Resident Evil

"REmarkable"

The prompt disappearance of the S.T.A.R.S. elite corps Bravo team that was sent to investigate a series of murders near Racoon City was a most disturbing piece of news. What originally seemed to be the work of a Hannibal-wannabe psycho taking pleasure into eating his victims could in reality hide a much larger issue.

Dispatched as reinforcements by the higher powers, Alpha team, led by longtime friends and outstanding agents Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, could only hope for the best. It took them barely an hour to find the shell of the Bravo helicopter, empty, except for the remains of a uniformed body bearing obvious signs of mutilations: no doubt, it was one of their teammates. Chris’ blood froze in his veins as he was moving his torch away. What on earth could be the motive of such a barbaric crime?

Back outside, the forest was absolutely quiet –too quiet. Suddenly a shrill howl rang out from behind a tree a few feet away from Jill. She turned around. Too late. All she could make out in the dark of the night was the body of her colleague, Joseph Frost, being literally eaten alive by ferocious… mutant dogs!?! ‘Head toward that mansion over there!’

Petrified by fear, she tripped and fell, constituting a perfect prey for those abominable creatures. Swallowing back a scream of rage, Chris grabbed her hand and ran as fast as he could, without ever glancing back. Slowly regaining her lucidity, Jill soon realized that there was no way out: they had to fight, or die a horrible death. Turning over, she quickly saw that the monsters had already caught up to them and it was only a matter of seconds before their sharp teeth would be tearing the tender flesh of her legs.

Darkness. Silence. Cold.

Then, LOUD gunshots.

‘Over here!’

That voice undoubtedly belonged to Albert Wesker, the most respected member of S.T.A.R.S. Reliable as always, he had just saved their lives and Jill instantly knew that she owed him one. Once sheltered inside the gigantic mansion, she quickly thought it all over. If they were to ever escape this place, she knew it would be a team effort. What she didn’t know was that they had just entered the den of a greater, inhuman evil.

And that it was just the beginning.

Much like a good thriller, Resident Evil’s storyline is still riveting even six years after its original release –as proved by its recent movie adaptation. With an enthralling mystery and creepy atmosphere, the game will scare you even if you chicken out and decide to play it with the lights on and lots of friends around. In fact, its morbid ambiance almost makes it come off as an incomparable and daunting challenge. Are you ready for this?

As you probably know, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, Resident Evil is generally considered as the epitome of the survival-horror (or in less pompous terms, it’s an action-adventure title heavily inspired by horror flicks and made on the sole purpose to scare the player as much as possible). With Konami’s Silent Hill, it’s practically the only game that truly gave me the creeps without turning into a self-parody. Seriously.

Although it surely didn’t create the genre, this masterpiece definitely introduced it to the masses when it was first released on PlayStation. Following this huge success, Capcom tried to turn it into a series but, as is the case with most horror movie directors, never managed to get that inspiration flame back. The terrifying mansion of this opus, added to a crystal-clear scenario that carefully avoided losing itself in spatio-temporal complexities, greatly contributed to make this first episode the uncontested king of the series. After three direct sequels on various home systems, Capcom finally went back to their roots to prove why the release of Resident Evil was such a landmark in videogame history.

And yet the announcement of this remake was a very challenging decision for Capcom, a company already reputed to milk its franchises until they become completely dry. Since this kind of game relies almost exclusively on intimidation and surprise, how would the trick still work on the millions of players who had already played the original? Fortunately, they made it enjoyable for beginners and veterans alike by heavily modifying the environments and traps in both Jill and Chris’ scenarios. Ironically enough, this makes it even scarier for the fans as it creates some sort of unbearable sense of expectation: ‘will that zombie still pop out of the window as it did before or not?’ Even more than in the other episodes, you constantly get the feeling that someone is watching –and playing with- you.

Indeed, this remake appears to have found a great deal of inspiration in the rival Silent Hill series as it clearly puts the emphasis on what you don’t see rather than what’s in front of your eyes. It’s not just because of the spectacular camera angles, impressive work on shadows and unexpected sound effects, it’s also due to a completely mastered play on rhythm and especially climaxes: Resident Evil is so scary it makes you want to turn off the system, but paradoxically you always need to see more, much in the same way people react to car accidents.

As expected, the series’ controversial yet characteristic default control layout is back on Gamecube. Indeed, contrary to the majority of action-adventure games out there (for instance the famous Metal Gear Solid series), Resident Evil doesn’t allow the player to directly take control of the characters through the analog joystick. Instead, you must use the left and right switched to make Chris, Jill or any of the other characters turn around until they reach the desired direction. Only then is it possible to walk forward, step backwards or even run toward your goal. This takes some time getting use to at first and really requires you to put yourself in the protagonist’s situation -hence increasing the identification process, which isn’t such a bad thing after all. However, as a big fan of the series, I never met any real problem with those controls and found them to be quite responsive.

Alas, the only true major gameplay innovation is the addition of defense items (namely a dagger, a stun gun and a flash grenade) that can be used when an opponent grabs your character. They’re extremely useful against zombies and add variety to an old-age formula, even though it’s worth noticing that the dodge feature from the third game is present here, unlike in Code Veronica.

And yet, the magic still operates and is now joined by a sense of nostalgia –in the good sense of the term. The changes operated by the development team, mostly in the areas concerning the story and item placement, are just enough to make veterans happy and it’s obvious that this game benefited from a significant amount of work.

