"A game where graphics matter more than gameplay"

Upon crash landing in a forest during an investigation upon the disappearance of comrade soldiers, you find yourself inside of a deserted train with no one to be heard or seen, or was it just inhuman? Every chair is filled with bloodstains, which were once owned by the human beings who fall victim to a deadly attack, now left to wrought within this train, soon to be the graveyard for these countless torn up bodies. Every corner held a mystery, and every passing corner created an extra beat to your heart rate. Soon, the innocent people of this train turned into the undead, mindless zombies who only know of one piece of knowledge...hunger. More zombies are spawned amongst the human beings that were the meal for the zombies, resulting in massive pools of blood, which would only make the zombies thirst for more blood.

Every room needed your careful observation. Zombies are flooding in Resident Evil 0, making fear your only difficulty. When entering a room unknown to you, the only thing that would invade your mind is the thoughts of zombies that lurk within. The surrounding environments only reveal blood and bodies, compelling you to anticipate the next zombie encounter. Nothing is more scarier than assuming whats next to come. The game's phenomenal graphics and sounds would only further your fear...

The zombies originated from a virus called the T-Virus, created by the Umbrella corporation. The virus managed to spread amongst the people of Raccoon city. To further their sins even more, the Umbrella corporation is attempting to cover up the incident by using scapegoats, making them look as if they weren't even included on the whole thing. Rebbecca Chambers, a soldier that survived the train incident discovers their plan, and plans to stop them. Billy, Rebbecca's partner, a former Marine accused of killing twenty three men is set minded to do the same thing.

Every room contained a visual counterpart of what it would look in real life, except combine it with the eery feeling that anything could jump at you at any given time, capable of eating away your precious flesh, and you have just experienced the true nature of Resident Evi 0. There will never be a time in the game when the sun or bright lights enlighten your adventure. Instead, a dark and warm feeling of anticipating a zombie encounter will be the only mood you'll ever be set on. The zombies are vulnerable to every weapon you hold, such as the handgun, shotgun, flame bottles and grenades. Your ammo is limited, since the game moves rather slow, depending on your level of fear.

When entering a room full of zombies, the formula goes as: kill the zombie before you piss your pants from fear, and retrieve the healing items located in the area. The gameplay structure doesn't sound too exciting, though it's the graphics that make this game. Featuring the most realistic graphics ever with almost every impressive graphical effect present, Resident Evil 0 is one of the most visually impressive game on the Gamecube, next to Metroid Prime Rebel Strike. The lighting effects gives great attempts of scaring you, and the backgrounds does an even better job of it. Nothing is more scarier than seeing a dead passenger laying dead with half a head, only to come alive hungry for flesh. Or an upclose view of another man resting on the top features of the chairs, waving his dead arm back and forth, easily intimidating you to think he'll come alive and eat you. The graphics look almost completely realistic, that it's scary. The more real it looks, the more scarier it is, and Resident Evil 0 presents most of these features.

Walking securely through a dead hallway with only the howls of the wind to listen too, you notice a figure that the half powered lights revealed. The mirror that is stained with dust and old age reveal exactly what was in front of it, a hungry zombie that is desperate for the next course of meal. The figure's shadow slowly heightens in size, and the next corner finally reveals him, only to have a bullet shot right through his forehead. The sink that sits beside the fallen zombie continues to pour beautiful waves of water effects, which would later on wash off the excessive blood that covers your character. The toilets uncontrolled power as well releases an excessive amount of water, showing the most beautiful water effects on the Gamecube. When looking down upon the water, you'll notice your reflection stares right back at you. The reflection is not clear, instead it resembles itself to what it would look like if it were to occur in real life.

To add to the fear factor, when encountering a zombie or special enemy, the music will drastically pick up it's pace into a much more fearful theme. The music in the game sends chills to your spine, and when it rises, it obviously gives a hint of enemies around, though in the process, it adds to your fear. Not to mention that awful grunting sounds of hunger when they chase after you. Since the IQ of zombies is limited to only knowing to eat, their rather pathetic attempts of talking gives you a big sigh of relief that you've encountered a zombie, knowing that the encounter was nothing particularly scary. The game does throw in some scary moments, such as when reaching a certain area, the refrigerator that sits innocently beside you will reveal a zombie hiding within, ambushing you.

Rarely will there be a time when you'll be abusing the run button, because it's not worth being caught completely off guard by a zombie. Just like the game, the zombies aren't any fast, though the infected animals will serve to be a pest, especially when considering the game's clunky controls. Just like in Tomb Raider, you'll be walking as if you were a tank. The up button will move the character forward despite the direction of the camera angle, and the left and right buttons will turn the character left and right. These controls serve to be a problem later on the game when quicker enemies are encountered such as the infamous hound dog.

Other activities are present throughout the game as well, such as solving puzzles with your partner, who's available upon a simple press on the X button. Each character has a special ability, like the main character Rebbecca Chambers has the ability to combine healing items to increase it's effect while the other character Billy can endure much more punishment, who's also capable of handling the heavy things, like pushing crates. There are many puzzles in the game that require both of your characters in different places in order to grant access to the next area of the game. This rather works well, but may seem quite boring when deeper into the game. Others require your math skills of adding up a the first digit numbers in a certain amount, eg. you're required to insert nine numbers that would add up to eighty-one. There's usually a time limit to this, making it much more pressuring to think up of a sum. The puzzles are more fun to figure out than going around shooting the zombies.

The game's beginning stages will serve to be scary, but later on, you'll get use to them. The gameplay isn't all that as well, since it's rather slow paced than fast. Resident Evil 0 is still a scary experience, and it's storyline, which would only make sense by playing Capcom's past Resident Evil games can be quite interesting. Even then, this prequel's story is still pretty good to those unaware of the events occurring. While the game makes few attempts of scaring you on the spot by hiding a zombie in a certain location, it's the anticipation that makes it scary. The graphics, which look incredibly impressive makes the experience much more scarier. Resident Evil 0 is one of very few games where graphics matters more than gameplay. The goal of the game isn't to be satisfied of great gameplay, but rather give a scary experience that would make you jump. The game would of been much better if it weren't for those horrible tank like controls.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/04