing because he's deaf, or he prefers to pretend he didn't take notice so as to not get involved. You can't trust anyone these days.

• Home Sweet Home gameplay

Swimming with the fishes: Tomb Raider 3 (1998)

Although technically the Croft Manor remains more or less the same in Tomb Raider 3 and even has Winston to go with, in its essence it is very different in many ways. The main difference is that it is made with much more detail, both in textures and objects. It now looks a lot like a real mansion that is actually inhabited by people, as in the rooms we stumble upon stylish furniture pieces that also add a decorative touch, like the animal print roman couch. Lara's bed has fancy blue curtains, the bathroom is much more luxurious and the interior gym is back - only now its vast space is limited, as part of it has been converted into a dining room, complete with a large table, chairs and a chandelier.

The attic is now more organized, and there is a switch puzzle waiting for you there. The basement is renovated and expanded and hosts a huge aquarium with exotic fishes swimming in it. Apparently Lara uses this place to relax, as there is a stylish and comfy couch and a small bookcase in the center of it. In the depths of the aquiarium, lies the key that opens another new area in the estate, the race track in the yard outside.

The swimming pool looks like a better version of the TR2 one, with brighter colors; and now has a button behind the diving board that opens a panel close to the entrance of the house. Bahind that panel is a lever, which opens a really nasty timed door on the opposide side. Needless to say that if you have Winston (who is back and slower than ever) following you around as you try to do this task, you will never be able to complete it so again it's better to act wisely beforehand and lock him in the freezer. Behind the timed door, is Lara's private museum which holds all those familiar artifacts from the previous games.

The exterior of the house is marvellous, with beautiful gardens and paths. The assault course is renovated to suit Lara's needs as now she can perform more moves and she has to do some practice. There is even a target practice section at the end, where Winston shows up dressed in camo, still carrying his tray and bugging the hell out of you. Just like in Tomb Raider 2 you can lure the poor guy in the freezer and lock him inside if you want.

The hedge maze is gone (thank God) and is now replaced by the race track, where Lara can check out her cool new ride, the quad bike. This is a vehicle that is essential in the game, so it's a good idea to try it out here.

• TR3 Lara's Home gameplay
  

Everything Changes: Tomb Raider Legend (2006)

Legend is a fast-paced, action-packed, humorous, vibrant and sprightly uptempo game, with Lara in great spirits and shape, her exploration skills and survival instincts reaching their peak. The Manor section goes along the same lines. The mansion has undergone a complete makeover and now looks like a real-life luxurious villa. It has a main hall and living room where we can see some artifacts on stands and a fireplace.

We get to see a new version of Winston, who looks considerably younger. All those hours that he spent locked in Lara's freezer did the trick obviously. He can be seen in various spots around the manor, but Lara cannot interact with him. Unfortunately you can't lock him in the freezer anymore, as the kitchen is nowhere to be found in the renovated manor. I guess it's one of the locked rooms that we don't have the chance to visit.

At the far end of the hall is a newly built tech-room full with monitors and stuff of the kind, which is Zip's realm. Zip, Lara's trusty tech assistant, is an expert on this field and, as the game's files inform us, also an excellent cook. Almost every time Lara steps into the tech room, they exchange a few funny lines.

The gym on the ground floor is now a big and perfectly equipped room, where Lara can practice her crazy acrobatics with her incomparable skill and style.

From the main hall, Lara has also access to the stylish and luxurious pool room which, like in the past games, has a dominant greco-roman feel; this time it's thanks to the several statues that decorate it.

The upper floor has two wings, but only the one has rooms we can visit: Lara's sunny bedroom and her precious library. In her bedroom, Lara holds some of her very personal things, like her twin pistols.

The Library is where her other assistant, Alister, can be seen. An archaeologist like Lara, Alister is more the indoors type. Although he shares Lara's enthusiasm about history, ancient cultures, myths and artifacts, he prefers to do study and research work rather than climb steep mountains and get involved in crazy fights with bloodthirsty mercenaries in hostile jungles, unlike a certain lady we know.

Scattered around the manor, there are bronze, silver and gold awards that you can look for and collect as a special mini challenge. The ones hiding in the gym may be quite tricky to reach, but this way you have one more opportunity to get to know Lara's moves.

