Something happened between 2002 and 2003. Gamers and critics suddenly stopped praising Resident Evil as one of gaming's best series and started calling it dated, clunky, and boring. Take Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Upon its release, GameSpot called it the best of its genre, but by the time the GameCube port came around in December 2003, the site labeled it "obsolete." You don't need to go further than the port's Metacritic page to see that GameSpot wasn't alone.

The crux of the criticism came down to convenience. Tank controls, slow combat, and limited saves were no longer common practice. But great games have never been about convenience -- they are about challenges to survive by learning your environment and abilities. Resident Evil does this very well, and no series entry did it better than the 2002 GameCube remake of the PlayStation debut.

Once and for all, let's lay to rest this misguided talk of Resident Evil's being obsolete. Not only is the series still relevant, it's timeless. The problem isn't with the game but with the critics who have gone soft and lost good judgment. And if I sound bitter, it's because of those critics that Capcom won't make another title in the style of this classic survival horror adventure.

Resident Evil [2002] (GameCube, Wii)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: April 30, 2002

In a nutshell: In 2002, Capcom did what no developer would dare do in 2012: made a faithful recreation of a six-year-old game with a cult following. This remake added new areas, enemies, endings, and improved controls, but the biggest upgrade was in the visuals, which added the horror back into the game's large, foreboding mansion. Though we still use the label "survival horror," the emphasis has been taken off "survival" since the release of this gem.

A large, interconnected world

Like any great horror movie, there is an ebb and flow to the horrors of Resident Evil, and it's all dictated by the game's brilliantly crafted setting.

Some would love to have a mansion, but the thought of all that empty space and dark corners scares me away from the idea. Resident Evil is a game about this feeling -- the unnerving fear of the unknown and the comfort of familiarity.

At the start, the Spencer Mansion is a foreboding place where every door is an invitation to evil and dismemberment. Soon, you start to map out the first floor. Next, you find brief sanctuary in the save rooms. By the time you clear out the halls, the house begins to feel like a home, and your heartbeat relaxes. The game teases you with locked doors -- even worse, mysteriously jammed doors! Unlocking them to discover a shortcut to a previous area is as satisfying as taking down one of the game's bosses.

Never knowing what's around the corner

As a culture, we live in fear of spoilers. A great surprise is as close to a holy moment as us geeks get, and there will be hell to pay if someone takes that away from us!

Lucky for you, Resident Evil is a game full of surprises, though they aren't very nice ones. It never highlights what's around the corner or gives the false security of a checkpoint, so you'll be constantly praying that the next room is a puzzle and not a boss encounter. As you travel further into the game, old areas start revealing hidden items, cleared rooms start offering new enemies, and old bosses rear their head again. You'll be wishing you didn't leave that ammo box on the ground in that one room that you can't remember where the hell it is and OH GOD A GIANT SNAKE FUUUuuu ...

It goes without saying that surprise is essential to a good horror game. Just look at Silent Hill: Shattered Memories to see how limp a horror game can become when it advertises its next move. Resident Evil asks the player to blindly trust the game; that if the player tries their best, they will survive. But some players will soon realize that their best isn't good enough. Just like in Dark Souls and Spelunky, making it to areas that you know others could never reach makes the journey all the sweeter.

Finding comfort in a familiar place

Resident Evil is a grueling game that isn’t shy about playing with expectations. Dogs provide literal jump scares, new enemies invade old areas, and there is a price to pay for every zombie you don't fully dispose of. Along with the horror of feeling locked outside areas and trapped within others, there is a simple joy to playing virtual cartographer. For those God of War and Super Metroid players who feel giddy after fully exploring an area, Resident Evil will make them pee their pants -- assuming they don't shit themselves first.

Finding solace in the save rooms and main hallway is a unique feeling that I don't get from any other series. By the end of the game, you feel like you know the mansion inside and out, making you feel empowered. Or maybe that's just the grenade launcher with 18 acid rounds talking? Regardless, you feel like you've been on a wild ride as you return to familiar places and reflect on all the horrifying events that have transpired. The game allows you a moment to catch your breath before giving you another reason to let it all out in a scream, again.

Alternate paths and strategies

Maybe it's the fault of marketing and media exposure, but the branching paths of Heavy Rain and Mass Effect never shocked me in the way those of Resident Evil do. While it's clear that those two games were designed around the branching path concept and wanted to make the element of design clear to the player, Resident Evil is a game about psychological fear and withholding information.

There are several times in the game where the player can choose drastically different options, but you'd never think you had an alternate choice unless you read about it in a FAQ. Even when you do read a guide, you'll often find yourself lost. "Wait, where is the automatic shotgun and why am I carrying this broken shotgun?" you’ll ask. Or, "Why did I never have that boss fight at the end?"

In addition to these narrative splits, there are some clever alternate approaches one can take in the combat. There is the binary choice between evading and fighting with the common zombie, but things become more interesting with the boss fights that often offer a non-combat approach if you go the extra mile in your puzzle solving. On top of all this, the game has two main characters to play as that offer different dialog, weapons, and changes in the narrative.

