Ahh, the mid-1990's. A time of grunge music, angsty anime protagonists and the dawn of the 3D Era of video games. With technology on the rise, gaming finally managed to make the full jump into the third dimension with consoles such as the SEGA Saturn, Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation. With the advent of CD Technology, game designers could have huuugggeee games stored onto CD's with high quality audio, voice acting and plenty of content. In 1996, all the Sony PlayStation needed was - apart from
Final Fantasy VII - a decent horror game, and Capcom delivered....sort of
Ladies and Gentlemen, Resident Evil [Known in Japan as BIOHAZARD]
For it's own story, before the sequels would later come to rip this game up, the original Resident Evil has a fairly decent plot. In the American Midwest during the year 1998, grizzly murders have been occurring in the Arklay Mountains, close to Raccoon City. The Special Tactics And Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S) from the Raccoon Police Department have been sent out to investigate. After the Bravo Team's communications were cut for some unknown reason, S.T.A.R.S sends out it's Alpha Team to investigate. All of a sudden, dogs start to attack the team and kill one member of the squad. The rest all huddle up in a nearby abandoned mansion....but things start to go wrong as soon as they go into the foyer, where the game begins proper. What I love about the story is that it has plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested, and each character has several ending to achieve depending on how many items you got and how fast you were (like the Metroid series) however, the story has it's issues...mainly with how its presented but we'll get to that later. It works for what it is but, it's nothing too speical to be honest. The multiple playable characters really gives it some extra points though.
The gameplay is something that in 1996 would've been it's best aspect, now in 2015 it's become rather polarizing. This is due to several reasons, the most apparent of which is the fact that the controls are stiff. Characters can only move forward when you hold the up button, regardless of what direction you face, which means you have to turn manually if you wanna change direction from a standstill. Now, this control scheme was intentional to add to the games 'survival' element, and to be honest the survival part is excellent. Ammo and Health are limited and your inventory space is limited to 8 (6 if you're playing as Chris) item spaces, so you have to balance out your inventory with weapons, ammo, healing items and puzzle items. Yes, puzzles are a thing in this game and to be honest they're not too hard, just a bit frequent which breaks up the pace a bit too much (then again, the game is slow paced anyways). Avoiding fights is the best way to go due to how limited ammo is, and due to tight corridors, you're often faced with the dilemma of "fight or run" which adds so much tension. However, none of this makes up for the fact that the controls are stiff. Sometimes, intentionally does not always mean good, and this is a prime example.
Graphically, Resident Evil certainly shows its age. Textures look very muddy and character models look extremely blocky. The lighting is alright for a horror game but it's nothing special. Thankfully, Capcom would improve this aspect in the sequels but this original game doesn't look like anything special, even for the PS1's standards.
The audio depends on what version of the game you're playing, and it's safe to say the original 1996 version has the best OST out of the 3 original PS1 versions as it sets the atmosphere perfectly.....unlike the rather campy and infamous voice acting which I cannot even describe how bad it is. It's created so many damn memes that it's in a league of it's own, although this is probably due to the fucking horrendous writing which can make you facepalm in embarrassment.
Resident Evil is a victim of time. It's great atmosphere and survival elements are severely downplayed by the awful voice acting, dialogue and aged graphics. While it is definitely playable, the controls may turn off some, especially those who grew up on newer games in the series. It's a diving board for which the rest of the franchise could leap off from, but right now,
Resident Evil is just...good. Not amazing, just good.
Story: 8
Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 4
Sound: 5
Personal Enjoyment: 7
FINAL SCORE FOR RESIDENT EVIL: 6.2/10
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