Resident Evil review by Tyson

Overall

Buy

The Saturn finally got a port of Resident Evil and it is just as fantastic as the PlayStation version. I recommend any Saturn owner or survival horror fan to have this game in their Saturn library.

Gameplay

     The Saturn version of Resident Evil keeps the same story as the Playstation version. You play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine of the S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactic and Rescue Service) who are out investigating some bizarre murders in the Raccoon City mountains. While investigating they are attacked by some monster dogs and have taken shelter in some nearby mansion. Unknown to them this mansion is also full of zombies and monsters. Now Chris, Jill, and the various other surviving S.T.A.R.S. Members need to make it out of this mansion alive and hopeful put a stop to whats going on. Overall I liked the story and I liked how you can find various notes or files throughout the game that give more details to the games overall story. Each character also has their own side supporting character too which is a neat gameplay concept. So you will get to experience something a bit different with Chris and Jill's stories.

     The gameplay of Resident Evil is broken down into 3 main aspects. exploring, puzzle solving, and combat. The mansion serves as the main area you explore but there are some connected areas like an underground cave system, a hidden underground laboratory, and a guardhouse. While exploring you will need to solve various puzzles to keep progressing through the game. Most puzzles will be centered around bringing an item from one room and using it in another room. Other puzzles might you have pressing switches or moving objects like crates around. You will also need to do some combat while out and about in the game as well. You will fight various zombies, giant spiders, and various other creatures. Your main combat weapons will be firearms like a pistol or a shotgun but you do get a knife for a melee attack if you happen to run out of ammo. The main issue that I have with the combat is that you need to stand still to use your weapons. This can make attacking an enemy tricky at spots since you can easily get damaged by one or more enemies while trying to attack them. Though learning which enemies to fight and which you can avoid becomes a skill that you will need to master in this game.

     There is also a some gameplay design decisions that can become frustrating as you play through the game. The games inventory system is very strict. Depending on the character you play as you can either hold 6 or 8 items at a time. What makes this frustrating is that every item you pick up takes it own inventory slot. So a weapon like a shotgun will take up one inventory slot, your shotgun ammunition will take up another inventory slot, then items like keys or objects for solving puzzles will each take up their own inventory slot as well. To help manage your inventory you will find inventory boxes throughout the game that you can store stuff in. This helps a lot but it does suck to have to backtrack to an inventory box because you picked up to much stuff and now cant pick up the puzzle item you need. The games save system can be frustrating at times as well. You can only save at certain spots in the game and to save you must use a rink ribbon item. You are only given a certain amount of ink ribbons throughout the game so knowing when and where to save becomes a skill you must learn.

     The Saturn version also contains a new gameplay mode called Battle Mode. You will unlock this once you beat the game and this mode is centered around the games combat system. You will go from room to room killing all the monsters you come across. What adds to the difficulty in this mode is that you are given a certain amount of items to complete this task. Sadly I didn't find myself enjoying this mode as I thought I would have but it still is a neat addition to the game.

Control

Resident Evil on the Saturn looks fantastic for the most part. Character models seem to have a more vibrant color to them compared to the PlayStation version but certain graphical effects like transparencies look awful. I didn't notice any problems with the framerate though. Overall a good but flawed at times use of the Saturn hardware.

Graphics

Sound

The music and sound effects sound pretty much like the PlayStation version though some effects do sound a bit weaker like the gunshots. Even after so many playthroughs I still find myself liking the cheesy dialog spoken by the games characters.