Resident Evil Gamecube Remake: "Itchy itchy Scott came ugly face so killed him. Tasty."

INTRO: Rocky and Mr. Evil
I am very new to the Resident Evil series. In fact, the only game I’ve played in the series was Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, and that game’s events took place after all the other Resident Evils. After playing that game, I thought I’d go back and get the other Resident Evils for the original Playstation and pay through them so I could actually understand what was going on. Well while searching on the internet one day for the RE games, I read the announcement on Gamespot that Capcom has moved its Resident Evil series to the Gamecube as an exclusive title.

So I decided to keep my money, and wait for the new Gamecube versions. Capcom was going to totally remake the original Resident Evil; and then port Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Resident Evil Code: Veronica X(hopefully minus the “X”)...and then Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 4 are going to be completely new games, hopefully utilizing the Gamecube’s power the best they can(RE0 is a prequel to the series and the events in the game lead up to the first game, while RE4 is an official sequel and will continue the series along its path).

Now that the series is exclusive to Nintendo and they’re porting all the old games over, I can play the series on my beloved Gamecube. Anyway, when I got home from school on May 1, 2002...I called around town asking if any of the stores had gotten Resident Evil in, but they all said no(Target, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Funcoland). Then I called Electronics Boutique, this was my last hope or I’d have to wait till’ the next day. When the guy answered and did that little intro, “Electronics Boutique where you can get Resident Evil right now....this is George how may I help you”... I asked him to hold it for about 20 minutes until I could get my bum up to the store. This game has been very hyped up, ever since it was announced people have been going crazy and message boards across the net have been on fire with Resident Evil topics.

THE STORY:
The place is Raccoon City. Lately, mysterious murders have been taking place near the Raccoon Forest where victims have been found to been eaten(wolves maybe?). When Raccoon City’s special force unit called S.T.A.R.S(Special Tactics and Rescue Service) are sent in, they disappear. This was the Bravo Team, now the Alpha team is sent in to find the members of the original team.

When the Alpha team gets chased by a hound of freak dogs, they find their way to an old mansion and seek help inside. Whatever was killing off their team was very deadly, and now only 5 members are left; 3 from Alpha, and 2 from Bravo. This mansion is the hide-out of an evil company called Umbrella, whose housing a secret underground lab which is researching Bio Organic Weapons. The mansion is filled with zombies, caused from a deadly chemical called the T-Virus.

Now what to do; find out how this has happened, discover whose behind this deadly virus, keep yourself alive...and last of all, could there be a traitor?

The story may sound confusing to you, hell...it’s confusing to me. But it’s actually a pretty deep and involved story. The whole story spans across all the games... and if there were questions un-answered in one game, the next will probably answer those.

THE GAME: Run, Shoot, Kill, Stay Alive
This game will scare the bejeesies out of you. The game is all about killing zombies, and then of course keeping yourself alive. In the game, you’ll spend a majority of your time exploring the mansion. The mansion is huge, and you’ll walk through creepy hallways where your fear factor will jump up really high, and you’ll jump at the sound of a creaking footstep, and any other little sound will send you off the edge.

Anyway, you have a chance to play as two different characters, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. Chris and Jill are partners on the S.T.A.R.S, and so either one would be a good pick. I, personally, picked Chris because he looked like a major bad-@$$... and I wanted to see what it would look like to shove a grenade in a zombies mouth and watch it blow up(more on that later). It doesn’t really matter who you pick to play as on your first time, because whenever you beat the game, you can go back and play through as the other character(although starting with Chris on Normal mode is really challenging). Whichever character you choose though, you’ll pay the game through their eyes, and this means that the story's going to unfold a little differently with each character. Like if you pick Chris to go through the game on your first time, you may pass by somewhere where Jill has already been and has rid the place out of its inhabitants. While if you chose Jill, you’d actually fight instead of just seeing thee remains of zombies if you played as Chris. That’s not confusing, really it isn’t...ok so some of you may be confused. Let me put it this way, Chris and Jill’s adventures will be slightly different from each other.

