Resident Evil: Remake - "THE" game to have! (Resident Evil (PS))

Member Name: ps2update

Product:	Resident Evil (PS)
Date:	13/10/02 (671 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Long lasting/replayability, Superb graphics, Smoothe controls

Disadvantages: N/A

Racoon City…a place that all gamers should be familiar with considering it is the home of Resident Evil games, a series that has graced the PSONE, Sega Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, PC, PS2, and now finally the Nintendo GameCube. For those who are unfamiliar with Resident Evil, where have you been? This is arguably the best series on any console, and the best game was without a doubt the original. Now however there is going to be a Resident Evil, even bigger, and even better than the Resident Evil we knew in 1996 for Capcom have decided to revisit the old classic that is Resident Evil, re-vamp it and make it all over again with more areas, zombies with higher artificial intelligence, expanded storyline, altered puzzles, and graphics that quite frankly put Metal Gear Solid 2 to shame. Resident Evil is upon us once again, the fear is about to sink in, but the question is six years on after the original, can you survive the survival horror…again?

GRAPHICS

Well…to look at Resident Evil for the first time is truly breath taking, no games console has quite experienced anything as superior graphically including Halo, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Final Fantasy X. Resident Evil doesn't rely on eerie fog to cover up small graphical glitches such as Silent Hill 2, and for the main part it doesn't blur like Smackdown: JBI did to distort the original picture. In short when it comes to Resident Evil on the GameCube what you see is exactly what you get, and oh boy is it good eye candy.
Capcom has paid particular close attention to detail and the green blood-stained blurs from the original called "zombies" have been completely wiped away and replaced with real zombies that will scare the living hell out of you! These zombies have chunks out of their head, their arms, and their stomachs, anything that was wounded before they were injected with the t-virus*. The faces of the zombies are covered with age lines, various lines, and a nice
handful of brutal injuries. Then there is the clothes they wear…blood stained shirts, or laboratory coats complete with creases and various holes in that happened to "coincidently" reveal layers of rotting skin. The eyes and teeth are perhaps the two features that give the zombies realism, the eyes are lifeless, as one would expect if you are undead, and the teeth are stained and oddly shaped as if a zombie has just taken a chunk of flesh out of an unlucky human (or indeed other zombie).
It is not just the zombies that Capcom have perfected but believe it or not it is every single element of this survival horror! As per usual eerie camera angles help add to the Resident Evil experience, this time we see some angles from below the player and angle upwards to give an even more disturbing effect than previous Resi's, not to mention the effect that is given as you see your character from a window.
The zombies are perfectly recreated as far as perfection can be achieved when it comes to a fictional being, but the other beasts such as the sharks, snake, and spiders are even better. Take the spiders for example, hair is actually visible on their legs, and the size of them can make you squirm, when they move they move with the speed and the precision a real spider moves with, the realism is uncanny.
The structure and interior of the mansion, and surroundings are also visually great to look at, pictures, blood, and decay makes up the walls, whilst the floors are either that of a rough uneven pavement, a shiny wooden floor, or a nicely carpeted area.
Resident Evil excels the most graphically when in combat; there is nothing quite as dramatic as taking a shotgun, arching it up towards the zombie and cleanly taking its head off. As the blood, and brains splatter out the gamer will get an adrenaline rush, and an immense sense of satisfaction aware that they have just beheaded one of these volatile creatures.
Graphically Resident Evil is
at the top of the league, there are no games that can even stand on par with Resi, this is the complete package, the shadows, the blood, the characters, the lot: this is Resident Evil.
20/20

*For those unfamiliar with Resident the t-virus is the virus that people were injected with before they became infected and transformed into zombies. The t-virus is deadly and can transform anything into an undead zombie or mutated freak whether it be animal, human, or plant.

SOUND

Capcom have remained faithful to the original Resident Evil keeping most of the main games soundtrack and adding in a few more tracks. Most games, Wrestlemania X8 springs to mind right now, have very shoddy mediocre tracks, as if they were just shoved onto the end of the game at the last minute, however with Resident Evil the soundtrack is part of the experience. To put it bluntly if you are deaf you are at a major disadvantage because this game sounds as good as it looks.
Capcom have kept most of the original classical tracks from the first game evoking pure terror within the gamer, but as well as that they have added some new worthy additions. One thing that stands out with Resident Evil's soundtrack is that it is always appropriate, everything is spot on. If you are in a save room there is the relaxing melodic, assuring sound of a piano, if you are walking down an eerie corridor unsure what to expect there is slow orchestral music with a hint of reluctance, and if you are in a death defying situation the music is upbeat, fast and panic-stricken.
If the emotion evoking music isn't enough for you then how does fresh ripping sound? Very realistic is the answer! What about a gunshot amplified to the max with the use of Dolby surround? Not content? Then how do you feel to know that the script is actually respectable this time round? One thing Resi got slated for first time was the infamous script, it was just a little basic at times, and the second time
Resi was played through the gamer just laughed and mocked it, "Is this Chris's blood?" Barry utters as the gamer rolls their eyes in disgust. This time we do get a script based on what was said last time, and yes Barry does discover blood! However this time the conversations are a lot more detailed, and because of this the storyline is expanded. In short, Resident Evil sounds as good as it looks if not better, Resident Evil definitely is the number one video game soundtrack!
20/20

