Resident Evil Review

Resident Evil the game that many claims to be the first successfull survival-horror game. It first released for the Playstation console, but then later got ports to nintendo 64 aswell as pc. It has been remade into a completely new experience in Resident Evil (for gamecube) and Resident Evil HD remaster (xbox360/one, ps3/4 and pc). It was also released with another edition for the Playstation system with Resident Evil Directors Cut.

I was only nine years old when Resident Evil hit the shelves in europe. Me and my brother had been together with our parents to the capitol of sweden (Stockholm) for a shopping trip when we found this game. We were nervous and excited on the trip back home which took around two hours, we couldn´t wait to get home to be able to play this game. When we got home we put the disc into the playstation, sat down quiet infront of the tv, and it began. The first thing we got greeted to was this man walking in a corridor and the camera chased after him, the man turned around and started to scream. The screen went black and then the blood sprayed our scream and we heard a voice saying "Resident Evil". We knew already there that this was something new, nothing could compare with this at the time.

This was 21 years ago, much has changed, we no longer use these "tank" controls or fixed camera angles. Our characters we take the role of playing today moves faster, aims faster, shoots faster. We are not used today with this slow paced fear. But I must admit that still today the fear of being eaten by a zombie still hunts me. However will the game still be as good today as it were 1996?

Let start with the story, time to pretend we don´t know anything from the other Resident Evil games. The game starts with giving the player some background information about, strange murders where the victim seems to been eaten, mutilated and then shifts to a helicopter with the elite force S.T.A.R.S. who are sent to the outskirts of Raccoon City where the murders originated from to investigate. The Alpha team who consist of six members (two members the player can control) lands in a forest for continue investigation on the ground. It doesn´t take long until the group is ambushed by a flock of zombie dogs also called Cerberus. One of the members dies and the rest of the group retreats to a nearby mansion. While inside one member is missing (changes who´s missing depending on who you are playing as). They now need to try and find a way to escape the mansion but also the origin of the monsters.
 The game has some cliché moments in the story and the voice acting is terrible, it is often considered as one of the worst acting in a game. Appearently the voice acting in japanese were so bad so they scratched it and kept the american voice acting even in the japanese version. The members of most important is Jill and Chris because these two the player can choose to play and the gameplay will be different depending on who you choose to play as. Chris doesn´t have as much inventory space as Jill but he can take more damage, Jill have a lockpick and Chris has a lighter for starting items. Jill gets back up from Barry and Chris gets "help" from Rebecca.

That was little about the story lets check the game mechanics and controls. So you push forward to walk forward and back to go backwards, however you can´t sidestep or walk at the same time you are aiming your gun. This made the term "tank controls" to come alive. you can run and you will not get tired from running. The game only offers a certain amount of ammunition, weapons and health items so the player need to be sure that it is absolutely necessary to kill an enemy or if he really should use the health item. You don´t have infinite with save oppertunity either, first you need to find a ink ribbon and then you need to find a typewriter to be able to save. And ofcourse there´s a limited amount of ink ribbons aswell.
So the mansion and the other areas aswell in the game are filled with puzzles and items to pick up and solve, books to read to get a better grip of the story aswell as enemies to kill the player.

This is the game that set the tone for the upcoming horror games generations to come. The game didn´t offer just one story line but two depending on who you choosed to play as, it had multiple endings and secrets that could only be unlocked if you met the requirement after you completed the game.  This made the game worth to replay.

Now in 2015 the graphic is really outdated, the voice acting is even worse BUT the gameplay is gold, this is where things started for my horror fascination in games, this is a big title that is still fun as hell to play today, it is challenging for newcomers and veterans alike. It takes around 5-7 hours to complete first time around, but can easily be completed in 2 hours for hardcore fans.

Overall 9/10 - A classic that never dies.

And as always here are some of my playthroughs of the game with Jill and Chris.