Does the remake scare you to death? Step inside, if you dare.
Resident Evil on Playstation defined a genre. Resident Evil on GameCube redefines fear. The series may have lost its way to shock-horror tactics in its last few outings, but Shinji Mikami and crew have taken survival horror to a new standard. The new RE is a dirty, dark, disturbing reinvention of the franchise that fans have never seen.
You think you know, but you have no idea. No, this isn’t MTV Diary, but the catch phrase accurately describes everything in Resident Evil. Newbies, of course, will find everything new, but veterans will have no problem getting the crap scared out of them with new thrills and chills. There are huge new areas that veterans will have no familiarity with, and the RE team has made these the freakiest of all. The old mansion areas are darker and filthier than they once were. The estate has also been remapped to leave you lost at the mercy of the mansion.
The new RE is scary. At every turn, and every corner, you’re paranoid – and for good reason. The stunning new pre-rendered backgrounds are so realistic that each step literally creeps you out. Tree branch shadows sway and filter through mansion windows; fire dances over the walls in a pitch black lair; water sheaths and drips to a puddle that reflects your image. The new character models look near human, and the new, more ghostly faces of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine create a visual feast that any zombie would be proud to munch.
But besides a creepy, old house, players have to fear the staple RE zombie. The zombies in RE resemble those found in the original PSone game. They tend to take 4-8 bullets to kill and advance faster. What’s worse is that after they're capped to death, they rise back from the dead later as Crimson Heads. The Crimson Heads are angry zombies that sport claws and a new reddish face. Players have to go the extra mile to dispose of zombie bodies, or face their red wrath when they arise. The mutant dogs make a comeback and are more vicious then they ever were. Dogs can now pounce on you to knock your character to the ground. They’re not too hard to kill, but they’re fast, and it always catches you off guard.
The gameplay in RE remains the same, but with a few twists. The newest addition is the defense item. Players can use daggers to stab a zombie in the face, grenades to blow off their heads, or stun guns to burn a zombie to bits. They all help to either give you time to escape and ready your ammo, or just kill them instantly to save you a bit of ammo. Best of all is that they’re keep separately in inventory and don’t interfere with your block spaces.
The new RE is tough. Players must conserve bullets and it’s rare to find random ammo packs like the sequel installments. Puzzles still take shape in the form of searching for items and pushing object, but the puzzles on top of puzzles in the new RE make them more complex. In most cases you’ll have to go through several puzzles before combining to major items that you needed for another puzzle. There are some standard ones that veterans have seen before, but the new ones (60-70% of the puzzles are new) can be real brain teasers. The game takes close to 14 hours to beat your first time in.
Part of the RE experience is tainted with the GC controller. It simply does not accommodate games that require the D-pad. The D-pad is too small and starts to hurt your thumb after a while. The analog pad isn’t as precise and makes you turn too much because of its eight-way direction. To remedy the situation players can use the new Type C config where the R trigger is used to walk and run. The map has been completely redone in RE and does a much better job to let you know what areas still need to be explored.
It can be difficult to see where you can and can’t go in certain pre-rendered backgrounds, and you might wind up missing something that you need to pick up.
A new breed of fear has been born. Resident Evil is scary, freaky, but always fun. The control issue can be a pain, but not buying this killer app would be pure agony.
