Resident Evil 0

"Why has Mikami forsaken me?!"

Resident Evil! The very name strikes fear in to the hearts of...I don't know...nuns maybe? Anyway, Resident Evil 0 is a prequel to the popular survival-horror pioneer, Resident Evil. Oh sure, Alone in the Dark was the first survival-horror game, but it wasn't all that popular compared to Resident Evil.

Resident Evil 0 was originally being developed for the Nintendo 64, because the N64 used carts and so had no load time. While if this game was made for the PSX it would take forever to load between characters and would probably kill the mood, kick it in the nuts, and pour sugar in it's gas tank, just for extra cruel measures. Now why this game never hit the N64 library is still beyond me, but eh, what can you do.

Story - RE0 blasts a few more shot gun sized plot holes in to the Resident Evil universe. The main story is about Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen surviving a horrible world full of monsters and learning about Umbrella. That is where the real fun comes from, learning about Umbrella. Learning how the T-virus was created and learning about the internal politics of Umbrella. To bad it didn't really tell us anything we haven't already assumed about in other Resident Evil games.

But if you haven't played a Resident Evil game before this you probably don't want to start with this game. This game was VERY much made as a prequel in mind. It makes references to almost every Resident Evil game that's out.

The story is also one of RE0's biggest problems, it focuses on it too much. I didn't even get to learn about the Bravo Team. I wanted this game so I could learn their terrible and cruel fate...but NO! They didn't even give me a reason why the Bravo helicopter crashed. Damn you, Tatsuya Minami, you suck! Not only that but a lot of FMVs with Wesker and Birkin seem very out of place. I would expect to learn what the characters learn, not learn things because I'm some kind of omnipotent gaming being. Takes a lot of mystery and fun out of it, you know. Shinji Mikami would have made this game so much better.

Graphics- BEAUTIFUL! My God, when I saw the remake of Resident Evil I thought, ''It can't get much better then this.'' I was right! But that's beside the point. I can't even notice the polygons that make up the characters; even when up close to them. And the animations are extremely well done too. Though, I find it odd and a bit annoying when my character looks at a dead body while walking past them. It just doesn't seem realistic. I can't speak for everyone, so I'll just speak for almost everyone, but I wouldn't take the time to look at a dead body when I'm surrounded by zombies.

On the upside, the problem with the game pausing for a split second when the camera angle changes is now gone. Good, Minami finally put those door opening sequences to good use. However, sometimes it will pause before an FMV or something like that, which can get kind of annoying. Its a bit of a trade off. On one hand if the game loads everything on the fly you don't have to worry about loading anything. On the other hand if it loads everything at once you won't have to worry about short pauses between camera angles. I can't really say which one is better.

Enough with that though, this is what is one of the biggest kick to the nuts in this game that makes me loathe it. The areas are too bright and the camera angles are not placed as well. The first Resident Evil (REmake) was beautiful. It was a cinematic masterpiece. The mood, the atmosphere, everything about the game added so much to make the game so scary. But this game...its got NOTHING! They could have done so much more with the presentation of this game. Graphics add to gameplay in horror games. Less atmosphere kills the horror aspect and so kills the gameplay.

Another thing that seems kind of odd is the fact that the FMV character models don't look as good as the in game models. It's the texturing that's the problem. In the FMVs Billy and Rebecca look like they're made out of plastic or something. I know you can only do so many effects on the GCN hardware...but come on. I don't even know why they used FMVs so much, especially when the textures in the FMVs don't look as good as the in game textures.

Sound- Normally I usually don't give a damn about sound in games, that was before I got a TV with a headphone jack. Now sounds sound better! And this game...MY GOD WAS IT DISAPPOINTING! There seems to be only a few different types of sound effects for a few different effects. Like foot steps; you are either walking on something gooy or on something hard, there doesn't seem to be another type of foot step sound. Also doors too; you either walk through a wood door or a metal door. I'm sure there are other types of sound effects for those, but I just didn't notice them. The game just could have done so much more with the sound effects.

As for the music, its too loud. Good thing you can adjust it. I suggest turning it down to about 50%. What made some of the other Resident Evil games so good was that the background music was quiet and soft until something startling happened when it would get loud and fast to increase the fear and adrenaline. But in this game the BGM will drown out the sound effects. See! If Mikami had directed this, I guaranty you that wouldn't have happened. You suck, Minami. Stop sucking!

While on the topic of sound, the voice acting seems to have gotten worse from the remake of Resident Evil. How is this possible? The games were practically made side by side. I'll just blame Minami again...'cause he's the director and I blame him for everything.

