By Sam Coles:
20 years! That is how long the Resident Evil series
has been scaring us in one way in or another whether it be genuine scares or
due to the game’s quality *cough* *cough* Resident Evil 6. I’m not her to lynch
the series as I want to cover one of my favourite games in the series just below
the Resident Evil 4 and that game was Resident Evil the remake on the GameCube.
This game shows how you remake/remaster of a game should be done by not only
upping the graphical fidelity but adding unique content that wasn’t present in
the original game.
Resident Evil takes place in a forest just outside
of Racoon City as the special unit STARS from RCPD have been called to
investigate murders that have happened. They investigate the forest and there
is nothing but silence and you start to feel the tension build as they search
the derelict helicopter of their comrades Bravo Team. Joseph Frost is on his
own searching and it’s not long until he is attacked by creatures which turn
out to be zombie dogs where they then proceed to tear him apart limb by limb. You
hear every bone crunch, flesh tearing and the weariness as you hear Joe slowly
loose his life. Jill, Chris, Barry and Wesker then run and stumble upon an
abandon mansion and this is where the terrifying nightmare begins.
The gameplay is classic survival horror from the 90’s
so no third person camera, but instead you’re stuck with tank controls and
fixed camera angles, but this is done on purposes as the fixed camera angles
add an extra layer of tension as you don’t know what is coming. It’s all about
survival so the key thing to remember is to save your ammunition and healing
items as they are a rare site and you’re useless with a knife alone.
You’ll encounter zombies on your travels but most of
the time it is best to avoid them rather than engaging them in conflict because
unless you blow their head off their corpse will linger there for hours until
they get back up. The zombies in this remake after a few hours turn into an
entity known as the Crimson Heads these are zombies that are faster and they
can deal double the damage, so if you fight a zombie you need to blow their
heads or set their bodies on fire with kerosene. These new enemies added an
extra layer of depth because it really emphasised the fact that it was better
to run rather shoot because it will come back and bite you in the backside
later.
The presentation still holds up considering that
this is a GameCube title from 2002 with the beautiful environments that are
really creepy from the haunting dining rooms and cramped corridors to foggy
gardens peppered with zombie dogs. The sound design is worth a mention too as
it is truly fantastic and can play a part in the gameplay in terms of knowing
where the enemies are from the distant moans of zombies to the footsteps of
reptilian hunters.
Only problem I have with this game is that the tank
controls can be a bit clunky and annoying, like in Heavy as I discussed in my
review I had a habit changing direction when the camera angle would change.
Resident Evil Remake on the GameCube is a truly
terrifying experience and nails the atmosphere and I would highly recommend
getting it, but if you want to experience I would get HD version on PS4 and
Xbox One to truly enjoy it which you can get as a double pack with Resident
Evil 0.
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