To summarize: The Resident Evil: HD Remaster is a great improvement over the original Resident Evil and it's Gamecube counterpart, making it one of the best Resident Evil experiences to date, up there with REmake 2 and RE 7. Updated graphics and quality improvements to it's mechanics make the original surival horror experience shine once again as it did in 1996. However, it's writing remains really campy, which detracts from the 'horror' aspect of it.
For starters, the new control scheme is superb. Exchanging the old tank controls for a simplified joystick movement was a superb, necessary design decision. It still retains the option to use the old scheme if that's your thing, which is nice.
That's not the only time that this game thinks of it's old playerbase. Several tweaks in the experience have been made in order to confuse, surprise and scare RE veterans - Crimson Heads, the fuel pipe section and the new 'dog corridor' dynamic come to mind, amongst other, smaller things.
I really dig the static viewpoints, too. As it has been said countless times, this design decision gives absolute mastery to the designer as to how a player should feel at any given moment - this game is 'mise-in-scène' porn for film enthusiasts. The framing of some areas is such a magnificent setup for some very effective scares that I dare not spoil here. When you need to take out monsters without being able to actually see them, it is too such a tense, unnerving moment.
I do believe that further improvements could have been made for quality of life. I don't like how you can't just pick one ink ribbon apart from the rest in the chest, or the fact that you can't discard/drop items. There are surely more examples of this kind of jank to be found, as this is still basically a gamecube game with some improved graphics.
I also think that with the improved movement, it becomes much, much easier to not spend ammo or health items. By the end of my first run with Jill, I had an obscene amount of herbs and ammo in my chest. I think the game could actually be a little bit harder just by making itens more scarse, which is why I think this game works best in the beginning to the middle, not so much after that.
It's biggest flaw is by far the writing, as I mentioned in the beginning. My god, it is just bad. All cutscenes contain some pretty cringe writing, really really bad stuff. The overall narrative just doesn't make much sense, from character motivations to the Spencer mansion itself. If another remake is made, it would need to revisit the story entirely, I believe. Lisa's story too is bad (and the boss fight is pretty meh), even though her character design is very well made.
In conclusion, this is still a superb game and a unique experience that Capcom may end up forgetting entirely in favor of new design trends. So definetly pick it up if you can.
For starters, the new control scheme is superb. Exchanging the old tank controls for a simplified joystick movement was a superb, necessary design decision. It still retains the option to use the old scheme if that's your thing, which is nice.
That's not the only time that this game thinks of it's old playerbase. Several tweaks in the experience have been made in order to confuse, surprise and scare RE veterans - Crimson Heads, the fuel pipe section and the new 'dog corridor' dynamic come to mind, amongst other, smaller things.
I really dig the static viewpoints, too. As it has been said countless times, this design decision gives absolute mastery to the designer as to how a player should feel at any given moment - this game is 'mise-in-scène' porn for film enthusiasts. The framing of some areas is such a magnificent setup for some very effective scares that I dare not spoil here. When you need to take out monsters without being able to actually see them, it is too such a tense, unnerving moment.
I do believe that further improvements could have been made for quality of life. I don't like how you can't just pick one ink ribbon apart from the rest in the chest, or the fact that you can't discard/drop items. There are surely more examples of this kind of jank to be found, as this is still basically a gamecube game with some improved graphics.
I also think that with the improved movement, it becomes much, much easier to not spend ammo or health items. By the end of my first run with Jill, I had an obscene amount of herbs and ammo in my chest. I think the game could actually be a little bit harder just by making itens more scarse, which is why I think this game works best in the beginning to the middle, not so much after that.
It's biggest flaw is by far the writing, as I mentioned in the beginning. My god, it is just bad. All cutscenes contain some pretty cringe writing, really really bad stuff. The overall narrative just doesn't make much sense, from character motivations to the Spencer mansion itself. If another remake is made, it would need to revisit the story entirely, I believe. Lisa's story too is bad (and the boss fight is pretty meh), even though her character design is very well made.
In conclusion, this is still a superb game and a unique experience that Capcom may end up forgetting entirely in favor of new design trends. So definetly pick it up if you can.
Still incredible!
