Resident Evil 0
So here I go again with another anthology post. Now, I've already covered two of the many Resident Evil games, but there are still plenty that I've played and loved. I can't decide if I should be going through these in order of release, order in which I've played them, in order of favorites, order in which the plot of each game takes place or the order of which simply smells the best. But, to keep things simple I suppose I'll go through them in title sequence, since it's also pretty close to the order of release and the order of the plot. Resident Evil 0 was, if I remember correctly, the 5th Resident Evil game to be released. Labeled '0', this title is, as it sounds, a prequel to the first RE game that was first released on the PlayStation. At one point, Nintendo struck a deal with Capcom that saw an exclusive remake of RE:1 on the Nintendo GameCube alongside a port of RE:2 and RE:3 Nemesis. But before this had happened, Capcom had been working on Resident Evil 0 as a game for the Nintendo 64. However, size limitations on the cartridges meant it was delayed and instead released on the GameCube instead.
With the exception of Resident Evil: Code Veronica, released on the Sega Dreamcast, all the RE titles to date used the same pre-rendered backgrounds with realtime characters overlayed. Resident Evil 0 was the last of the series to use this fixed-camera, fixed-background style with the stop-and-aim gameplay before we saw the release of Resident Evil 4, also on the GameCube. As the last of the lot however, RE:0 really does the series justice. The GameCube was much more capable than the fifth generation consoles before it and so the prerendered backgrounds looked incredible, realtime content matched much nicer and the cutscenes looked gorgeous. Controls were cleaned up, load times reduced and the whole experience rivaled the first game to take a seat as possibly the best Resident Evil game to date. Especially for those who prefer the original gameplay and pacing.
Resident Evil 0 follows two main protagonists; field medic Rebecca Chambers and ex-marine Billy Coen. Although it's a prequel, the timeline is actually pretty tight alongside RE:1, if memory serves correctly. Rebecca was part of the S.T.A.R.S. team which ends up at the infamous mansion in Raccoon City, but gets split up and becomes entangled within the bizarre plot of Dr. James Marcus is he uses the original T-Virus in combination with leeches as a delivery system. Similar to what we see now with Resident Evil 5, Zero allows you to control both Rebecca and Billy throughout the same playthrough, swapping between the two as you see fit. Which also allowed for a slightly larger inventory system. Though I can't remember if it was because it was a larger shared system, or that each character had his/her own, effectively giving you double the capacity.
Nevertheless, Resident Evil 0 was easily one of the finest of the series. Where RE:4 was praised for it's innovation, this should be praised for it's faithfulness. And although if Capcom just kept putting out Resident Evil games of this design, they would undoubtedly get tired, the fact that this exists means that at least we have that one great title that allows us the experience of the first game, without the experience of having to actually play the first game. Because if you're anything like me, you quickly forget about the awful load times and turn of the century graphics that the 5th generation consoles carried with them.
So here I go again with another anthology post. Now, I've already covered two of the many Resident Evil games, but there are still plenty that I've played and loved. I can't decide if I should be going through these in order of release, order in which I've played them, in order of favorites, order in which the plot of each game takes place or the order of which simply smells the best. But, to keep things simple I suppose I'll go through them in title sequence, since it's also pretty close to the order of release and the order of the plot. Resident Evil 0 was, if I remember correctly, the 5th Resident Evil game to be released. Labeled '0', this title is, as it sounds, a prequel to the first RE game that was first released on the PlayStation. At one point, Nintendo struck a deal with Capcom that saw an exclusive remake of RE:1 on the Nintendo GameCube alongside a port of RE:2 and RE:3 Nemesis. But before this had happened, Capcom had been working on Resident Evil 0 as a game for the Nintendo 64. However, size limitations on the cartridges meant it was delayed and instead released on the GameCube instead. With the exception of Resident Evil: Code Veronica, released on the Sega Dreamcast, all the RE titles to date used the same pre-rendered backgrounds with realtime characters overlayed. Resident Evil 0 was the last of the series to use this fixed-camera, fixed-background style with the stop-and-aim gameplay before we saw the release of Resident Evil 4, also on the GameCube. As the last of the lot however, RE:0 really does the series justice. The GameCube was much more capable than the fifth generation consoles before it and so the prerendered backgrounds looked incredible, realtime content matched much nicer and the cutscenes looked gorgeous. Controls were cleaned up, load times reduced and the whole experience rivaled the first game to take a seat as possibly the best Resident Evil game to date. Especially for those who prefer the original gameplay and pacing.Resident Evil 0 follows two main protagonists; field medic Rebecca Chambers and ex-marine Billy Coen. Although it's a prequel, the timeline is actually pretty tight alongside RE:1, if memory serves correctly. Rebecca was part of the S.T.A.R.S. team which ends up at the infamous mansion in Raccoon City, but gets split up and becomes entangled within the bizarre plot of Dr. James Marcus is he uses the original T-Virus in combination with leeches as a delivery system. Similar to what we see now with Resident Evil 5, Zero allows you to control both Rebecca and Billy throughout the same playthrough, swapping between the two as you see fit. Which also allowed for a slightly larger inventory system. Though I can't remember if it was because it was a larger shared system, or that each character had his/her own, effectively giving you double the capacity.
Nevertheless, Resident Evil 0 was easily one of the finest of the series. Where RE:4 was praised for it's innovation, this should be praised for it's faithfulness. And although if Capcom just kept putting out Resident Evil games of this design, they would undoubtedly get tired, the fact that this exists means that at least we have that one great title that allows us the experience of the first game, without the experience of having to actually play the first game. Because if you're anything like me, you quickly forget about the awful load times and turn of the century graphics that the 5th generation consoles carried with them.
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