Unlike Heavy Rain and Mass Effect, by the end, I felt like I played the game the only way it could have been played rather than carving out my own version of it. Instead of wondering if I played the "best version," I was left wondering if there was even another version at all.

Death means something

As anyone who has played Spelunky can attest, taking away the ability to save can render even an approachable, cute platformer into a game of tense, horrific moments. And as anyone who has played the recent batch of horror games can attest, being given numerous checkpoints takes the fear out of the genre.

The greatest fear for a Resident Evil player isn't zombies, but running out of ink ribbons. These ribbons are hidden throughout the game and are the only way to save progress. Since there are only 30 or so throughout the 11-hour game, and since you'll often be lucky to have more than one in your inventory, it's a constant source of tension that makes every unopened door and uncleared hallway into an unbearable threat.

There is a compromise the player and developer make with such a restricted save system. Yes, it inconveniences the player, but it also heightens the fear and pleasure of the game. There is no moment more tense than going an hour without saving and being stuck with low health. But, there is no moment more satisfying than finding a save room, right when you thought you'd have to restart the entire game.

For the brave and willing, the ink ribbon system will give you some of the most memorable gaming moments ever.

Resident Evil was a landmark title in 1996 that ushered in mature console horror gaming. By 2002, its impact had been weakened, but Capcom addressed this with this nearly flawless remake. The lightning, detailed CG backgrounds, and high-polygon models still look fantastic and keep the game from feeling goofy in the way the original PlayStation games are now.

For those who think they can handle the challenge and scares of this classic, you'll need to readjust how you approach games. Resident Evil was never the norm. Its pacing and unforgiving design limit its audience, but all of its misperceived flaws are essential to the experience. The controls aren't sluggish but intentionally slow, making intense moments more intense. The ink ribbon system and limited inventory ask players to make constant sacrifices that add weight to their actions.

It's clear that Resident Evil is an abnormal, obtuse game, but everything about it adds up to one of the most unique, memorable horror games of all time. Resident Evil (1996) may have spawned the genre, RE2 may have broadened its scope, but this remake is the crown jewel of the genre.

[And yes, I love RE4, but it's not survival horror.]

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Mulk Calathar

"The problem isn't with the game but with the critics who have gone soft and lost good judgment. And if I sound bitter, it's because of those critics that Capcom won't make another title in the style of this classic survival horror adventure."

It's because that style of game doesn't sell anymore. It's not timeless at all. It's tedious and unpopular and only looks good because of nostalgia. Better things came along and showed us that those games ARE obsolete. Because people don't want 'em. Critics are largely irrelevant. Critics whine about Call of Duty and it only gets bigger. Critics praise obscure stratgey jrpg's and no cares but other critics and few fans. Critics don't move games.

maycausecancer

Still think Resident Evil 4 is the best in the series.

caramelzappa

I'm just going to respond to "death means something"

Spelunky is a great example of doing that right. Resident Evil never was. When you die in Spelunky it's always your fault (the controls are great!) but more importantly, you restart instantly. You don't have to wait to get back into the action. When you do respawn, you don't have to sit through the same boring section you've memorized from playing 20 times already, you have to adapt to a new environment. Even the music changes up!

In RE and a lot of games, none of that applies. Instead, when you die you have to sit through a lengthy loading screen. Frusterating. Then you have to sit through the exact same rooms with the exact same enemies again. It becomes boring and monotonous, especially when you're good at a long section before a save point, but then die at a hard section right before the next save point. You have to sit through the same bullshit over again just to get to the actual challenging part. It doesn't make death meaningful, it just wastes gamers time, and turns engaging and challenging scenarios into an exercise in frustrating time-wasting.

NoJ87

I still want them to remake RE2 with RE4 control style, still focusing on ammo conservation and survival. Maybe even more so, since there would be headshots/etc.

ersatz

nice.

Julio Zenteno Gaete

[And yes, I love RE4, but it's not survival horror.] <--- This....

amtalx

I agree on some points, but I've always maintained that it's miserable as a game. The atmosphere RE created should be respected, while the actual play mechanics should still be held as some of the most flawed and obtuse of the 3D era. The scares, setting, and feeling of tension can all be achieved without burdening the player with cumbersome controls.

Agro

As someone who played through Resident Evil for the first time last year, I completely agree. It takes a certain mindset to enjoy the game, but once you are in that mindset, the masterful design and timelessness of the game become apparent.

Laharl Krichevskoy

Typical Survival Horror purist rhetoric.

Classic Alone in the Dark style horror is dead, RE4.and Amnesia killed it.

Some styles should stay dead, specific features don't make horror, it's more on the storytelling and art design than crippling players.

THE SPOOKY

Amen to this article. REmake is the best survival horror game ever made.

ootmians

Tank controls are clumsy, plain and simple. They were a fad for a few years, back when it was considered "cinematic style" to place the camera at random angles and change the controls based on current character position. Fighting with awkward controls doesn't heighten the survival horror. In my opinion this is the single element of early Resident Evil games that prevents them from being timeless. Some game ideas go out of style for a reason.

phoebus

Not one word of this analysis was about the controls, but that's all anyone is commenting on.......