Really enjoying this but god are the controls rough
A legitimate masterpiece, although I sort of feel like it punishes me for exploring inefficiently, which I kind of resent? I've actually grown even fonder of the fixed camera angles over the years, surprisingly enough. Tank controls can still fuck off though.
yea lets make a game where you walk around attempting to interact with everything you see until something actually happens.
If you only play one survival horror game in your life then make it this one.
This creepy, lengthy and absorbing survival horror is still one of the best.
arguably the peak of RE and inarguably one of the greatest games of all time
This is Resident Evil at its prime. Paced incredibly well, rife with opportunities for replays, and even after you know the layout of the map, there is still incentive to play for speedruns. An excellent game.
My favourite entry in the series.
Terrifying, infinitely rewarding and dripping with atmosphere.
It's also absolutely insane how well this has aged.
Terrifying, infinitely rewarding and dripping with atmosphere.
It's also absolutely insane how well this has aged.
Fucking Great also the Crimson heads is a cool mechanic
misses what makes the original mansion such a foreboding space. the whole point is that it wasn't another grungy unlit brown environment neutered by halloween store teh creepehness. enjoyed by dopes who watched the shining and thought the foyer needed more cobwebs.
Ok 10 years later I replayed this and I was very clearly wrong. At the time I was hoping for something in the vein of RE4 and 5, the only ones I had played at the time. This game is not a collection of action set pieces, but a giant puzzle. Might be time to jump right back in and play on hard?
mhm yup
Excellent. Cannot wait to play on my crt tv.
The iconic game that started it all. An instant classic. Being new to RE myself this was an amazing starting point and great expericence, even for 2020. The constant backtracking and inventory system were quite annoying, but it's a game from 1996 so I dont think it's really fair to criticise compared to today's standards. It's a survival horror, The survival horror, and it does it perfectly. All the silliness and cheesy dialogue add to the charm, it's really fun. I like when horror is cliché and campy sometimes.
The way this remake improves on the original RE with new content and new surprises for veteran players is absolutely amazing. It does everything a remake should.
Couldn't be more excited to play the remake of RE2.
The way this remake improves on the original RE with new content and new surprises for veteran players is absolutely amazing. It does everything a remake should.
Couldn't be more excited to play the remake of RE2.
unico jogo de puzzle que merece
Eu sei e entendo que esse jogo é incrivelmente bom, é palpável e perceptível o que faz ele ser grande e divertido. Os cenários são devidamente creepy e até "kitsch", e casam bem com a atmosfera claustrofóbica e a gameplay limitada. A história e os inimigos dão realmente medo e te deixam ansioso durante quase todo o jogo. A coisa é: eu, pessoalmente, não tenho uma tolerância alta para TANTAS situações que me deixam ansioso, e além disso senti que a vontade de terminar o jogo pela diversão e história não foi o suficiente pra diminuir esse problema (mas terminei). Em algumas situações os puzzles pareciam um tanto forçados e misleading, o que somada a situação tensa se tornava muito frustrante. O fato de que pra entender o jogo inteiro você tem que joga-lo duas vezes (com diferentes personagens) também não facilita. Enfim, definitivamente um jogo que não jogarei de novo, mas muito mais por motivos fisiológicos eu diria do que pela qualidade do jogo em si (que é evidentemente enorme). O fato desse ser o primeiro jogo nos estilos antigos de Resident Evil que joguei em muito tempo pode ter influenciado na experiência total. De qualquer maneira senti que deveria justificar a nota "baixa" dada a esse jogo.
Did both the Jill and Chris campaign
playing the remake of 2 did NOT prepare me for this but amazing what hd remasters can do to a game
This review contains spoilers
Incredible game. I will say, though, that it has a learning curve. If "normal mode" (the 'mountain climb' difficulty) had a bit more time to ease you into the mechanics of dodging, killing, and negotiating the mansion's zombies, it'd be perfect. As it is, I switched to the middle difficulty--which turned out to be easy mode--after some rough deaths on normal in the hopes of getting acclimated. By the end, though, I was overflowing on resources and the bosses were mostly trivial. If I could've had something in between the two difficulties, that might've been ideal, or something which started easier but ramped harder by the end.
