Resident Evil Zero HD
What? What is this? No, not blood - its an HD conversion of the 2002 Resident Evil prequel, which covers the origin story for the original Resi, which got its own HD conversion last year. But where that conversion seemed rushed, Zeros is much more convincing, looking passable as a modern release. But its more important than that. Since Zero represents the last entry in the classic series (before Resident Evil 4 came out and changed everything), yet was Nintendo-exclusive until now, it might be the last taste of old Survival Horror left in the rusty faucet.
In case youre not familiar with vintage survival horror, you spend your time piloting your characters through creepy, pre-rendered environments, attempting to solve puzzles to progress deeper into the game. Its almost like playing through security cameras, which restrict your view of the lumbering zombies and other monsters trying to chow down on your innards. And while you can shoot them, you have to do so from that detached, third-person viewpoint (no over-the-shoulder aiming here) and with extremely limited ammo.
Sometimes avoiding conflict is better than getting involved, which is something the modern games elected to forget, focusing instead on gunplay, headshots and crowd management. But if the classic formula sounds too familiar to you, there is a slight twist in that you have two playable characters available to you for most of the game. You can switch between them, trade items and elect to split up.
As with the Gamecube version, you can now drop items anywhere and at any time, which means you dont have to keep returning to a safe room to swap out inventory items. There is a new control stick option that moves in the direction you push, but the shifting camera angles makes it very strange. Its definitely better to stick with the tank controls and play it with the D-pad too. In a game this unashamedly old-school, digital input feels best.
This extra fidelity extends to the audio too. The sound design already complemented the visuals perfectly on Gamecube, all echoing footsteps on tiled floors, creaking doors, and background music that could almost be diegetic. But the whole games audio has been remastered, with added support for Dolby 5.1 and it really shows. Gamecube games often had significant audio compression to fit everything onto those tiny discs, and now that restriction is lifted, the difference is really noticeable.
So to the scares. It really isnt scary any more. Atmospheric, yes; scary, no. The unfortunate thing about the aging formula is that the game design is too apparent. You can predict boss battles because of the size of the room. You can tell what youre supposed to use new weapons on, work out whether you need to waste ammo on bullet sponge enemies at all, and even manipulate the massively antiquated (in all senses) typewriter save system so that you always have the upper hand.
Its bittersweet to say there will never be another Resident Evil game like this one - its far too clunky and slow-paced for modern tastes. Even so, give it time and adjust to its eccentricities and theres some gameplay meat and even some brains to get your teeth into.
Source: www.gamesradar.com
