Resident Evil 0

"He's evil, you're evil, I'm evil, WE'RE ALL EVIL!"

Hello again from your average Resident-Evil devoted fan. Once again, like always... ooh, since RE3... I went out and got this game on release. Happy happy evil evil!

After being slightly (And I mean, SLIGHTLY!) disappointed with the REmake, I was hoping that once I got RE0 home it would rock my world (It's a 62 mile round trip to my nearest GAME store and back!). And - thankfully - I was NOT disappointed!

RE0 starts off with, admittedly, one of the most dull RE intros ever. That has to be said, although it IS pretty and it DOES clear up to any self-respecting RE fan how the ill-fated BRAVO teams helicopter crashed. The game begins in ernest on the train, which is finally where we have gotten back to the classic Resident Evil formula. Or not.

RE0 does succeed in being a lot more claustrophobic than other RE games, which is great. There is the od seriously impressive setpiece as well - crawling on top the train, while moving, and while it's lashing down with rain, and the draw distance of the train... for a few seconds, your jaw drops. Is this in game or is this FMV? It's still not hard to tell, the load before an FMV kinda gives it away, BUT when you look, there is not a lot of graphical difference between in-game and FMV - graphically, if this game doesn't wow you, then you're either dead or from the future.

Next is the much talked about Character Zapping system. Some dislike it, however I really enjoyed the tactical aspect that this brought. Both Rebecca and Billy have different attributes - Rebecca takes damage easily but can mix herbs and evade better being smaller and faster, while Billy can endure some pretty harsh punishment - but he can't mix herbs and he is slower. And bigger, which means theres more to hit. So you just have to decide who is better at which situation. The co-operative puzzles could have been exploited more (Like while one character is trapped, they can send iiems from that room to their partner via lift and vice versa) but it may be for the best as the puzzles do not slow down the game.

The next issue is the disappearance of item boxes (one... two... three... HURRAH!) and in with an all-new Item Drop system. Now, this is not as complicated as people have made it out to be. If you need to pick up the shotgun and you need two free slots, drop, say, two herbs and pick up the shotgun. Of course, you can locate where any item is via the MAP menu - finally, it has a use rather than a nice afterthought. And instead of just a sparkly-thing, items are rendered as fully 3D objects. Which makes a change as you can distinguish if a sparkly is an important item or another Ink Ribbon.

OK, downers. First up, THERE ARE STILL FAR TOO MANY INK RIBBONS! You would have thought Capcom would have got the idea by now, there is no way a person is going to make 100 saves in a game. (by the way, if anyone actually has done that, let everybody know *snigger*) So Capcom should really cut down on the useless, excess items that are not really needed. Next is hunters have lost their power - ok, thats being silly, but Hunters aren't as lethal in RE0, and they can even be killed easily with the handgun (A sad day indeed).

But this game still gets a 10? Why?

Well, it's beautiful. The controls are better, and the load times are shorter. The effects used, like rain, are awe inspiring... sometimes, you'll almost forget this is a game and think of it as art.

The new enemies look fantastic, Leech Zombies are deadly and can kill very quickly, down to the less harmful toads that are quite frankly even more pathetic than the crows (It IS possible, trust me). It keeps things varied by injecting a new breed of monsters into a stale mix.

Also is the fact this game FEELS bigger, it isn't really but it feels bigger, with the emphasis on the journey as well as the horror meaning that you'll want to enjoy the experience over and over again. It's not quite as replayable as RE3: Nemesis was, but it's almost there.

And we can't forget the sub game Leech Hunter - if you thought MERCENARIES was frustrating at times, prepare to call in to your nearest psychiatric ward, as this will push you over the edge! 100 randomly-placed Leech tokens, 50 green for Rebecca and 50 blue for Billy. And lots and lots and LOTS of enemies!

It has to be said, that Capcom did say this was the end of Resident Evil as we know it (So I expect RE4 to finally break away from this clasic formula). And it's a hell of a way to go as well, because RE0 takes what has made each RE great and thrown it in with new ideas. You'll enjoy this game for months to come, instead of the instant hit that CV and REmake gave, RE0 does have plenty to offer if you replay. HURRAH CAPCOM! Now, hury up with RE4 will ya, I wanna see Leon die... I err mean... it will be a great pity to see him die... (Did I get away with my Anti-Leon quote? Good.)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/03, Updated 03/21/03