Also, this is NOT a game you should stop playing in the hopes of picking it up weeks, months, or years later. There are too many interlocking puzzle pieces to keep track of for that to be anything less than annoying. However, this is the same reason it's so engaging to binge-play that it only took me a few sessions. If, however, there were some way to mark or write on the map (i.e. "shield lock here," "clock puzzle," "dogs!") that would be a non-issue (and would make the backtracking a bit less tedious if you have a small working memory).
I put those points first because other than that, it's damn near flawless. The puzzles are almost never too tough or obtuse, the combat is simple but works, and the scares are there in spades. It builds them up, too. It doesn't seem too bad at first once you learn how to handle a zombie, but it constantly throws something new at you and finds ways to twist the mansion against you. And it only goes up from there, saving some of the scariest enemies and most thrilling moments for the final act. The main downside is that the boss fights aren't too challenging or interesting--assuming you saved your most powerful ammo for them--but that's a necessary consequence of the clunkier control scheme than modern games. The more awkward combat mechanics mean that a boss can't require precise aiming or navigation, just some basic dodging and the occasional puzzle solving, but that's fine. It's for this reason that Plant 42 is one of the standouts--you only need to leave and solve a puzzle to beat it instead of spamming grenades at it. The character of the bosses goes a long way, at least: Yawn's jump scare for the second fight, Lisa Trevor's stalking, and Neptune's... sharkiness. Still, the climactic fights don't stand out the way RE2make or RE4's more action-driven battles do, even if they have just as much personality.
These scares are all served by its atmosphere, with compelling sound design that always seems to know how to manage music, ambience, and volume to great effect. But the standout here are the pre-rendered backgrounds, which have a beautiful yet ethereal quality to them that only serves to make the mansion feel more like a waking nightmare. They would be nothing, however, without the fixed camera angles which are aggressively cinematic--even more so than most games of this type. Only on rare occasions does this make you accidentally run into a zombie out of frame, but that's an entirely worthwhile sacrifice. Few other games commit so hard to the control of tone and information that the fixed camera provides, and none do it so well.
Narratively, it's no Silent Hill 2, but it balances its intense spooks with an absolute charmer of a silly B-movie script (with some genuinely effective plot threads sewn into the background through lore items scattered about the world).
Now let me entertain a theory. Resident Evil is basically the Evil Dead of video games: it starts out as a serious and deadly effective, yet campy, horror dream (Evil Dead 1=Resident Evil 1-3), but as the series progresses, it gets more self-aware, more campy, and more absurd before turning into outright action (Evil Dead 2/Army of Darkness=Resident Evil 4-6). Somewhere along the way, there's a serious but seriously overlooked attempt to call back to the series' roots that no one talks about anymore (Evil Dead 2013=Resident Evil Revelations). Eventually, years down the line, they return to form with a fan-pleaser that both moves the series forward and calls back to what everyone loved about it. (Ash vs. Evil Dead=Resident Evil 7).
Wait, what was I saying?
Oh, yeah.
Masterpiece.
Also, this is NOT a game you should stop playing in the hopes of picking it up weeks, months, or years later. There are too many interlocking puzzle pieces to keep track of for that to be anything less than annoying. However, this is the same reason it's so engaging to binge-play that it only took me a few sessions. If, however, there were some way to mark or write on the map (i.e. "shield lock here," "clock puzzle," "dogs!") that would be a non-issue (and would make the backtracking a bit less tedious if you have a small working memory).
I put those points first because other than that, it's damn near flawless. The puzzles are almost never too tough or obtuse, the combat is simple but works, and the scares are there in spades. It builds them up, too. It doesn't seem too bad at first once you learn how to handle a zombie, but it constantly throws something new at you and finds ways to twist the mansion against you. And it only goes up from there, saving some of the scariest enemies and most thrilling moments for the final act. The main downside is that the boss fights aren't too challenging or interesting--assuming you saved your most powerful ammo for them--but that's a necessary consequence of the clunkier control scheme than modern games. The more awkward combat mechanics mean that a boss can't require precise aiming or navigation, just some basic dodging and the occasional puzzle solving, but that's fine. It's for this reason that Plant 42 is one of the standouts--you only need to leave and solve a puzzle to beat it instead of spamming grenades at it. The character of the bosses goes a long way, at least: Yawn's jump scare for the second fight, Lisa Trevor's stalking, and Neptune's... sharkiness. Still, the climactic fights don't stand out the way RE2make or RE4's more action-driven battles do, even if they have just as much personality.
