Well, its May and time for another post on this blog, which just happens to be a revisitation again (yet again lol!) and this one will be on the classic action horror video game, Resident Evil Remake, which is a remake of the original 1996 game and was released in 2002.
So, after 21 years, how does this remake still fair??? Well, shuffle in and find out.
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
Right so the story is set around a large mansion which members of the
STARS (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) Alpha team seek refuse in
when they are attacked by some vicious dogs. The team includes Chris
Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton and Albert Wesker, and in the
game you have choice of playing either Chris or Jill. Depending on
which character you chose some of the other characters may be missing
such as Barry if you play Chris, or Chris if you play Jill. As the
player you play investigates the mansion they discover a zombie chomping
on the corpse of STARS Bravo team, and the zombie attacks your
character, which you can either shoot or stab the creature.
As the
gameplay progress your character will also face a series of deadly traps
and puzzles to negotiate. Your character will at certain moments in
the game encounter other team mates who have been killed or badly
injured. And one of the characters you encounter, Enrico Marini, tells
you one of the team is a traitor, however he is shot and killed before
you find out more. As the character moves on in the game they will
eventually find an underground laboratory and they will eventually face
the traitor and main antagonist in the game...
THOUGHTS
At the time of its original
release, Resident Evil was a real breakthrough in the horror genre and
it took 3D gaming to new visual heights, with its stunning albeit
pre-rendered backdrops and its somewhat blocky looking character
models. However one of the most effective things about the original
Resident Evil was the way in which it built up the tension and the
suspense and it made great use of visual cues such as when you enter it
another room, you get a cutaway to a door opening, complete with creaky
noises, which adds to the fear factor as to what might behind it.
The
remake however of course went on to enhance the original and it has a
variety of new aspects to its gameplay as well as different puzzles and
the introduction of some new characters such as Lisa Trevor, who has
been turned into a genetically mutated creature after years of
experimentation. Lisa is seen in certain sections of the game where you
wander around the tunnels and you first encounter her in an outhouse
and she proves to be nearly indestructible in the game.
The remake also
makes reference to other characters as well in the series such as
William Birkin (who appears in Resident Evil 0) and Alexia Ashford (who
appears in Resident Evil: Codename Veronica). And in the remake the
atmosphere is very creepy and intense throughout in fact even more so as
given its new overhaul it does everything to enhance the terror of it all.
GAMEPLAY
As for the actual gameplay
this is where Resident Evil really shines as the controls are
pretty simple although it has to be said your movement is somewhat
restricted due to the nature of the pre-rendered backdrops. The level
of difficulty is determined by which character you play as Chris is the
hardest method while Jill is the easier one although it has to be said
the remake can pose a fair challenge irrespective of who you
play.
COMBAT AND WEAPONS
In terms of the game's combat in the remake, in addition to your
usual weapons such as a handgun, shotgun, flamethrower and grenade
launcher, you also have defensive weapons that include a dagger, a taser
and a stun grenade, which are pretty cool to use. While both Jill and
Chris can use the taser, Chris can only
use the stun grenade, and Chris can use the grenade to cool effect as
when a zombie attacks him he can stick it in the zombie's gub and shoot
at it to blow the zombies head off (sick but fun!). You also have
access to first aid sprays and herbs to heal yourself from injuries, and
if you combine certain herbs they can be used to cure your character if
they get poisoned.
SAFE ROOMS AND INVENTORY
Similar to the original the remake
also features a game save system where you enter a storeroom and you can
save your progress via the use of a typewriter, and you need to keep a
stock of typewriter ribbons in order to save each time. As for storage
capacity, Chris can hold only six items but Jill can hold eight at one
time and when they go into the storerooms they can swap out equipment as
they need it. In the hard version of the game however, the game takes a more realistic approach as the storage boxes all individually hold the items you put in them rather being all centralised and holding the same items like the easier modes of the game.
CHARACTERS AND CHOICES
The game at certain points may also call for the
character to save one of their team mates, Richard, who is poisoned by a
giant snake, and you must run to the storage room to get a serum to
cure him. Another really good aspect of the gameplay of
both the original and the remake is that given the character you play,
you can have different endings to the games and there will be different consequences as a result if you don't rescue your fellow team mates such as Barry or Chris.
ENEMIES
Another
great aspect of Resident Evil is also the baddies, to start with the
zombies, who in the original were creepy and when they attacked you,
they bite you near to the point of death unless you push them off. In
the remake they are even more creep and effective as they will bite you
but you can also make a pre-emptive attack by using your defensive
weapon to stab or stun them. The zombies however no matter how many
rounds you pump into them will not stay down unless you decapitate them
or incinerate their bodies, and if you do neither they come back to live
twice as fast and strong as well as angry, which adds to the incredible
unease of the remake.