• Legend Manor gameplay

The Past Revisited: Tomb Raider Anniversary (2007)

Tomb Raider Anniversary was a remake of the first Tomb Raider, and thus the Manor got an extreme makeover as well. The house is basically the same as in Tomb Raider Legend, only this time, since Tomb Raider Anniversary takes place long before Legend, it is still undergoing repairs and some of the rooms are incomplete or locked.

You can still practice in the gym, but the pool room is under construction and the tech room is just a storage area which hosts several crates. Things are significantly better on the upper floor, as both Lara's bedroom and the Library are in a good state. There is also a secret room where Lara keeps the relics that she collected throughout the game.

This time, you can explore the garden of the mansion, where the hedge maze is back; but it's much easier to navigate this time. In the maze, as well as in several other places and rooms, there are relics that you can collect as an extra challenge.

The Anniversary Manor is in fact one big puzzle where you have to do a series of actions that will unlock the secret music room on the upper floor. Such actions include finding your gear and specific items, turning on the water, solving a dais puzzle, putting pieces together so as to get a special item that you can use to open the locked door of that room.

• Anniversary Manor gameplay
  

Burning Down The House: Tomb Raider Underworld (2008)

The Manor in Tomb Raider Underworld is part of the main game, although you get to play some sort of prelude version of it where it serves as a brief tutorial at the start. In the plotline of the game, we see part of the house in a cutscene where Lara, Alister, Zip and Winston are discussing in the tech room, where there is a secret crypt leading to the basement. When the actual gameplay of that section starts, Lara is already down there and an eery darkness lies ahead.

The game is called Underworld for some reason; Lara goes to explore the several mythical underworlds, but this research would never be complete if she didn't dig into her own family's 'underworld' - which is literally the basement and metaphorically the deeply hidden secrets. Following several clues discovered in the previous chapters of the game, Lara enters the crypt and goes down to the basement where the spiders and bats are the least of her worries.

There seems to be a whole world underneath, starting with a private chapel which is part of a puzzle. Solving this, opens the way to the next section which leads Lara to her father's secret study, a haunted and eery place where she makes some interesting discoveries and encounters a couple of strange, hostile creatures.

When she goes back up again, through another exit, she sees that the whole house is on fire. While running in panic to get out, she catches a glimpse of a figure, looking almost exactly like her; soon after, that figure attacks Alister and kills him, then running away through the flames. Lara doesn't know that yet, but that creature is an evil clone of hers, created by Natla, her old, eternal enemy.

A devastated Lara carries Alister's unconscious body out in the garden where Zip and Winston are waiting. The three of them stand and watch as the Croft Manor is burning down in a raging fire.

• Protected by the Dead: Underworld Manor gameplay

Secrets of the Past: Rise of the Tomb Raider - Blood Ties (2015)

The epic and adventurous Rise of the Tomb Raider has the Croft Manor in a separate mini game called Blood Ties. In that expedition, we find Lara in her mansion, having just received a letter from her uncle, her mother's brother, in which he claims the ownership of the house.

Lara is sure that there is a way to stop him, and that there are clues hidden in her father's safe. To open the safe, however, she needs to find the combination first. So she starts exploring the manor, finding relics, items, documents and other things that will lead her to the solution, while at the same time they bring back to her mind memories of her life in the house, her relationship with her father, with Winston, her mother, her uncle and her father's girlfriend, Anna. Once she finds the clues and opens the safe, there is another riddle that she has to figure out, which will open up a passage to her father's hidden vault. A revealing secret comes to the surface which, eventually, leads to her uncle resigning from his claims about the house.

Although the general architecture of the mansion is more or less the same with the previous versions, it has some differences. The library is organized in a different way, it looks bigger, it has a fireplace  and two upper sections with more bookcases. There is also a vintage gramophone which plays the "Venice Violins" theme from Tomb Raider 2 when you turn it on.

Lara's bedroom is inaccessible, but we have a chance to unlock and see the bedroom of Richard and Amelia Croft, as well as Amelia's atelier nearby. Amelia was a painter and there are several paintings that she left behind in that room, including a portrait of her husband.

The basement is more extended; it includes a complex network of corridors filled with rubble and water, and a spooky cellar which holds the secret entrance to Lord Croft's hidden study.

The house looks quite a mess; especially the West Wing which has been locked up since Lara's mother died. That section is very creepy, as it is dimly lit, the walls are half-destroyed and a huge tree has fallen inside one of the rooms.

