902nd played so far
Genre: Survival Horror
Platform: Gamecube
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
It’s undeniable that the Resident Evil series looms large in the horror genre and the most recent remakes prove that’s still there. At the same time, I believe those remakes show that the originals needed an update and don’t feel as modern anymore.
Resident Evil Zero is the prequel to the original game and still builds on those old tropes – the awkward controls and weird adventure gaming. I can tell you now that they will get in my way, but I know I got past it, to some extent, in the past, and I hope the updates from the game make that more likely here as well.
Our Thoughts
Let’s start with the obvious – this game still has the frustrating tank controls leading you through narrow corridors – you start off on a train which does tend to be fairly narrow, but the changing camera angles and awkwardly running into the scenery because you can’t quite judge what way you’re going.ย Even worse is that you’re playing with a somewhat floaty Gamecube thumbstick – WASD make it easier to fine tune your control while here it’s easy to drift left or right as you run down the carriages.
The shooting is similarly awkward, although at least that’s a genre trope to heighten the tension. Between that and exploration that only partially feels to pay off as, at this point, I’m not sure it offers much we haven’t already seen in the series. Even the partner system, where you swap between two, fails to pay off because of these controls.
The story is fine and I feel more might be in there once I got far enough, but it feels like there’s less that draws me in early on and the controls make it difficult to get further in.
Final Thoughts
There’s a decent story in here and I’m a sucker for a train set opening, but the gameplay is off putting to such an extent that I’m not thinking of touching it again – and I’m glad the final game I’ll be playing inย the series will be a more modern iteration with hopefully better controls.