Anyway, the mansion is filled with zombies, cute little doggies, giant adorable snakes, and humongous fuzzy wuzzy wittle spiders... and you have to rid the mansion of them before they kill you(or turn you into a zombie). To do this, you’ve got a wide variety of attacks. One warning, while using the knife, try to swipe once and then back off, because they’ll grab hold of you and take a butt-load of life away unless you can knock them off(I’m still learning to do that without getting bit) or you have a defense weapon. You’ll have different weapons such as handguns, grenade launchers, flame throwers, magnums, and the king of weapons(which is MY personal favorite)...the Shotgun(drumroll please). The hand-guns, knife, grenade launcher or whatever else can do damage and get the job done eventually...but the shotgun gets the job DONE. Once again, ridding a zombie of it’s head by a nice shotgun blow is one of the favorite things to do in this game.

All the weapons will come into your hands sooner or later throughout the game, but in order to save space for items(each gun takes up one and some take up two or three) only two should be kept at a time. My suggestion? The handgun and shotgun. Why just those two, how about the flamethrower and grenade launcher they’re a ton stronger...some of you may say. Well you know, the handgun and shotgun have the most plentiful amounts of ammo throughout the game, and therefore they should always be in your inventory because the shotgun will work on a variety of different zombies. Plus when you save the stronger weapons for harder enemies, you’ll have an easier time beating them. Also your knife should always stay with you in case an emergency.

Aside from regular weapons, something new to the Resident Evil remake is the use of defense weapons. They can be found around the mansion, and what happens is when a zombie grabs a hold of you(only from the front or sides, defense weapons won’t work when attacked from the rear....although it would be cool if Jill could do one of those kicks that goes over her head to knock em’ off, and if Chris could like head-butt the dirty zombie to get em’ off) Chris or Jill will use the defensive weapon to fend off the zombie before it can bite them. The only defensive weapon that both Chris and Jill can use is the Dagger, but if you’re using Chris you’ll get to see him shove a grenade in the zombies mouth and watch his head get blown to kingdom come...and if you’re playing as Jill, she’ll use her Stun Gun to give the zombies a new pulse(maybe she’ll zap one of em’ to life somehow). The defensive weapons can be set to Auto, where your character will automatically use the defensive weapon; or Manual, which you’ll have to press a button at the right time to jab the knife, grenade, stun gun in the zombie’s eye, mouth, or gnads(yes even Zombies have precious jewels). Defensive weapons are only used once, then they disappear and you’ve got to find more(don’t worry, they’re all over the house; mansion...whatever it’s called...I call it the Hell’s Wh*re House). I’m glad Capcom added these defensive weapons, because they come in REAL handy when you’re in a real need of some health and there’s a zombie or two or three ahead of you and there’s no way to avoid them(unless you pull out a grenade launcher, flamethrower, or handy dandy Shotgun).

I must confess something, I kind of lied in the very first paragraph of this section. I said that all you do in this game is shoot zombies...and that’s wrong, there’s also a ton of puzzles that are to be done. But first of all the items. You’ll find items all over the place like keys, file documents, letters, and all sorts of other items like that. Items are laying all over the place including on dressers, desks, the floor, and sometimes attached to a zombie and you can only obtain it by killing the retched zombies( weapons are also often just laying around). Some doors in the mansion are open to explore, while others have to be unlocked by a key, which can be found in various places(read: laying around, on top of something, or you do something special to get one).

When you find different items, say a shield you found hanging on a wall, when you go to the status screen with your health and everything...you can check different items. Like if you’re struck somewhere, and you found an item but don’t know what to do with it, then inspect the item and see if there’s writing on it. You can also combine different items; like your ammo to a weapon, or ammo to ammo, or an herb to an herb to create a stronger herb.