There is neither gym nor pool room (Lara made those much later, after she started renovating the place) and Winston is nowhere to be found. When the puzzles and the riddles are solved, Lara is able to find the well-hidden crypt, where yet another secret awaits.

• Blood Ties gameplay

Zombies in the Mansion: Rise of the Tomb Raider - Lara's Nightmare (2015)

In this mini survival adventure which takes place in the Croft Manor, we become witnesses of Lara's nightmares where the eviction letter from her uncle takes monstrous dimensions and becomes a literal death threat.

In Lara's dream, her uncle releases an army of zombies in the house, and she is is trapped in there with no way out; her only salvation is to find the Master Key, destroy the skulls of rage (which are big skulls floating in the air) and confront the giant skull (a huge version of the other ones) in the main hall.

The manor is exactly the same as in Blood Ties, only now it is a dark and hostile place with scary sounds and eery, threatening voices heard every now and then and creepy zombies attacking from all directions.

In the sparse lighting, the West Wing looks even more haunting and all the rooms are potential traps as the zombies can crawl from everywhere. Your task here is to survive while looking for the three skulls of rage that you must destroy, before summoning the boss.

Of course it is not just Lara versus the giant skull; several zombies are attacking while you are trying to take the boss skull down. This becomes quite nasty, as the skull activates a protective shield from time to time, and while the shield is around it, it's immune to your shots. Obviously there is not much exploration you can do in the dark manor during all that hullabaloo as you will be constantly running, shooting, looting the dead zombies for ammo and resources and generally trying to survive in whichever way you can.

• Lara's Nightmare gameplay

Nights and Days of the Living Dead

If you have watched Night of The Living Dead by George A. Romero, you definitely remember the sequence where the characters are forced to lock themselves inside the farmhouse to fend off the approaching zombies. Since the movie's release, this scene has always been an iconic point of reference for almost every zombie-themed story that followed, because it's not a zombie-themed story until your characters get trapped in a place with no way out, while hordes of enemies are advnacing from all directions, with not exactly friendly intentions.

The claustrophobic atmosphere, reinforced by the sense of constant and progressive threat that is getting closer and closer, is the strongest element of these sequences, while the feeling of being cornered without knowing if and when they will be able to escape, is what mainly determines the actions of the characters involved.

The Cabin In Resident Evil 4  

The enemies in Resident Evil 4 are not zombies, but mutated humans who have been infected with the Plagas and have become Lord Saddler's puppets. Although there are several situations in the game where you have to make it safe through attacks from all sides, it's in the cabin just outside Pueblo village, where you meet Luis Sera for the second time, that the Night of the Living Dead feel is actually revived. Leon escapes from the village with Ashely and as they are crossing a wooden bridge, they see a solitary cabin nearby. Hunnigan calls Leon to inform him that the chopper that was going to get them was shot down, therefore forcing them to just keep going until another one is sent instead.

Leon and Ashley spot the cabin from a distance

As they reach the other end of the bridge, they are alerted by loud voices; it's a mob of angry villagers that apparently were following them and managed to catch up with them at that point. It seems that they have no other choice than to run and hide in that solitary cabin.

The villagers appear out of nowhere at the far end of the bridge

Upon getting inside, they are greeted by Luis Sera who, despite the tension of the situation, still has the nerve to pick on Ashley. The villagers are closing in, however, so Leon sends her upstairs to hide, while he gets ready to fight against the approaching enemies with Luis.

Leon and Luis are clearly getting prepared for the battle

This fight can get a bit too tough, mostly when you are in a New Game playthrough on Professional difficulty, as at that point you have very few weapons in your inventory and they are not upgraded enough to make them super-powerful and your max health is still very limited. Moreover, although you can block the windows of the cabin with the cupboards that are in the room, you will simply delay the intruders, as in due time they will smash through all sorts of barriers anyway (except for the door which seems to be made of iron or something) and jump in the room.

The exit door is securely shut, but the villagers use the windows instead

Thankfully, Ashley is safely hidden in a closet upstairs and Luis is there to help Leon out with his notable aiming skills as well as his stash of infinite ammo which he not only uses to shoot and kill the angry villagers, but also generously offers to Leon.

Soon the villagers get inside the cabin with extremely hostile intentions

As soon as the villagers gain access to the interior of the cabin, the party starts. It's safe to have Leon stand at a corner or on top of the staircase and let Luis do most of the hard work. Several villagers will turn to plaga parasites when they are shot in the head, and if this happens, you may be forced to use one of your valuable flash grenades against them, to save ammo from your shotgun.

