Resident Evil 1 Remake, why you should still play it

Resident Evil

Games make consoles, Mario made Famicon, Sonic made Sega, and Halo CE cemented the Xbox's place in gamers homes. Now the Playstation had a lot of great titles, but there's one that led to a lifelong franchise spanning over 9 sequels continues it's success to this very day. I'm of course speaking of Capcoms zombie-est title (excluding Dead Rising) Resident Evil. This title surely helped cement the Playstation console with a solid franchise and loving fanbase.

Now this post is going to come with a big undead caveat; I've never played the original games back in the day, in fact, before playing RE1 I thought the events of the live action films were canonical, Shame on you Paul W.S. Anderson! So I approach the series as a new player. Whether people say the Resident Evil 2 remake was better or worse than the original can make their claims, but it seems widely accepted that the 2002 RE1 remake is a genuine R.E-visit of the titular 1996 PS1 title and not a re-telling of it. 

Wanting to enter the franchise and not skip vital story aspects, I grabbed a cheap RE1+0 combo on a Steam sale and naturally shelved it for a few months, opting to play some easier games in my backlog.

Much later would see me finally    but just the thought of owning such an intimidating title had me donning my sweatpants, downing my 2nd Redbull and Delving into Resident Evil!

Lets do this!

The game begins with a pretty nicely rendered cutscene that had our main S.T.A.R.S members running from zombie dogs into the Spencer Estate, the huge mansion that would become a maze like nightmare full of puzzles, monsters and the horrible secrets buried deep in the mansions underbelly.

Chris Redfield would continue this trend throughout the series

Resident Evil offers the choice to play as either the horror heartthrob Jill Valentine, or ... horror heartthrob Chris Redfield. Each will play a little differently and interact with different characters throughout the campaign. The most vanilla playthrough of the game seemed to be Chris on Normal, though playing as Jill Valentine features a nod to the fan favorite line "you were almost a Jill sandwich!" with a modernized "any longer and you would have fit nicely into a sandwich!" quipped by her rescuer, Fellow S.T.A.R.S member Barry. Either way, it embraces some of it's early cheesiness instead of starting from scratch, that's the theme of Resident Evil 1 after all. Though in my opinion Capcom missed the mark by excluding Milla Jovovich. 

Something that crops up in conversations about the early games is the absolutely alien control scheme. 'Tank controls' are the most common term used by players, a long forgotten relic of the late 90's early 2000's. Essentially, the left thumbstick controls the characters turning and running, with the right thumbstick being used during aiming mode in the games menus. 'Waht aboat da camera?' you may ask, cheeto dust falling on your lap, the camera essentially does it's own thing, changing it's angle room to room, sometimes right in the middle of the action, this adds a candid feel to the players perspective, complimenting the horror theme. I'd be lying if I said the camera system was a breeze, but it's not a game-breaking feature by any means. Besides, no amount of moving the camera would help me locate Milla Jovovich anyways.

The core element of gameplay isn't combat, its navigating the creepy Spencer estate and solving the myriad of puzzles, unlocking doors, hitting switches, and...playing the piano?
Enemies in Resident Evil serve more as an obstacle than source of sidequests and petty cash, I'm looking at you Geralt! You'll find yourself torn between carrying extra ammo, keys, and puzzle items from one room to another like a rat in a maze, thankfully there are safe rooms that feature linked item boxes and typewriters, the latter allows you to save assuming you have an ink ribbon, old school, I know. The point of the whole game is really reaching the finish line and uncovering the Umbrella Corp conspiracy. Spooky exploration takes precedence over high octane zombie blasting.

Initially I got stuck a few times, shelving the game and returning to it, you could call this part of the learning curve. Not only is there a learning curve to this title, but the genre as well, especially considering I never played the old Resident Evils 1,2,3,0. This made my total in-game hours balloon to 20+ before I had finished, though its meant to be beat in 8-12. So don't be embarrassed if Milla Jovovich finished in 100 minutes, she probably knew some speed running tricks.



Resident Evil draws to a close while slowly ramping up the tension and revealing the nefarious plot. We finally see who the real villain is (it isn't Milla Jovovich). It may be obvious if you've seen the memes or later games, but it's not about dodging the spoilers its about actually playing it and being there when it happens, escaping the Spencer mansion and setting the future games plot in motion. There's not a lot of franchises that let you see day one as easily as Resident Evil 1 and that's really the strong-point of the title.

After the end credits there is something of a new game + or "once again" mode. This lets you start again with the cleared date save and unlockables available for a new playthrough. I've made some progress as Jill Valentine in 'Once Again' mode, but here it really ramps up the difficulty and I'm in no position to dump another 30 hours into the game. If its challenge or speedrunning you're into, Resident Evil can accommodate the most masochistic fans, for everyone else though, I think playing as Chris or Jill on normal will satisfy.

The Resident Evil 1 Remake is a fine game. Difficulty seems fair early on and the payoff is a nostalgic trip to the beginning of something special. If you have Resident Evil 1 in your backlog it's well worth playing, probably high on the list depending what you've got in your library. So remember, whether you play the game or not, you were almost a Jill sandwich!

Until next time, stay safe, Comrades.