Chris can carry 6 items, while Jill can carry 8...and the sad thing is once those slots are filled up, you can’t just drop something you don’t think you’ll need and go on. There are item boxes(or chests, they look like pirates chests to me) placed throughout the mansion for you to store items. I don't really like this choice of item swapping because in order to get something you need, you either have to plan ahead or go to a room with an item box to get what you need. Chris’ limited item pack is why a lot of new players to the series have a hard time getting through the game. At first you may not think that 6 items is too little, but once you get going...it gets really annoying that you get somewhere, passing zombies, barely surviving crimson heads, and when you try to get the item you were trying to find...you find that you’ve maxed out your item list and you’ve got to go back to the last item chest and take away something so you can take the other item. With Jill’s 8 pack, newer players have a better time of passing the game because they don’t have to go back to item boxes all the time.

Anyway, besides some puzzles and a few zombies decapitation ceremonies...you’re trying to find yourself around from area to area, room to room...picking up items that can be used in the future. Most of the time it’s just find key, unlock door, kill zombie, finish puzzle, and move on.

The puzzles are a bigger part in this remake than it was in the original playstation version, and most outcomes of overcoming the puzzles is access to new rooms, and sometimes keys and other items that will prove useful in the near future(but would anyone really want to know exactly WHEN they were going to die?). For those who have already played the numerous playstation Resident Evils(RE, then the directors cut and stuff like that), and are expecting to fly right through the game...then please rethink that plan of attack. There are a lot of the same puzzles, but they’ve been revamped and there’s a ton of new puzzles in new rooms.

The game focuses on more puzzle/strategy than it does action in general(previous Resident Evil owners will know that RE2 and Nemesis focused on more in your face, zombie butt kicking action). Puzzles range from easy as moving a dresser and such to get on top of it and grab an item, to moderately challenging, especially if you’re playing the game on y our own and not using a FAQ or players guide. Like I played the whole game through by myself(my very first time with Resident Evil if you don’t count REC:VX on PS2), and some puzzles were just common sense, while others were quite complicated and involved using your noggin(some people need not apply...such as myself :)).

Some puzzles involve using items you find laying around while you explore, and often times you’ll have to back track multiple times to item boxes so you can get an item out or make room for an item you need, and also throughout rooms and hallways you've already visited so you can find an item or items you need. Also sometimes puzzles will require that two or more things in your item list to be combined, and some items may be more that meets the eye so if you go into the status screen and pick an item and you pick check, you can zoom in and out and rotate it in a 3-D perspective to find secrets like hidden buttons and stuff like that.

As you make your way through the game, of course you’re going to run into a zombie or two or three or one hundred...some of them are regular Zombies who move like a zombie should, and other are freaks(sort of like the mutating Tyrant). There are more than just zombies, such as Crimson heads, giant spiders, GIANT snakes, big sharks. Crimson Heads are more than your average zombie, they’re stronger, faster, and smarter than your average zombie. Unlike the other Resident Evils where once you killed a zombie and they were on the ground bleeding they were done...you have to actually behead the zombie or incinerate the zombie to make sure they’re dead. Because if they’re not completely dead, then after awhile they’ll mutate into the deadly Crimson Heads and come back for you. Meaning if you think that you’ve sent everything in a room back to hell where they come from, then you’re probably wrong and the Crimson Head is going to comeback and get you. Other monsters include the hunters, which are hard to kill and only certain kinds of weapons can send them back to hell(the magnum is effective against them).

Your health is done the same way in the game as the Resident Evil series always has. You’ll have that hospital like monitor with the line that goes up and down across the screen. When you lose health, the waves will get smaller, and when you’re REAL low on health...the green line will turn red. That’ll tell you that you’re in great need of some herbs. Like in all the previous Resident Evil games, you’ll find different kinds of herbs; Green, Blue and Red. Green herbs will give you health, blue herbs will cure poison and stuff like that, and red herbs do nothing but if mixed with a green or blue herb will make a stronger herb. To be real fancy, you can combine different herbs like Green and Green to give you 50% health instead of 25%...sometimes herbs are plentiful, and other times they are never there when you need em’.

THE GRAPHICS:
I’m sure anyone who has been looking up this game since they announced the remake and released the first screenshot, has been head over heels for the graphics(or should I say hand over controller). Before the release of the game, I’ve seen every single screenshot over at Gamespot, and I’ve downloaded about 5 movies, and in every one...despite the video quality, the graphics have been awesome.

