The Beginning of Survival horror: Resident Evil One Remake Review

Reviewed By Arielle Danan

You can find my completed playthrough here!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgWlynmlfmfufm7KHypdsLAN1FS0L7tZ

When it comes to horror games I try to stay unbiased and neutral. With the Resident Evil franchise I can do that for the most part. The only game that I have a complete bias for and will defend until my dying day will be the remake of the very first Resident Evil. Resident Evil: Remake was released on March 22 2002. (I know, eons ago.) I was nine years old at the time and was brand new in the gaming scene. I remember getting the game for the first time because my dad had given it to me as a birthday present, along with a GameCube. Little did he know of the beast that would be unleashed. At the time of the remake’s release it was the epitome of horror in the gaming industry, and the first of its kind to create a horrifying experience for the player, bringing them into a surreal world that made the monsters in our mind a reality.

The creation of resident evil paved the way for all of the psychological horror games that we have now including but not limited to OUTLAST and The Evil Within. I would like to argue that the game Sweet Home and Alone In The Dark were the first in psychological horror. Sweet Home was created in 1989, and had tense door opening scenes, a multitude of ways you could end the game, notes you could find and graphic content. The game was never released in America, only in Japan because of its (at the time) graphic nature.

When playing Resident Evil again on my YouTube channel I felt nostalgic and giddy all over again! The game holds so many memories for me, that it was just a joy to play. Since I have played the game a multitude of times, as well as playing both from Jill and Chris’s perspective I felt like I was ready to tackle the daunting task that is Resident Evil. While to some it may be just a game, for me the game is an extension of who I am, a part of my soul. When I released the first episode of my play through I wasn’t concerned with views, but more concerned with the fact of doing the game justice. I wanted to read the notes, play the game and bring the characters to life. Whether I accomplished that or not, I will leave up to you. As Resident Evil is a third person RPG, you see it take on many forms throughout its lifetime. In Resident Evil Seven: Biohazard you see it shift to first person, and in Resident Evil Six we can see that it is mostly multiplayer, with options to be a third person single player. So Resident evil and its team have done some incredibly awesome things, as well as some risky things that would make us wonder if they were selling out, or just experimenting.

So now I think it’s time to discuss the little things that make Resident Evil the cult classic that it is. They don’t make zombies like they used too. The zombies in Resident Evil were thoroughly creepy and added to the atmosphere of the game! You had your run of the mill slow walking zombies, and then you’d have crimson heads. I mean crimson heads are a classic in the zombie universe and the fact Resident Evil coined them is extremely cool! There was a genetically modified shark called Neptune, Hunters, Cerberus’s a plant that could kill you, a guy named Tyrant and little bugs and bees that were just annoying and a pain to deal with. There are just so many unique enemy designs in the game and it makes it that much more special from a consumer stand point. In a nutshell I think it’s pretty safe to say that Resident Evil paved the way for the horror games that make our spines twitch with fear, and cry with joy when completed. Through the years there have been games that have come and gone, whether it is because they didn’t have what it took, or because they lacked the ingenuity. One thing is for sure, Resident Evil made its mark and will be remembered in the years to come for not just incorporating ingenious game play, but a story that pushed people’s mental boundaries, sitting in the main office of the Umbrella Corporation is Mikami. Sitting back. Reveling in what he's created