Review: Resident Evil: Director's Cut

Resident Evil: Director's Cut

The term survival horror didn't exist before 1996, at least not when referring to a video game genre. It wasn't until Resident Evil that an entire genre was devoted to what equated to be horror films, but for video games. It wasn't the first game to try and scare us, or even the first horror game by Capcom, but it was the most popular at the time, and the one that got most of the important aspects right. So what started out at a message upon entering the game's setting again, became something more and a genre was born.

"You have once again stepped into the world of survival horror"

Gameplay is all about survival. You have a limited inventory with a few health recovery items and some firepower, and you're job is to survive until the end. Running from room to room, piecing together puzzles and dispatching the undead creatures that lurk the halls. However, fighting isn't always the best option when running around. You have to conserve ammo and pick your battles in order to survive. It's one of the staples of the survival horror genre that you're not meant to just run in and clear the zone. Every encounter has some weight to it, and makes you consider your options on how to move forward.

To make sure you couldn't just run and gun your way through the game, the controls limited you from moving and shooting at the same time. Either an early gaming limitation or an intentional design choice, it did assist the horror aspect the creator's were going for.

With limited mobility and limited view of your area thanks to carefully-placed, static camera angles, you are always dreading what might be around the next corner. Some other elements added to the suspense are notes written by the mansions former inhabitants-turned-zombie or corpse and a decent score to compliment the mood.

Health items can be gathered and combined to make strong health items, and your arsenal ranges from a knife to a rocket launcher. But the catch is, you could only carry 6 - 8 items depending on which character you're playing as. This means you have to prepare for the worst case scenario and take what's needed to progress through the game. Any excessive or unneeded items are kept in a box that appears throughout the game in save rooms, and always has what you put into it at any point in the game.

Progression is largely dictated by your ability to solve the Spencer Mansion's and its outlying areas' many puzzles, which boil down to some adventure gaming mechanics. You hunt down one item that has to be used to get another item which then gives you the key to open some more doors. This keeps the pacing from sprinting, but that's the point. The game is supposed to be slow-building and the puzzles are a nice way to facilitate that.

The creators were smart enough to balance out all the running around with some zombie encounters and the eventual boss battles which consist of a giant snake, a giant plant, a giant spider and a giant tyrant. While not the most creative cast of bosses, they do manage to fill you with some terror since they're faster and stronger than most of the enemies that you're used to at that point.

Even the aspect of saving is done in such a way to make you uneasy. You save only in certain, designated areas by using a typewriter and a limited supply of ink ribbons. While you're highly unlikely to run out of ink ribbons, the fact that there's only a limited number of them makes you think you could at some point, and this causes distress.

The voice acting is... memorable to say the least. There is almost no point in the dialog where I wasn't wincing or chuckling. This isn't a professional product of Resident Evil, this is amateur hour with interns. It's that special kind of bad, that it's so awful that it's funny. The script doesn't help things at all, it's just as bad if not worse than the voice acting.

The dialog is silly and awkward consistently throughout the game. Both do manage create some unintentional contrast between the moments where you're running through the various areas, trying to survive. But once Barry, Wesker, Chris, Jill or anyone else open their mouths, all tension and suspense are gone. You can't skip any of the in-game cut-scenes, but with gold like "Jill sandwich" and "master of unlocking", why would you want to?

I would say the performances are a shame, but the story doesn't help either. Zombies show up because of some experimentations by an evil organization which results in a desperate escape. It's all a formula that we've seen before, but it's entertaining at least. I can't even go into the characters because of before-mentioned silliness, but one thing is done right about them: they add to the horror.

Survival horror is only scary when you don't have something or someone to rely on, which is why multi-player survival horror doesn't exist. If you have someone to support you, you're not really scared. So when Resident Evil gives us a supporting cast, they're created to be unreliable. Playing as Jill, you frequently encounter Barry around the game, but he gradually starts behaving in slightly off ways to make you suspicious of him. The rest of the cast either disappears or has met some grisly end (the exception being Rebecca). This is what true terror is about, creating an environment that makes you uncomfortable and Resident Evil got it right in the beginning.

The graphics work for the time but haven't aged well. All the background are pre-rendered and very well-lit and characters look blocky. You can tell it was the first entry in the series and how it would later evolve to create more and more unsettling settings and greater character detail. The monsters in the game can still stress you out when they're on screen, but that's mostly due to their ability to cause massive damage to you and not how they look.

CGI cut-scenes are placed throughout the game except for the opening, which is completely live-action and clearly a nod to George Romero.

Talking specifically about the Director's Cut version now; you get more difficulty settings and bonuses. There's an advanced mode of the game (arranged mode for North Americans) and you can unlock an unlimited ammo Colt Python. Advanced Mode will also switch around some camera angles in certain areas and rearranged the items to make what should be familiar, unfamiliar again. It was a nice touch by the creators to create some uneasiness for those who might've played the game through over and over again so it doesn't lose it's tension.

The Director's Cut also support analog movement, if you have the dual shock release, although it doesn't work cohesively with the tank controls which were built with a d-pad in mind. It's functional but always feels weird to me.

All in all, it's still fun to play. You'll get startled sometimes when a monster decides to make a sudden appearance, but it won't give you nightmares like it used to.