Resident Evil

I just played Resident Evil for the first time to completion. It's part of those series that I kind of missed. In 1996, I was 5 years old. I also never had a playstation. I had a lot of fun with my Nintendo 64, playing other games. And although I ended up playing many of the classics of the PSX, like the Final Fantasy games or Symphony of the Night, I never really managed to play Resident Evil.

It is however one of those series you cannot ignore. Its mystique, alluring, always in your peripheral vision. I had a few conversations about the game with a schoolmate back when I was in middle school. I watched the movies featuring Milla Jovovich. They were entertaining, the main lead was pretty, I don't remember much about them.

As for me, growing up, aging, I was also a bit afraid of horror. I dabbled here and there in my teenage years, got spooked, and then more reluctant. It took my editor, also known as my wife, for me to start getting into the genre a little, albeit in movie form. Over the last year or so, I enjoyed Halloween, Friday the 13th, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Midsommar, to name a few. So why not give horror video games a chance?

And here I was, making a baby step with Resident Evil. I chose to play the game, which I definitely purchased along with the console, on an emulator. I carefully found a version of the Director's Cut version, patched with the dualshock feature from the eponymous version. I then proceeded to never use the analog sticks after discovering the arrow keys worked better for me.

So here's the gist of this article, the tl;dr nudged right in the middle so that it's useless. You have had to read my life story to get here so you might as well read my thoughts about the game. The game's a classic for a reason. Resident Evil's atmosphere is perfect. Even when at my most powerful during the game, I couldn't escape the tension.

The PSX graphics were charming and expressive despite the resolution. The bright colors of the pre-rendered environments were stunning and didn't do a thing to hinder the stressful ambiance. I pondered playing the remake and have to say I wasn't really a fan of the muted palette. I am therefore quite happy about having picked a PSX version. The environments were very detailed, and I never had to guess what I was looking at. It looked the part of a creepy mansion, featuring an exquisite choice of wallpapers and carpeting. The other environments were also wonderful, from the gardens, to the shark reservoir, the sewage, the guardhouse, the secret labs, and others I'm probably forgetting. The cramped to weirdly wide camera angles made me feel adequately claustrophibic, watched, and unnerved. I loved those and thought they, combined with the pre-rendered graphics, created a wonderful alchemy, which is rightfully iconic. The game is beautiful and creepy.

The soundtrack was also great for immersion. I don't think it's going to feature in my list of soundtracks I replay often though. It's a perfect fit for the game. It's what the game needed which I think for the genre is a great compliment to make. The sound effects were also exactly what they should be. There were background noises to create a baseline uneasiness. The enemies all made pretty convincing sounds. Never did I think: "That's not how a zombie should sound!". The weapons sounded deafening and impactful. Each shot breaking the screams, the music, echoing your feeble attempt at staying alive.

The story is also great. There isn't a lot of it but it's like a condensed B-movie. The Best Opening Cutscene Ever gives the tone right from the start. The bad dubbing is definitely a wonderful addition, supplementing the plot and adding further goofiness. I felt like I never could trust any of my teammates, especially Fuckboi Wesker (have you seen how he looks?). Barry kept being at the most convenient place when I needed him, and although the decision was probably made for balance, it added to that uneasiness the game distillates. I also loved the cheese. Beetwen the acting, the cutscenes with actors, and the in-engine cutscenes, the cheese was just oozing through the plot and it was glorious.

Umbrella Corporation feels like an ominous character. You can really feel that their budget cuts caused this whole chain of events. They took the most immoral choice at every turn, choosing to let a worker get infected by the T-Virus, just to observe what would happen. You read the letter to his wife (girlfriend? I don't remember) by a scientist that knows he won't be able to escape, and you feel the pain they inflicted. They don't need to intervene, they're just there to notice the impact they've had. Overall, that's a great criticism of corporations and the incompatibility between capitalism and medical research. Everything was preventable.

If I have to make one criticism about the story is that I never really felt as though I drove the story or events. I felt that I was dealing with things that were happening outside of my control. From a meta standpoint, it creates a sort of ludo-narrative harmony. I would have wished however that more effort was put to make me feel like I was acting and impacting the game world. Maybe I'm just bad at horror though.

Now on the gameplay side, I have to mention I immediately picked Jill, as I will always pick a woman character if I can. That is significant as the gameplay differs between the two playable characters. Jill has reduced combat effectiveness, and increased inventory. They gave the girl a purse I guess. I did find the limited inventory constraining but bearable. The resulting tension of having to pick between more ammo, healing items, puzzle items, or just empty slots to collect stuff, was definitely there and enjoyable. That makes me really scared of doing a Chris playthrough with two less inventory slots.

Due to my playstyle I felt like I was oscillating between being a living goddess with immense ammo and a poor mouse trapped with just a knife as the consequences of my hubris had settled. I was able to kill most enemies of the game outside of a very few respawnable enemies, while still being very concerned for my ammo all the time. I would say that was the right decision as I'm not a fan of having to dodge enemies all the time.

Speaking of enemies, between my limited ammo, limited life, and limited healing items, encoutering enemies, especially the fast ones, never felt trivial. And those weird lizard-human duck-looking hybrids were very stressful in the short moment between their first appearance and when I got the colt. Overall enemy variety was very satisfying and I never felt bored. Another point I need to mention is that enemy placement was excellent, and synergized beautifully with the camera angles. I even got spooked a few times. Boss fights were not too difficult as I was saving my best ammo when I could but weren't a cake walk either. They were also all original and had a distinct vibe although I'm not sure I will remember them as more than "Big Plant" or "Big Snake" for example. That variety also contributes to the feeling that Umbrella was just trying anything to make money, fiddling with life in ways they shouldn't have.

As I struggle with spacial awarness, it's important to mention that I managed to explore the mansion satisfactorily, opening the map every few seconds. I believe the game was probably the size it should have been and am grateful to not have been forced to backgrack too often. The level design was excellent and don't have much more to say about it, it worked.

Puzzles were satisfactory. They were logical, and didn't make me feel either like a genius or an idiot. I had very few instances where I got stuck and had to look at a guide. I got really surprised by the few instances where you needed to examine items just the right way for them to become usable. I absolutely hated the game when the solution to open the fountain was to examine those books you got way earlier to get the medals that you put in the fountain. The fact that this is the only occurrence that got me upset is a testament to how well integrated and designed the puzzles were. They're not made to be hardcore like old point'n'click games and were enjoyable to me.

The gameplay operated as a trifecta of exploration, puzzle, and fighting. I believe that this fact, along with other elements like inventory and ammo management, allowed Resident Evil to really master its release and tension just right and become very effective horror as a result. Graphics good, music good, story good, gameplay good. Perfect game. Unless…

I guess if you're a long time reader of my blag, you'll know that I'm kinda the Game Save Gal. I feel very strongly about having the ability to save in a game. Therefore I will say it:

Limited saves are bullshit.

Come at me if you must. I refused to engage with that mechanic and used savestates. I didn't really feel like save scumming but I saved when I needed to. Sorry, I have a life, with a job, relationships, and obligations. I can't dedicate slots of 4 hours of gaming to optimize the amount of times I'm going to save. I can't and I won't.

I'm really glad I played this game and will definitely try other entries in the series later, starting with Resident Evil 2. Like I wrote earlier in this article, I believe Resident Evil deserves to be a classic and would recommend you to play it if you still haven't.