These scares are all served by its atmosphere, with compelling sound design that always seems to know how to manage music, ambience, and volume to great effect. But the standout here are the pre-rendered backgrounds, which have a beautiful yet ethereal quality to them that only serves to make the mansion feel more like a waking nightmare. They would be nothing, however, without the fixed camera angles which are aggressively cinematic--even more so than most games of this type. Only on rare occasions does this make you accidentally run into a zombie out of frame, but that's an entirely worthwhile sacrifice. Few other games commit so hard to the control of tone and information that the fixed camera provides, and none do it so well.
Narratively, it's no Silent Hill 2, but it balances its intense spooks with an absolute charmer of a silly B-movie script (with some genuinely effective plot threads sewn into the background through lore items scattered about the world).
Now let me entertain a theory. Resident Evil is basically the Evil Dead of video games: it starts out as a serious and deadly effective, yet campy, horror dream (Evil Dead 1=Resident Evil 1-3), but as the series progresses, it gets more self-aware, more campy, and more absurd before turning into outright action (Evil Dead 2/Army of Darkness=Resident Evil 4-6). Somewhere along the way, there's a serious but seriously overlooked attempt to call back to the series' roots that no one talks about anymore (Evil Dead 2013=Resident Evil Revelations). Eventually, years down the line, they return to form with a fan-pleaser that both moves the series forward and calls back to what everyone loved about it. (Ash vs. Evil Dead=Resident Evil 7).
Wait, what was I saying?
Oh, yeah.
Masterpiece.
Ainda preciso zerar essa obra-prima.
A banger of a remake. Gives me a unique kind of being scared that never truly goes away.
This is the ideal Resident Evil game. You may not like it, but this is what peak Resident Evil looks like.
What can be said that hasn't already? A superb re-imagining of the seminal survival horror game.
This was my first run in with this. I never got a chance to own this on Gamecube. I did play the original. That was a funny little ride. But this here? Takes everything from the past and just amplifies it to some terrifying levels. The added modern controls make this good for people who want to jump in and not deal with tank controls. I gotta say this was a hell of a ride. I'd run through it again with the lights off.
Resident Evil is a masterwork in atmosphere, while giving the player more than enough to chew on in terms of inventory management and pathing around a complex mansion full of puzzles and traps. Just a great time all around.
Having a great pace, fun yet tactical gunplay, as well as tons of thought-provoking puzzles, this is more like a survival horror "Myst" game than another generic zombie shooter. It's just a shame about the barebones story telling...
It took me a long time to settle into the "fixed camera" gameplay, and I mean a "long time" as in multiple attempts across nearly two years, but I am so thankful that I gave it another attempt this past week! Once you adjust to moving your character in the three dimensional / pre-rendered spaces, whilst having the camera flicking from new angle to new angle, you forget that it ever felt like a hindrance. It's definitely a niche bit of game design, but having it in the odd Resident Evil title keeps the games from feeling the same and allows this to feels fresh and enjoyable.
Amongst the intense survival horror and constant sense of impending doom, one of the appeals to any good Resident Evil game is the implemented puzzles and labyrinth-like level design. The fact that puzzles, small and large, play such a big part in this game from beginning to end felt right. Despite loving the Resident Evil 2 Remake and enjoying the first few hours of the 3rd Remake, I'd be lying if I said that how those games seemed to drop the puzzle aspects in their second halves wasn't at least a bit disappointing. It's one of the things that helps seperate this franchise from any other more generic zombie shooter. It's fun to feel clever whilst blowing a zombies head clean off, once in a while...
Speaking of zombies, they actually feel like they have a decent level of threat here, unlike in most modern games, TV shows and films. It probably has a lot to do with the constant narrow hallways and camera work that doesn't always reveal what's round every corner until it's too late, but these zombies weren't just the type you run past with no effort and barely think about as you do. Hearing their zombie groans before I could make out where they were coming from was effective horror!
