This old mansion needs to be rebuilt.
Also when playing this, I played the PSN version. I however know of nothing different in it from the original PlayStation version. So if your interested in buying this game and have a PSP or PS3, then I recommend buying it from Sony's digital download service, the Playstation Network, you'll find it cheap and if you have a PSP you can take it wherever you go.
The Rad:
Zombies; Good cares; Interesting and terrifying monsters; Two characters to play as, both with their own story; Creepy setting; Good shooting; Magic storage bins; B movie style set up for the game; Nice story concept; Save system; Multiple endings; Somewhat alternate paths.
The Bad:
Backtracking; Slow pacing; Bad voice overs; Bad dialogue; Poor execution of story; Boring puzzles; No quick turn; Can't move while aiming; Not worth the extra content.
From Capcom comes Resident Evil: Directors Cut, a slightly updated version of the original, containing some extra content. Like it's predecessor, you will be exploring an eerie mansion, all while trying to survive it's horrors, and hopefully solve a mysterious case as one of two members of a special police force. What's extra in this game really isn't worth the money if you already own the original. Unless your die-hard Resident Evil fans, just don't expect much more from it. However, for those who are new to the series, then this is the version to own.
Everything regarding the story is the same as in the original, with no new surprises. You play as one of two characters who are part of Alpha Team on a special police force known as S.T.A.R.S.(Special Tactics And Rescue Squad), looking for their missing Bravo Team, who disappeared investigating a strange case in the outskirts of a Mid Western town known as Raccoon City. What they discover though will change their lives forever, but not anymore then it did in the original game. All the problems from the original carry over, which is a shame because the story has a lot of potential to be better. For starters, depending on the character played, whether it be Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, the story for the opposite character will change, along with their own extra character they have in their story. It's changed all to point where that character and their events are completely ignored, without ever getting confirmation to their existence. It would have been nice if they changed the story to where these characters existed in the opposite character's game and was part of the story, but instead were just cut out together.
During the course of the game, there are some alternate-like paths that can be taken. This was a good idea, but ended up being a bit of a problem. The problem mainly being that there's not that many, and they don't change much besides giving a few extra dialogue options or events, that which only a couple of them end up giving a sense of importance. Most of them though have the same outcome, just changing the time on which it takes for you to get on with the rest of game. The story also tends to be hindered by some other aspects of the game, all together I feel these problems should have been fixed for this re-release.
Nothing much changed in the gameplay department, aside from a useful auto aim feature, which targets the nearest enemy, and from the Dual Shock (analog stick with vibration for those who are unaware) controls. The characters are still controlled via walking or running with the "tank" controls as seen in the original, which new players may have to get used to. My main complaint with the controls is that the character's are hard to turn around to the opposite direction with, as they turn slowly. Other things remain such as, Jill is weaker than Chris in terms of health, but can carry more items, and you still can't move while aiming, which is a shame because that's one of the gripes I have with this game. Though there's sadly not much of, there are some additions in this entry, and they include, two new difficulty levels, a Training mode and Arranged mode.
Training is an easier mode, supplying more ammo and ink ribbons and has enemies doing less damage. The Arranged mode is a harder mode, with enemies being harder to kill, doing more damage, and items being less abundant then before. There's also the addition of some new and better camera angles for some of the environments, a new costume for each character, a new handgun that sometimes gets nice one-shot's in, and almost all the items are placed differently, along with a few new scares, which are all still the fun "pop out, boo!" scares seen in the original. The replacement of items help's to mix things up for old players, requiring them to once again search for the new placement of items. This slightly effects the puzzles, which aren't different at all, therefore not being any harder than before.
Puzzles still don't make much sense with the game, leaving inconsistencies in the story, and they are all childishly simple, mostly requiring you to find an item to put in a slot that matches in order to get a key to unlock the next door, or moving an object to make an item accessible. This is a shame because this game had a perfect set-up for good puzzles, but there's mostly not any and they really just put a halt to the games pacing, forcing back-tracking, which just gives the game a slow and boring feel. Health is monitored the same way as before, forcing you to have to check the item screen where your health is located, as there is no other way it's displayed, though it's not that big of an issue in the game. Your health can be refilled via plenty health items that are found lying around, and if you die though, a neat death screen is given and your sent back to the main menu, and there's still unfortunately no continue system, so instead you just have to load you last save, though it's wasn't a big issue because I rarely died. The save system is still the same, with it sadly only allowing for five save files per memory card, and being handled through the use of type-writers and the number of ink ribbons you have, which may be a problem to some new players. Since it depends on the number of ink ribbons, the save system tends to limit the amount of saving, which in turn may end up causing some wish that it wasn't included, as sometimes it can be annoying when you just want to save and turn the game off. But it ends up working out ok, just furthering the feeling of survival by having the player constantly look for more ink ribbons to save with.
