Resident Evil 0

The Good

Originally unveiled for the N64, it took many years for this instalment to finally come out for the GameCube. Because it was released only months after the amazingly polished REmake, it maintains much of that game's qualities, but improvises on them quite a bit at the same time.

Resident Evil Zero was the first game in the series to include a partner zapping technique, which means that you can switch between characters in a blink of an eye, so that you don't have to replay the game with another character to see what went on. This is very refreshing and useful, particularly when it comes to solving a team based puzzle, or a difficult boss fight.

The graphics are as astonishing as ever. Everything looks so real. When you're on the train, you can actually see and hear the rain battering against the windows. It is everything the PlayStation games should have been, but were not able to accomplish, due to the hardware.

Story-wise, this is Déjà Vue all over again: Tedious gameplay, zombies, a big mansion and a typical ending are all present here. But it is still Resident Evil after all, so it's still got everything you loved about the others.

The Bad
It didn't really offer anything new. It was just another Resident Evil game released to cash in on the success of the REmake. But it was great for what it was.

The Bottom Line
We've had Snakes on a Plane. This is Zombies on a Train....

The Good
There are different settings for the game. (easy - for first timers, normal - for average players, hard - for hardcore gamers!) What I liked about the game the most was the ability to switch on the fly from Rebecca Chambers to Billy Coen. Also you get to know more about Rebecca Chambers unlike the PlayStation version of Resident Evil PlayStation version where Rebecca Chambers is a helpless. Replay-ability beat the game in 3:30 or less you get: Special items!

The Bad
On the Sony PlayStation version, you can see if a zombie is dead, because there will be a pool of blood around the zombie dead body, if the zombie is dead, the zombies never die they always come back to life every time you walk-in and out of rooms. There are some bad camera angles you CAN NOT see if a zombie is dead, that is a bad thing, because the zombie can bite your legs as you walk past the so called dead zombie, because if you shot a zombie on the ground it make sure the zombie is dead you waste your bullets, the game only gives you 15 bullets, I am kidding, but you get a small amount of bullets to shot and kill a gang load of zombies! Do the math next time Capcom! Do you guys do fuzzy math like 43rd President George W. Bush!:= (1+1=11) There are some people that miss fire, not me.

The Bottom Line
Buy it if your not scared of zombies! Boo !! The quality of the actors' performances in the game including voice acting was good, better than the PlayStation version for Resident Evil! The game was translated from Japanese to English, they did the voice-overs just as the way the words were spoken in Japanese to English. The game artificial intelligence is too good, zombies really try to eat you brains! I am kidding, about the brains. The game mechanics player controls are good, because you can turn from front to back just by double tapping the (B) button. Press and hold the R trigger then quickly release and press again. If done correctly, Rebecca Chambers should step/dodge backwards quickly to avoid damage. Works best on zombies in close quarters. The game action is good and scary, like dogs jumping trough the windows. The Graphics are real good for Nintendo Gamecube! My personal slant, I am a big fan of Resident Evil! The quality of the sound effects and/or music composition is good. The story and presentation are good. I would give the game a high score but I have to take one point away because the game only gives you 15 bullets, I am kidding, but you get a small amount of bullets to shot and kill a gang load of zombies! Tips: For Hollywood make the dam movies more like the game. Take a page form the games it self. The game story lines are better than the movies and acting! You guys are selling out just because movie companies wave millions of dollars in your face to make a movie that is nothing like the video game! You guys have to think about the image of the game, you guy make the Resident Evil look real BAD! You guy might get a bigger fan base if you guys would help in making the movies more about the game and not let some director make a movie about trash. Hint: ask video game tester for ideals who worked on the games! Duh!!! I wish, I was in Show Bizz, I would show you how it is done.

The Good
Graphically Amazing’ Dual Character Interaction’ It’s Resident Evil.

The Bad
Not as scary as newer titles. Sluggish control. Confusing puzzles.

The Bottom Line
With the recent movie release, it would be hard to not know what Resident Evil is about. It’s about zombies. It’s always been, about zombies. But why? That is the question that’s never truly been answered. Where the heck did all this zombie-eating-brains stuff start? Why does the Umbrella Corporation always have something to do with the zombie hordes? Resident Evil Zero aims to explain all that, the obvious ‘Zero’ in the title being an indicator that it is, in fact, a prequel to the Resident Evil series. Nobody, however, expected it to look so dang good!

