Originally released in Japan on March 22nd,
1996, Resident Evil for PS1 was a revolution in gaming. The story of four elite
police officers, the S.T.A.R.S. (The Special Tactics and Rescue Service)
getting trapped inside a spooky, but not quite haunted mansion, was the first
console game to categorize itself in the "Survival Horror" genre. Instead of blasting everything that moved
with the small arsenal of weapons provided to you by the game, you were
encouraged to conserve your bullets, as ammo was scarce and your enemies took
many hits to kill. At the time, the graphics were amazing, with 3D
polygonal characters on top of beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds. The moan of
the zombies added to the already haunting soundtrack, making your hairs stand
on end. It was very well received at the time. The only complaint many had was
the god-awful voice acting. It added to the "B-movie" feel of
the game. After three successful sequels (and one awful spinoff), the creator of the franchise wanted to
revisit the old mansion that started it all.
Six years later...
While cosmetically, the game was completely
retooled, gameplay wise, it remained largely unchanged, and that was where
Resident Evil GameCube lost points. People were getting tired of the "tank
controls" (Your character moved forward and backward according to where
the character model was facing, not where the camera was facing, and pressing
left or right would rotate the character, like a tank), critics called them
cumbersome and restricting, but it's a complaint that's easy to overlook, as
Resident Evil on the GameCube (also on the Wii) is a damn fine package. Highly
reccomended. 9.5/10
Dominic Gallerani
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