As anyone on the internet will tell you Resident Evil (or Biohazard for our Japanese sloppers out there) is the granddaddy of the Survival Horror genre. Shinji Mikami’s long slimy game design tendrils have touched dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands, of games whose designers were inspired by the OG RE. It also spawned a renowned horror video game series beloved by fans across the globe (and a handful of movies and a Netflix show we won’t get into here). Even though it has been reviewed thousands of times, I feel given that the spooky season is upon us and the site is currently haunted, now’d be a good time to add one more review of this timeless classic to the bucket.
Before we get right into it, I have something to sheepishly admit: despite being a decrepit 30-something boomer who owned both N64 and PS consoles growing up, I never played the first three Resident Evil games. The reason? Well basically I was kind of a scaredy-cat little bitch when they came out and generally avoided horror games until I was a bit older. While I eventually grew out of it, I never got around to playing the OG RE games. I’ve learned a lot about RE through memes, osmosis, and playing some other RE games (Outbreak was the shit) but I’ve never sat down and played Resident Evil / Biohazard myself until now. I know it’s hard to believe someone missed out on such a cultural touchstone, but you can take my word for it since this isn’t a YouTube reaction video, and I’m not a pretty girl trying to make you believe I’ve never watched Titanic before. With all that being said let’s get right into it.
The Elephantank in the Room
By law, every online discussion of Resident Evil (and other games of the era’s) must make it a point to talk about its tank controls — a control scheme where, regardless of camera angle, up/down moves the character forward/back while left/right turns the character. Often I see RE and contemporaries dinged for this, and seen the system described as clunky, unintuitive, difficult, or just straight up bad. I wholeheartedly disagree. I think tank controls, like any other input scheme, is just something you need to get used to. It is a bit unintuitive at first but if you give it a chance it is perfectly fine.
I biohazard a guess that the real misplaced issue people have with RE1’s movement is the turn speed and weightiness. Unfortunately both are key elements to the game’s design. If you slapped Doomguy in the Mansion he would have no trouble dispatching or avoiding the enemies creeping about. RE is survival horror. The point of the game is learning to avoid the enemies you can, so you save ammo and resources for when you run into the enemies you can’t. The slow weighty movement is integral to that imo opinion. It forces the player to make choices between attempting to skirt baddies or spending ammo to clear out the room as well as influencing which routes the player will consider taking through the mansion.
That’s not to say RE1’s movement is entirely perfect. I feel it could use some tweaks to some things and I really think it’d benefit from the quickturn found in later entries. You can get a sort of similar effect by using autoaim to turn to enemies directly behind you, but it doesn’t always work right and players of the non-DC US version don’t have autoaim. Overall though tank controls have mostly not been an issue for me and I really urge people to give it an honest chance because (spoilers) I think the game is well worth it.
Plus driving tanks is fun — just pretend Jill and Chris are tanks.
The Combat: For When You Can’t Slalom
The combat in this game is actually pretty good for what it is. You can definitely see kernels of what would eventually become the action gameplay of Resident Evil 4. There is emphasis on spacing, positioning, and timing your shots, and often you’ll find yourself juggling multiple enemies at once. You have to be careful not to shoot during the enemy’s invincibility frames. You can space out enemies and make them whiff their attacks. You can strategize and bait one enemy at a time, or you can kite around groups and position yourself to hit multiple targets with a shotgun or “bazooka” blast. I’m just saying there is some meat on the bones here. It isn’t quite a shooter and a lot of times you’ll want to avoid engaging to save ammo but when you do engage the combat is decent enough mechanically. Plus the headshots with the shotgun and advance mode criticals are really satisfying.
It isn’t free of frustrations. The hunters for instance can be really bullshit to fight. For context my first playthrough was Jill Standard and my second was Chris Advanced. I mostly didn’t have issues with them on Jill since I had plenty of ammo for the power weapons to just one shot them when needed Chris was another story. While I enjoyed the challenges of Advanced, hunters pushed my shit in a lot. After knocking them over with the first shot, I’d have to wait for their I-Frames to pass. The problem is after they get up they would either immediately jump or immediately dash with only a slight chance of them just standing there. I’d basically have to guess between aiming up or straight because the jump is too quick to react to without taking damage. Eventually I figured out that it sometimes helps to move to a different position after knocking them down, but that is hard to do with groups. The Ultimate solution I ended up at was to take my own advice and just try to learn how to run past them and maybe be prepared to take a few hits every time.
Nothing useful
There were some other difficult fights on advanced like the second snake fight. Also, those hanging enemies in the lab could be annoying and took a lot of ammo to kill on advanced, but they weren’t hard to run past. Really the hunters were my biggest frustration point. Maybe there is a better strategy I just didn’t end up finding; I didn’t want to look online to find out. I think they could use some tweaks maybe give them more of an opening after they get up or make their dash and jump more react-able.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m playing the Directors Cut version which restored the auto aim from the original JP release of the game. I imagine playing without auto aim might be more annoying. Haven’t tried it myself, so I can’t say for sure. I’m reviewing the DC version so that won’t factor in here but thought I’d better mention it.