Right off the bat, I’ll say it loud and clear. Resident Evil Zero is to date, the most graphically detailed and beautiful game on the Gamecube. What Zelda : Windwaker achieved in style, RE:0 achieves in pure eye candy. Of note, is the fact that it comes on not one, but two Gamecube disks. Considering how much data one disk can hold, that’s quite impressive. The necessity for so much storage space stems from the high quality characters as well as the backdrops which, unlike the previous RE games, are not static at all but rather rendered movies. This leads to an unparallel movie-like quality, something that has to be seen to be believed. But not everything is about graphics, is it?

Another deviation from the usual style, RE:0 lets you play not just one character, but two, at the same time. Using their ‘character zapping’ system as they call it, you control both Rebecca (a rookie Raccoon City Police Officer from the original Resident Evil) and Billy (a framed convict). If you control one character, the other becomes an AI operated partner that will help you take down zombies. Passing items between characters inventories if they stand close together is a breeze, thankfully, as you need to do this quite often. The team play aspect also plays an integral part in the puzzle solving side of the game. Often you may have to have one character hold down a lever, then switch to the other and move to stand on a platform, switching back to the original to pull the lever. It’s a classic system, but it works remarkably well.

Aside from those new additions, it’s vintage Resident Evil. The plot, while sometimes flimsy, serves well to support the existing storyline. The sounds and music are a notch above the norm thanks to extensive use of the Gamecube sound system and there’s more than enough zombies and large spooky creatures for everyone.

The Good
|| Prologue ||
It is almost a year since I entered the realm of Capcom's Resident Evil universe, and ever since I started with Resident Evil 2, I saw an enormous potential in the storyline and gameplay. A lot was promissed not only in gameplay and various locations, but also in explanations of the story fragments, cinematics added on the right spot, and surprises added where you couldn't possible expect them. Luckily afterwards, my next one was Resident Evil: Code: Veronica X, which just happens to work as a sequel to RE2 more closely. That game offered much better graphic, delved deep into the roots behind the Umbrella corporation, unlocking us many secrets, and gave us plentiful of unexpected locations and pre-rendered cinematics. Needless to mention, both games had extremely balanced soundtrack you could know whether you're endangered or safe just by listening to the music. And so, what I thought of just adding to my collection for loving horror-survival genre almost the most, I ended up being quite intrigued by the storyline and more games within the franchise (that excludes FPS versions alternate route, though).

|| Unlocking Secrets ||
So, one day I got myself Resident Evil Zero, and even though I had no GameCube at the time, the game's storyline and characters intrigued me as much that I was almost positive getting a console for this game only would also be justifiable. And after finishing it, I don't doubt the choice. It opens in an dynamically fast-paced cinematic of some virus mutated life-forms taking over the speeding train. Then, S.T.A.R.S. team was sent in to investigate, and due to some malfunction, their chopper crashed into the nearby woods. To put more juice on all that, they found a wrecked jeep with couple of killed soldiers (they obviously didn't bother to see faces nor how were they killed), and papers about planned execution of Lt. Billy Coen. Hence the team scatters in search of this man. You're cast in the role of Rebecca Chambers (very cute little gal), and walking through the forest, you encounter a somewhat wrecked train... and decided to enter.

|| Double Gameplay ||
Gameplay doesn't differ from any other typical horror-survival, it has static (well, rather to be said dynamic in most cases) background, and you move your 3d character with normal set of actions, and that basically include walking, running, shooting, and 180 degrees quick-turning. As soon as you partner with Billy, you'll be able to control both characters, wether they go together or each of them in separate ways. There will be some puzzles that will require two of them to be at different places at exact time, but otherwise, it's very cool to see them both together as you always feel like you have some backup when threat arrives on the scene. Their characteristics are well balanced, and hence Billy is stronger and can withstand much more harm than Rebecca, also he can turn some rusted wheels or push metal crates, whereas Rebecca can only push wooden crates. It's a fine ballance, and they indeed work brilliant as a team. Great thing about this game is that not only can you switch items while your characters are close, but you can drop them and later pick them up, or check on the map where items you dropped or didn't picked in the first place are.