You can use a flash grenade to stun the villagers, but not all of them will be affected

Sooner or later, the attackers will notice the existence of the upstairs windows and they will start bringing ladders to attack from there as well. This happens usually after a set amount of enemies are defeated. At that point, Leon and Luis have to run to the upper floor and try to defend the place as much as they can. This is particularly tough, because the villagers will be arriving not only from the windows but also from the lower floor via the staircase.

The upper floor has a lot more entry points than the lower one

Once on the upper floor, you have to hold out for a few minutes, fighting against the villagers in any way that you can. It's convenient to keep running around, knocking off the ladders from the windows so as to prevent more villagers from climbing up, thus gaining time, and try to shoot the enemies if they get too threatening.

The enemies will be using ladders to get in from the upper floor windows

Soon enough, the villagers will back away, at which point Luis will walk off in a hurry without giving any explanation, leaving Leon and Ashley to move on with their journey.

The Public Assembly in Resident Evil 5

This sequence takes place in plain daylight and most of its action occurs in a big exterior marketplace, however it has its fair share of creepiness and claustrophobic feel, as the whole area has its exit gate locked, and there's no other way out. Just like in Resident Evil 4, the enemies are not zombies; they are mutated humans who actually share a lot of common elements with the Spanish villagers.

Soon after Chris and Sheva meet and get their equipment from an associate, they attempt to leave the village but not after they get chased by a horde of infected residents. While moving on, they arrive at a shack leading to a small yard with a padlocked exit.

The shack is on lower ground, which means that you can't go back once you jump down to get in

From the safety of the shack, they watch as a large group of infected villagers listen to an agitator yelling incomprehensible ravings and subsequently witness the brutal public execution of the associate that sold them their equipment minutes ago.

Chris and Sheva watch in horror as Reynard is being decapitated in front of their eyes

It's not long before the agitator spots them hiding behind one of the windows of the shack, and orders the angry mob to attack them and kill them. Chris and Sheva must then stay in place and try to defend themselves with any means that they can, while waiting for another member of the team, Kirk, to arrive with help.

The infected villagers rush to the shack to kill the intruders

The shack resembles a lot the cabin from Resident Evil 4; it even has similar cupboards with which you can block the entry points (door and windows) to gain time as you prepare for the battle. They' re not much use though, because the villagers are able to get in from the open back door as well.

You should change your waiting spots very often, otherwise you will be overwhelmed by enemies

Instead of just waiting inside the shack for the enemies to arrive, it may be better to jump out to the narrow yard just before the padlocked gate. The villagers will be arriving from above the gate, from behind the walls, even from inside the shack. If you manage to stay at the corners, you are more likely to stay alive, as you can easily spot the approaching enemies.

Try to keep your partner close, so as to lessen the danger of her/him being killed

Beyond the gate is the open marketplace, which is secured by another gate at the other end. On top of the high platform where the execution just took place, the agitator is still there, yelling through his loudspeaker. It's not a bad idea to try and shoot him dead early on, not only to stop his annoying shouting, but more importantly because if he stops yelling, while the villagers may not calm down, at least they won't get angrier.

Chris puts an end to the agitator's shouts once and for all

At some point, more villagers will start jumping down from a hole in the ceiling of the shack, while at almost the same time the guy who decapitated Reynard, the horrifying and gigantic Executioner, will appear, walking towards the padlocked gate. Surprisingly enough, this is a good thing, as long as you keep your distance from him. He will use his huge axe to break the gate down, allowing Chris and Sheva to exit out to the open area.

There are several high spots around the place on where you can climb and shoot enemies from there. You can go up the execution platform (luckily neither the headless corpse of Reynard nor his head will be there), but the Executioner is also able to reach you from the staircase at the back, so you can't stay safe for long.

When the executioner decides to attack you with his axe, he will most likely hit you

Another relatively safe place is the top of a burnt bus, but again you can't stay there for long as the villagers will start arriving from everywhere around, even from sides that have no ladders to climb.

The villagers are unstoppable and will attack Chris and Sheva no matter where they go

The safest spot in the marketplace is the high roof closer to the shack. Although enemies will still be climbing up and getting to Chris and Sheva, they have only two entry points in their disposition, and those entry points can be easily watched without much hassle. Moreover, the Executioner is unable to climb up there, which leaves you with the option to forget about him and not bother fighting him; instead you can simply wait up there, killing any approaching villager, until Kirk appears.