There'll be lots of exploring, and lots of slow load times from going through doors or up or down stairs, but when not stuck in a load screen, to help with the exploring, you have a map, though it works ok, I wish the map system was more detailed. It's problems mainly comes to the remembering of certain rooms, as you'll be doing a lot of back tracking. Also the map appears electronically rather than the paper maps you find, which is odd. As mentioned back-tracking returns, and there's too much of it, really giving the game bad pacing, and the puzzles aren't the only cause of this. The item screen really slow's things down, which contains only a small number of slots to hold items with.
When you run out of space in the item slots, you have to go find one of the games storage bins to drop items into because there's no other way to empty your item slots, unless your able to use up some items, like extra ammo you might have, but why would you want to do that? The storage bins are interesting because they're...... magic(not really but hey...), and whatever items are put into one, they will transfer to all the other ones you encounter in the game, staying in there until you take them out. I assume the bins are there to help limit the back-tracking, but it hardly does that, and the bins would have been cool too, if you weren't forced to use them. Also as a side note, the item slots wouldn't have been a problem if they tweaked it a little. For example, a small key should not take up as much space as a shotgun does, it just shouldn't, in fact I don't think it should take up any space at all since you won't even use it that long. For some reason though, your allowed to keep keys after their unusable, if you choose to not discard them. I don't know why this option is included, but it is.
As guessable by this point, items are handled the same, all giving you the option to use, or equip, along with checking them, which will allow you to examine the item more closely as a 3D model. You can also combine some items like herbs, to create more powerful ones, which will refill your health better, or you can combine ammo with your gun for a safer and faster reload, instead of reloading in-game, leaving yourself open to attack. All the regular and boss enemies are the same as in the original as well, with only two of them being a disappointment. Also one downfall is the set camera angles in the environments. Despite the games Arranged mode's changing of some of them, they still become a problem as you'll sometimes run blindly into enemies that are right in front of you, that you just can't see. With all that said, my only problem pertaining to this part of the game besides mentioned, is ammo, which is everywhere, and I have no idea why there is ammo just lying around a mansion, though this isn't much of a problem, but more of a confusion.
Graphically, this game still doesn't look that nice, environments look ok, a bit bland though, and the rest aren't really up to par. FMV's still look like dumb theme park ride set-up's, the live action video's still look horrible along with it's horrible acting, and the character models look like poorly stacked blocks. The animations of them don't look any better either. A couple of the enemies look ok, but I cant say the same for the rest. I really wish they put more work into this aspect.
I can't give much credit to the sound either. Only a couple of the songs sound ok, and the rest just don't really evoke much emotion in the game. Zombies sound ok, though sometimes too deep, and the sound of other enemies, and environments sound alright. Where this area really falls down on it's face is the voice acting and dialogue. This game has some of the worst voice acting ever in a video game, it's so bad it's laughable, but that doesn't redeem it at all. Then there's the actual lines that they say, which are all really horribly written. It really makes me wonder who noticed these two things before releasing the original and let it pass through, along with those who noticed them still there with this re-release and let it slide again.
As far as replay value goes, this game doesn't really have any aside from the game it's self. There's really not much extra in this game to make it worth the extra playthroughs, especially for old players. There are some unlockables but they just don't seem worth it for those who already been there and done that with the original. I really wish that they included more, like things the Sega Saturn's version extra battle mode and such, but they didn't. There's also multiple endings, which some are kinda cool because they reflect the choices you make with certain characters throughout the game, but there's still nothing different from the original there. Because of that, it just leaves this game feeling empty after it's first playthrough, unless your looking to experience the other difficulties.
Overall, this is a Resident Evil game and it is a fun game, I just don't think it's worth the extra money for those who own the original. Unless your a hardcore Resident Evil fan, or new to the series, then I can't recommend this. For new players, it's a pretty good game and you shouldn't let it's flaws stop you from experiencing it. There's some good scares and a cool story concept, with a good setting. The boss's are fun to face, and so are the enemies, with some of them being quite scary. So overall I say this is an ok buy for new players, but for those who played the original, I feel they just didn't add enough to it.
7 out of 10