Resident Evil

The Good
Resident Evil: Rebirth, as it's called in Japan, is a complete remake of the original game, released for the PlayStation in 1996. Sporting new, and highly detailed character models, enemies, and backgrounds, Resident Evil is the best looking game on any system to date.

Graphics - Resident Evil cannot be beat in the graphics department. This game sports real-time lighting, real-time shadows, both on you and enemies, beautiful, high-res pre-rendered backgrounds, and accurate muzzle flashes. Lights will swing back and forth, causing shadows to move, blood will splash on the floor and on the wall, sometimes dripping, sometimes not, carpet textures can be seen through blood puddles depending on the brightness of the texture, and much more. Water effects are amazing, with accurate waves and ripples. The cutscenes are simply beautiful.

Sound - The sound is just as good as ever. Creepy, atmospheric, orchestrated music really lends to the overall atmosphere of the game. Sound cues will alert you to enemies, and disappear when an enemy is dead. Environment sounds are top notch as well. You can hear grass brush against your pants, moths hovering around a light, the sound of a lightbulb flickering. There are more then ten different footsteps, depending on the type of surface you're walking on, be it carpet, wood, metal or concrete. Water sounds amazingly realistic, with weapons and footsteps causing accurate splash noises.

Story - Resident Evil provides the same story as the original, but also divulges more with the addition of new files, re-worded files, and a whole new set of diary entries, the "George Trevor Diaries", from the person who built the mansion. The game is extremely story heavy, and plot twists and turns will be handed to you in the form of CG's and cutscenes.

What's New? - Fear not veterans, there is plenty of new things to keep you interested! One of them is the addition of defense items. You can now carry Dagger's (both characters), Flashbangs (Chris) or Tazers (Jill) for use on zombies. When a zombie grabs you, and you have a self defense item, you can get away unscathed by sticking a dagger in their head, shoving a flashbang in their mouth (and later detonating it), or giving them a shock. This allows you to get away without being hurt, giving you ample time to shoot or run away. There are also a bunch of new areas that you've never seen, such as the Abyss, the Forest, and the Death Mask Hut (which looks cooler then it sounds).

The Bad
While the graphics are top notch, the game doesn't support progressive scan, and there is the occasionally clipping problem, where your character's body will move "into" the wall, or go right through an item.

The dialogue, while improved, is still pretty bad. Some of the worst lines have been removed ("You, the MASTER of unlocking..."), the new dialogue is only partially better.

The Bottom Line
If you played any of the original Resident Evil games, or you like survival horror games, definitely give this game a try. If you haven't played a Resident Evil game, give this a rental, as it might be difficult for newcomers.

The Good
Obviously this game is a retelling of all the events that took place in the original Resident Evil, with some minor additions to the storyline. For example, players are introduced to the Trevor family - a family that was unfortunately involved with Umbrella's experiments at the mansion - through various diaries and memos found throughout the game. There's also new areas added to explore as well. Some of these new areas include a graveyard, a forest. and some additional rooms which hold key items. Players will often see a lot of the same enemies that were present in the original, such as zombies, zombie dogs, hunters, and the Tyrant. However, one cool element that mixes up the familiarity of this gameplay is the regeneration factor. Unlike the original, zombie's must be killed by either decapitating or incinerating them. Failure to do this within a certain time frame results in the zombies being resurrected in a much more aggressive form. This makes the player be even more strategic as they must decide if they should run past them, carry kerosene (which is needed to burn the bodies), or just leave the bodies and hope that you won't have to return to said area. Not only is this a great remake of a classic game, but it's also a very ambitious game in itself. The graphics were beautiful for 2002, the gameplay mechanics were fantastic, the addition of "Defensive Weapons" was a great touch, and it had a wonderfully balanced ambiance of eerie, atmospheric horror and fast-paced storytelling. The controls translated well to the GameCube controller, I thought. But then again, I've never understood why people criticized the original game for having "tank controls," as I never had problems with those controls, either. The soundtrack for the remake is a stir of both new musical scores and faithful renditions of older tracks from the original soundtrack. The sound (including it's dialog, sound effects, and soundscapes) was flawless, with voice acting and dialog greatly improved from the original, the gunshots sounded clean and powerful, and the whole umbrella (no pun intended) of soundscapes, like outside ambiance and creaking floorboards, was quite instrumental to building the daunting atmosphere that players were presented with here.

The Bad
I didn't find many things to dislike in this game -- which is a pleasant surprise seeing as remakes have the tendency to often butcher classic characters and deviate too much from it's original premise. Anything to dislike at this point would be nitpicking, at least for me anyways. But I won't waste time with nitpicking, as the minor miscues in this game aren't even worth mentioning.

The Bottom Line
Not only is the remake of Resident Evil a definite highlight for the series, but it is also a tremendous graphical triumph for the GameCube. The crew involved in the production of this remake should be quite proud of their work. Aside from all that, this reproduction of Resident Evil is definitely one of the best titles in the RE series, and is just as good as the original. I honestly can't decide which is the better game, but I deeply appreciate this remake for being just as great as the original because that's something which doesn't really happen all that often. This is definitely a GameCube title to check out, and for those who can't be bothered to dig out their GameCubes (or buy one, for that matter), be sure to check out the HD remaster that just came out which looks even more amazing than it already did.

The Good
I'm a massive Resident Evil fan. I have been ever since the original was released back in '96. In fact, this game is the reason I bought my Gamecube. To this day I haven't regretted it in the slightest.

This "REmake" is also my all time favorite game in the series. It takes the game that started it all and ups the ante with improved graphics, a creepier atmosphere, and a heightened sense of dread. Many of the classic puzzles and areas have been redone as well, and a good deal have been added to spice things up for series veterans. I still have a special place in my heart set aside for the Aqua Ring lab.

The Bad
There's only one thing I didn't like about this game, and that's Lisa. If you've played the game, you know who I'm talking about. Everything else was great though.

The Bottom Line
It's a wonderful remake of a classic game. Scary, fun and intense. It's a game that will fry your nerves and then get you coming back for more. One of the greatest survival-horror games ever made.