Resident Evil: Zero takes you back to a time that was much simpler for Capcom's prolific
series.
There are no quick time events, multiple character arches, or overblown action sequences to be
found: Only green herbs, ink ribbons, and the distant moans of the undead.
It's been seventeen years since the first Resident Evil pushed the survival horror into
the mainstream.
It makes those of us who can clearly remember the exact moment that those zombie dogs came
crashing through a set of windows, feel kind of old.
Thankfully the experience was remade in the 2001 remake of the original Resident Evil
for the Gamecube, Capcom made sure a new generation of gamers would collectively s*** their pants,
whilst forgetting about the terrible live action film that had just released.
Hot off the remakes success, Resident Evil: Zero would be released just a shy year later,
and three years before the entirely revolutionary fourth game in the series that has since been
cited as the series best.
And while 4th game is a marvel of game design and truly worthy of being named one of the
best games of the past decade, Resident Evil 2 will always be my all-time favorite of the
series, which may be why I enjoyed Resident Evil: Zero so much.
Taking place before the events of the first game, you play as Rebecca Chambers, the series
favorite S.T.A.R.S medic, who has found herself stranded aboard a train that has just been
ravished by man eating slugs.
It doesn't take long for Rebecca to partner up with Billy Coen, an escaped convict her
team was after.
Zombies find their way into the equation and the their partnership seems reasonable so
long as giant scorpions and androgynous villains are about.
The game's biggest deviation from the remake is the abailty to play as both Rebecca and
Billy, switching between the two by the press of a button.
Both characters have their own special attributes: Rebecca can mix herbs and chemicals, while
Billy can use his brute strength to solve the block pushing puzzles the series is infamously
known for.
Partnering up with a serial killer, under already frightening circumstances seems right
for the narrative picking.
In the traditional Capcom way, the story and writing is so bad it's almost a parody of
the way Hollywood action characters speak.
Which isn't a complaint, as the cut scenes helps to balance the jump scares with brief
moments of unintentional laughter.
The other welcome change to Zero is the ability to drop items.
Instead of having to run back and forth between item boxes, you can just drop items wherever
your character stands.
Which helps cut down on the already heavy backtracking one will encounter.
Resident Evil Zero is as classic of a Resident Evil experience as you'd expect.
Its biggest problem is that it's okay with satisfying what's expected and not much else,
making the experience feel more like an expansion pack, than its own full-fledged game.
And I'm okay with that.
As a huge Resident Evil fan, I'm willing to look over the lame enemy design, which resorts
to me to imagining the designers turning to one another and asking "what animals haven't
we oversized and zombiefied yet?"
The oversized bugs, evil monkeys, and entire exclusion of the Crimson Heads, feels lazy.
The rest is still that zombie evading, key collecting, mansion exploring, and obtuse
puzzle solving, that we fell in love with in the first place.
Those looking to satiate a nostalgic hunger for a Jill Sandwich, look no further than
Resident Evil: Zero.