|| Graphic or Art ||
Backgrounds and all this is with the ultimate level of quality, seems like (and probably is) everything is pre-rendered, yet when explosion occurs, or the background dynamically changes, it feels like you're in the middle of real atmosphere which is what pre-rendered cinematics throughout the background offers you. Character details are breathtaking, and you can see their every gesture, body movement, and muscle, and that doesn't apply to main characters only, monsters have that quality too. From intriguing movement scripts to different ways of dying. Also mirroring and water reflections work like something divine assembled them alright. And then of course, there are pre-rendered cinematics, plenty of them, and really pleasure to watch, mostly giving up some backgorund of the story, or showing some action scene, nothing less than you can expect from Capcom when it comes to CG FMVs.

|| Surprise, Surprise ||
The grand surprise is that this all happens before the original Resident Evil and the mansion incident, and you get to see some cool story behind all this. And not only that, you get to see Wesker. I only met him in some cinematics of Code: Veronica X, but he's here too, and from what it appears, he deliberately brought second S.T.A.R.S. team into the mansion in original RE as they would stand for excellent specimens for testing with all their training under belt. I dunno what happened, or how Wesker turned into whatever he was later in Code: Veronica X story, but it will be a great way of finding out more, hopefully in the Resident Evil remake for GameCube. Another thing that surprised me... and sort of mis-surprised me, was the fact that just when I thought the game is over, I found myself running through the factory I stumbled upon when playing Resident Evil 2, and not only that, I had to fight Tyrant twice. Hmm, that makes you wonder how big this place is, and how big is the time difference between Billy & Rebecca story from RE0, and Leon & Claire story from RE2. And what was Tyrant doing in all that time between, lol?!

|| Action within Horror ||
Guess we who tried some other RE games did expect some powerful weapon arsenal and more action than actual horror. But no, this game won't provide you with some machine guns or rocket launchers. It all basically comes down to a gun, winchester, shotgun, and a grenade launcher which is very useful, but not as ammunition rich to use it too often. I left it pretty back in the game, and didn't want to go all the way back for it, and game is perfectly fine by using just a gun for Rebecca, and a shotgun for Billy. This game will probably not torture you on any psychological way as Silent Hill games did, too much, but will have quite some surprises to trigger upon you so you won't have time to think which event was more frightful, the anticipation of an approaching sound of some creature, or the fact you didn't see it coming and in due panic set your partner on fire by accident.

The Bad
Not much, this is like a train to past, not only story-wise, but somehow atmosphere-wise. The game has three levels of difficulty so that problem is solved, graphic is masterfully balanced with not too big of a difference of ingame and cinematic quality, sound is real and echoes at the exact part of the screen, music is brilliant, and as always in RE games, piano tunes are magnificent, especially end credits theme. No, there is really no complaint about this game, it's one of rare games that aside from personal perfection, it also has technical perfection.

The Bottom Line
This is The best Resident Evil game with lots of surprises, different locations, dynamic, new two-player controls, story, and GameCube exclusive. It is a reason enough to get the entire console to be able to play it. But luckily, there are a few more GC exclusive RE games, so you'll enjoy even more. Sheer perfection shadowing all the Resident Evil games before, and movie only helped in bringing the franchise to a ruin, rather than helping. Making a movie of this game would be a solid effort. Also, this is a rather long game, longer than you might expect, both time-wise, and especially locations wise. It has extremely lot to explore, and hence, to give.

The Good
First things first; the graphics. Wow. They were simply amazing, surpassing any other game on the GameCube in terms of its graphical power. I seriously cannot remember a better game with graphics this good on the Game-Cube. The intense detail and realistic dark atmosphere, combined with the effects (both visual and audio), let the player get the best of the Resident Evil franchise, and when played at night, this game is like really scary in some bits. In fact, you can be so frightened of things jumping out at you (like ZOMBIE APES!?), that you'll be saving each time its available. The puzzles and the horror elements combined produce this excellent game which deserves to be praised.

The Bad
If anything, the drop feature needed to be improved on - however, I could just be saying this because I miss the item box's from previous Resident Evil titles. But heck, this new drop feature adds a new installment of realism (after all, in real life, you can't place an item in a box, then move four miles away and find the item again in a different box!), and this realism adds to the horror element ("oh crap, where did I drop that key!?").

The Bottom Line
I can't remember how much I payed for this game, but it sure was worth it. Seriously. The graphics are one of the best for the Game-Cube, probably only being matched by Resident Evil (the Game-Cube exclusive remake), and its horror element is sure to freak you out at least once. Recommended for all zombie fans, horror fans, Resident Evil fans, and people who just love great games. Enjoy!