GAMEPLAY

It looks good; it sounds good, and guess what? Resident Evil also plays well! Unlike other Resident Evil games this truly is survival horror as you will be frantically running round the mansion looking for ammunition dodging zombies and collecting the ever so valuable green herbs to up your health. For those that haven't ever played a Resident Evil (what are you thinking fools, this is the best game series on any console?) game the story is simple. The gamer plays Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine from STARS. The STARS team have been sent to the outskirts of Racoon City to investigate a series of bizarre murders, and brutal attacks. When investigating they stumble into a mutated hound that chases the team into a mansion, once in the mansion the team cannot get back out or they will be the victim of a rather unpleasant attack courtesy of the hound, the only thing to do is to investigate the mansion! The ultimate aim in Resident Evil is to get the hell out of the mansion! Inevitably there are a series of puzzles, cut-scenes expanding the storyline, and terrifying battles with the zombies, and other mutated freaks of flesh.
Gameplay has definitely been expanded from the original title; they have taken the best bits, kept them in and thrown in some more worthy additions to make the game more challenging. Capcom had several complaints previously about how easy it was to kill zombies, you simply shot them enough times with the standard handgun
and then that was it they were dead…easy! Not anymore my friends, the only way to completely kill a zombie is to shoot its head off! To do this one must either effectively arch the gun up to the zombies head and shoot with a powerful gun, miss and the zombie will grab you tearing a chunk of flesh out of you, hit on target and a satisfying "squish" is heard as the head comes flying off, sliding off onto the floor or decorating the spotlessly white walls with a hint of red distributed randomly. The problem arises for gamers when they "seemingly" kill a zombie, it lies on the floor "dead" but it doesn't actually disappear it just lies there and never gets up. Gamers can keep revisiting the room over and over again and it will simply not get up it lies there unconscious…until that is it decides to get up suddenly or if the gamer runs right over the middle of it, and once this happens the zombie gets up from its hellish sleep. With the zombies up they are stronger, and faster than before. Zombie's will literally run after you hands trying to rip your head off like a hunter, if you are injured and you run, zombie's are so fast that they will overtake the gamer (but in practice they don't overtake, they just make a bloody mess). It seems that the gamers who complained really have got their work cut out for them now. Less ammo, stronger zombies, newly re-worked puzzles so that you can't rely on the solutions to the old puzzles, so how in the hell are new gamers going to cope, what can be done for gamers whom have never played a Resident Evil game before and want to experience the horror, how is this difficulty countered? The answer to that is that Capcom have added in "defence" items, these items can be used when the player is grabbed by the zombie, a press of the back "L" button and you will use it, these items, like ammunition, can be collected from rooms in the mansion, and are either dagg
ers, flash napalms, or battery packs, in short if a zombie grabs you and you have these items the zombie is in for one hell of a shock (literally in the case of the battery pack).
As far as realism goes in a game that uses fictional zombies characters move amazingly realistically, running and walking looks accurate, the zombies lunge as if they are brainless (that they are), and when using a crank Jill's buttocks wobble appropriately (what a fitting touch from Capcom). When a zombie is injected with a healthy dose of led i.e. you let rip with the guns the zombie backs away shaking but the ever resilient and dumb bastards pounce back for more or run back in some cases unfortunately for the gamer.
At the moment Resident Evil is damn near perfect, what the hell is wrong with this game, what is the catch? To tell the truth there is very little wrong with the game believe it or not, some would argue that it is not fun because you can't go around as if you are Blade shooting the hell out of everything that gets in your way but the reason for that is that Resident Evil isn't about that, this is a survival horror game and unlike other games where you could nearly kill everything Resident Evil on the GameCube is not about that, it is about surviving. The ranking system in Resident Evil is much the same every time, and in say Nemesis, and Code Veronica X gamers would try to get a good ranking first time round because they knew what was required to get these rankings, with Nintendo's Resident Evil this is not the case, the case is to complete the game, and to survive, the aim is that damn simple.
The only criticism that can be given in Resident Evil is that aside from the defence items there are no actual new weapons but considering this is a remake that would defy the whole point of remaking the title.
Although Resident Evil is labelled a "remake" it is so much more than that as there is about 60% new areas, new puzzles, new thing
s to do the lot, it is all very much expanded from the original so you will not necessarily find that every route you took in the original you can take now.
Resident Evil plays like a dream, it feels like you're in a nightmare - just what Capcom intended.
24/25

LIFESPAN

All Resident Evil's seem to fall short here, although Code Veronica X did last considerably longer than the other Resident Evil's. However Resident Evil: The Remake is the longest version and can quite easily take twenty hours the first time through.
Unlike most games Resident Evil does have high replay value, for one it is essential to play it through as both Jill Valentine, and Chris Redfield as a diehard Resi fan to understand the plot fully. On top of that there are various goodies unlocked at the end such as multiple endings, alternative costumes, and the damn near impossible real survival horror mode where when depositing items in boxes you can only retrieve them from the box you put them in - talk about an annoyance! As well as this you have to aim manually rather than having an auto aim feature, this means precision is everything.
In short Resident Evil has one hell of a lot of life in it, you will play it again, and again even if it is just to show off to your friends the supreme graphics and the ability to blast heads off with one simple shot!
22/25

ORIGINALITY

Well considering this is technically the eight addition to the Resident Evil series not including other survival horror Resi inspired Capcom games such as Devil May Cry, Onimusha, and Dino Crisis one would think that Capcom had pretty much done it all, and originality would now be at an all time low.
As with all new additions to the series Resident Evil for the GameCube has added some new innovative touches. Running zombies, defence weapons, and the fact that zombies can only die when there head is taken off! Considering the circumstances this game is very origi
nal, there is even around 60% extra areas, this is much, much more than just a remake, it is a whole new game!
7/10

OVERALL

If you only get one game for the GameCube this year, this is it. Forget Mario, Super Smash Bros, Luigi's Mansion, or Turok: Evolution, Resident Evil alone is worthy of purchasing a GameCube for. This is the ultimate survival horror game, it has lush graphics, fear inducing moments, and blood that is so realistic you will feel the game. Get it now and experience, Resident, "the" game to have!



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