We all have our favourite genres, and we probably all have genres that we don't even touch. Survival horror titles are one of the genres I don't even touch. Dark, dingy environments littered with things whose sole purpose is to make me shit myself in fear? Nah, not my cup of tea, that. Shame we've got a load of them on this 1001 list then, with the grandfather of the lot of them perhaps being Resident Evil.
Bravo Team of the Raccoon City PD's Special Tactics and Rescue Service have gone into the wilderness to investigate some strange murders, but all contact with them has been lost. Alpha Team is sent in to find them, but what they discover is something altogether more mysterious and deadly than a bunch of murders.
Before we start, let's get the warnings out of the way...
Still with us? Good good.
Fun Times
After choosing between playing as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, you're introduced to the situation by the way of a short, live-action scene depicting Alpha Team's problems getting a whole lot worse than they imagined.
What's great about this scene - the very first thing you see in the game - is how well overacted it is. It's a thing of B-movie beauty. Can you guess the emotion on our heroes faces?
 |
| Dumbfounded and perplexed? |
 |
| Disgusted, clearly |
 |
| Can't even |
After fighting off some monstrous dogs, what's left of Alpha Team make it into the mansion of Resident Evil, where, incredibly, the appalling dialogue from the short film actually continues.
Some games are infamous for the odd line or scene. Maybe it's a recording cock-up, like the double take in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Maybe it's a translation error, like Metal Gear's "I feel asleep!". Maybe it's weird dialogue decisions in general, like all of Resident Evil, without exception.
You've probably heard of - or indeed actually heard - the 'Jill sandwich' line, quipped by Barry Burton after he saves Jill from being squashed by a ceiling trap. It's a corny line that, while not being too out of place, still somehow manages to stick out like the sorest of disease-ridden thumbs. Now imagine the rest of the dialogue as being on that level.
I'm not putting any of this under the 'Frustrations' header for the simple fact that as terrible - utterly terrible - as this start for Resident Evil has been, it is an undeniable joy. It's so bad it's good. I cannot believe this drivel is getting sequels to this day.
Frustrations
When you eventually get control of your character, you'll encounter the wonders that are tank controls. The pre-rendered backgrounds mean the characters can bumble through only a specific space within the scene, and the developers have decided to take 'bumbling' and run with it, by having the characters walk like tanks. Push up to walk forward, left and right to turn left and right, and down to step backwards.
Don't tell me it makes sense until a lifetime of not playing with tank controls see you walk into every wall on screen. Twice.
I was playing the Dual Shock version, released a couple of years after its PlayStation debut, and you'll get used to the controls soon enough, but then something with panic you and you'll forget every one of the four directions that you're tasked with remembering, which will likely result in a costly loss of your resources and wellbeing.
Further Fun Times
Once you've equipped your gun, you're ready for business. It's going to take one button for you to aim and another to fire, but that makes it seem so deliberate and calculated, which is how you should be feeling because ammunition is scarce and, as we've just seen, zombies are everywhere! (Spoilers)
Depending on the situation you're in, or more likely the size of the corridor you find yourself in, you can choose to not engage with these guys and try to run around them in safety. Let them get too close, however, and they'll be taking a few bites out of your person, and like finding ammo, getting your health back isn't too easy either.
 |
| (insert spit take here) |
After our encounter, we've lost team leader Albert Wesker, and we make the always stupid decision to split up to explore the zombie-infested mansion separately. What will we find? Other than zombies, a lot of puzzles.
Some items will be noticeably different from the pre-rendered backgrounds, so you'll be interacting with a few elements until the puzzle clicks into place. Moving steps around a room is one thing, as is pressing a series of buttons in the right order, but finding where an item is ultimately used means you'll have to explore all corners of your map (if you found it), as well as juggle your precious, limited inventory space.
As well as puzzles and zombies, you'll have to sit through lots and lots of loading doors and even loading steps and ladders. Even with emulation, that isn't fun, but we'll live with it - so long as what's on the other side won't immediately kill me...
As the mansion gets bigger and more complicated, the sinister plot gets further revealed, and at no point does it stop being as ridiculous as the voicework. It really is incredible.
Final Word
I played Resident Evil for quite a while, certainly a lot longer than I imagined I would, knowing the controls were outdated. Part of what kept me going that whole 'so bad it's good' factor, which I'm still struggling to get over.
The gameplay, evading or engaging with zombies while puzzle solving, environment exploring and generally surviving the mansion is great. The controls aren't, but that idea is solid and simple and it works so well that even if you plaster it with God-awful B-movie quality rubbish, you still want to play it.
I went on to play the remastered release of the remake (no, really) on the PlayStation 4, which while it isn't 100% faithful to the original, sadly re-writing some lines here and there, it is still abysmally poorly acted yet very playable. It looks insane in comparison, and there are new room layouts and puzzles to get lost and/or die in, so it's worth playing too. It's harder but more customizable, and to see how far the series has come from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and beyond really makes you see Resident Evil for what it is: awesome.
I've not finished it - come nowhere close, as usual - but I have watched a run through to see where things went with the plot, and to hear many more bad readings of every single line, and have come out of the other side still liking it.
Original, remake, remaster - whatever version takes your fancy, play Resident Evil. To think I avoided it like the plague for simply being a horror title... I really ought to shed these preconceptions and just enjoy games.
Fun Times
Resident Evil was set to be a first-person game, until director Shinji Mikami played Alone in the Dark, with its fixed cameras. Citing the first-person prototype looking like garbage as justification for the switch to third-person, the series didn't touch first-person for another 20 years, until Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Resident Evil, developed by Capcom, first released in 1996.
Version played: Resident Evil Director's Cut Dual Shock Version, PlayStation, 1998, via emulation.
Resident Evil HD, PlayStation 4, 2015.
Version watched: PlayStation, 1996 (TheLevelBest)