Anyway, the graphics are dark...very dark. The mansion is detailed in everyway; everything just looks so real. The original playstation Resident Evil used pre-rendered backgrounds; and so does the Gamecube Remake, only they‘re a lot smoother and a TON more interactive than the Playstation version which makes it seem like it‘s running in FMV. This makes everything look so real it’s not even funny. When you’re walking down the hallways, you feel like you’re in a real mansion, because everything(like I said) is so detailed. The atmosphere of the mansion is very dark, I mean hallways and rooms are barely lit and a single lamp or candle will flicker and give you a LITTLE bit of light(if the game gets to dark for you, you can adjust the brightness of the screen).

The lighting effects on surrounding environments include lots of shadows. You could see the silhouette of a zombie that’s maybe around a corner, and when you turn the corner they’ll grab you and take a nice chunk of your neck off. The shadowing effects are done real well. Every movement from Kill or Chris is copied by their shadow, and as you walk, and other items block and cause your shadow to bend in different shapes due to something that blocks your full shadow on say...a wall. Also, when you run by a mirror, you can see your reflection of everything you do, and when you come across a cracked mirror, it distorts the reflection like it would in real life. In other words, he lighting effects are wonderful and everything that’s solid will produce a shadow; the hallways, rooms, and other places you go are all detailed really nice. Like the previous REs, you’ve got blood and stuff smeared all over the wall, dead bodies lying around, and other things like that.

Away with that, how about character models? Well, lets just say they’re smooth and they move with life like motions. Sometimes I’ve noticed Chris moves kind of blocky, but that doesn’t happen much so a lot of people probably won’t notice anything. Jill on the other hand could use a smile(I wonder if there’s a McDonalds in the Mansion, everything else is in there), because she looks like a zombie herself. She’s got such a dull emotion in her face. When I first noticed Jill’s stonedness(I wonder if she got high before she started the mission), it was like five minutes after I had been mauled by one of the Crimson Heads, and thought Capcom added a secret and didn’t tell no one. I thought that they had added the feature of when you get bit, if you don’t use a vaccine or herb soon...you’ll start to turn into a zombie. But that didn’t happen, so I guess I’ll have to deal with her stonedness.

Since Chris and Jill look so damm good, the zombies are going o have smooth and elegant features too right? Wrong! Well, zombies now pose a bigger threat than before, and with the overhaul in graphics...they’re a lot scarier than before, and therefore takes the series in a giant step up. The zombies look like zombies; barely move rotting corpses of flesh and organs... dogs look like dogs(well, half rotten corpses that resemble Dobermans), sharks look like sharks(really big ones, ones that could tear Jaws apart with one tooth), snakes like snakes(bigger than the Anaconda from the movie, Anaconda), and some really, really, REALLY big spiders. I was the most impressed with the spiders you encounter at different times in the game, as you can see every little strand of hair and the way it moves so realistically to a real spider just freaks me out. The best looking part in the game I think is when you decapitate a zombie, or blow the heads off their bodies...blood goes EVERYWHERE and the effects are really cool. Nothing like the safe and wonderful feeling of blowing a zombies head off with a shotgun when they no less than 2 feet away from you(game wise).

Now for the FMVs. As you encounter certain events, you’ll be lead through FMVs using both in-game graphics movies, and full motion videos(FMV) like used in Final Fantasy X(and are the same if not better, in my own humble epinion...err, opinion). The in-game graphics are so good that there’s been times where I didn’t even notice that one of the cut scenes was done with the in-game graphics. Capcom did such a good job on this game, I’ve found myself a new favorite game and Capcom a new favorite developer.

After playing Resident Evil on my Gamecube for almost 7 straight hours(still can’t find the dammed shotgun with Chris, and I’ve almost beaten the game with Jill...Chris is on normal while Jill is on easy), I decided to take a little break and check what was happenin’ online at the message boards. But before I opened my browser, I looked at my PS2 rack for some reason and found Resident Evil Code: Veronica X sittin’ by its lonesome self near the bottom with Arctic Thunder(POS game by the way). So I decided to play it and sort of compare differences. I was blown away at how much Capcom had done to the Resident Evil on Gamecube, because REC:VX was so blocky and characters had lots of stiff movements. Also the game screen was so fuzzy, while the GC version is clear as water, with very smooth graphics.

