Resident Evil

Game: Resident Evil
System: Nintendo GameCube
Rated: "M" For Mature
Genre: Survival Horror
Number of Players:1
Number of Blocks for save: 8 for each file
Reviewed By: TazedSoul

The Review
Features
Not only does Resident Evil have killer looks, killer zombies it also has killer features.

• Play as Jill
• Play as Chris
• Real time lighing affects
• Explore a 3-D Mansion
• New enemy locations
• New Items
• New Item loactions
• Revised Story and Plot
• Revised Graphics
• Revised Gameplay
• 2 Discs of horror

I never played the original Resident Evil I was always to afraid to touch the game. I played Nemisis, though. One of the reasons I never played the original was probably because I was a lot younger, and I was well, just too scared. I have to admit I wouldn't have originally picked up this game if it wasn't for the video's I watched on the interenet before the game was out. The video's single handledly cought my attention and that's how I ended up playing the game. I don't care who you are face it. This remake of Resident Evil is going to scare the hell out of you, and anybody watching.

In Resident Evil the remake things have completely been re-done. Zombie's no longer appear where they used too. FMV's are improved with state-of-the-art technology leaving you with some of the most beautiful cinema's you have seen in any game. The opening cinema brings you into the atmosphere. It basically puts you in the game. After watching the FMV you're heart is pumping. You feel like you are there. The second the FMV is over and you take control of who ever you decide to play as you notice two things. How the controlling has stayed the same, and how much better the controls work with the GameCube controller. Yes the controls remain the same, but they are a little better with the GameCube controller. It is a lot easier by far to use the analog stick rather than the d-pad on the Playstation controller.

You have too make a choice beore you can experience the opening cinema, and kill off Zombies, though. The choice is this: Play as Jill, or Chris. The game is a lot easier with Jill (I recomend you play as Jill for you're first play through). You have the lockpick which makes the game a lot easier. The lock pick allows you to unlock doors that are locked while as Chris you have to find a completely different route in locked doors. You also have eight spaces in your inventory compared to Chris's six. You may think that, that isn't a big deal. Well it is. When you only have six spaces you will definetly have to back track a lot to get items out of the nearest item box. You will have to also make choices between items you need, and items that you could need. Either way, though, I played as Jill and I still found myself going back and forth quite a bit.

Once you have made the hard deccission you will find yourself in the Mansion. This Mansion is NOTHING like the one you are in, in Luigi's Mansion. Around every corner awaits a challenge, a zombie, a FMV, or in some cases nothing at all. You will venture through the mansion, and the outside surounding forest as well. You can never tell when a Zombie, or a Crimson will jump out from behind the corner scaring the living hell out of you. And boy does that happen a lot. I literally screamed every ten minutes playing through the game. But you better get used to being scared constantly because it took me 13 hours to complete the game as Jill (11-13 hours is average for first time players).

You may be worrying, "This sounds scary, but if it is that scary what can be so fun about it?". Well, if you are thinking along the lines of that you are right about the game being damn scary, but don't fear about the fun factor. One of the funnest part of the game is being scared to death. It is like you are really there. You have to overcome your fears. You can't just close your eyes like in a movie. You are in control. If you close your eyes, and screw up then you will find yourself at your last save point, and you will end up re-living it all again. But chances are you will do this many times. It is not a bad thing having to anyway. This way you will know whats coming and you have a better chance of getting through it. And since you have a limited amount of saves your last save could be along time ago. You can't save whenever you wan't. Once you start playing you better be ready to play for a good hour AT LEAST because with only a certain amount of saves in the game you have to make them all last. But that's one of the funnest part. Making it too a ink ribon, and typwritter gives you such a rewarding feeling it's unreal.

After every save you literally want to give up sometimes. Thats how much it really feels like your there. You'll think to yourself: "I don't wanna go back out there!". But in the end you will end up heading back out to slay zombies, and investigate each and every corner of this infested mansion. The game has such a great atmosphere its unreal. I don't even know how to explain it. You can only understand by playing. If it's not the fun of slaying zombies that keeps you going then it's the curriosity of whats around the corner, or better said: "I wonder whats inside the door I just got the key for. I think i'll play just a little longer." There will be countless times you feel this way and it only makes the game funner.

The Controls/Camera View
Like any other Resident Evil game the controls are hard to get used too. Instead of a normal 3-D game you don't go in what dirrection you push. Say you facing east. In order to keep moving east you have to push forward. In a normal 3-D game it's completely different. You would normally just push east on the control pad. Which is right.

Thats the tricky part. You have to get used to that type of controlling and it can be difficult when you have four zombies falling towards you. The first zombie took a couple of trys for me to kill. I just kept practicing until I got the hang of it, and before I knew it I was a pro. The best way to get used to these controls is just to keep playing the game. Since you do A LOT of walking in the game chances are you will get familiar with the controls easily, and quickly.

One of the scariest part of the game is how the controls work. Since you can't just run around easily it forces you to stay, and fight most of the time. The camera is always set up in different positions. That also adds to the difficulty of the controls. When you walk into a new room and the camera changes and it is facing at you it can scare you, or atleast startle you. You just never know what the next room is going to look like and whats going to be in it, but it's even worse when you have no clue where, or how the camera is going to be set up. I really think that, that adds to the atmosphere a lot.

The game just would not be the same if the controls were like regular 3-D games. Usually controls don't add too much to a game, but with Resident Evil it is just another part of creating a very frightning atmosphere. So I have no specific beef with the controls, or camera angles as of this day.

Graphics/ Replay Value
Like I said when I first saw how beautiful the graphics were for the Resident Evil remake I was shocked. These graphics are undoubtly the best graphics I have seen on any console game. They are the most realalistic as well. Most of the graphics in the game are top notch with little or no flaw at all, but there are some areas where things looked a little messes up. Once in a while when you are hugging a wall part of your gun may slip into it making the scene a little akward. But nonetheless the graphics are still impressive.

The graphics in the game are very useful (for not just for the beautiful looks), but creating that scary feeling in the game. It only adds to the atmosphere and that is something good to have in a game like this.

I have to say the only thing about the graphical appearance of the game is the voice acting. Ok, it's not that bad, but a few scenes are pretty messed up. Hopefully by Resident Evil Zero Capcom will be improved with there voice acting in their games.

As for replay value.... The game is full of it. It is even fun to replay the game as the same person as you did originally, but when you can replay as a completely different person with basically a different game it just makes it even better. Since you can play as either Jill, or Chirs in the game (each one with completely different story, and gameplay) you will probably find yourself playing the game atleast twice. The fact that it is just plain fun to kill zombies also adds to replay value, and along with the frightning, and scary feel to the game you basically have a clasic game full of heart pounding action, survival horor, mystery, adventure, and third person shooting which we all know is fun to play over, and over again. The only thing that could keep you from playing this game is the fact that you may just be to scared to re-live the experience, but if you feel this way then you definetly had an experience of a life time.

So, now that you know a little bit about Nintendo GameCube's Survival Horor game whats keeping you from playing it? Are you too scared? Don't be. It's just make believe, but with graphics like these you can't really tell. ^_~

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