You'll Never Want To Be Alone Again

INTRO

Picture the scene, you’re creeping through an old mansion late at night, thunder and lightning are crashing outside casting brief shadows on the corridor walls, you’re low on ammo and have no idea what could be up the staircase, your heart beats heavier and heavier as you near the top, you cautiously take the last step. Suddenly from the darkness you hear the grown of a loan Zombie, without anytime to think you turn round and run away like the scared little girl you are. Welcome to the world of Resident Evil, if you didn’t think a computer game could ever give you these kinds of emotions then think again. Be warned this isn’t one for the kiddies.

THE GAME

The story revolves around Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine depending on which character you choose to control, you are sent to investigate what happened to a team of Police officers that went missing in an area called Racoon forest. Arriving on the scene you find a crashed helicopter and remnants of a pitched gun battle, suddenly out of nowhere you and your team are attacked by a pack of what seems like rabid dogs, forced to run you seek shelter in an old mansion in a clearing of the woods. From then on it’s up to you to investigate the mansion and find out just what’s going on!

Most of the time you will find yourself walking round the mansion, solving the occasional puzzle, searching for keys and shooting or running away from a few Zombies!! A sound pretty basic doesn’t it? Well to be honest the game play in Resident Evil games has always been basic, but what makes the series work so well is the atmosphere! The series lives off tension, fear and well-staged set pieces. The feeling of fear, rounding every corner hoping to God that you haven’t got company is unlike anything you will experience in other games. What makes the fear so much more prominent in the latest installment is the truly amazing graphics and the revamped soundtrack.

The enemies have been given a new look. They look totally believable now, and the zombies all look different; you won't find any two that look the same. If you manage to kill them, you will find that they reform into something quite gruesome (I'll leave it at that).

One thing that has really annoyed me with the Resident Evil Series is that you can only carry 6 items at a time and you will constantly find yourself needing certain items to solve a puzzle, but you won't have the item you need in your inventory, so must backtrack through the game to try and find the missing item!

If you are thinking that this game is a direct port of the old resident evil from the PS 1, think again! There's over 40% of new areas to explore, each of them, richly detailed. And that goes for the rooms in the original, they look completely brand new. The items (of which there are many new ones), have been completely mixed up, so you can't simply remember what happened in the PS1 version. There's a whole new Courtyard. A new section what takes you deeper into the Mansion (and that part will freak you out.), and rooms in the original extend to reveal other rooms. Let me tell you this game is huge!

Lifespan has always been a problem with games like Resident Evil as once you've completed it you've completed it! But that's not the case with Resident Evil! 20 hours will be your minimum first time round and with two characters to play as you'll be back soon after. But it doesn't end there as playing more will unlock new costumes for you characters, harder modes of play and invisible zombies. There's a lot for you to do here and you will just keep on coming back for more!

THE GRAPHICS

The Graphics in Resident Evil, are just simply Stunning. The backdrops are Pre-rendered and look just out of this world! The level of visual detail on your surroundings will bowl you over! The graphics really bring the characters and worlds to life. Candle lights flicker in the distance casting shadows over the walls around you, thunder and lightning crashes outside briefly lighting darkened rooms, mist shrouds and blurs your vision in the graveyards, loan droplets of blood splat on the floor as a Zombie sinks his teeth into you. I would have to say these are the best graphics from any game on the Gamecube!

THE SOUND

The music in Resident Evil is intensely chilling. As you enter the new room you've yet to explore, the music suddenly gets louder and creepier making your body hairs stand on end! Distant Zombie groans, footsteps on the balcony above you, the howling of dogs outside are all enough to send a shiver down your spine. The graphics and sound come together to give a truly terrifying experience of almost film like qualities.


THE CONTROLS

The control system has been revised, but it is still not the best in the world! It isn’t really as bad as every one makes it out to be. It generally works fine and hardly ever is it the reason for you dying. The Analog stick controls your character, push forward, you move forward, push back you walk backwards, You can use the right shoulder button to run/walk your character. After playing for a little while you will get the hang of the controls, and you will enjoy playing this game!

OVERALL

This game is Simply mind blowing. The graphics are stunning; the atmosphere will scare the pants off of you. It will last a very long time and you will keep on coming back to play it! Before you start playing this game get a few good nights of sleep in, because once you start playing you will be having nightmares!