The frame rate for the most part is quite good. There’s not quite as much action as there would be in a First-Person Shooter(Goldeneye, TimeSplitters, Quake, Unreal), so there’s not much that will happen at one time to slow frame rate down. FMVs, in-game play, and everything else runs at a constant speed the whole time, producing smooth graphics through and through no matter where you are.

THE CONTROL:
Capcom stuck with the traditional Resident Evil control scheme(of course, who wouldn’t? After it’s learned, it’s the best control you can get). You know...push up on the D-Pad to go forward where you are no matter what way you’re facing, push left or right to turn, and push back to walk backwards. For beginners, this movement will probably be considered extremely awkward. I know it was for me, because when I first got REC:VX on PS2; I was like “How the hell can I move like this?” After maybe 10-20 minutes of play time, you’ll get the hang of it. Now for Resident Evil veterans who have been with this game since it was a baby, will feel right at home with this game. However, RE vets will also have to learn how to use the Gamecube controller(unless you’ve got that PS controller converter).

Since the D-Pad is horrendously small, you’re going to have to learn to use the analog stick(unless you want some really sore hands). Now a lot of games that were used with the D-Pad on the PS2 are on the Gamecube(most notably: Tony Hawk 3), and since the D Pad is too small, most people just learned to use analog(or else they’d get some really sore thumbs). Anyway, I learned to use the analog stick with Resident Evil, and I actually have a bit more control and maneuverability over my character. It took me a good 20 minutes to get use to it, but when I did...I was flying though hallways and dodging zombies like nobody’s business(try dodging a Crimson Head coming right at you).

There are three different control set-ups that you can choose to use. There's the default controls which is the traditional scheme, then there’s the “B” set-up, and the “C” set-up. So far, after referring to my friends and reading on message boards...the default and “C” settings are the most popular. With the “C” set-up, controls are the same as default only “R” is used for moving forward(lightly walk, click and hold to run), and the “L” is used to arm your weapon. Also the analog stick is used to turn and go back only instead of having to use the analog stick for all movements. A lot of people said they have more maneuverability that way, but after playing around with it for about an hour, I still couldn’t understand how it was easier to move, so I switched back to default and began kicking butt again. To find out which set-up is for you, just try each one out for about 15 or 20 minutes(or you could play for an hour to see if it grows on you).

The camera is the same as it has been in all of the previous Resident Evils. The camera stays in a locked position and as you pass different areas, the camera will switch to a different view. I personally don’t really like the way the camera is set up, because when you’re going around a corner...there’s usually a zombies waiting there and they’d like nothing better than to take a nice chunk out of your neck. As I said, I don’t really like the camera view, but I guess it adds to the suspense and terror of the camera switching over and you’re standing face to face with a nice flesh eating zombie(or zombie dogs, or Crimson Heads).

Resident Evil is a Survival/Horror game, therefore all the action takes place in a third-person view. Anyone ever played Banjo-Tooie, Super Mario 64, Jak and Daxter, Maximo, or more specifically; a platform game? Well a third-person camera view is where you actually see your whole character on-screen and you can see behind you and stuff. Personally, I’ve always wondered what would happen if they took the original Resident Evil, widened the hallways, added new areas ,and turned it into a first-person shooter. Yea that would suck badly, but hey I thought it sounded cool at first.

THE SOUND: “Moaning in the night”
A lot of people I’ve talked to say they don’t look for sound in a game, that it’s useless and stuff like that... I’ve even gotten members who have emailed me telling me sound doesn’t matter and it’s useless to have it in a review or they’ll NH my review, and others have rated it “Not Helpful” and then emailed me saying that because I talked about the sound, they rated it NH. Now that’s ridiculous, sound basically makes up a game(besides the ultimate Game Play), and in this game the sound is a HUGE factor.

