The game which launched perhaps one of the most successful survival horror franchises of all time. Resident Evil was, at the time, a unique awe inspiring and down right brilliant game which, given its age, doesn't do too badly in today's world either.

Following perhaps one of the most appallingly acted inro sequences in the history of everything, the player is thrust into either the role of STARS members Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine (depending on who you selected) with each taking you on a slightly different route through the story to uncover the horrible truth.

The games main location is a huge mansion which has clearly been built by someone with a security complex. Pretty much every door and lock you need to get through is only operable with the use of a key or object placed as far away from that location as possible and only attainable by solving a complex puzzle. But that's what this brand of survival horror is about. You search rooms and areas for clues about how to access the next while all along fighting your way (with limited ammo) through hoards of zombies and other mutated creatures.

Every now and again the action is interrupted by some more plot, which on the whole is hilarious to listen to (A particular favourite of mine is when Barry Burton jovially says to Jill "you almost became a Jill sandwich" after a particular puzzle goes wrong and the ceiling lowers nearly squashing our heroin).

But one thing to remember all along is that this is the game which launched the franchise. This is the effort which led to other mainstream survival horror titles being created (Silent Hill series, Dino Crisis series etc) and for that we have to be incredibly thankful. What this game now lacks in terms of story, graphics, sound and voice acting must be forgiven as 1996 was the year that a new era of gaming took place and arguably took over.

With that in mind 1996 was a very good year for games and Resident Evil was a very good start to an incredible gaming genre.

Resident Evil


Developer:
Capcom Production Studio 4
Westwood Studios (PC Port)
Nextech (Saturn port)

Publisher:
Capcom
Virgin Interactive (Europe and PC version only)
Nintendo Australia (Gamecube and DS)
THQ Asia Pacific (Wii)

Director:
Shinji Mikami

Producer(s) Tokuro Fujiwara
Masayoshi Kurokawa
Masayuki Akahori

Writer(s) Scenario:
Kenichi Iwao

Background story:
Yasuyuki Saga

Composer(s)
Makoto Tomozawa
Akari Kaida
Masami Ueda

Release date:

March 22, 1996

Mode:

Single player