Resident Evil

"Eerie, atmospheric and frightening start to the Resident Evil series"

Resident Evil 1 is one of the finest survival horror games on the PlayStation! The story is excellent: Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, both STARS (Special Tactics And Rescue Missions) members, have been sent off to a place not far from Raccoon City, in order to investigate some strange happenings. Suddenly, a big monster appears from behind them, and starts scuttling after them at a high speed. In the distance, there is a mansion. Jill, Chris and a few other members of the STARS team rush towards the mansion and go inside, safe from the monster which lurks outside. The introduction, which is actually filmed, despite having extraordinarily bad acting, is a good and very scary start to the game. After the introduction, the game starts inside the huge mansion.

Back in 1996, people were probably shocked with the absolutely amazing graphics. Today, the graphics still remain a good reminder of how good PlayStation graphics can be. The game starts within a mansion. There are a group of characters talking, each of them are well drawn. and superbly animated. The backgrounds and the actual locations are among some of the best graphics I have ever seen on the PlayStation. They are so detailed! The reason for the graphics being so good, is that Capcom have used a different style than most other games. There are perhaps 3-10 cameras positioned all over a room. When Chris/Jill moves out of range of one camera, then another camera will be active from a different location in the room. On the one hand this is good, because it allows the PlayStation to generate beautifully drawn and detailed locations. On the other hand, it's not so good, as you don't get the realistic impressions that you would get from some games, as the cameras are still and don't move at all. The enemies in the game are very scary, and it really is scary when they start to walk after you. The graphics in Resident Evil 1 are superbly drawn and definitely create a sense of fear.

The sound effects in Resident Evil are very well done, and a lot of them especially scary. When you see a zombie for the first time, and it gets up and starts walking after you, you may run up the room. Slowly but surely, you can hear the shuffling sound of the zombie slowly inching its way towards you. These extremely scary sounds are among the best parts of Resident Evil, as the sound is the part that generates the most atmosphere. The guns that you fire each have their own special sound effects to them, which improves the realism of the sounds. While the sounds are scary, the music definitely provides the most atmosphere to the whole game. As you are walking around the many rooms of the mansion, you can slowly hear the music change if something good or bad has happened. The really scary part of the sounds is when the music completely stops (which it often does), and all you can hear is some distant shuffling of zombies. The music and sound effects in Resident Evil seem like they were meant to create fear, and they definitely do a very good job in doing just that.

After the extremely lengthy and well made introduction, you will take control of the game. You start the game as either Jill or Chris in a particularly scary and gigantic mansion. From here, you can explore around the many rooms of the mansion. Each of the rooms are noticeably different from the other, and most of them will provide clues or an item to pick up. As you progress around the mansion and beyond, you will have to solve various puzzles in order to advance through the game. Most of the puzzles are logical, and are well thought of, but there are a few that stand out as being just too difficult. As you progress around the locations, you will be able to find different, and more powerful guns, which include the handgun, the shotgun and the rocket launcher, which are only some of the guns included in this game. There are many different kinds of monsters within the locations, some of which are extremely scary. Trying to unlock new rooms and finding out new puzzles in the game is always fun. There has been a lot of effort put into this game, and it shows.

There is incredible length to this game, for the simple reason that the game is extremely difficult. There are two scenarios to play on Resident Evil. You can choose either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield to play as. Each character has a different mission to accomplish in the mansion, and each character has their own different strengths and weaknesses. Completing both of the scenarios with both of the characters will take a very long time, as there are so many puzzles to solve, objects to pick up and monsters to run away from on the way through the huge mansion. With a game this big, it's not surprising that it lasts a very long time. This game is huge, there is just so much to do, and it's just great fun! This game will last a long time. Overall, a frightening and very well made game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/00, Updated 01/09/04