Resident Evil’s puzzles have always been so accessible they became almost lame, but this time their difficulty was slightly toned up to offer a decent challenge to even the most dedicated fans. Still, a large part of the game is spent simply running from point A to point B while dodging monsters, but thankfully the excitement generated by the thorough exploration of new, poorly-lit rooms almost entirely makes up for it.

In addition, the huge environments greatly evolve as the plot unfolds and takes our protagonists toward new horizons. Strangely enough, Resident Evil’s pre-rendered graphics seem to convey the story’s tension far better than the pseudo-3D used for Code Veronica. Some of the angles, especially for the outdoor scenes, are simply breathtaking, both for of their beauty and for their capacity to induce fear by disorienting the player. Capcom didn’t just try to make the game look as good as possible: every single detail was arranged to repulse and fascinate the player at the same time.

There is one point in the game where you can clearly see the shadow of a zombie flickering on an opposite wall, waiting for you to succumb to your curiosity and come closer. The thing is that he won’t jump at you the first time you come around. Nor the second time. ‘When will he attack? Is that even a zombie or just the shadow of the candelabra over there? Oh, who cares anyway, I’ll just go and see for myself…’ And it’s precisely at that moment of vulnerability, when the player temporarily lowers his guard, that the vicious monster will decide to suddenly grab his neck, turning a simple game of Resident Evil into a traumatizing experience. Such a capacity to take advantage of technical progress for a real gameplay purpose is truly impressive, perhaps even revolutionary.

The Gamecube finally unleashed its power and its array of special effects is the very reason why the game looks so realistic. From the gargantuan hall of the mansion arranged with baroque furniture to the frost-bound corridors of the medical complex where it apparently all began, the game always looks magnificent and retains a certain artistic refinement. But have you ever wondered how it would look without those awesome lightning and transparency effects? What would it look like if you couldn’t see the branches of various trees mildly move in the garden and if all those reflections in the mirrors of the bathroom were nowhere to be found? It would be, just like the PlayStation version, a great deal blander and relatively lacking in intensity. But on Gamecube, Resident Evil is so good that I guarantee there are times you’ll be scared by your own shadow like a puppy that just came to life.

Those hellish backgrounds instantly raise suspicion and contrast with the protagonists’ very organic looks. Capcom’s insane work on animation resulted in a Jill looking more vulnerable and sexy than ever and who, more importantly, became a much more believable character now. Similarly, Chris and the rest of the Alpha team look very much like real people while their fears can often be read on their faces and interpreted in their movements. For the twelve hours it approximately takes to complete the game the first time around, you ARE a member of S.T.A.R.S. And every time they fall under the attacks of their mutated opponents, it feels as if a part of your own sanity disappeared in the darkness.

Resident Evil’s bestiary is undeniably classical yet truly hideous. Its trademark zombies are now tougher –slaughtering them was a piece of cake in the original, but in this remake they can resuscitate and come back stronger than ever if you don’t burn their bodies- and all have different character models, so that they aren’t anonymous anymore and it’s now possible to find out their stories by just looking at them. Of course, they are to be replaced later in the game by much more dangerous and vicious monstrosities such as the legendary hunters, bloodthirsty lizard-like mutants who enjoy killing their preys by decapitating them. The game appeals to a very large audience by exploring almost all the phobias known to man, be it a fear of snakes, crows, spiders, or even claustrophobia -and naturally, a fear of death. Good memories...

And yet despite all this goodness, Resident Evil still doesn’t look perfect. The only rational complaint that can be addressed to Capcom here concerns this minor “stuttering” effect that sometimes occurs during cutscenes, when the camera shifts from one angle to another. It’s not really annoying, and barely noticeable for those used to pre-rendered graphics, but it might seem odd to newcomers, especially compared to the glaring perfection of the rest of the game.

Nevertheless, this game wouldn’t be nearly as scary as it currently is without its exceptional audio. Not only is the music awesome, it was also perfectly orchestrated to fit the action. Thus, it intensifies whenever an enemy draws near and becomes totally frantic during boss encounters. In a similar fashion, you’ll often hear brief piano and guitar riffs in the rooms that contain puzzles and such. Oh, it’s no Castlevania, but those tunes still have the flair of the original and just seem more complete and melodious overall.

Moreover, the sound effects are spot on. All the monsters sound particularly repugnant and make very distinct noises, yet they are far less predictable than they were in the other Resident Evil games. It’s still possible to spot a zombie as you enter a room and freeze for a few instants, but on many instances the developers like to play with your senses in order to trick you into doing mistakes. The voices were also greatly improved and fortunately they still have this B-movie feel that makes the player realize that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. On the other hand, they don’t seem to express as much enthusiasm as before and sound a bit mechanical.

Lastly, there’s more than enough to do in the game to make any survival-horror fan happy. The two scenarios can be played on two different difficulty settings and knowing the original by heart doesn’t seem to help nearly as much as expected. Resident Evil is like The Exorcist of the gaming world; it just never truly gets old. Rather long for a game of this genre, it will definitely leave you with unforgettable memories. But now is the time for action, not for words.

Listen carefully to my instructions: close the doors, turn off the lights, unplug the phone and sit comfortably in front of your television set. Now take a quick look over your shoulder, pop this game into your tiny Gamecube, and enjoy a fantastic ride that will constantly send shivers down your spine. Welcome to your worst nightmare. And when you’re too scared to play Resident Evil by yourself, remember that it’s just a game.

One hell of a game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/02, Updated 02/02/03