Resident Evil - an honest review (Resident Evil (PC))

Member Name: Blerk

Product:	Resident Evil (PC)
Date:	01/12/00 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scary! Lovely backdrops, fun zombies, good replay value.

Disadvantages: Clunky controls, flick-screen, long loading waits.

It's widely accepted that Capcom invented the survival horror genre with their first Resident Evil game. People who have played 'Alone in the Dark' by Infogrammes might well disagree, as the whole concept of the Resi games seems to have been ripped off from that series... but we'll let Capcom off for now, for they did a fine job in 'borrowing' the idea for their own series.

Resident Evil puts you into the shoes of a member of a special police squad called S.T.A.R.S. When weird things are reported at a mansion near the small town of Raccoon, you and you team helicopter in to check things out. Unfortunately things don't go to plan - you are attacked by some kind of dog pack and some of your members killed, the rest of you being forced to split up and take refuge in a nearby abandoned mansion. Or, at least, it was supposed to be abandoned.

Soon after arriving you discover that the mansion is being used by an organisation called Umbrella as a test facility for it's new biological weapon, the T-Virus. Something's gone wrong, however, and the whole house is now crawling with the living dead... You can't leave, it's too dangerous - your only hope is to find some other way to escape, hopefully destroying the house and its evil occupants on the way.

The game is a weird hybrid of arcade and adventure. You view your character from a variety of camera angles, but mainly from behind and above. You and the bad guys are all nicely-modelled polygons, but the scenery and non-moving parts of the mansion are lovingly created as rendered backdrops. Indeed, it's the backdrops which will first grab you when you start playing the game - they are really excellent (although we've since seen much better, they were some of the finest graphics on the Playstation when the game first came out). Because of the pre-rendered backdrops, the mansion isn't totally 3D - instead you'll find that as you near the edge o
f the screen it will flick and show you a bit more of the room (and possibly from a new camera angle). This might sound nasty, but it actually works quite well.

Movement around the house is fairly tricky to begin with given that you rotate your character and go backwards or forwards (rather than having full directional control), but you soon get used to it. It can be a bit unweildy when faced with a horde of marauding zombies, though.

And the zombies are probably one of the best things in the game. They're nicely modelled (if a little stiff, if you'll pardon the pun) and move just like the dead guys you'll have seen in any George Romero flick. One shot is seldom enough to drop them, and even once they're down they sometimes get back up unless you take their heads off with a handy shotgun. But with ammo very limited, you often find that turning and running is a better option on the less dangerous beasts - they're often slow enough to dodge around.

Moving around the house you will occasionally be given segments of FMV which enhance the plot for you, and as you solve the puzzles which are presented to you the house will open up further, revealing more and more areas (it's a pretty big mansion!). The puzzles are mainly of the fairly simple 'find the right object and use it in the right place' variety, but there are occasional puzzles which will tax you a little more.

The selling point of the Resi series, however, is the tension. And the shocks. Resident Evil is genuinely scary - especially the first time through when you've no idea what is coming next. Several times you will drop the joypad in terror when something unspeakable bursts through a window or drops from the ceiling, and it's this which makes the game work - without it you'd just have a fairly average half-adventure half-shooter. The fact that you don't know what's coming next makes the game very addictive, and I can almos
t guarantee that you'll want to play it right through to the end.

All is not completely right with the game, however. Aside from the slightly clunky controls (as mentioned above), the camera angles can sometimes be a bit annoying - especially when the shot changes while you're being attacked, often completely disorienting you. Moving between rooms in the mansion also requires the PS to access the game CD and while this is happening you are shown a picture of a door opening. This doesn't take very long (five or so seconds), but when moving long distances over the house you can find it pretty annoying. By far the worst thing in the whole game, however, is the acting in the video sequences! The voices are just terrible - the actors sound like first year media studies students, and this can often make the clips hilarious when they're supposed to be scary. This is a shame, as the sound and music are very atmospheric and really add to the game.

However, if you make the best of these few faults, the rest of the game more than makes up for it. It's fun, it's scary and it'll last you a fairly long time - especially seeing as you can play as two different characters, each with a slightly different story. Although Resident Evil 2 and 3 are far better games in terms of technical achievement, the gameplay between the three remains much the same. Couple this with the fact that this first instalment is now available for the knockdown bargain price of £9.99 and you really have no excuse for not giving it a try. If you've never played a Resi game then here's as good a place to start as any.

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