Resident Evil (Gamecube, 2002)
There once was a game called Resi,
Which was given to me as a prezzie,
But most people cannot
Get their heads round the plot,
Because post-"Nemesis" it gets messy.
I'm a bit torn on remakes. On the one hand, the cynic in me sees them as a mere cash-in for companies who don't want to develop anything new. You see a lot of these nowadays - why bother making a new God of War/Uncharted/Tomb Raider, when you can simply re-release the last console edition with slightly shinier graphics? On the other hand, if done right, remakes or re-releases can improve upon faults found in the original, and also give a new generation the chance to experience games they have missed the first time around. Which category does the usually-dubbed "REmake" fall into? Let's find out...
I was umming and ahhing about doing the original 1995 Resident Evil today, but I decided to go with the Gamecube version for two reasons. Firstly, I never actually owned a PSOne until many years later, and as such this was the very first experience I had owning a Resident Evil game. Secondly, this game was recently re-released on PSN (and I assume X-Box Live, but don't quote me on that) and quickly became the quickest selling game in Capcom's history. As such, this game clearly has some mass appeal, and because I use the replies I get on this thread to measure my worth as a human being, I figured I'd go for the version that more of you have likely played.
Whilst this was the first Resident Evil game I owned, that doesn't mean it was the first one I played. My best friend growing up did have a Playstation, and so occasionally we would sit in their room and play Resident Evil (or rather, I would watch them play it). Despite it being a game which I only had a brief encounter with, certain moments have stuck with me - "Jill sandwich", beating that creepy shack with the plant, and defeating Yawn the Snake only to collapse from poison afterwards. Some people have childhood memories of Disney and playing in the park, mine was full of zombies and terrible voice-acting!
Speaking of the voice acting, Resident Evil certainly has it's detractors, and not without reason. The voice-acting is hilariously bad, although personally I think this adds to it's charm, making it akin to B-movie horrors that it clearly mimics. The controls are basically what makes or breaks this for you. The "tank" controls, as they're known, means that left and right rotate your character, rather than turn them that way in relation to the screen. This is because the screen viewpoint changes often, and as such you could find yourself running away from a zombie only to suddenly find yourself running towards them again. Many people, especially newcomers, find this far too disorientating to get to grips with, and I will admit that for the first few times I was begging for a Mario 64 style camera and controls. But I got used to it fairly well, and although they're far from perfect, Resident Evil (at least the first two games) trade on their atmosphere, and the camera angles are very deliberately set up for that.
Yes, it may be annoying that you cannot see everything from the camera. But that's part of the point - you can't see what's in the darkness, round that corner, with only flickering shadows and muffled groans to give you a clue of what horrors await you. The visuals might be uncooperative, but your imagination will light the gloom up like a firecracker, and ultimately that's why this game can officially be called "survival horror". There actually aren't that many enemies in the game, which makes all those encounters you do get (especially on harder settings) much more intense. The downside to this is that the replay value is sadly lacking - once you know your way around, and where the enemies are/aren't, that fear of exploring the unknown is gone. But that first genuine runthrough, the one you have with no help, no idea, breathless hush in the dark of night... you'll remember that forever. That's what real scares are made of, not the quasi-CoD gameplay that modern Resi has become.
So why get this over the original? Have Capcom made enough changes to make this a worthwhile purchase? Honestly, and surprisingly, yes! Firstly the visuals have been given a massive overhaul, which increases the feel massively. The Playstation version is good but very well-lit, whereas the darkness and shadows of the remake really do help the set-dressing. The graphics are exceptionally well done, to the point where I feel the pre-rendered backgrounds actually still hold up well over a decade later (every picture in this review is a screenshot, no cutscenes here!). The music is usual Resi fare, lots of tinkling pianos and soft cellos, like they've raided the Goldeneye sound library. They've also added little extra challenges, such as the death masks, and have altered a couple of the puzzles to keep older fans invested. The biggest change to me is the new "crimson head" enemy, who are a real nightmare to deal with. Basically when you kill a zombie, some of them don't stay dead - they lie around for a bit, making you think you're safe. And then, after a bit, they get back up again - super strong, super fast, and very much after the person you killed them (well, re-killed them... they were dead in the first place). The only way to stop them from re-emerging again is to burn the corpses with kerosene, which is in very short supply. Oh, and they can go through doors too, meaning you can no longer escape from one area to the next. Eep.
Many people were surprised when this game sold so well and so quickly, but honestly they shouldn't have been. A bit like Doom with the FPS genre, Resident Evil wasn't the first survival horror game but it did make it famous. This isn't so much a remake but a rebuilding, recreated from the ground up, and the results are very impressive. Those who don't like Resident Evil, or those who have just experienced later games will no doubt scoff here, but if you have never played the original two games, this is what it's supposed to be - blindly exploring a haunted house, entering every room with trepidation, and using items from the family trophy cabinet to solve puzzles. I really like it... but then again, I am a zombie.
4. Itchy. Tasty.
Statistics: Posted by Highlight — Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:05 am