Resident Evil Zero
GameCube
Nostalgia Factor:
Considering that I’ve played this game from start to finish only one time in my life, I have quite the history with it. Resident Evil Zero came out in 2002, when I was 20 years old. I didn’t have a GameCube at the time, but I went out and picked one up a year or two later. By then, Resident Evil Zero was considered an “old” game, and I was able to find a used copy of it in the bargain bin at my local GameStop.
At this time in my life I was living with my mom after suffering a bad breakup with a girlfriend I was living with. It wasn’t long before I was dating someone else: Jessica, a woman I had met online. I’ve mentioned her in a few of my reviews. We played Super Mario Sunshine, Eternal Darkness, and Kingdom Hearts together – among other games. We didn’t necessarily play Resident Evil Zero together, but she did come over while I was playing the game a few times. She seemed really into the game. I remember getting stuck on one of the puzzles where you have to light candles below a series of animals in the proper order. We were so stumped that we had to log on to my mom’s dial-up internet to find the solution. Jessica wrote the solution on a small scrap of note paper, and we were able to use it to advance further in the game. I must have stuck the scrap of paper with the puzzle solution in the game’s case – because to my surprise nearly 20 years later I found that piece of paper in mint condition when I brought this game out to play it. Seeing that was a blast from the past!
Anyway I’ve played through nearly every Resident Evil title twice. Most of them - like the original game, the remake, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 4 - I can safely say I’ve played dozens of times. Even the ones I don’t like that much, like Nemesis and RE 5 I’ve played through more than once. But not Zero. Why? I don’t know! It’s not like I dislike the game or have bad memories of it. How the heck did it take me nearly 20 years to come back to this game? It was just the perfect storm of other games to play, I suppose.
Well, in 2021 I finally returned to Resident Evil Zero – a game I hadn’t picked up since beating it about 18 years ago. I didn’t remember much about the game after all that time. If you had asked me, I would have described it as “the Resident Evil on a train.”
But there is more to it than that. And slowly but surely it all started to come back to me as I played. Read on for further thoughts.
Story:
This game serves as a prequel to the original Resident Evil. Rebecca Chambers and the STARS Bravo Team are dispatched to the Arklay Mountains to investigate a series of bizarre murders when their helicopter crashes. Rebecca escapes the wreckage and takes shelter on a nearby train that is oddly stopped on the tracks. It is here that she meets and teams up with Billy Coen, an escaped convict accused of murdering 23 people. Together they explore this mysterious train, which is filled with zombies and other creatures.
An attempt to destroy the train leads to it crashing outside an empty facility, which Rebecca and Billy explore. Turns out that this was a former Umbrella training facility. You play through a couple areas that seem like your typical Resident Evil retreads (a mansion, a sewer, a lab, etc) before you end up destroying the main bad guy, who uses leeches as his primary form of attack. The facility explodes, Billy escapes as a “casualty” of the conflict, and Rebecca wanders from one nightmare into another as she discovers the mansion from the original Resident Evil game. Funny how she never mentioned any of these crazy events to Chris at all, huh?
Anyway, the end. There’s not much that is too horribly deep or thought-provoking about this game’s story. It gives you a little background information on Umbrella and some of their genetic experiments, but that is about it. Continuity seems like it could be an issue, if you’re really THAT wrapped up in the lore of Resident Evil. But I didn’t care about any of that. I just wanted to be entertained and for the most part I was.
Gameplay:
At first glance this game looks and feels like one of the PS1 era classics. Tank controls, similar menu screen, similar control scheme, similar camera angles. But it quickly becomes clear that this game is attempting to do something different. I’ll talk about the two main differences first.
The first difference is that this is the first Resident Evil game to abandon the “chest” system used in previous games. In this game, if you run out of space in your inventory you simply drop the item on the ground. The item will be marked on the map in case you want to come back and pick it up later. Say I need to pick up a key that I need to unlock the next area of the game, but I don’t have any space in my inventory. I have two first aid sprays, so I decide to drop one of them to make room for the key. I can leave the room, use the key, and come back to pick up the first aid spray and add it back to my inventory. In other instances you’ll find yourself being forced to leave items behind since you just simply don’t have room to bring everything along with you.