The safe roof high up provides a great observation spot from where you can watch all movements 

After what seems a really long time, Kirk finally arrives with his chopper and he breaks the exit gate down wth his rocket launcher, allowing Chris and Sheva to pass through and get on with their mission.


The Gun Shop in Resident Evil 6

A reminiscent of Resident Evil 2, the whole Chapter 1 of Leon's campaign from Resident Evil 6 pays tribute to the classic game, with its Gun Shop section nodding to Kendo's gun shop and what happened there. The enemies here are the good old zombies, making this sequence one of the most closely related to the Night of the Living Dead one.

While in the town of Tall Oaks, Leon and Helena come across a group of survivors at a gas station and offer them a bit of help before they are all forced to back off and seek refuge at a gun shop which is close by. The gun shop apparently belongs to a friend of the rookie police officer, who is one of the survivors of the gas station.

Leon, Helena and the survivors arrive at the gun shop from its back door

The gun shop is quite big, meaning you have lots of room to move; moreover, the survivors will all be armed, shooting and killing zombies as they can, although the higher the difficulty, the less help they will offer. This section is split in three main parts (four if you also count the conclusion, which however takes place in a bus).

In the first part, Leon and Helena get inside the gun shop with the other survivors, while the owner of the store has locked himself upstairs, refusing to allow anyone to get in the room where he is hiding. You have to hold out for quite a while, until he finally decides to offer refuge to the group.

The gun shop is almost entirely dark, strengthening the creepiness of the sequence

When the group gets in, the owner who is locked upstairs informs them that he is not willing to allow them to hide with him as long as there are zombies around. Pretty soon, a large number of zombies smell human flesh and start approaching the gun shop from all sides.

The zombies are getting closer to the gun shop

The store has several windows, offering a good deal of entry points to the approaching zombies. You can shoot quite a few of them while they are still on the street and before they manage to make it to the windows, but sooner or later the survivors will be outnumbered and eventually the zombies will be getting in the one after the other.

The zombies are too slow and stupid, but are still able to dodge your bullets

There is no safe spot in the gun shop, except maybe the stairs at the back; the advantage of that place is that no one will be able to attack from the back and you can be ready to shoot dead anything that approaches from the bottom of the staircase. However, since the action in this section depends heavily on your character, it's better to stay down with the rest of the survivors and simply try to avoid getting badly hurt.

Group work is very effective in this stage

At some point, there is a tense conflict between Peter and Nancy, two members of the survivors who also happen to be a couple. Peter's gun is empty and he wants to take Nancy's gun; of course she doesn't want to give it because she needs it to defend herself, Peter however manages to grab it and then jumps out of a window in rage, thinking that it is smarter to run out on the street than stay inside. After a few minutes, he shoots a zombie in the head and the zombie mutates into a Bloodshot, an extremely vicious zombie variation which immediately attacks him and kills him.

This is the first time in the game that you get to see a Bloodshot, which is an unforgettable experience. The Bloodshot, after having killed Peter, moves toward the gun shop and if you don't shoot it enough to kill it while it is still outside, it will jump in the store, attacking everyone in its own unique way.

The Bloodshot is more bloodthirsty than the common zombies, and much stronger too

Several dead zombies later, and after Leon reassures him that the coast is clear, the owner unlocks the upper floor room and the action is transferred there. That room leads to the roof, but to make sure everyone makes it up there safe, the shutters of the windows must be closed so as to prevent the zombies from following the group to the roof.

The survivors take a momentary rest before getting back to action

You have a few seconds to catch your breath, during which the gun shop owner informs the group that a friend of his will be arriving shortly to get them in a bus, before zombies will start appearing from the opposite apartments and balconies and will be getting in to the room from the windows. Several of these zombies are potential Bloodshots, so it's better to avoid shooting them in the head.

There are zombies on the upper balconies, that can be easily overlooked

When the shutters are closed, the owner unlocks the next room, which is a small hall of sorts. As soon as the survivors get inside, they are attacked by a very fat zombie, the Whopper. It is unclear how such a huge creature managed to get that high up and from where he actually entered, but the point is that you have to kill him so as to be able to continue. Sometimes, while the Whopper is still around, a few zombies will start entering from the windows of the new room, making your life even more difficult than it already is.

