"Read... if you dare!"

Resident Evil has been the paragon of all survival horror games, it practically created the genre as we know it. Therefore it's not to come as ironic when Capcom has another go-around with the monster franchise, known to people across the world as simply: Resident Evil (Biohazard)

Capcom comes back with another smashing story line that'll keep you at the edge of your seat through most of the game, like always. Some may argue that the story line is too far fetched and isn't an accurate representation of anything that could possibly happen in reality. But, hey, this is what video games are about, right?

Resident Evil 0 takes place before the original game (hence the title) and focuses on the events leading up to the mansion incident. It follows the activities of BRAVO team, a small team that is part of the special force known as S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) as they head into the deserted Raccoon Forest. A series of murders had occurred beforehand in which the victims had apparently been eaten and it is down to the team to find out what is going on. Of course things aren't going to be that easy. After arriving at the forest the helicopter carrying the team crashes into the forest and the team heads out to investigate the area. Rebecca Chambers, one of the team members discovers an overturned truck and finds a court order inside. It seems that the occupants of the truck had been taking an ex-marine known as Billy Coen for trial after he had been convicted for the murder of 23 people. After further exploration, Rebecca discovers an abandoned train, and so the nightmare begins...for the millionth time.

While the majority of the game is still spent running back and forth through the various areas of the game collecting useful items to progress in your quest, solving (rather simple ones) puzzles or popping a few zombie heads off with a 12-gauge, various new features are present here. The first and most significant of those features is the ability to play as two characters at once, something which I felt added something refreshing and original to the series. Yes, instead of starting a game, picking a character and jumping straight into zombie hell, you no longer have a choice of characters as you are forced to play with the 2 available characters in the same game. So has this feature been implemented well? I would say yes, by allowing you to take control of two characters this essentially gives you double the firepower and triples the mayhem. But you would assume that by doubling the amount of damage you can dish out this would make the game easier.

Ah! This is not the case as the friends at Capcom have thrown in double the nasties for you to contend with and by giving you two characters to play around with you have to look out for both of them, which, believe me, is not an easy task. As well as this the puzzles that are so often associated with the series are all present. Once again they are extremely simple brainteasers (if you can call them that) that usually involve collecting a certain item and placing it somewhere and then you might have to flip a few switches here and there. Nothing particularly difficult then but Resident Evil has never prided itself on the difficulty of the puzzles rather on the action element that encompasses so much of the game. And of course by implementing the use of 2 characters most of the puzzles require both characters to solve, but again this doesn't up the difficulty as most of these new puzzles are still fairly easy. And while some of the puzzles are new, some seem reused from the previous games and Capcom being the cheeky devils that they are have subtly altered them, much like the rest of the game and the only purpose of this seems to be to disguise this repetition.

The other new addition as far as game play is concerned is the absence of the item chests that have featured in every one of the previous games. No longer do you have the ability to store a group of items in a chest, continue in the game and then when you reach another chest, open it to find all the previously stored items. In a move to add an edge of realism to the game these chests have been disposed of. Instead of this method you can now drop any item you have found right where you are standing and pick it up later for future use. While at first this may seem like a great idea, by the time you reach the mid-point of the game this feature will start to drag. As you move from area to area you will be forced to back track to previous areas looking for important items you left behind. The only way to avoid this is to regularly move all your items to new areas as you reach them and as you can probably imagine this becomes extremely time consuming and frustrating after a while. However as far as game play is concerned the good points far outweigh the bad. If you enjoyed the game play of the previous games you should feel right at home with this as Capcom have only improved on an already successful formula.

So the game play may be great but exactly how easy is it to control your character? Well as you would probably expect little has changed in way of movement and button configuration. Moving your character accurately is still as difficult as before unless of course you’ve managed to adjust to the ugly control scheme (mainly in the movement department) that has plagued all the previous games. If you have then well done, you’re one of the few that have fully mastered this beast. You still have the standard actions, to run, shoot, open doors and each is carried out with the simple press of a button. Menus are easy to navigate as well allowing you to check and equip items and issue orders to your other teammate with relative ease. When it comes to movement, the analogue stick is used to move your primary character and the rather ingenious c-stick to move your secondary character. Rather than opting for a fully 3-d motion system (planned for Resident Evil 4 I believe) Resident Evil 0 has stuck to it’s roots and made movement as stiff as you would think was humanly possible. In the previous Resident Evil games this wasn’t too much of a problem but now when you’ve got to characters to defend things become all the more tricky. So the control system isn’t perfect but it’s something that will make you feel great when you finally master it. Good Luck!

