Resident Evil
Sega Saturn
Nostalgia Factor:
My personal Infinity Gauntlet of retro gaming is now complete. I’ve got my physical game collection, RetroArch and a bunch of roms on my computer, a fully loaded RetroPie, and a ton of classic games I’ve purchased digitally over the years from the PlayStation store. The last thing I needed was a dependable way to play the Sega Saturn (which I’ve heard is notoriously hard to emulate). I now have it. I’m super excited to finally be able to go back and play all these games I missed out on from one of my favorite eras of gaming. I was so overwhelmed by choices that I didn’t even know where to begin. I wanted to test out the software and see if it was dependable and wasn’t going to crap out on me mid-game. So to test the waters I fired up something I’m familiar with – Resident Evil.
I originally played this game for the Sega Saturn around the time it first came out back in 1997. I remember being impressed that the Saturn was able to handle the game as well as it did (despite a few graphical issues). It even added some new wrinkles to the fray, like an enemy called a Tick and a double Tyrant battle at the end of Chris’s campaign. That said – since I already owned the Director’s Cut of the game for the PS1, I never bothered to purchase the Saturn version. I rented it for one weekend and I haven’t played it again since then. Until now.
I’ve already played and reviewed the Director’s Cut of the game, as well as the GameCube remake (which I even re-reviewed), so I am going to try to keep this one short since I really don’t have much else to say about the original Resident Evil. So without further ado, let’s dive in.
Story:
Playing as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, two members of an elite law enforcement unit named S.T.A.R.S, you are investigating a series of mysterious murders and disappearances in a remote area of town just outside of Raccoon City. An attack by a vicious pack of dogs forces your group to take shelter in a nearby mansion, which you quickly discover has been overrun by zombies and other monsters. As you methodically search through the mansion you discover a secret laboratory that has caused this disaster, and (depending on your game choices) either flee or destroy the mansion on your way out.
Like I said, I’ve already reviewed some variation of this game three times already so I’m not going to explain things any more thoroughly than that!
Gameplay:
Again, if you want a detailed breakdown of how this game works, go read my review for Resident Evil: Director’s Cut. It’s in the links at the bottom of this review. Everything about this game plays exactly the same. Same tank controls, same mansion layout, same solutions to the game’s various puzzles. Aside from a few graphical differences, this is the OG Resident Evil we all know and love.
What differences was I able to detect? Well, seeing as how this is pretty much a direct port of the original Resident Evil (not the Director’s Cut), there is no auto-aim feature available. That’s right, when you draw your weapon you don’t automatically lock on to the nearest enemy. You have to awkwardly line up your shot on your own and hope that you don’t miss. It’s funny how just this one tiny little change makes the game so much more difficult, especially when you are fighting enemies that are off-screen or enemies that move around a lot (like dogs or hunters). I thought I would breeze through this game pretty easily, but I have to admit that I died a small handful of times.
As I alluded to before, a new enemy type called the Tick is introduced. It’s basically the exact same thing as a hunter, but with a different skin. You encounter them in the caverns that lead to the underground lab. It’s a small, almost inconsequential change but I appreciated the effort at least. Also, when you are playing as Chris you have to fight not one but TWO Tyrants in the lab room where Wesker meets his untimely demise. Other changes include an added battle mode after you beat the game (which contains a zombie Wesker and a gold colored Tyrant). I think there are also some added costume choices you can unlock.
These changes are all superficial, though. At its core this is pretty much the same OG Resident Evil we all know and love. If you only play these games for the single player story modes, and then turn the game off after the credits roll, you’re going to walk away from this having the same functional experience you did with the PS1 version of the game.
Graphics:
This is the area where I am probably going to have the most to say. This game is undeniably much uglier looking than the PS1 version of the game. Character models are a lot less detailed and are very blocky and jagged looking. The game’s environments seem darker and a bit more gloomy and difficult to navigate. The thing that really sticks out to me is the Saturn’s inability to render transparencies properly. Everything that is meant to be transparent has this mottled, messy looking sheen to it. It’s most notable when there is water present, like when you poison the plant in the fountain, after you use the crank to drain the pool, when you are running through the shark water, or when the Tyrant breaks free of his glass tube. It’s even noticeable on items that you pick up and put into your inventory, like the glass bottles that you pick up to make the V-Jolt serum. All I could say when I would see these transparencies was “bless your heart.” The Saturn tries. It really does.
Sound:
The Saturn version of the game perfectly ports over the sound from the PS1 original, terrible voice acting and all. The music for this game is still fantastic and helps promote a feeling of palpable dread and fear. The sound effects are spot on. The voice acting is just as bad as ever, but that’s one of the things that makes the game so loveable to me. When you’re comparing the Saturn version of the game to the PS1 version, the sound is definitely the one area where there are virtually no changes whatsoever.
Overall:
I absolutely loved the original Resident Evil and when I reviewed the Director’s Cut back in 2015, I gave it the perfect score of an A+.
My opinion on the game has not changed. I still love this game, it still means a lot to me personally, and I am still going to give it an A+. Nevermind that this game is graphically inferior to the PS1 version. I’ve stated time and time again throughout the life cycle of this blog that I play games for FUN, and that good graphics are only an added bonus. Functionally, this is the same Resident Evil I know and love. I don’t care that the graphics are a little more pixelated and that its transparencies look terrible. This is still the same Resident Evil that turned video gaming upside down on me back in the late 90s.
I think people these days have been spoiled by the newer Resident Evil games and their flashy graphics. I think if someone young was to go back and play the OG version of the game, they’d be taken aback by its “primitive” appearance. I think it is important to state, however, just how groundbreaking this game was when it first came out. The atmosphere, the music, the permanent sense of dread that engulfs you when you play this game. Resident Evil changed the way I looked at gaming forever. And it’s still an absolute joy to revisit, even in modern times. And on the Sega Saturn.
Final Score:
A+
If you liked this review, check out some of my other reviews:
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