The Whopper is able to come speeding towards you and knock you down

After the Whopper is defeated, everyone runs up to the roof. While it's a relief to be out in the open again, technically you are still stranded as the exit door is still locked and zombies are approaching from the nearby roofs. Moreover the owner of the gun shop, who has the keys of the exit, is knocked off the terrace by a zombie; he manages to grab the railing but it takes a while until he manages to get back up again with the help of the survivors.

Although you are already outside, the claustrophobic atmosphere remains

Now you have to deal not only with the standard zombies, but with a Whopper and a Bloodshot as well. Given the limited space of the terrace, this becomes more or less a nightmare. You can run inside and down the staircase leading to the second floor room, but you will end up cornered sooner or later. Placing remote bombs to hurt or even kill groups of enemies, however, seems to be more effective.

You will need more than one remote bombs to kill a Whopper or a Bloodshot

You have to wait a few more minutes on the terrace before the bus arrives down on the street. All this time, zombies will be appearing from the roofs and the terraces around, to keep you occupied and add more spice to your life.

Zombies spawn endlessly from the nearby buildings as long as you remain on the terrace

When the bus arrives, the gun shop owner unlocks the exit and everyone gets down from the fire escape. They manage to get on the bus, but they cannot leave yet because another huge Whopper is blocking the way.

When you defeat the last Whopper, it's a matter of time before you are able to leave

Once the Whopper is killed, Leon urges the bus driver to get the vehicle going, which he does, leaving a zombie-infested hell behind, only to get in another.

The Cathedral Yard in Resident Evil 6

The bus that has taken Leon, Helena and a few other survivors from the Tall Oaks gunshop to transfer them to the Cathedral is attacked by an army of zombies just outside the town. As a result, the vehicle tumbles over a hill, crashes and catches fire, leaving Leon and Helena the sole survivors at the cemetery outside the church.

After a fast-paced sequence among the graves which involves dealing woth zombies, chasing a specific zombie dog so as to kill it and grab the key that it holds, then dashing along yet one more section with mausoleums, they finally arrive at the Cathedral.

The Cathedral looks both imposing and creepy in the darkness

Once Leon and Helena enter the yard of the Tall Oaks Cathedral, they cannot get back out and as if this wasn't enough, the civilians that are locked up inside the church won't let them in as they are afraid that the zombies will burst through as soon as the door opens. Leon and Helena have to hold out for several minutes, fighting against all sorts of undead creatures, until one of the survivors in the Cathedral first decides to help them out from an upper window and then to finally open the gate, allowing them to get inside.

So many zombies, so little time

The yard is quite vast, and since it has just one simple iron fence around it, the zombies are able to climb up from practically everywhere. There is a series of actions however which can decrease significantly the time you have to spend there.

Τhe game expects you to do certain things yourself before giving you the green light

Place a remote bomb when lots of zombies are nearby, then make it explode to to kill a large number of them. The enemies in Resident Evil 6 are smart enough to back away when they sense danger, but if you are fast and manage to outsmart them by running around so that they can't tell from where exactly you will attack, you should have no problem gathering them close to you in order to surprise them with a bomb.

If set correctly, the remote bomb will tear all nearby zombies to pieces

Assuming you defeated a good amount of them this way, the church bells will start ringing, summoning even more and wilder enemies; because apart from the standard zombies, now Leon and Helena will also have to deal with Shriekers and Bloodshots. The Shriekers are mostly harmless if you keep a distance from them (with the exception of their chilling yell, which can do you damage); what they mostly do is walk around while trying to spot a convenient place to stand and summon zombies with their shout.

Whenever a Shrieker appears outside the yard, he brings several Bloodshots along

The Bloodshots however are literally merciless murderers; they are extremely fast and vicious and can attack in several ways. While you can kill them with one specific counter-attack, this is not always easy to do and most of the times you will end up on the ground, while they are biting the hell out of you.

Dealing with all those Bloodshots in the yard can get particularly stressing

Kill the first Shrieker that appears, and the brave guy from inside the church will appear at the high window, supposedly helping with killing zombies from there. It would be a good idea to subsequently kill a bloodshot or two if you haven't already, to speed things up.

The brave guy offers to give you a hand but it's unclear whether he does manage to kill anything

Kill the second Shrieker that shows up soon after, and the brave guy will call you to get inside. This won't be an easy task though, as naturally a swarm of zombies (preferably Bloodshots) will be blocking your way, not to mention that your partner will be somewhere else at that point, allowing the enemies to attack you while you are waiting, and several times kill you, especially on higher difficulties where they are insanely strong and your health decreases dramatically with each hit.