This 2002 Remake actually took the original game's zombies one step further, and in an inventively scary way... It was actually a good few hours until I noticed this, but the reason I kept stumbling across zombies I'd already downed but now found standing once more (only this time much faster and more aggressive) was because I'd failed to shoot off their heads or burn their corpses... without doing just that, they get a second chance to chomp on your flesh. Most of the key corridors were flooded with numerous "Crimson Head" zombies (as they're referred to in this new stage), and they were genuinely terrifying. It made me glad this game had loading screens between each room, since they gave me just enough breathing room before continuing to try outrunning these things.
The game has such a great pace because of that sort of creativity. The variety of monsters you face and different types of the living dead keep the gunplay from ever getting boring.
Unfortunately, the game does have its downfalls. The constant back and forth (that admittedly can be a part of the charm of this franchise) does border into levels of tedium, especially when taking into consideration the amount of extra time added with the loading screens between every single corridor and room towards those few Item Boxes. This could have been remedied at least a little by the simple inclusion of allowing you to swap out items for new ones here and there...
The friendly A.I. characters are also very pointless from a gameplay point of view, and are also rather redundant to much of the narrative. They don't really move the plot forward and barely have any meaningful interactions with Chris, besides for a few VERY convenient scenarios. You forget they're supposed to be running around the mansion doing their own thing until the odd cutscene pops up here and there. It doesn't help that every character is voiced with the biggest level of cheese, whether intentional or not.
Speaking of the narrative, one of the few story beats revolves around a "plot twist", but it's a story beat that fails to have any impact on the player, since it really is the most obvious of twists. They play it like it is this big reveal, but I was playing the game all that time with the mindset that this eventual "truth" was just a known thing all along; it's that obvious.
All in all, the VERY loose story, constant back & forth, as well as the - sometimes comically - cheesy voice acting do age the game more than anything else, but the overall creepy atmosphere, fun puzzles and that admirable level of creativity (like with the intense Crimson Head mechanic) really do make this game go beyond any "old" game's biggest hurdle in making it stand the test of time.
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
[Chris playthrough only. I am yet to do my Jill playthrough.]
It took me a long time to settle into the "fixed camera" gameplay, and I mean a "long time" as in multiple attempts across nearly two years, but I am so thankful that I gave it another attempt this past week! Once you adjust to moving your character in the three dimensional / pre-rendered spaces, whilst having the camera flicking from new angle to new angle, you forget that it ever felt like a hindrance. It's definitely a niche bit of game design, but having it in the odd Resident Evil title keeps the games from feeling the same and allows this to feels fresh and enjoyable.
Amongst the intense survival horror and constant sense of impending doom, one of the appeals to any good Resident Evil game is the implemented puzzles and labyrinth-like level design. The fact that puzzles, small and large, play such a big part in this game from beginning to end felt right. Despite loving the Resident Evil 2 Remake and enjoying the first few hours of the 3rd Remake, I'd be lying if I said that how those games seemed to drop the puzzle aspects in their second halves wasn't at least a bit disappointing. It's one of the things that helps seperate this franchise from any other more generic zombie shooter. It's fun to feel clever whilst blowing a zombies head clean off, once in a while...
Speaking of zombies, they actually feel like they have a decent level of threat here, unlike in most modern games, TV shows and films. It probably has a lot to do with the constant narrow hallways and camera work that doesn't always reveal what's round every corner until it's too late, but these zombies weren't just the type you run past with no effort and barely think about as you do. Hearing their zombie groans before I could make out where they were coming from was effective horror!
This 2002 Remake actually took the original game's zombies one step further, and in an inventively scary way... It was actually a good few hours until I noticed this, but the reason I kept stumbling across zombies I'd already downed but now found standing once more (only this time much faster and more aggressive) was because I'd failed to shoot off their heads or burn their corpses... without doing just that, they get a second chance to chomp on your flesh. Most of the key corridors were flooded with numerous "Crimson Head" zombies (as they're referred to in this new stage), and they were genuinely terrifying. It made me glad this game had loading screens between each room, since they gave me just enough breathing room before continuing to try outrunning these things.
The game has such a great pace because of that sort of creativity. The variety of monsters you face and different types of the living dead keep the gunplay from ever getting boring.
Unfortunately, the game does have its downfalls. The constant back and forth (that admittedly can be a part of the charm of this franchise) does border into levels of tedium, especially when taking into consideration the amount of extra time added with the loading screens between every single corridor and room towards those few Item Boxes. This could have been remedied at least a little by the simple inclusion of allowing you to swap out items for new ones here and there...
