It doesn’t matter how pretty you make Resident Evil Zero — it’s still Resident Evil Zero. It’s easily one of the weakest entries in Capcom’s survival horror series, but if you’re interested in fighting zombies on a train, you’re suddenly in luck.
It’s been a little over three years since Resident Evil 6 was released, and while 2016 seems like the year we’ll finally hear about the next game, in the meantime Capcom has been mining nostalgia. There was good reason to mine the original game, though; last year’s tweaked remake was still worth playing!
Originally in development for the Nintendo 64, Resident Evil Zero moved to the GameCube, and marks the only major Resident Evil game I’ve never finished. While the ability to switch between two characters is novel, the lack of item boxes (have fun dumping things on the ground!) and other quirks from that era (ink ribbons!) means the rest of the game needs to be pretty compelling — it’s not. The narrow movement constraints always bugged me, there’s zero subtlety (giant scorpions?) and it marked the series’ mythology going off the deep end.
All that said, when it comes to updating the game for 2016, Capcom’s done their job. I played the game on PC, and it looks excellent. As with Resident Evil last year, there’s a modernised modern control scheme that lets you walk, run and shoot the way you’d expect — no more tank controls. Does it change the feel of the game? Absolutely. Does it mean you might be able to stand playing it? Yup.
The graphics have also been given the widescreen treatment, though it comes at an acceptable cost: you can’t see everything present in the original backgrounds.
Here’s what I mean:
Generally, I didn’t find this to interfere in my ability to play the game anymore than the limited area available in the train already did.
Even though I have little interest in playing Resident Evil Zero, I kept pushing further because the visuals were so striking. Though the animation is clearly from years ago, Capcom’s done just enough to keep it from feeling too dated.
These GIFs are tempting me to start the game over on easy and finally check Resident Evil Zero off my list!
I suspect hardcore Resident Evil fans are going to dig this. It’s not like Capcom was remaking the game, so there’s only so much they could do to change it. If you didn’t care for Resident Evil Zero, this probably won’t be enough for a second look. If you were already a fan, Capcom’s given the game a slick coat of paint.
Comments
23 responses to “A Great Port Can’t Save The Most Boring Resident Evil Game”
Yes, porting 6 can not save it.
I thought Zero was quite good…
Yeh I remember I liked it heaps when I played thru it on the cube years ago. If I recall correctly,it rated fairly well too. So I dunno why people r all of a sudden hating on re zero.
I myself enjoyed it. I thought that the train setting was novel and made for interesting puzzles. The only thing I remember disliking was that guy that was made out of T-Virus slugs. That made no sense whatsoever.
The train part was only the first 10-20 minutes. The rest is more like the original Resident Evil.
I liked Zero myself. Having control of the two characters was interesting, though could be annoying if you spent an entire time getting somewhere with one, finding that it would have been better to travel with the other for some character specific puzzle.
Never played it myself, but I always thought Zero was supposed to be quite good.
Whoa resident evil 6 is 3 years old? God it feels like maximum of 2 years ago.
If someone things this is most boring re game they obviously don’t like re games, there are much worse entries to the series, gaiden, survivor 1 and 2 come to mind
Not to mention revelations 1 and 2
Code Veronica is remembered well and it wasn’t close to as good as Zero.
Hell, even 3 had some of the dumbest puzzles and broken mechanics of the series and everyone loved that.
Yeah, the train is only the first part of the game, you get off the train pretty quickly. I don’t remember too clearly because it’s been like 10 years since I played it but I was playing on a friend’s console so I can’t imagine it even takes very long to get off the train at all.
To quote The Big Lebowski: “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.”
I personally really enjoyed RE0, as I’m pretty sure a lot of others did too. While not as good as Remake, it still had a better last boss fight and Leech Zombies are still one of my favourite enemies in a Resident Evil game.
I will upvote any Big Lebowski quote.
And I will upvote anyone who upvotes any Big Lebowski quote. 😛
So I guess you could say this game is a…
*Sunglasses on*
Rail Shooter.
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH
http://www.myinstants.com/instant/yeah/
I’ve certainly enjoyed it more than their most recent offerings, and that’s even with the more slower pace of the older ones compared to the faster newer ones
Any main game RE title which isn’t 6 is fine by me. Very excited to play zero again.
Seriously what a moron. 0 is great! Not on par with the remake, but still great.
If the remake was a 10 then the prequel is about 8.5
Given i never for to play this on Gamecube I’m glad they released this and its still better then RE6 and the Outbreak ones.
Most boring?! You must be new to the series. Go and play your shitty Re6.
Only someone that thinks of RE as the crappy action titles from 4 onward would say such a thing. Zero was the last good, true resident evil. I couldn’t care less about any RE title released after zero – they are RE in name only.
If you want to talk about the worst resident evil from the true titles, I would say 3. Too much action, not enough puzzles or locality (always on the move, none of the slower tenser atmosphere like in 1 and 2, nemesis opening doors ruins it)