Gameplay- Its a love/hate relationship, with controls...and basically the Resident Evil games in general. You either love 'em or hate 'em. I however love them. I think the controls work brilliantly. If you have never played a Resident Evil game before then let me tell you how the controls work. You push up on the D-pad/stick your character walks forward, not moving away from the camera, but actually walks forward in the direction the character is facing. Pushing down has them move backwards. Left and right has the character turn either left or right. Its kind of like having first person controls in third person. Its a bit hard to learn, but easy enough to pick up after a few minutes.

While talking about the controls I just kind of wish I had a button to do the 180° turn, but I can live with pushing back and B at the same time, for now.

Anyway, seeing how Capcom wanted a new gimmick...I mean some new gameplay features, they have made it so you can now control 2 characters at once...kind of. In all truth, I was very against this, and am still a bit. Having back up makes the game easier and less scare. That and the game gives you no initiative to split them up unless you have to. I don't know, I thought it would be kind of fun if I could sent Billy in to a different area to clear out the zombies there or something while I have Rebecca go off to explore the rest of the place. However, on the upside I did become so over dependent on keeping the two of them close together, so when I was forced to split them up, I really did start to become more fearful. I had less items, and what if I got in over my head with monsters, I wouldn't have back up. So I guess it is a bit of a mixed blessing.

Another new gimmick...I mean...gimmick...NO wait, I mean, eh, whatever. Anyway, the new item dropping idea. I always hear people complaining about how you can't drop items, but I knew if they allowed item dropping to happen then there would be a WHOLE lot of back tracking. Good thing I was a bit wrong. Minami seemed to make this work at the least. I didn't have to back track nearly as much as I thought I'd have too. Most of the areas loop together or are just small enough so that I didn't go insane from back tracking to get an important item I left behind. Score one for Minami, but I still hate the idea of dropping items.

Another gameplay thing I didn't like was how easy it was to kill zombies. In the remake of Resident Evil it took up to 7 bullets to kill a zombie sometimes. This one, it takes sometimes only 3. Where is the fun in that? Oh well, a lot of the other new monsters were pretty hard to kill later in the game, so I guess it makes up for the weak zombies.

Another thing about the gameplay is that its too fast paced. The entire train area was just to fast. When I grabbed one item I usually knew what to do with it. I wish this game was less linear and was more suspenseful in the beginning. It was cool in the first Resident Evil on how it wasn't so linear. It would change the difficulty of the game and a few other things depending on when/how you saved or killed people. This game is completely linear. However, back to the topic about suspense, it does become a lot more suspenseful toward the end of the game. So it makes up for its weak beginning.

The game also needs more of a boo factor. In most other Resident Evil games it will have monsters jumping out at you from all over the place when you least expect it... Actually, you normally would expect that something is wrong, but you'd still be scared by it. RE0 just didn't have as many monsters jumping out at you. It made me sad and less fearful.

Challenge- The puzzles are a joke. Most of them are SO simple. What happened to the great ol' brain teasers of ye ol' Resident Evil games of the past? Most puzzles are just, have one character push a button while the other character gets the item. There was only two that was REALLY good. One involved animals and which one was stronger. The other one was a basic push the boxes around to get to the other side, that puzzle has been done before, but I still thought it was fun. I enjoyed those ones, but the rest weren't too special.

And ammo seems a bit too plentiful and monsters too easy to kill. This is SO true in the beginning of the game, but as you get closer to the end...it stays true still, but not as much. Most of the monsters would take a few more shots to kill so...its all good in the end, I guess.

Length- Took me about 15 hours the first time, after that...a breeze. I didn't even have to look at a walkthrough.

Replay- With a mini-game to unlock, and weapons, and infinite ammo, and costumes, with 3 different difficulty levels. I say there is enough to keep the most obsessive person playing for at least 2 weeks if not a lot longer.

Over all- Product #3 better be good...or I'm going to be pissed off that Mikami worked on that and not on making Resident Evil 0 a million times better. As for Minami, he's not a BAD director...just not a good one compared to Mikami. I also, wanted to give this game a 6, but its not that bad, its just that it could have easily been better. Now, if you are a die hard Resident Evil fan that still hasn't bought a GCN for the RE series, this game will not help convince you to buy one. For GCN owners already, if you like the genre, pick it up. If you hated the remake, give this a try with a rent or something, it might be different enough so you might like it. As for me...I don't like this game. It had so much potential that it just didn't even touch. It wasn't really worth the $50, maybe if it was $40, but...I am still kind of happy I bought it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/02, Updated 12/20/02