The graphics of the game can only do so much in a game, and after that the sound carries it the rest of the way. Well in Resident Evil, both the graphics AND sound are well taken care of. As many of you know, the Resident Evil series relies on the sound to create the scary atmosphere. As you walk in different parts of the mansion, you’ll hear many different types of sounds. Like you’ll hear a scary tune like those songs played at funerals. There isn’t much music besides the soft tune that kind of sounds like the Donkey Kong theme when you're underwater in the save areas, and the quick and fast paced music that comes on when a zombie is near.

The sound EFFECTS are what REALLY push this game’s audio sky high with eerie noises, and like if you're walking down a hallway and there’s a window along the way, you’ll hear tapping on the glass and stuff. Of course when you see a zombie, you’ll hear the terrifying moan that means they're coming to get you. The most terrifying thing that has scared me the most was when I walked by a window and I head something tap on the glass and then it shook. When I walked back by it, a zombie dog came crashing through. It scared the crap out of me. Anyway, every footstep Chris takes sounds like a real foot step, and no matter what the surface is, his footsteps will sound accordingly(wood, water, carpet). The creepiness of the music and sounds throughout the mansion are all part of the Resident Evil experience, and if you are playing by yourself at night, turn the sound up with surround sound, and you’ve got yourself one bad-@$$ hellish experience.

Every little sound you hear will give you that eerie feeling, such as a tapping on glass, or when a zombie jumps out at you all of a sudden. The zombies, mutants, whatever you want to call them have their own distinctive sounds, such as the zombies will moan when they see you and start dragging their rotting corpses towards you, which as the zombie drags toward you, you’ll hear it dragging across the floor. The zombie dogs actually sound like real dogs and don’t sound that scary, however their rotting and half-eaten flesh will freak you out on its own.

I never played the original Resident Evil, but I’ve heard from numerous people that the voice acting was cheesy as hell. Well I can’t tell you whether it was or wasn’t since this is my second experience with the Resident Evil series(the first being REC:VX), but I can tell ya that the voice acting in this game is the best a game’s going to get. You’ve got Jill’s character who sounds like a girl, and Chris who sounds like a guy...so girls are girls and boys are boys, nice and simple; that’s the way I like it. I shouldn’t have to tell you much about the voice acting, it’s not theater caliber, although for a video game they sound good(with less cheesy lines than some games).

Overall
Right now, Resident Evil is a MUST HAVE for your little black box(or purple). The game play is fun, the graphics are to die for(literally), and the overall creepiness of the game is more than you could ask for.

Played the PS RE already?: Definitely worth a rental
Played a game in the RE series but not the first one?: Get it
BRAND NEW to the series?: Get right now.

Here are some differences between RESIDENT EVIL PS and RESIDENT EVIL GC:

1. New rooms, new puzzles...and a lot of rooms have been changed so some puzzles are different.
2. Events occur different times so veteran players beware.
3. Graphics have taken a HUGE overhaul
4. Controls have been fixed up a little
5. Sounds have been revamped so they’re scarier than ever.

Resident Evil GC is the game to get, even if you’ve already played the original, you can still find a challenge in the game.

~Happy Gaming



Tricks of the Trade:

The 240 Grenade Ammo Glitch:

Ok first of all go to a room with an item box.
Now put everything in the item box except for your Grenade Launcher and whatever ammo you want 240 of.
Put the grenade launcher in the top left corner in your item list and the grenade rounds in the top right.
Now exit out of the item box and bring up your inventory.
Equip the grenade launcher and exit now.
Now get back into the item box and select the grenade rounds to put in the item box with whatever item the cursor goes to when you select the rounds.
Now after switching the grenade rounds with whatever item, press left on the analog stick TWICE so it’ll highlight the grenade rounds.
Now select them and put them in the grenade launcher.

If you did it right, you should now have 240 grenade rounds in your grenade launcher. This little trick won’t screw up the game any, so you can continue on as if you didn’t do anything. Any questions just email me. More tricks of the trade to come soon.