The Bloodhsots are extremely resilient and won't give up that easily

Eventually your partner will join you (hopefully) and you will be able to get inside the Cathedral to seek some temporary safety.

The Wossek Inn in Revelations 2

This section is a bit different from the others, in that the characters do not remain locked in the whole time; however they still have to survive for a certain amount of time without being able to run away.

Claire and Moira, after escaping from the prison, move on to a fishing village, where they meet up with two of their kidnapped colleagues, Gabe and Pedro, at the Wossek Inn. Actually this is (or rather, used to be) a tavern, where the game's arch-villain, Alex Wesker, informs them all via the bracelets that she had attached round their wrists that she has injected them with a virus which responds to fear, and she is going now to test who is immune to it and who isn't.

Although you are in the inn from the start of the stage, it's not until much later that you are trapped in there

Just before they are able to escape with a chopper that Gabe found and was subsequently repaired by items found by Claire and Moira in the village, Alex sets off the siren that is attached to the inn's roof, summoning the enemies against the group. These enemies used to be humans, who had been injected with the same virus as the Terra Save members, and badly mutated due to torture and abuse. So although technically they are not zombies, they are pretty close to that.

While Gabe is left repairing the chopper, Claire, Moira and Pedro run back to the inn and lock themselves in as the enemies start approaching from all directions.

As you make your way back to the inn to stop the siren, you come across several enemies blocking the way

The Wossek Inn has many windows on its walls, which seem fragile but are not so easily broken. Claire, Moira and Pedro are able to kill many enemies before some of them are actually able to break the glass and the protective bars and jump in the room.

The infected villagers have a hideous appearance and attack in very violent ways

While trying to fend off the attackers, Claire and Moira also have to talk some sense into Pedro who, although helps out a bit by shooting at the enemies, is extremely scared and keeps crying, whimpering and babbling about his bad luck.

Pedro panics almost as soon as the ambush starts, unlike the girls who remain relatively calm

After some time, the enemies stop arriving, only to appear again sooner or later. This time, they don't just bang the windows from the outside, they jump into the room without the slightest hesitation. All this time, the exit gate is locked and you cannot open it even if you try.

Pedro becomes even more panicked, and runs behind the counter to hide, while Claire and Moira are struggling to defend themselves against the attackers.

Pedro is unable to control himself and his fear

Minutes later, his fear becomes so strong, that the virus he carries gets activated and mutates him tunrning him into a vicious monster with killer instinct. It's no good that, a bit earlier, he found a drill which he unfortunately had on him when he mutated, and which instantly became his lethal weapon.

Mutated Pedro uses the drill to attack Claire and Moira

Dealing with Pedro is quite nasty on its own, as he is very strong and won't go down that easily. As if this wasn't enough to bug you, in a few minutes the door will burst open and more enemies will join the party, taking the whole sequence to a new level of frustration. At this point, since the door is now open, you have the option to run out and hide in the village, but more enemies will be spawning from everywhere, so it might be better to remain inside the inn and try to kill Pedro there.

Alternatively, you can just avoid him and not bother with him, in which case it's a good idea to run and hide in the village, moving from one place to another so as to not become dead meat by his drill.

The mutated villagers join their new friend Pedro in his killing party

If you have powerful weapons and enough ammo in your inventory, you may want to kill Pedro anyway, however, since this way you will make Barry's life easier later. Killing Pedro doesn't necessarily guarantee that your troubles are over, though, as more enemies are still likely to show up from the village.

If you kill Pedro quickly, you will need to wait a bit more until you are able to escape

At some point, Neil (Claire and Moira's boss at Terra Save who had also been kidnapped) arrives from above the inn and lowers a ladder, giving you access to the roof. The girls have to run and join him quickly, before the enemies catch up.

Neil doesn't jump down to help the girls against the enemies; they have to run and climb up to meet him instead

Once they are safe up on the roof, the three of them follow a narrow path which leads to the locked exit. Neil jumps over the gate to open it from the other side, while Claire and Moira are waiting at the end of the path.

You may need to shoot a few random enemies while waiting for Neil to open the exit

After Neil opens the gate, the escape is definitive, and the three of them move on to the deserted town of the island.