Resident Evil (PSX) - Video Game Review

My play-through of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II began to piss me off so much that I needed something get my mind off of it and relax me. Somehow, a game about being trapped in a zombie-infested mansion was more soothing than a JRPG about giant robots. Since I finished Resident Evil 0, I decided to stick with the chronological line of events and go back to the very first entry in the Resident Evil franchise. Although this is the PlayStation version, I played this on the PS Vita after downloading it on the PlayStation Network Store. Another point I want to make is that I played the "Director's Cut" version of this game, although I will speak on the original version as well. 

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General Information

Resident Evil is a survival-horror game and is the very first original title in the massive Resident Evil franchise. It was developed and published by Capcom with its director, Shinji Mikami, considered the original mastermind behind the term "survival-horror." Despite that, the game is actually largely inspired from an earlier horror Capcom game: Sweet Home. The original game was released on 22 March 1996 for the PlayStation but is now available on nearly all video game platforms that have come out since.

Since its original release, numerous modified versions of the game have released since. For the most part, the "Director's Cut" of the game is most known version of the game, which was released in September 1997. The new version added two new modes: Beginner and Arranged Mode, with Beginner Mode making the game markedly easier and the Arranged Mode offering a mix-up of item and enemy locations that could offer new life to the game. The Director's Cut also offered an auto-aim function, as well as a modified soundtrack that just sounds awful...

In 2002, the game was completely remade for the Nintendo GameCube as what is known as Resident Evil REmake. This game was later given an HD overhaul in 2015 when it was brought to modern consoles and systems. It's confusing, I know, but to put it in simpler terms, I view the 2002 remake to be a completely different game from the original. 

The Story
Raccoon City is your standard medium sized city in the American Midwest when it starts to experience a series of unexplained murders on its outskirts, along the Arklay Mountains. The Raccoon City Police Department's Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) Bravo Team is dispatched to investigate the murders in the Arklay Mountains but communication with them goes dark so Alpha Team gets sent to rescue the rescuers (for an in-depth view of what happened to Bravo Team, play Resident Evil 0). Things go bad almost immediately upon arrival as zombie dogs start eating people and the few survivors flee to a nearby mansion where they think they'll be safe.

At this point, the story splits somewhat as players can choose to play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. Although the bulk of the game will remain the same, the supporting characters in the story change. Jill will team up with legendary goofball Barry Burton while Chris will get help from a surviving Bravo Team medic, Rebecca Chambers. Additionally, both characters will have exclusive access to some different weapons and items. Although it doesn't say so anywhere, playing as Jill makes the game vastly easier than playing as Chris since Jill can carry more items; pick locks; and gets the grenade launcher. All Chris gets is a shitty flamethrower in two short parts of the game and his health is slightly greater than Jill's.

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I guess the character selection screen is where Chris left his gun since he doesn't even start with one...

Once inside the mansion, the protagonist must figure out its many puzzles in order to not only survive, but also piece together the origin of the monsters that roam its halls. There's an incredibly obvious traitor in the story that has their own motivations while the game boasts a total of four separate endings for each character. Considering this was still the early days of narrative-driven games, I won't knock the game too much for its rather simplistic story, but the notoriously bad voice acting makes the game play out like B-movie quality horror schlock. 

The Gameplay

The gameplay continues to shine, despite the game's age, as character movements are snappy and the initial DNA of survivor-horror staples like item management, conserving ammunition, and avoiding conflict all come into play here. I've played nearly all of the Resident Evil games and still find this one to be pretty hard as it is very easy to run out of ammo and be left at the mercy of the mansion's many undead denizens.

When it comes to movement, players will have to contend with the fixed-camera angles and tank-controls that continued to shine on through much of the franchise's lineage. Despite those characteristics, the combat in this game is arguably my favorite of the first three Resident Evil games. The bosses and enemies don't feel exploitative like the future ones would, so I never felt like I was at an unfair advantage. My only complaint would be the Hunters, who are capable of instantly killing the protagonist and are seemingly pros at using invincibility frames (aka actions where they can't be harmed). They're not as big of an issue in Jill's campaign as she can murder these little bastards with a single grenade launcher round, but I hated playing as Chris and having to contend with them via a shotgun.

Audio/Visual

Whereas the gameplay remains serviceable, there is nothing remotely attractive about this game's aesthetics. The "Director's Cut" revamped the music and somehow made it atrociously bad. The basement background music is so bad that it scared my friend's dog, while another track sounded like someone repeatedly face-planting into their keyboard. The game's dialogue is widely considered to have the worst voice acting in video game history with some of its lines being so bad they likely make Tommy Wiseau blush.

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It doesn't get better than this...

On a visual angle, the game just doesn't look good. Whereas I can still recommend games like Final Fantasy VII, due to their brilliant use of pre-rendered backgrounds, I can't say the same about this game. Rooms look far too clean and spacious while character models are incredibly blocky. I think it's a testament to how far video games have come in visuals as I still recall being terrified as a child when I saw the first zombie in this game.

Replayability
There's definitely some replayability here as you can experiment with the different choices the game offers you, while experiencing both Jill's and Chris's stories are an absolute must for the full experience. Beyond that, if you can manage to beat the game fast/well enough, you'll unlock the "Unlimited Missile Launcher" and "Unlimited Magnum" as well as alternate costumes. There's always the Arranged Mode on the "Director's Cut" too, which adds a good chunk of life to the overall game. 

The Best of the Best: For Jill's side of the campaign: Barry telling me that acid-filled grenade rounds are especially effective against "living things." For Chris's side of the campaign: Rebecca telling Chris to not die while he's getting man-handled by a giant killer plant.

The Worst of the Worst: The background music hurts my soul. It could literally be used to torture someone with.

Would I Recommend?

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Unless you want to indulge in some nostalgia or laugh at the awful voice acting, I can't recommend this game. The 2002 remake now makes the original PlayStation One version completely obsolete on every level. If you want to start the Resident Evil series, I recommend skipping this and going straight to Resident Evil REmake.

Spoiler Comments

• It's pretty amazing that Wesker was able to do so much behind the scenes while wearing sunglasses at night in a dark mansion filled with creatures that indiscriminately kill anything they cross paths with.
• I know they were trying to make it seem like Barry was acting strange because Wesker was forcing him to betray the group, but it more just seemed like he was bumbling around shooting random things with his magnum.

References

(1) Amazon. (n.d.). Resident Evil game cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Resident-Evil-Sony-PlayStation-2-PS2/dp/B00000I1BY. 
(2) Amj5584. (4 March 2017). Resident Evil character select image. PennState. Retrieved from: https://sites.psu.edu/ist446bk/2017/03/04/404/. 
(3) Nightriff. (2015). Jill sandwich gif image. Giant Bomb. Retrieved from: https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/resident-evil-directors-cut-5958/relapsed-fan-resident-evil-director-s-cut-1771649/.
(4) Y.F. (2018). Jill sandwich meme. Retrieved from: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jill-sandwich.