The whole Resident Evil series as of late has been in the hit and miss categories. With critical flops like Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6, it would seem that the series in on a decline. However Capcom has taken the risk of re-releasing the remake of the 1996 title that was a Game cube exclusive. While giving the game for the first time full wide screen accessibility, a HD 1080P graphical over hall and access to some new game modes, Capcom seems like they want to give new players a chance to experience a forgotten classic title and give older experienced players something new to dive into.
So the basic story goes while Raccoon City is caught in the midst of a strange murder spree. The Raccoon City police bring in the S.T.A.R.S team to investigate what is going on. While on a mission Bravo team goes missing in the local mountains, and the team lead by Albert Wesker is asked to investigate. However once the mission starts to go wrong the team including both Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield take shelter in an empty mansion.
So once you’ve started the game you can take control of either Chris or Jill who are joined by Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton as their second character. The duos main aim is to work out the mystery of the murders, what is Umbrella’s role in everything and just survive long enough to see sunrise.
Game play wise the game takes you and drops you in a maze of the living dead and other horrible monsters and insane creatures. The fact at the start of the game (more so in Chris’s story mode) you don’t start with a gun, or the game makes whatever weapon you have at your disposable feel in affective against anything ranging from Zombies, dogs all the way to the ultimate biological weapon, The Tyrant 101. However as you explore the mansion you come across as varied array of weapons from Shotguns to the Rocket launcher.
The one aspect of the game I absolutely loved was the claustrophobic atmosphere. While new comers to the Resident Evil series will be use to the over the shoulder camera view, remastered goes back to the fixed camera angles which would always hide some aspect of the room away until the camera shifts to a different angle. Throw this is in with the as per excellent lighting and score and it will make even an empty room feel like it needs to be approached with care and caution. Additionally as you explore the mansion and it’s surrounding area’s like the guardhouse, undergrounds and lab’s you’ll be introduced to different creatures like Hunters, Spiders and the tragic character of Lisa Trevor a survivor of experiments which offers a nice Easter egg for another fan favorite monster.
However the biggest change for the re-mastered title is the controls. While you have the normal tank controls, you can analogue controls which remind me of Resident Evil code Veronica style meets the more latter games like Resident Evil 4 to revelations 2 and both controls can be used on the fly, by simply using the D-pad. While the purists will stick to the tank controls, the new analogue scheme feels better to use in general and being able to run and spin on the spot makes avoiding zombies and other monsters a whole lot easier.
There are more additional modes within the game which range from Suicide Zombie mode where Forest Speyer chases you all over the game covered from head to toe with C4, Grenades etc where one bullet will result in an instance game over, you can also unlock a mode called invisible enemy. During this game mode the zombies and creatures found in the Spencer Mansion are invisible and will ask the player to remember where all the enemies are. The final un-lockable mode is called true survivor, in this game it would be the normal game as everyone remembers, however all the item boxes will store the items which was put in there.
However one of the downsides of the game is that this is a remake of a game from 1996 so if you know the story inside and out then baring the additional factor of Lisa Trevor and more information on the progenitor virus (which is the basics of Resident Evil 5 story where they go to where it all started) there is no major changes in the story. Additionally while the remake rewritten the dialogue and featured better voice acting.
If you loved the classic B-movie lines like the “master of unlocking” or “Jill Sandwich” lines said by Barry Burton then you’re out of luck (However PC users there are mods out there which returns the classic voice acting), Also I have a feeling that fans of the latter games will find the fixed camera angles and lack of detailed aiming at first strange however after a while it becomes almost second nature.
Also while this game is a remake/remastered however you will look at it, this game like the launch of the Game Cube version back in 2002, this is the perfect way to treat a remake. Unlike most of the current remakes that has been released this game has benefitted from it. From the improved visuals, the use of a full 16:9 ratio and camera panning, which isn’t as jarring as I first thought it would be and the additional modes which adds additional replay value. The one and most important aspect of the re-mastered game is it going to give a whole new generation a chance to play an over looked game because it was limited to the Gamecube. If you look at the commercial success of Resident Evil 4, it’s because it was released on pretty much every platform and is still getting released and changing it for the needed system. So at the time of this review this title is capcoms biggest selling digital title to date.
Pros | Cons |
Improved graphics for the current Generation and PC users | The story while re-written and refined is still the same old story fans of old will remember |
The addition of Analogue controls helps the experience rather than hinder | Fans of the B-movie dialogue will be disappointed to do a more serious tone within the script |
Allows all fans of the series a chance to play the remake for the first time | |
Additional game modes will offer great re-playability | |
Great example of a re-mastered game should be. |
For myself I would give Resident Evil Remastered 8 out of 10.
Closing Thoughts.
For myself I would consider Resident Evil Re-mastered a great game for a number of reasons. It takes what was is a beautiful game and give it a face lift with improved graphics and high attention of detail in the re-mastering. It also gives off a chance to complete the game multiple times including perhaps one of the craziest trophy/achievement ever (by beating the game with only using the combat knife) and finally for myself I have to say it gives the newer comers to experience the more horror aspects of the series if they have only played the latter games.
Re-mastered doesn’t try and re-design the wheel in terms of story, however with the fine refinements in it which includes more of the history of the Spencer mansion, the Trevor’s and hints at the origins of the T-virus itself. Sure the story is 19 years old, however this game was peoples first experience with a survival horror title and with the advances in technology when the remake was made it felt and even 13 years after its remade status the story remains good as it did which ever version was your first taste of it.
While when the news of the new control scheme was announced I always thought and felt I would be using the “Tank Controls” as I’ve always had. While using full analogue controls at first confusing and awkward to use. For myself after half an hour or so they felt really natural, and of course mapping the Tank controls on to the D-pad means that you can switch on the fly when required. Likewise I thought the panning camera which is used in 16:9 could be jarring; however it is in fact the same camera movement which Capcom used in Resident Evil 0.
Unless you’re really into the old classic B-movie style dialogue then I guess you could say this is a criticism of it. However I did see that PC modders have taken it from the 1996 game and put it into this version. However the sound design is great and everything works into making the atmosphere perfect.