Let's continue. When we last left Claire, we had just gotten hold of some C4 and a detonator, ready to blow a hole in the wall to get into Chief Irons' office. Personally, I think the explosives could be put to better use in getting us the hell out of here, but whatever.
We also picked up a lighter from Marvin's desk. This thing is so small that Claire could just store it in her bra, but it takes up the same amount of space as a damn grenade launcher With this in hand we can take a short detour to that creepy painting we saw earlier.
So now we have the second red jewel, we can put it in the other bust in the room next to Irons' office.
What is it with all these complicated contraptions being used to store mundane trinkets!
Inside is a broken half of the blue 'Serpent Stone', which means we're probably going to have to find the other half at some point and join them. I'm half expecting being required to run halfway around the police station in order to find some sellotape to put them together.
So with the explosives set, it's BOOM TIME
Claire demonstrates that three yards is an acceptable distance to stand safely away from high powered plastic munitions.
Into Irons' office! Let's get some answers!
Oh God, I'm so sorry for interrupting. I should have knocked first. I'll leave now and I promise I won't tell anyone I saw anything. I...hang on, what?
Leon?
"And that's the last time she forgets to record The Great British Bake Off while I'm at work!"
Ol' Brian Irons here is to have us believe that everything that has happened is an unfortunate accident, and that the corpse in front of him is the mayor's daughter, who sadly died due to his inability to protect her from the zombie invasion. Even though EVERYTHING we've seen up to this point, from the notes from his secretary to the fact that he just turned around in his chair like a smurfing Bond villain and waved a gun in Claire's face has indicated that this guy is a murderous psychopath with ulterior motives. I'm sorry Chief, but I smell bulltrout here.
Of course, Claire takes it all at face value and leaves him to it.
Right, let's get out of here. After all that effort to get the damn bomb...
trout! This little bitch is trying to steal our gun! You can't do that, you've got a whole solo section coming up where you're supposed to be unarmed!
"OVERHEAD BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEX EXPERTLY APPLIED"
After getting her to calm down, we find that this girl (that we encountered earlier) is Sherry Birkin, the daughter of William Birkin, the guy who developed the G-Virus and is responsible for this whole mess. Were we in the middle east, Claire would just shoot her here and now as some sort of referred punishment, and save ourselves a whole lot of future bother. Also notice the pendant around her neck that is definitely not a plot device that will play a part in the game later on.
No sooner does Claire decide to make it her life mission to get Sherry out of Raccoon City safe and sound, that Sherry just turns around and runs off, while Claire just stands there. I hope she never becomes a mother. Let's move.
Irons has disappeared, and taken his corpse with him. That painting behind his chair does look awfully 3D rendered...
*groan*
Time to get the pieces to put in here, I suppose...
An interrogation room. Right, we all know what happens here. We've seen it before. Just stay calm.
It's just a mirror. Just take what we need and get out. Cool as a cucumber.
Right, we've got it. Just be cool, be cool, be coo-
JESUS smurf EVERY smurfING TIME
That's two pairs of underwear ruined.
Now we're down in the basement of the police station, and we're reunited with everyone's least favourite dobermans. Funnily enough, this area is pretty much the only place in the game we'll be fighting these things, given the ubiquity of them in RE1. We're looking for the last of the 'suit' keys - the club key. Why it was hidden down here is not for us to ponder. Let's look around.
smurf. That. trout. Next!
The next room along is a generator room with an absurd switch puzzle.
You have to flick the switches (which make the power gauge go up) so that you end up with 80 volts, which powers up a card reader for a door around the corner. No, this doesn't make any sense.
Continue on a bit and we run into Sherry again. How the hell did you get down here without the right keys?
Claire once again proves that she is useless by losing her again. Do I smell a solo segment?
Meet Sherry. She is small, slow, and completely unarmed apart from a first aid spray and a tearjerker family photo. Strangely enough, she can also take more hits than Claire before copping it .
Luckily, the only enemies we have to face are two dobermans that are chilling out at this...substation I guess? Are we outside? I thought we were in the basement?
Long story short, Sherry runs around a bit and comes up with our coveted Club key and a stash of grenades for the grenade launcher. Even better, she then buggers off again.
Okay, I guess it's time to go into the Autopsy Room...
This is not a good idea.
A curiously rendered coffin door?
Oh Capcom, you silly snakes.
Inside the cupboard is the card key for the door we mentioned earlier.
"Hi, my name is Solomon. I'd like to talk to you about God"
FOR GOD'S SAKE WHY DID I EVEN COME IN HERE
Okay, time to use the card key.
Inside is a locker with a choice of two items, or both. The catch which Capcom don't tell you about is that whatever you take, Leon won't be able to on the B Scenario. Seeing as you're never really that far from an item box and I'm just too damn stingy to ever use the submachine gun, we'll leave them both for Leon. Claire is such a giving person.
Onwards and upwards!
In here is nothing but an unfortunate bloke who sleeps every night next to a box of grenades, and presumably died protecting them. That's it. We just went all the way through the basement to find a hidden key that unlocks some cop's smurfing dorm room. The key unlocks one more door, however...
Another puzzle. Good job I brought the lighter even though I was given absolutely no indication that I would need it, otherwise I'd have to run all the way back to the basement.
More junk!
When walking into the library, Claire is startled by zombies breaking the windows in a corridor on a completely different floor. We have no reason at all to go back there, so what is the point of this threat?
And now...the Raccoon City Police Station...clock tower. A clock tower. In a police station. Yep.
Is...could this be...a job for the crank!?!? Finally! Shame I didn't bring the damn thing. Back to the item box...
5-minuteslater.jpg
A hidden staircase.
And here's where we put the cog we just picked up. Now we can get the clock going again, because this is one of the first things that needs to be done during a zombie outbreak.
The other half of the stone. We don't need sellotape, thank God.
Back to Irons' office to place our stones in - oh, smurfing hell.
Slip the stones into the wall, and...
Another secret passageway!
That's finally the end of the Police Station for us. Don't worry, it only gets more farfetched from here.