"Fine start to the series"

Resident Evil is the first in Capcom's now long running series and was originally a Playstation game first released back in 1996. The game has now appeared on various other consoles, but there was also a PC port. PC Resident Evil is practically the same as the Playstation version, but there are a few little differences here and there.

For those of you new to the series, Resident Evil is a survival horror game. You must try to survive frequent attacks by monsters whilst trying to progress through the game and complete it.

The story is about how Raccoon City residents are going missing near a mansion. A special team goes in to find out what is going on, but all contact with the team is lost. So a second team is sent in. The mission starts badly when the team are attacked by dog creatures, resulting in the death of one team member. To make it worse, the team's helicopter takes off and leaves without them.

Resident Evil lets you play as one of two characters; either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. Jill's adventure is slightly easier than Chris, since she can carry more items and has a lot of back up from another team member called Barry Burton.

The game play simply involves running around the mansion trying to find items and solve puzzles whilst shooting or avoiding monsters. The further you get into the game, the more the story progresses and the more areas you will be able to explore.

There are plenty of different monsters to kill. You find out why there are monsters by playing the game and collecting certain "file" items. Monsters include zombies, spiders, killer bees, hunters and more. Each monster can take a different amount of hits depending on what they are and which weapon you use to try and kill them. And yes, there is plenty of blood in this game, hence the 15 rating.

There are a few weapons to collect. You start off with a knife, and Jill also has a handgun, but throughout the game you'll be able to find a shotgun, bazooka, flame thrower and a few more. Every weapons requires ammunition to work, which can also be collected, but you have to be careful as you can run out of ammo very quickly if you try to kill everything.

Even though the game is mostly set in a mansion, other locations (depending on if you can actually progress to them) include a outdoor garden, a underground lab and a couple of others. The game will take you a while to complete first time, although players have been able to complete the game under 1 hour with Chris. I always found this game to be long mainly because I never "learnt" where everything was and what to do like I did with the sequel.

This is also one of the harder games in the series, mainly because you can't take that many attacks. You can always check what condition your character is in by checking your inventory. Thankfully, you can heal yourself by collecting "herbs" and using them. There are also first aid sprays that will completely heal you.

This version boasts much better character models than any other version released at the same time, and you can have the graphics is high res. However, the backgrounds are all still pre-rendered, and whilst they look fairly good anything that needs to be collected stands out a lot.

A key point with this game is the excellent music that really fits and suits the game. The voice acting, however, is so bad it's hilarious. There are just so many bad lines put together with actors who did the voice overs who had no idea what they are doing, well...just play the game for yourself to hear them.

There are a few extras you can unlock like costumes and weapons, but sadly the extra battle mode from the Saturn version has not been included, which is a shame as that extra mode was a fun diversion to the main game.

Overall Resident Evil is a great start to the series and a fun adventure game for anyone who likes a bit of blood and horror.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/05