Re-Review #13: Resident Evil

Resident Evil

GameCube

For my original review of this game, click

>HERE!<

I tend to play through some version of the original Resident Evil about every five years or so, and wouldn’t you know it – the pattern has held true. I last played this game back in 2016 and here I am in 2021 playing it again.

I actually hadn’t intended to play through this game at all, but my GameFly subscription was coming to an end and I needed to rent a game I knew I could quickly and easily beat – so I decided to check out the HD remastered version of this game for the PS4. I’m still going to go ahead and count this as a GameCube game though, because aside from some sharper graphics and slight control tweaks (bye bye tank controls!) this is still essentially the exact same game.

I’ve reviewed both the PS1 version of Resident Evil and the GameCube version before, so this should be a pretty quick re-review. I feel as if I am running out of things to say about this game!

Nothing has changed. This game has held up remarkably well over the years. Sure it doesn’t hurt that the graphics are sharper and everything is in HD this time around, but honestly the game already looked good anyway. What makes Resident Evil so great is its design and its gameplay. The mansion has to be one of my favorite video game locales of all time. I feel as if I know this mansion like the back of my hand, yet this game is STILL an absolute blast to explore. To me that speaks volume about its design – not just the mansion but the game itself.

This game does such a brilliant job at escalating things. It starts out as just a creepy mansion, then you add zombies, then you add puzzles, then you add dogs, snakes, sharks, hunters. You explore outside. You explore the guardhouse. You explore the cave, the lab. The game just gets crazier and crazier as you play. And you know what? I’m all for it.

While I have played through this game so many times now that it doesn’t scare me anymore, I still appreciate what it tries to do. The music, the haunting scenery, the jump scares, the dramatic camera angles. If I was playing this for the first time I am certain I would have been on-edge the entire game. That really says something to me considering this version of the game is 19 years old, and the original version is 25. That is some supremely enduring game design. I absolutely can’t WAIT until my son is old enough that I can introduce him to this game. It is going to be a glorious day in my life.

If I had to offer up one complaint (about this particular version of the game anyway), it is that I actually missed the tank controls. Too many times I’d run from one screen to the next only to have the camera angle change and my character get “confused” about what was happening. I’d end up running back the way I came, and then I’d try to adjust and I’d end up running back to the other screen, then I’d try to adjust and end up running back to the original screen again. Mostly this didn’t cause too much of an issue, but if I was trying to run away from or evade a certain enemy, you bet it caused me some trouble.

That’s really all I can say that’s negative about this game. I knew it was a great game coming in and literally nothing that happened during my two playthroughs (one as Jill and one as Chris, of course!) did anything to change that.

No matter if you’re playing the GameCube version of the game, the remastered PS4 version, or the original version on the PS1, you can’t go wrong with the original Resident Evil. I am once again giving it an A.

Why not an A+, you may ask? While I do find this to be a great game, the experience of it still doesn’t compare to my experience with the ’96 version for the original PlayStation. Honestly, I am not sure anything ever will. While this game boasts better graphics and all kinds of added content, my heart will always belong to the classic version of the game.

That’s really all I have to say about this game, but since this re-review is so short I’m going to go ahead and rant for a little bit.

Billionaires. Seriously, what are they doing with all that money? How has not a SINGLE one of them recreated the mansion from this game and turned it into an Escape Room-esque type of thing? What is wrong with you people? Get on it! I’ll even be your project manager. Hire me right now. There is no one more capable of running this project than me. I’ll even dress up as a zombie and live in it for you if that is what you want. It’d be a drop in the bucket as far as money is concerned. 

It’s just killing me that this mansion doesn’t exist in real life. We need to make it happen. Come on, moneybags. You know where to find me. Let’s go.

 

Overall:

A