An absolute classic. I often hear people recommend skipping this one, and going straight for REmake, but Resident Evil '96 hasn't aged as poorly as people would have you believe. For an early fixed camera game, a lot of thought and care was put into the controls. The tone is absolutely chilling, thanks to great world-building. The enemies are nasty and legitimately threatening. The game is also pretty lean, at about six hours for a first-time playthrough. The two big points people count against this one are the visuals, and the voice acting.
An outsider looking in might see the overly simplistic 3D rendered environments as amateurish, but throughout my playthrough, they hit me with this unsettling aura because of how uncanny they look. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but as a result, the Spencer Mansion and its surrounding environments are oppressive as hell. Regardless, the amount of details they packed into some of these scenes, for 1996, is impressive. Several rooms in the Mansion and Laboratory do feel as if they've been occupied at some point, with all the clutter.
The character models are also... shockingly good for the polycount restrictions! Texture and poly warping might hurt it, but Chris, Jill, and the rest of S.T.A.R.S. look like adorably stylized versions of their live-action counterparts. They are in perfect juxtaposition with the grotesque bestiary. The first time I got a real good look at a zombie's face, it freaked me out. Those things are fucking terrifying! Not because they're poorly modeled, either. The standard zombie's face is bizarrely close to the one from the infamous cutscene near the start of the game.
The voice acting is a little silly, but you can tell the actors aren't terrible at their job. To me, it felt like they didn't have enough context for the lines they were given. There's also a few moments of poor wording, which isn't their fault, either. They're just reading off the script, which may have been a victim of poor translation. As a big Lynch fan, I personally can get down with cheesy writing and voice acting, especially the more whimsical something is, so this is going to vary from person to person. To me, I think the off-kilter way everyone talks to each other just adds to the already unsettling atmosphere.
Overall, the game is surprisingly sturdy as hell. Tightly built, and perfectly paced. The tank controls are very serviceable, especially for the time. I think only Alone in the Dark predates this, and they figured it out so fast! Enemies are engaging, and are rolled out in a smooth difficulty curve. Hunters and Chimeras can be a little tricky, but they do have patterns that you can learn. I was steamrolling them by the end of it. Puzzles can bring the game to a halt, but you get a good amount of rations, so I never felt stressed to figure anything out. I had an overabundance of ammo and healing items by the last area, and I never felt concerned about having to start over from square one. Though based on footage I've watched, this may be an issue if you play above Original difficulty.
The original Resident Evil is an amazing game to experience for the first time in this day and age, especially if you're a fan of later games in the series. So many tropes started in RE1, some that I wasn't even expecting, and it's kind of wild to see how much of a blueprint this one was. If you're absolutely certain you're only going to play this game once, or are completely turned off by fifth generation visuals, I can understand skipping straight for REmake. As for me, I'm glad I sat down with it. It's a timeless game that is still influential to this day. I can't recommend it enough.
An outsider looking in might see the overly simplistic 3D rendered environments as amateurish, but throughout my playthrough, they hit me with this unsettling aura because of how uncanny they look. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but as a result, the Spencer Mansion and its surrounding environments are oppressive as hell. Regardless, the amount of details they packed into some of these scenes, for 1996, is impressive. Several rooms in the Mansion and Laboratory do feel as if they've been occupied at some point, with all the clutter.
The character models are also... shockingly good for the polycount restrictions! Texture and poly warping might hurt it, but Chris, Jill, and the rest of S.T.A.R.S. look like adorably stylized versions of their live-action counterparts. They are in perfect juxtaposition with the grotesque bestiary. The first time I got a real good look at a zombie's face, it freaked me out. Those things are fucking terrifying! Not because they're poorly modeled, either. The standard zombie's face is bizarrely close to the one from the infamous cutscene near the start of the game.
The voice acting is a little silly, but you can tell the actors aren't terrible at their job. To me, it felt like they didn't have enough context for the lines they were given. There's also a few moments of poor wording, which isn't their fault, either. They're just reading off the script, which may have been a victim of poor translation. As a big Lynch fan, I personally can get down with cheesy writing and voice acting, especially the more whimsical something is, so this is going to vary from person to person. To me, I think the off-kilter way everyone talks to each other just adds to the already unsettling atmosphere.
Overall, the game is surprisingly sturdy as hell. Tightly built, and perfectly paced. The tank controls are very serviceable, especially for the time. I think only Alone in the Dark predates this, and they figured it out so fast! Enemies are engaging, and are rolled out in a smooth difficulty curve. Hunters and Chimeras can be a little tricky, but they do have patterns that you can learn. I was steamrolling them by the end of it. Puzzles can bring the game to a halt, but you get a good amount of rations, so I never felt stressed to figure anything out. I had an overabundance of ammo and healing items by the last area, and I never felt concerned about having to start over from square one. Though based on footage I've watched, this may be an issue if you play above Original difficulty.
The original Resident Evil is an amazing game to experience for the first time in this day and age, especially if you're a fan of later games in the series. So many tropes started in RE1, some that I wasn't even expecting, and it's kind of wild to see how much of a blueprint this one was. If you're absolutely certain you're only going to play this game once, or are completely turned off by fifth generation visuals, I can understand skipping straight for REmake. As for me, I'm glad I sat down with it. It's a timeless game that is still influential to this day. I can't recommend it enough.