The Ramblings of Guise Dugal

I’ve read a few places on the internet that comment about how crazy the security systems and puzzles are in the Resident Evil games when dealing with the research facilities and other workplaces of the Umbrella Corporation.

The most common examples of the perceived insanity tend to include the train with brake systems that require the completion of mathematic problems at both ends of the train, finding the right combinations to unlock seemingly mundane areas of the building or physical versions of logic problems.

These often seem to be crazy to the player, and in some cases the character, as they explore the facilities and make it so that there is a feeling that this would be completely unworkable in the real world. However, I’d like to put an alternative view across: We aren’t smart enough to be Umbrella employees.

I know that might seem as a simplistic statement, and indeed it is, but even the characters we play in the games aren’t, for the most part, smart enough to be Umbrella employees. Umbrella recruits highly trained doctors, professors in wide ranging fields, mathematicians and engineers. It would not be a far leap to expect Umbrella to recruit people above degree level, even custodial staff may be required to pass numerous IQ and personality assessments.

If you’ve ever commuted to work on public transport, you’ll spot people in business suits doing sudoku and crosswords. If you’ve seen documentaries on hackers and computer specialists, you’ll have seen how the most successful tend to frequently challenge themselves with logic problems or cryptographic puzzles. In fact, MIT have a longstanding tradition in things like their puzzle hunts calling on a broad spectrum of knowledge and physical activities like urban exploration and construction (usually for elaborate pranks).

If instead of thinking of the Umbrella facilities as a deserted, zombie-infested labyrinth you consider that the facility was filled with high IQ technicians who frequently challenged themselves – and whom the corporation actively encouraged to test themselves to keep skills fresh – then you could well see that these puzzles may actually just be a distraction from the grind and something that, because it is part of life there, could probably be solved in a heartbeat by the regular occupants.

Puzzles in the system may well be set by other employees as an acceptable prank that, at most, would get rolled eyes by supervisors and as long as it didn’t interfere with anyone else’s work, and was switched off before visits by the executives, then a blind eye was usually turned.

No doubt if there were employees left whilst we explored the facilities, they’d be of great help in getting past puzzles, it would be second nature to them. Sadly, we are strangers to the Umbrella corporation and therefore find the concepts strange and see only problems.

Umbrella embraces genius and challenges its employees to improve themselves and hone their skills. Umbrella are a good employer, we just aren’t smart enough to work for them.