Resident Evil review by Tyson
Overall
Buy
If you are looking for a game that will provide you with an experience that you cant get on the previous 16bit consoles then Resident Evil is your game. I find this game to be one that you need to own for the PlayStation console.
Gameplay
Resident Evil has you playing as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. They are part of Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S) team that is sent out to a forest in Racoon City to investigate a bunch of murders in the area and locate the previous S.T.A.R.S team that went missing earlier. Shortly after arriving they are attacked by some mutant dogs and take shelter into a nearby mansion. Unfortunately for them the mansion is filled with zombies and other monsters. So now they must find their missing teammates and also find a way to escape this monster filled mansion.
The gameplay of Resident Evil is sort of a mix of a shooting game and those old point and click computer games. You will explore the mansion and investigate or pickup various objects that will help you solve puzzles and make progress throughout the game. Puzzles will have you doing things like taking an item from one location and using it at another location while other puzzles will have you pushing objects or pressing switches. You will also need to use various keys to unlock doors to get throughout the mansion. There are times where things can be a bit frustrating due to the limited inventory system. You can only carry 6 to 8 items depending on your character. Each item also takes up an inventory slot. So for example a key takes up the same inventory space as a shotgun. There are some things to help out with inventory space though. Some items can be combined, such as healing items, and there is a inventory box that you can store things in located throughout the game.
The combat aspect of the game is limited but it works. Sadly you cannot move and attack at the same time. This feels really limiting but also adds to the games scary feel. There is scary vibe when you are unloading a handgun clip into some lizard like monster while it is running at you. I did like how you get various ranged weapons like a handgun, shotgun, and a magnum. Sadly the game doesn’t have a good melee selection of weapons. The only melee weapon you get is a combat knife and it is pretty weak.
I liked how the game had a lot of nicely implemented gameplay concepts. One nice thing is how the different characters play. Chris can take more hits then Jill but has a much more limited inventory space. Jill also gets access to a different weapon then Chris. I also liked how each character has their own side character that they interact with. Such as Chris interacting with Rebecca Chambers and Jill interacting with Barry Burton. Also depending on which verison of the game you buy,such as the Director’s Cut, you can have other gameplay modes to play as well.
Control
Coming into Resident Evil it may seem the control is awful but if you give it some time it works really well. Pressing Up on the D-Pad will move you forward while pressing Down on the D-Pad will move you back. The Left and Right buttons will turn your character. You also need to press a button to aim your weapon and then another button to fire it. Sure the control sounds awful but trust me its not.
Graphics
Resident Evil uses a combo of 3D and 2D rendered graphics. Character models and many objects are in 3D but the various rooms of the mansion are just 2D rendered images that you walk around on. I liked the look of the characters like Jill Valentine and the various monsters look great. The only real downside to the graphics is that there is a lot of clipping issues with the character models.
Sound
The audio effects in the game are well done. The footsteps of your chacter or the squishy zombie footsteps sound great. The voice acting is terrible but in a good way. Who doesn’t love the Jill sandwich line. The background music is different depending on what version of the game you have, such as the Orignal\Director’s Cut or Dual Shock Version, and its quality can be awesome or terrible.