The other enemies also include for example the
rabid dogs, who you usually find running around the courtyard and one of
the game's showpieces is of course where you run down a corridor in the
mansion they without smashing through the windows and you have to kill
them or be killed. Other enemies also include a giant spider
(aracnophobics beware!) a giant serpent, biped lizards, known as hunters, with sharp claws
who can move fast and jump high, and they can even decapitate you if
you're not careful! And lastly (SPOILER!!!) there is the Tyrant, the ultimate
biological weapon, a large humanoid with pale white skin and a big sharp
claw, which can do brutal damage.
GRAPHICS
Getting
onto the graphics of the remake, well for their time they were and still
are absolutely stunning, as the backdrops look amazing and the
character models are superb especially in the remastered HD versions,
the game looks better than ever and is easily a generation ahead of itself in terms of visuals and could be compared to games from the PS3/Xbox 360 era. And everything from the visuals of the
interior of the mansion, to the griminess of the underground labs and to
the grounds of the mansion, not to mention the character models (which put some of the models in games even after its time to shame!) it all looks top notch.
The only thing is
though the movement of your character is still restricted within the
static backdrops so when you control the character and they can only
move in one way as the camera angle changes at set times in each room.
But for the remake the visual presentation simply could not be better
than it is here and even by today's standards, this is one mighty fine
looking video game even if it appears to only run at 30fps, which is a bit of a shame as that is another of the few drawbacks of the presentation.
MUSIC
Moving onto the music score, it was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama
and it is quite different from the cheesy 90s synthesizer music
(although it did have a charm all of its own!) and in its place we have a
very creepy and deeply atmospheric score with some real moments of
perfect orchestral terror. And the score is often used really
effectively, such as
in a scene where your character is in a room and a zombie bursts out of
the cupboard! So, overall this is a pretty impressive update of the
cheesy yet still classic score from the original game, which is altogether more sinister and intense than the original.
FLAWS
As for the flaws of the game??? Well
yeah OK the remake does it have some issues.
And to start off, it has to be said the static movement in the game is
what
prevents Resident Evil from being a truly interactive experience. And
as I previously mentioned the characters can't really interact with
their
environment given the pre-rendered backdrops, as you move down a
hallway the camera statically cuts between different sections of a room
as you go. The movement of the characters in the remake are also rather
sluggish as they run fairly slowly around the mansion, the corridors or
anywhere else for that matter. Having said that, I'm actually convinced
they sped up the movement of the characters in the remastered versions,
so in that respect its a lesser problem for the HD versions.
However what is a problem in the remastered version is that I often
found myself occasionally fighting against the direction of the
controls as making your character run in a straight line can prove
challenging. This is especially notable when it changes to another
camera angle while your character runs down a corridor, hallway etc, you
are forced to press the stick forward or backward to compensate for the
new angle, which can disrupt the flow of your character's movement. And on replaying the game for myself again lately, I can still say this is a problem although you do get used to it after a while.
The puzzles in the game can also be a
little frustrating at times as well and given the nature of the game you
have a lot of running back and forth to do to pick up different things,
such as keys, emblems or other items to help you basically unlock new
rooms and access other areas. The storage rooms can also be a bit
annoying as well, given that you
can only hold so many items at once, and you can't ditch an item, you
have to keep it until you reach the storeroom and you have to swap out
an item rather than just ditch it, which thankfully in later games you
could do instead. And further to this, in the prequel game, Resident
Evil 0, they improved the storage system by letting characters just drop
items anywhere and pick them up again as they see fit.
I also have to say while it was a staple of the earlier games in the
series, the ink ribbon save system does feel pretty outdated as well
(although it was brought back for the Resident Evil 2 remake) as it
forces you to be pretty economical with your game saves throughout. So,
this also will force you to try and make sure you are in a good place
with your items and progress before you choose to save your game again. Still, this was in the original game, so I can see why they would keep it in here as well and there are reasonable amount of ribbons to found throughout the game.
Another problem for me with the remake is the voice
acting, which don't get me wrong, is an improvement over the laughable
performances of the original but they still do sound a bit wooden
(although the voice actor of Barry is probably the best here). However
it still brings to mind some of the hilariously bad dialogue of the
original such as in the cutscene where
Barry gives Jill a lockpick and he says to her "And Jill, here is a
lockpick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it
with you" and after Barry saves Jill from being crushed in a room with a collapsing roof and saying to her "You were almost a Jill sandwich!".
Anyway, so that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, Resident Evil the remake is still a superb game and it
builds on the original as its far more creepy and scary as well and the
graphics for the game are also first class. Also now given that the
Nintendo Gamecube, Wii and Wii-U are now discontinued, its great that
the game was remastered for the Xbox 360/One/PS3 & PS4 consoles to allow gamers new to the remake to experience it as well.
And despite any of its limitations in terms of its movement, save and
inventory systems, Resident Evil remake is still a must for any horror game
fan 21 years on from its release.
And I will rate Resident Evil:
9.5 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
Till then its bye for now...groan...creek...shuffle! (OK that's enough!).
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