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Resident Evil Playstation Capcom -1998 You’ve read it in the newspapers, you’ve even seen it on TV. Something weird is going on in Racoon Valley . . . People have been found dead. But not just dead – mangled. Eaten even. The Organization you work For – S.T.A.R. sent in a team to investagate a few days ago, but they haven’t come back. It’s up to you and Bravo Team to find out What happened, and maybe even get to the bottom of this. But be careful – something’s not right here . . . Resident Evil is a puzzle game, an action game and a horror movie rolled into one. You choose to play as one of two agents – Chris or Jill. Both follow different paths through the game and have their own advantages and disadvantages. You have your choice of basic police weaponry – knife, gun, shotgun, and eventually, rocket launcher. You work your way through a spooky mansion by solving puzzles and either eliminating or making your way past legions of Zombies and mutated animals and plants. But be careful with that ammo - You’ve only got so much, and there are a lot of zombies around. Oh, and did I mention you can only save a limited number of times? All that being said, Resident Evil didn’t exactly turn out like it was supposed to. This game has been called “Scary,” “Pants Wetting,” “Really Freaky Man” and “I don’t play that game with the lights out anymore.” It’s the mother of all survival horror games. So . . . Where’s the scary? I couldn’t find the scary. It just wasn’t there. I looked all over the house for the scary, but it wasn’t to be found. I looked in the piano room. not there. I searched the snakes in the garden. Nope. I tried to ask some crows, but they just pecked my face. I asked the zombies in the closet. They didn’t know. Well actually, all the said was “uhhhhnnn” but I’m sure that means they don’t know. It’s. Not. there. So what’s up with that? This game is built to be scary. Why are my pants not off in fright? One of the biggest problems is the game’s look. This being a rather early PSX (Playstation) game, the graphics are blocky at best. It’s kind of hard to get scared by a zombie when it looks kind of like a green blob. Plus a lot of the colors used for the mansion are kind of bright and cheery – they seem poorly chosen for a game that’s supposed to be an interactive horror movie. Also, the characters move in slightly awkward ways and the Mansion simply lacks detail. It just doesn’t look scary. In fact, the most tragically comical part of the game is the opening. Usually, it’s customary to make opening cut scenes with the game engine. Ooooh no. Not RE. The opening scene is done by a bevvy of unknown and most likely poorly paid actors who are the models for the redux graphics (which, it turns out, were done really well). They walk around in a field and “act.” Also, the game is kind of simple. You have guns, there are zombies. Either you shoot them or run away. The puzzles all seem cut and dry – there’s very little thought involved. It can be a real chore to trudge through. And as for the voice acting, you couldn’t get more wooden if you carved the characters yourself, from a bigger piece of wood. It’s not all the voice actors’ fault, though. The script is funky at best. It’s about as far from creepy as President Bush and a koala are on the “desire to punch in the face” scale. But it does make for really hilarious quotes. In the end, Resident Evil comes across as more spoof than horror. But then again, I’m a bit biased. I came into Resident Evil having played Resident Evil Redux for Game Cube. It seems to fix most of the problems that the PSX version has – it’s definitely scarier than global warming. What liked: A very original game. Lots of interesting ideas, such as limiting saving and ammo to the point that you might NOT want to kill everything. What disliked: Just not scary. Graphics and sound and writing need lots of work. Also, this game has a prediliction for weird camera angles that can be slightly confusing. What to expect: A healthy departure from straight up puzzle solving and a new look at action games. What not to expect: A scary movie. It’s a little scary, but it’s mostly a puzzle/action game. What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It was the first game of its genre, “Survival Horror.” Ratings on: Control: 5 (This was the first game to have what we at ihtg refer to as “Resident Evil Controls.” This type of configuration is made to deal with lots of strange camera angles – which RE favours. Frequently. Instead of being relative to YOU, they are relative to the character, so if you press “left,” the character wont move left across the screen, but will turn to his/her left. While this is useful in dealing with lots of shifting camera angles, it can be counterintuitive and downright annoying.)
After intro: What was THAT?!! That was hilarious! I haven’t seen acting that bad since “S Club 7” had a TV show.
5th hour: Umm . . . I’m running out of ammo . . . ok, maybe this game’s a little scary after all. #1 reason why I hate this game: Is that a zombie? Ok, I *smirk* guess it’s *chuckle* a LITTLE scary . . . *hearty laugh* by Freeohio
FreeOhioX: did I tell you about it?
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