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Jill has a taser that will send a large
amount of voltage through the zombies bodies, while Chris
can lodge a hand grenade into the zombies mouth, shoot it
and watch the special effects. While both of these weapons
will stop zombies in their tracks both characters can also
use defensive knifes that can be lodged in the zombies throat
or neck to give you some extra time and breathing space. Knowing
when to use a defence item can often be the difference between
life and death.
Another addition to the gameplay is the super zombie. Where
as in the past you have been able to kill a zombie and leave
it for dead, now if you let them be; the zombies will become
very nasty acid breathing super zombies that are faster than
both of the lead characters, a couple of swipes from their
claws and you will be dead. To prevent this from happening
you will have to burn or behead all zombies that you defeat;
if you choose not to dispose of dead zombies properly you
will have to learn the hard way.
From the very start of playing Resident
Evil you will have trouble recognising it from the original,
this is because Capcom have changed 70% of the original game.
New items and enemies have been added and rooms have been
switched around so that the game will seem completely changed.
While some of the puzzles are new and others have been rehashed
there are quite a few that have not. You'll still be collecting
a variety of items you will still have to make sense of where
they might be used in the mansion. This basically means there
will be a load of back tracking throughout the game. In traditional
Resident Evil style you will be pushing boxes and statues
around, this sort of trial and error gameplay could become
annoying if the game wasn't so scary and atmospheric, not
to mention incredibly addictive.
When you fist play Resident Evil you will
realise that it is a very good looking game. Screenshots and
video clips don't in any way do Resident Evil justice, the
perfect pre rendered scenery with ambient animations result
in the most visually impressive video game ever. Attention
to detail is brilliant, your characters image is reflected
by everything, dust particles float by in the light while
fog blows across the screen. The detail is so great that even
individual blades of grass sway in the wind. Those are the
very nice subtle graphical parts of the game now let me tell
you about the gore. To start with it is the most realistic
gore ever seen in a video game, blood will gush from bodies
and splatter all over the walls and carpet, even when loads
of blood hits the carpet you can still see the pattern though
the gory red stuff. Blowing off a zombie's head with a shotgun
is very rewarding; it produces an explosion of effects that
simply has to be seen to be appreciated.
Just as much care has been taken in the constructing of the
character models, hair flows in the wind, clothes appear to
have real textures and weapons can be seen on your character.
Zombies are "believe it or not" amazing too, although
a better variety would have been nice. Only a couple of negatives
on the visual side of the games, the character animation is
pretty bog standard and the dogs look to move a bit awkwardly.
The video sequences have slight pauses in the middle of them
which is slightly distracting. At the end of the day; this
game looks absolutely beautiful and these are very, very minor
points.
The voice acting was a pretty weak point
in the original version but this time it is better although
there are still times where you will get some funny dialogue.
Dolby Digital and Pro Logic II are not supported but the Dolby
Surround works pretty well even though the two rear channels
have been merged. The sound effects are great, if you hear
some dripping liquid somewhere it is likely that you will
find a leaky tap near by. In the open you can hear weeds and
bushes brushing up against your characters pants and there
are loads of sound effects for footsteps alone. The zombies
let the sound down a bit as the groans are pretty much the
same with not much in the way of variety.
Collectively all the elements of Resident
Evil come together to make for a truly creepy experience.
With two characters and three difficulty setting plus a load
of different endings and branch-off stories the game offers
plenty to do. Even if you are only vaguely into this sort
of game you should still buy it because it's a must for anyone
who owns a GameCube. This is the tour de force of all Resident
Evil games and it shouldn't be missed by anyone.
9 out
of 10
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