The friendly A.I. characters are also very pointless from a gameplay point of view, and are also rather redundant to much of the narrative. They don't really move the plot forward and barely have any meaningful interactions with Chris, besides for a few VERY convenient scenarios. You forget they're supposed to be running around the mansion doing their own thing until the odd cutscene pops up here and there. It doesn't help that every character is voiced with the biggest level of cheese, whether intentional or not.
Speaking of the narrative, one of the few story beats revolves around a "plot twist", but it's a story beat that fails to have any impact on the player, since it really is the most obvious of twists. They play it like it is this big reveal, but I was playing the game all that time with the mindset that this eventual "truth" was just a known thing all along; it's that obvious.
All in all, the VERY loose story, constant back & forth, as well as the - sometimes comically - cheesy voice acting do age the game more than anything else, but the overall creepy atmosphere, fun puzzles and that admirable level of creativity (like with the intense Crimson Head mechanic) really do make this game go beyond any "old" game's biggest hurdle in making it stand the test of time.
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
[Chris playthrough only. I am yet to do my Jill playthrough.]
The big one, the video game that defined them all, the magnus opus that created a standard still used today and inspired almost every good survival horror to come. The controls, the setting, the atmosphere, the annoying but carefully placed jump scares. It wasn’t the first of its genre but the original Resident Evil implemented what every horror game had to show at the time – from previous Capcom titles such as Sweet Home to the western Alone in the Dark – along with the movie culture from the 80s, from Shining to Romero’s movies. All of these inspirations combined created a frightful journey of horror but with an over-the-top plot worthy of the worst, best American B-movie. Despite the low budget, they utilized whichever mean they had to craft the most immersive experience as possible, the pre-rendered backgrounds and the doors opening that create tension but are ultimately there to hide the loading times are two examples of this.
What came was a revolutionary game that set the bar and defined its medium, and still today this HD iteration, an upgrade over the Nintendo Gamecube remake of the game, of the first Resident Evil still holds as solid as ever. The tank controls might be unfamiliar for some but it is a deliberate and necessary choice to truly delve into the narrow and unsettling hallways of the mansion, where at every corner a disturbing sound or a tough enemy could be in wait to eat the players’ necks and immediate response is required without feeling confused over where to turn. The fixed camera all the more reinforces this feeling of dread and helplessness because, despite being fully armed and distant from the enemies, there will be many times where the players won’t be able to immediately see the zombies, nor realise how far and safe they are from danger.
The enemies’ placement, the puzzles and the difficulty spikes are all still highly accessible and rewarding to overcome today as they were over 20 years ago, the game has only ever improved and it still plays beautifully on every system blessed enough to have a port of its own. The series might have had its ups and downs and many old fans might be only pleased with the second remake of the series now since it’s the only game in years that tried to replicate the original feeling instead of fully committing to action set pieces, camp entertainment or the reboot RE7 tried to do, but this first chapter is still a milestone under every department, and it won’t yield its throne anytime soon.
What came was a revolutionary game that set the bar and defined its medium, and still today this HD iteration, an upgrade over the Nintendo Gamecube remake of the game, of the first Resident Evil still holds as solid as ever. The tank controls might be unfamiliar for some but it is a deliberate and necessary choice to truly delve into the narrow and unsettling hallways of the mansion, where at every corner a disturbing sound or a tough enemy could be in wait to eat the players’ necks and immediate response is required without feeling confused over where to turn. The fixed camera all the more reinforces this feeling of dread and helplessness because, despite being fully armed and distant from the enemies, there will be many times where the players won’t be able to immediately see the zombies, nor realise how far and safe they are from danger.
The enemies’ placement, the puzzles and the difficulty spikes are all still highly accessible and rewarding to overcome today as they were over 20 years ago, the game has only ever improved and it still plays beautifully on every system blessed enough to have a port of its own. The series might have had its ups and downs and many old fans might be only pleased with the second remake of the series now since it’s the only game in years that tried to replicate the original feeling instead of fully committing to action set pieces, camp entertainment or the reboot RE7 tried to do, but this first chapter is still a milestone under every department, and it won’t yield its throne anytime soon.
good