A perfect park for newcomers of the Resident Evil series
Over the past 2 years the Resident Evil series isínt as popular as it once where because of spin-offs like Gun Survivor or Gaiden, but now Capcom is ready to introduce RE to Gamecube players with RE Rebirth (another name for the GC version of RE1) and RE0 but how do they hold up and wil GC owners like the games?
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Resident Evil
In July 1998 mysterious murders have taken place in the quiet town of Raccoon City, the local police force R.P.D are sending the a special police force S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics And Rescue Squad) have been sent out in the Raccoon Forest, however the lose contact with them and decides to send it´s sister team S.T.A.R.S Alpha to solve the mysterious murders and to find the missing S.T.A.R.S members, however in the forest they get attacked by something that looks like wolfs, after they wolfs kill one of their team mates they get chased by them and run into a near by mansion where they thought was safe, but it´s not because monsters are running freely in the mansion now S.T.A.R.S Alpha has to find thier teams mates while trying to survive this deathtrap.
The gameplay in RE1 is about running around shooting monsters, finding items and keys and solving puzzles it might sound boreing but it is fun but the controls are not good, because you control your characters like tanks and it can be hard to avoid the emeny and it´s a little problem in boss battles but otherwise the gameplay is good. There is something new about the gameplay though that isínt in either the PSone or PS2 RE games, you can use defense items like knifes grenades and a stun gun you can select to do it manually or let the game do it for you, personally you should let the game do it for you since the characters will only use them when they get attacked, sure only grenades will kill them but it´s a nice way to get past the emenys if they attack you, also when you kill a zombie you´ll have to use olie and a lighter to permently kill them when you have forced them to lay down and if you don´t do it they will chase you it´s a good idea since it was a bit stupid the zombies where dead just by some shots.
The game offers 2 playble characters, Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, both have thier own abilties, Jill can hold 8 items and pick-lock locked doors (well come of them) however she´s weak and die easily, Chris can only hold 6 items and starts with a knife but he´s stronger than Jill, both of them have driffent (somewhat) simliar quest however there are driffences, such as: if you play as Jill you have to find Chris and if your Chris you have to find Barry and Jill, also Chris meets Rebbeca Chambers that help´s him during his quest at some points.
The graphics are top nice the character model are really nice and they move well ,the backgrounds are beatiful but they are all pre-rended so some might be dissapointed, also the game runs at a nice smoth frame rate and it never goes bad.
The music is both good and scary, but the voice overs are (as in other Resident Evil games) bad but it´s not the worst in the series, also the zombies goreing are scary at first but they are at litte bad after a while since there isínt a variation is the goreings, the game dosént suport Dolby Digital or Pro Logic II but the game sounds like your using them and that´s a nice tourch.
The game is around 10-12 hours long for each character but the events are random so you might wanna see a new cut-scene even though you have completed the game once so there is defently some replay valve.
Overall RE for the GC is a very good game that both newcomers and long time fans should buy.
Score: 9.7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resident Evil Zero
RE0 was orginally planed for the N64 but Capcom decided to move the protject over to the GC so this is some sort of a remake of a unreleased game.
The game takes place a day before the mansion incident (setting of RE1) Rebbeca Chambers is sent out for a mission out in the Raccoon forest to solve the mysterious murders, however they are forced to land in the middle of the forest due to engine problems, in the forest the find a military police jeep and there´s dead bodies inside, they find out that the dead guards where suposed to transport a prisoner name Billy Coen, as Rebbeca is exploring the forest she finds a train with dead passengers inside and like that mansion the train is full of monsters so now Rebbeca and Billy (they meet each other in the train mins after the game has begun) must co-op to survive this nightmare.
On the gameplay front there aínt any changes of the RE1 gameplay other than you can´t use defense items and you can switch between Rebbeca and Billy when you want too and like RE1 they both have driffent abilites: Rebbeca can combine herbs but she´s weak Billy can´t combine herbs but he´s stronger so it´s recommened to play as Billy most of the time although they need to co-op to complete cirtan puzzles and events, the A.I. is very good they never get in your way and if a monster is comming from the back he´ll try to kill it so the A.I.´s good
There´s nothing changed in the graphics too, other than the CG movies are looking better than those in RE1 otherwise not changes.
Soundwise the music, voice overs and some sound effect is driffent, the music and sound effects are good but the zombies still suffers the same sound problems as in RE1 and the voice acting is still bad but once again not the worst in the series (and once again no Dolby suport)
The game is around 10 hours on the first disc and another 10 on disc 2 so it´s long and once again there´s hidden goodies that extends the replay valve.
RE0 is good but not as good as RE1 still it´s a must that fans simply must play.
Score: 9.0
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Resident Evil 4 Demo
Eveybody is waiting for RE4 so it´s wise for Capcom to put a demo of it into this pack, so what does this demo tell us about RE4?
RE4 takes place in 2004 Umbrellla is no more after the Raccoon City Incident and Leon S. Kennedy have joined the serect services and protects the presidents family, however the president´s daughter Ashley get´s kipnapped by a unknown group and is taking to Spain now Leon´s first job for the serect services is to rescue Ashley.
So far in this demo eveything works the gameplay is so much better than the old RE games and you arént fighting against zombies your fighting against (censured) and they are stronger and more intellgent than the zombies.
Also the gameplay has been changed you still run around and shoot people but you can now shoot them where you want and they respond to where you shoot them.
So far the game looks amazing and plays well, the only minus is that is about 20-30 mins long and you don´t face any of the quick time events that we had heard so much about and that´s a shame.
Overall the demo is great but it´s a little eraly to give the game a score but i will score the demo and so far, it´s very cool.
Score 10
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Overall this pack is very good espically if your new to the series so you must get this pack it´s a must buy.