The graphics in the game are simply breathtaking. Although it may be have seemed impossible to many, the folks at Capcom have outdone themselves in the graphics department and improved on the visual delights of the remake. Yes the backgrounds are still pre-rendered to give a photo realistic backdrop to the environment but when they've been done this well, who cares? Unfortunately, by using pre-renders the development team have had to make the camera rather static as with previous versions and many have complained in the past about this fact as it limits the view of the player.

Others have argued that this is a trademark of the series and helps further the ''scare factor'' that the game is renowned for. Well whatever the reason the backdrops can't be faulted. Whether you're in a dingy sewer or a deserted mansion, lamps flicker and slime oozes down the wall before dropping to the floor. As well as this, through the use of pre-renders (which use only a fraction of the memory that fully 3-D environments use) the character models are spot on and allow a huge degree of detail to be implemented to the characters. Because of this detail the character models are almost as good as the pre-renders, giving the game a life-like feel. The monsters are equally as stunning to the point that you may even begin to think that they might just jump out at you at any moment! Without a doubt this gives the Gamecube a real workout.

Sound is always going to be an important factor in a survival horror game as it is a key element that can be exploited when trying to scare you. When used correctly it can achieve things that can not be done visually. So, does Resident Evil 0 really work where sound is concerned? At certain points it does, at others it falls short. Monster cries are where the game suffers most as far as sound goes, as they are just not varied enough. Most consist of a deep moan or high-pitched scream which to be honest fail to achieve the effect that they should. When a monster screams it should send a shiver down your spine and make you feel like you're in danger. Instead it makes you feel like they decided to add these sounds in when they had finished everything else, it just doesn't feel right.

Apart from this, elsewhere sound is used well if slightly predictably. Most of the time silence plagues the air but if something happens (such as a zombie bursting out of a door) music kicks in and tells you it's time for action. It's nicely implemented but like I said above, the use of sound is somewhat predictable. A nice touch however was when you were walking down a corridor and the dull, deep music that is so rarely featured became a bit louder suggesting that maybe something was going to happen, just to keep you on your toes. Overall the sound did disappoint me slightly, I felt it could have been more effective if they'd stuck with it rather than just rush together something that they thought would do the job.

As is always the case with Resident Evil games (and most other survival horror titles for that matter) the lasting appeal is always limited. While this isn’t usually a problem, gamers will often feel that they’ve been shortchanged when they pay for a came that can be beaten within 10 or so hours. Of course how fun the game is far outweighs how long it is, and of course Resident Evil 0 delivers. While game play can become monotonous at times you always have this urge to play on and discover what’s around the next corner. And this of course is what counts. The game may be short but it’s certainly fun.

But here comes the bad part. Once completed you won’t really have any incentive to go back and play this one again (other than to mess around with the new weapons, items and costumes that are unlocked from playing the fiendishly ingenious unlockable bonus game) so length is most probably short lived. In other words the time you spend on this game will ultimately depend on how well you adapt to the various game play tweaks and controls and how much you get into the game itself. It’s fair to say that if you’re not a fan of Resident Evil then this won’t convince you otherwise, Then again if your like me and think Resident Evil is good fun then you should definitely get this in. A rental may be worth it but see what you think.

As a final point, unfortunately, a major factor with Resident Evil, is that it’s come to a point where nothing much more can be done with the franchise. Each sequel is a subtly altered version of the previous game apart from a slight change in the narrative or a tweaking in the game play mechanics (as is most apparent in this version). Some may see this as a blatant cash in, others will see it as a sign of evolution. Either way you look at it, it seems that Resident Evil is here to stay whether you like it or not.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03