Where fiction collides.
Here’s another Top Ten for you.
What are your most memorable Resident Evil moments? The ones that made you take a deep breath in fear before pushing onward, or startled you despite your best intentions? Maybe they match up with mine. Head over to GameZone to take a look.
Interested at all in the many Resident Evil games scheduled for release? You can thank one influential game: Resident Evil 4.
My new feature for GameZone, “From Zombies to Plagas: How Resident Evil 4 Changed a Classic for the Better,” recalls high-tension moments from the rule-breaking game and explains why it deserves its place in video game history. Check it out here.
Capcom, producer of the upcoming Okami game for the Nintendo DS, has partnered with GameStop to package an uber cute exclusive with pre-order copies of Okamiden. Only 20,000 shipments will include a special paintbrush stylus and decorative screen cleaner. The game hits stores March 15. [GameInformer]
This deal, of course, brings into question the general topic of pre-order incentives. Are they good or bad? Fair or unreasonable? While I’m finicky about exclusives relating to in-game content, fun extras like, say, the Scribblenauts rooster hat or this adorable number are fine by me.
The first generation of Resident Evil helped pave the survival horror road, a genre dripping with dismembered limbs, peeling wallpaper, blood-ruined luxury carpets, and heaps of empty shotgun shells. As members of Raccoon City’s homegrown Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and their surviving teammates escape the slobbering jaws of zombie dogs roaming the Arklay Mountains only to enter a reclusive mansion full of locked doors, instant death traps, and unsightly horrors. The original spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs, both successful and embarrassing, but the GameCube remake of the classic gem stands as one of gaming’s most well-aged, graphically gorgeous wonders. Zombies have never looked so good.
Directing their painstaking attention to finer details, the developers transform the cobwebbed nooks and crannies of the mansion/ultra super secret Umbrella lab into a decor more haunting and clever than before. The spooky atmosphere permeates throughout the mansion interior and the surrounding grounds as new puzzles replace weary ones, and undiscovered locations open their poorly oiled gates. The menus taking a hint from the later REs, maps color “unexplored” rooms, those that still harbor items or herbs, for determined perfectionists and confused stragglers alike. For unknown reasons, though, gamers are still forced to rely on their scrambled memories when determining which key goes to which random red door on their multi-story mansion map.
While the beret-wearing Jill and the slightly less muscular Chris sport a few new moves, including a 180-degree quick turn and fancy stairs running, like in the original, they approach movable objects with an overly sensitive grace. The steep difficulty curve between the initial two modes can intimidate first-timers, as well.
On the other hand, new defensive items make countering unwelcome ambushes a cinch, especially in tight hallways with lots of easily shattered windows. Even the undead receive a complimentary face-lift, bumping up the difficulty a notch or two. Various unlockables, such as costumes and different endings, boost the replay value, and savvy gamers will note the enhanced music and sound.
Although the altered puzzles and extra scares fit neatly into the original’s code of fear, most fall flat in comparison with parts left untouched. The game’s plot, for instance, has been reworked and expanded, and some of long-time fans’ favorite cheesy lines have been removed or somehow made sillier (in a bad way).
Better controls and breathtaking visuals certainly polish the original Resident Evil‘s sparkle, but the storyline, devoid of the humorous and garish flair that made the game endearing in the first place, is guaranteed to bore both veteran S.T.A.R.S. affiliates and newcomers. 9/10
“Ada, wait!” Before las Plagas, there were zombies. Ankle-dragging, brain-hungry zombies, the undead who waited behind corners and inside lockers, hoping an unlucky S.T.A.R.S. member or even some exhausted shop owner with a shotgun would walk straight into their open arms. Hey, it happens. Resident Evil 2 is proof.
When it comes to horror video games, Resident Evil tops the chart, nails the head shots, and splatters the screen with blood and gore. Although the popular series changed its mainstream viral formula with the “action horror” award-winner Resident Evil 4, fans still consider the second game a hot favorite. Leon S. Kennedy may be a teenage girl’s knight in zombie gut-stained armor now, but he wasn’t always such a looker who rolled with Umbrella’s punches as slickly as the bad puns and bingo jokes. Once upon a time in Raccoon City, he was a rookie cop whose first day on the job ended in city-wide decimation. He slogged through grimy sewers, followed a corporation’s blood trail, befriended Redfield’s sister … and fell for one dangerous lady in red.
Interested in the full retro review? Click here and read it on Spawn Kill.
