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Resident Evil Archives: Resident EvilBy Chris Vavra - 07-06-09 Print  EmailWell, Nintendo sure does love rolling out the classics. Easy money to be had, releasing these kinds of games. The GCN titles are being used to shore up the generally pithy lineup with Wii controls. The "latest" to undergo this treatment is the original Resident Evil (now titled under the absurd Resident Evil Archives), which came to the GCN in 2002 with revamped graphics, a better, deeper quest, and stronger AI, resulting in a much better experience than the PS-X version, which tended to skirt the line between horror and parody once too often with some howlers for dialogue and an atmosphere that wasn't nearly as creepy as it should have been. While it is nice to have an RE title on the Wii, the long-time fans will find themselves cheated because there is nothing different between the GCN version and the Wii version. The Wiimote and nunchuk are not put to their full potential and you'll end up playing with a classic controller or a GCN controller about ten minutes in because the standard control setup for the Wii is too awkward and clumsy. Gamers who have never played the series before RE4 in 2005 (however unlikely) may find the control scheme to be more than a little archaic. Truth be told, it is. With fixed camera angles and controls that are unlike just about anything you've seen before in a third-person shooter, the newbie may find this setup to be a little too crazy. This setup is designed to generate suspense and it does. Capcom does a masterful job of playing on the fear of the unknown. Who knows what lies around the corner? Zombies? Bats? Dogs? Worse? It takes a few minutes to get used to the controls, but the system still works. In spite of its flaws (there are several) it seems to work for this kind of game. Cheap deaths are few and far between if you know what you're doing. Having played RE5 a few months back, I was happy to return to where it all started and see how my perspective has changed now that more of the blanks have been filled in. On the whole, I'm not sure the new story material offers much of a new perspective. Resident Evil 0 probably does the best job of filling in some of the story blanks, and that game came out in 2002, as well. Alas, it is more of an anomaly than a major game in the series in terms of the general public knowledge. The hardline fans seem to hold the game in high esteem, but few would rate it as one of the best. Same for the original. The story is interesting, but there aren't many dramatic high points, especially when the so-called "endings" were ret-conned and fixed by Capcom to what we know them to be today. You can make certain events happen, but they're kind of meaningless in the grander scheme of things. That said, seeing Chris, Jill, Rebecca, Barry, Brad, and Wesker again back at the beginning was a refreshing change of pace and it is interesting to see what their fates have turned out to be. So much hasn't been explained and I hope Capcom will continue to do so in future installments. Gamers not familiar with this brand of RE gaming may also be surprised at the difference in terms of game design. The original Resident Evil established the early template with an emphasis on brains over brawn. There may be time for the latter, but for the most part you'll be using your head trying to unlock the puzzles that await in the mansion's endless halls and corridors. In many ways, this is a Zelda dungeon on steroids. The mansion is brilliantly designed and is filled with plenty of head-scratchers and challenges. What's amazing is that a place like a mansion could dominate three-quarters of the title. This would become the rule, to some extent, for future RE titles. There are moments when it really starts to drag, but the pacing in the GCN version is superior to its PS-X counterpart. The challenge isn't as Draconian as it tended to be in the PS-X version, which could put you behind the 8-ball in a hurry with depleted ammunition and supplies. Visually, the game continues to impress. I was sad to see that Capcom didn't do much to update the visuals, but they can still shock and scare on a dark evening, so the visceral impact hasn't been changed much. The voice acting, while an improvement over the awful PS-X iteration, is still not a classic by any means and the wooden, B-movie dialogue still doesn't work. The eerie music is still top-notch. Ditto the sound effects. Capcom plays just enough to get the hairs on your nape to stand. The quest allows you to play as either Chris or Jill. Chris is for veteran gamers. He has only six item slots, which requires some intuitive thinking and some sacrifices in terms of offensive weapons. Jill is a little easier to work with because she has eight slots, is armed with a weapon right out of the box, and the weapons she has access to are a little deadlier on the whole. She also receives more assistance from fellow allies than Chris and the ability to have a lock pick as your specialty is a greater asset than being able to use a petrol lighter. Neither game is a cakewalk and even on easy difficulty the game bares its teeth with the toughest quest in the series to date. I'm disappointed this is nothing more than a straight-up port because it implies that Nintendo and Capcom are trying to making a quick buck (or thirty, as it were) off of unsuspecting gamers. The GCN version is a better buy just because you can get it twenty dollars cheaper used (I'm assuming, but that seems right). Fans who missed out on the GCN remake would do well to pay the thirty for the Wii or whatever it costs for the GCN version because it is a superior vision of the original, which was a flawed great game that really needed a tune-up. Calling this game Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil is nothing more than a shameful attempt to squeeze some money out of dumb gamers. Do yourself a favor and resist. Ratings |
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