This system can be both a blessing and a curse. The curse is that the item box system is just so much easier. This way involves a lot of backtracking and being forced to abandon precious ammunition and health items because you simply don’t have room to bring them along. Plus your inventory space in this game seems smaller than the usual Resident Evil game, and you have guns and other items that take up multiple spaces in your inventory. It can be quite the hassle going back and forth trying to micromanage your inventory spots when in the good ole days you could just throw them in an item box and not spend a second’s thought worrying about them.
The good part of this is that in the short-term this can be a very helpful tool. If you need to grab a key item but don’t have space for it, you don’t have to worry about backtracking to a save room and using the chest to clear up spaces. Just drop something and grab what you need to grab. Plus, the OCD part of me enjoyed creating “item rooms” where I’d dump all my items and use the room like a hub where I’d come back and manage my inventory. If you asked me, I do prefer the item box method of inventory management, but I don’t think that this way is as bad as people make it out to be.
The other big difference between RE Zero and other classic Resident Evil games is that this game features the buddy system. You don’t just control Rebecca, you control Rebecca AND Billy. You can switch back and forth between the characters any time you want. Using one character, you can tell the other one to either stay behind or come along with you. There’s little actual utility in traveling around with Rebecca and Billy together at all times, as whichever character you aren’t controlling will wildly waste ammo or get in the way or get hurt. I usually have one stay behind while I explore with the other.
This gimmick, while fun at times, really only comes in handy when solving puzzles. I appreciate that they tried to do something different, though, both in the character-switching and the new item system. It definitely makes Resident Evil Zero unique and memorable, setting it apart from other status quo RE games that do the same thing and use the same tired formula over and over again.
Love the changes or hate them, almost everyone seems to have some kind of strong opinion on them.
Graphics:
Even though this game is nearly 20 years old it still looks really good. It is easily one of the best looking classic RE games, right up there next to the remake of the original Resident Evil. The GameCube definitely did wonders for the graphics of this series.
Characters are detailed and sharp, but the 2D environments steal the show. They are just stunning. The fine detail put into these environments is top of the line. Some of these areas almost look photo realistic. Throw in some awesome environmental effects (rain, lightning, the train shaking, etc) and you’ve got one impressive looking video game.
The only area of the game that shows its age are the cutscenes. Man, some of them are just laughably bad and outdated. I’m not complaining, though. It gives the game that sweet B movie charm that the early part of the series is known for. I love it.
Sound:
This game’s music and sound effects are right up there with the very best of the classic Resident Evil games. Moaning zombies, your character’s footsteps, the bloopy bloops when you navigate the menu: this game is pure classic Resident Evil. The voice acting isn’t too bad either, for once.
If I had to complain it would be that this game doesn’t quite have as iconic a musical score as, say, Resident Evil 1 or 2. But the game’s music is still darn good. It helps create a tense and creepy atmosphere for everyone playing. All the small touches are nice, too. The rumble of the train, the crackle of fires. You can easily immerse yourself in this game and completely forget about the real world.
Overall:
I had a fun time with this game. I can’t believe it took me so long to come back and play it! I think its difficulty may have played a factor. I remember struggling with this game the first time I played it (a long time ago) and I definitely struggled this time around too. It may be the hardest classic Resident Evil game I have ever played. I was constantly either almost out of bullets or almost out of health items. I had to ration like I’ve never rationed before, often reloading save points if I felt I had wasted too much ammo or taken too much damage in battle. But you know what? I didn’t mind this at all. It’s called survival horror. Kind of cheapens things if they are too easy, don’t you think? This game is definitely not too easy.
Is Zero as good as some of the all-time classics in the series like 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, etc? It is debatable. I wouldn’t put it above 1 or 2 but I definitely enjoyed it more than 3. I haven’t played Code Veronica in AGES so I’ll refrain from commenting until I replay that game (which I recently just purchased, actually).
If you love the Resident Evil series I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t like this game. Yeah, the item management system and the dual character thing may turn some people off, but neither of these ruin the game for me. Like I said before, they give Zero a unique identity and personality. This game wouldn’t be the same without them, for better or worse.
So yeah. I liked it. I don’t think this game will go down as an all-time classic, but at the same time I don’t think it is trying to be one. It’s a fun, quirky, often overlooked entry into what I consider one of the best video game franchises ever made.
Is it great? No. Is it good? For sure. Should you play it if you are a fan of the series? 100%
I can’t guarantee it will be your cup of tea or not, but personally I enjoyed it – flaws and all. Hopefully you do too.
Final Score:
B
Believe it or not, this was my tenth review of a Resident Evil game. Here are the others:
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