The Spooky Mansion
The level-design is the real main character of the game. The mansion is just so tightly designed, and it facilitates every other element of RE1’s design. Everything is so perfectly laid out and paced. It starts out feeling labyrinthine but as you spend more time in the world, the more comfortable you’ll be navigating around at least until the monsters change up halfway through the run. The mansion itself is a puzzle that the player will learn to master.
The narrow corridors and tight spaces make the enemies a real threat. Because of the limited space and weighty movement, players really need to be precise and intentional if they want to effectively escape or engage. On top of that there is tension when entering any new room because of possible enemy placements. Sometimes the enemy might spawn right next to the door and the player has to be ready to run past it immediately, other times the camera might be pointed at the door and the player will have to wait and listen for footsteps before rushing into danger. The door transitions really enhance the tension here.
Paired with the tiny inventory size, every item placement forces the player to make a decision whether or not they want to spend one of their item slots for a while. Maybe if they pick up the item now they will have to forego something else later, or maybe they will be forced to run back to a safe room to offload their crap to the item box. It’s tempting to those inclined to item hoarding in other games (like me) to be constantly picking up every ammo box and herb and trucking them back to storage. I encourage my fellow hoarders to try and resist that urge. I don’t think the game intends for you to play like this, and it is such a hassle having to backtrack so much. Item placement is very well-thought-out, and the game will generally give you a bit more ammo and healing than you actually need. You are encouraged to plan ahead and get a sense of what items you currently need and what items you can leave for later.
Now you may know from my DRDR article, I’m a bit of a fan of routing and resource management. Resident Evil is a masterclass of this. Unlike DR, RE1 has no time limit (outside a few sections) but you still route to be efficient because otherwise you’d be constantly backtracking all the time to free up space. I think backtracking to the item box is meant to be punishment. It’s such a kick in the pants when you run across the mansion only to realize you forgot a necessary key item, or you absentmindedly picked up a small key/ammo and no longer have a slot for what you were traveling there for. Conversely, when you are able to make a good plan then execute it smoothly, or when you are able to adapt on the fly and pick up some needed health item or ammo you left on the ground before, it feels amazing.
The mansions puzzles and traps aren’t super difficult or interesting. I figure they are meant more to facilitate the resource management and routing by forcing the player to travel around with key items taking up slots than to be brain-teasers or dangers. Though admittedly I spent an embarrassing amount of time before figuring out you had press X while checking the 3D model of the doom books to get the coins inside.
The Vibes, The Horror
Jill and Chris are the real main characters of the game’s story. Which I’ll admit is no War & Peace. It’s simple but serviceable enough, delivering an okay Horror B-Movie experience and doing just enough to move the game along. I imagine the hokey performances might turn some people away or diminish the horror. To me, the corny voice acting was endearing, and it gave the world a lot of iconic and quotable lines.
The visuals are probably the aspect most dated about the game. Because RE1 utilized pre-rendered backgrounds, they are stuck at that resolution even if you emulate with a higher internal resolution. There is a fan project that AI upscales the backgrounds for the PC port but honestly the upscales weren’t for me with the artifacts and wobbly lines. The artwork itself is pretty good. The mansion gives off this uncanny feeling with tacky wallpaper, extremely varied room styles, weird shit like roman columns directly in front of doors, etc. I don’t think it does too much for the atmosphere, but it does a good enough job conveying locations and decor in the limited resolution.
Nothing major
The atmosphere is really carried by the music and camera angles. The music is great and does a great job sweating the brow or standing hairs when the game needs it to. Just as long as you avoid the Dual Shock Version. Also, I have to give credit to the sound design too. The zombies make corny sounds when they grab you but all the clobbering enemy footsteps and creepy ambient bg noise tracks are *chefs kiss*. The camera angles build tension by obstructing your view of the enemy. It can be bullshit at times, but they are often cinematic and it adds something to have the camera be out of the player’s control.
In fact the altered camera angles in advanced mode together with the different item locations for playing as Chris in my second run really made the mansion feel uncanny and disorientating. Obviously you’ve been here before but things are slightly off. It’s not a big deal, but I thought it was a neat benefit to the way I did the playthroughs.
Unlike something like the Silent Hill games where the majority of the horror stems from its atmosphere and aesthetic, RE’s horror is largely intrinsic to its gameplay and mechanics. Things like not knowing what bullshit enemy is camping behind the next door or just outside the camera angle’s view. Or being at danger health with a full inventory without healing and knowing you have to juke 3 motherfuckers in the next corridor or risk losing an hour of progress since your last save. Even something simple like running out of ammo during a fight and hearing the gun make that click sound. And yes there are a few enemy jump scares which are pretty effective even though they kind of feel cheap.
tl;dr
There is a reason everyone thinks Resident Evil / Biohazard is bitchin’ — it’s because it is. It basically created the Survival Horror genre. If you are a babby you might have to come to terms with the tank controls and there might be some growing pains. Endure them, because the game is worth it. The game isn’t perfect, the visuals are a bit dusty, and the design is no longer groundbreaking, but there is a lot to appreciate about the original Resident Evil and a lot of fun to be had.