MushroomStamp

I found the original F.E.A.R to have much more suspense, horror, thrills than any RE game. Too many people are stuck on Nostalgia. People that play and enjoy RE games are the same knuckleheads that still think Final Fantasy is a great series. I can't stomach even looking at those outdated games anymore.

Startyde

REmake is the best RE game ever devised, a relic from an era where Capcom gave two sh*ts, something long since dead. I would say true perfection in the Survival Horror genra was reached with Eternal Darkness: yet another game from a long dead era, namely when Silicon Knights was remotely relevant

killias2

I think you can definitely split the difference between RE4 and RE2 and walk away with something that's "survival horror." Where RE4 got actiony was less in the control scheme (which, TBH, is sort of terrible, yet better than the others in the series), and more in terms of the whole approach to game design. The QTE, the high action boat chase stuff, the huge ass briefcase with a million guns, lots of ammo, etc. etc.

There were moments of the beginning of RE4 that definitely feel SH to me. The absolute very beginning.. the first time you played it? Scary shit. Ditto with the scene with the creatures attacking you in the house. That scene was -classic- horror movie, and I think they should do more stuff like that in RE.

If they took the basic approach of RE4, severely cut down on bullets and guns, cut the QTE nonsense, and had the major set pieces focus on building a frightful atmosphere (more house under siege moments, less boat chases and explosions), I think you'd have a survival horror game. And a great game. A great survival horror game.

Yet, instead, we have this co-opy action nonsense nobody cares about.

BrainWasherAttendent

One of the best articles ive read on this site. Someone that gets it, and understands what real gaming is all about. When done right, it is challenging, memorable, and a llittle bit scary. I would love to play an old school RE game with graphics from this generation....tank controls, fixed camera angles, limited saves and all....(demons souls proved some of us are starved for these kinds of experiences).

The newer generation of spoiled brats don't understand this, and never will. Based on the demo of RE 6, i am very worried about one of the best series in gaming. The western media hatred for japan is ruining things left and right.

Tank controls are not outdated. That is like saying 2D games are "outdated". I cringe at the ignorance displayed hourly on the internet. We live in a world that is experiencing a zombie apocalypse,, but it is not with brain eating dead people, it is the zombies of the mind as they are sickened by GMO food, poisoned by vaccines, and stupified by government propaganda, public school, and your shameless politicians that act like teen celebrities more than grown men and women.

In a word, we be: FUCKED.

Laharl Krichevskoy

Also, "survival horror" is a marketing term made by capcom to seem hardcore. Adventure Horror existed long before RE.

You might as well complain that Sonic should bring back blast processing.

theinternat

This is my absolute favourite resident evil game, so yeah, i love this article!

But it's true, the gaming industry has changed too much since then to ever go back to something like this - unless it was a cheap DLC or indie game. if you actually think they could have stuck to this formula and survived the mainstream market, you're kidding yourself. RE would be dead, dying, or stuck in japan like every other survival horror franchise from the "golden era".

I love the changes made in RE4 because i feel like it opened up the fanbase saved my favourite game series' life. i know a bunch of 'purists' are going to scoff at that comment, but i absolutely love the resident evil universe and i'm happy i can still enjoy it today. :)

ootmians

@phoebus It's relevant because he's trying to refute the idea that Resident Evil is obsolete. It seems the reason most people think this is because of the clumsy controls, so not discussing them sort of misses the point.

13thDragon

God dammit, now I'm going to go spend money I don't have buying this from Amazon. Thanks a lot guy.

Startyde

@MushroomStamp:

Geezus, the limp d*ck response of PC-tards, F.E.A.R., aka, lets durrr addd gurns to The Ring n ur sell it to moronzzz. It's shit second and third sequel should have been a top off that the premise was so ass it never had a chance of surviving. Compare that to RE's billion dollar franchise. Kthnx now.

flintmech

REmake was my first Resident Evil game and I'd say it's still my favorite. It does everything right.

People who whine about classic RE's limitations are just crippled by impatience and short attention spans, mistaking deliberate design decisions that add to the atmosphere and tension with technical limitations that get in their way of rushing to the end of a game in time to get to the next one.

It's sad.

That said, I still enjoy RE4 and to a lesser extent RE5. To me they're just "different" - but too confident with RE6 though.

The Enchanting Wizard Of Rhythm

It often baffles me when people complain about how specific, unique design ideas inconvenience the player or waste their time. These can be valid concerns if such inconveniences detract from the experience or are the unintentional result of poor design, but when they are an intrinsic part of the experience as in Resident Evil, Dark Souls or Spelunky then you have to qualify your complaint with actual reason why it doesn't work. The word 'dated' is the laziest critical shorthand.

Even worse is the idea that because a design feature works in popular game then it immediately invalidates and ages the features of other games who must then adopt those ideas, because sales are all that matters. It's partly this kind of thinking in both designers and players that is leading mainstream games into becoming a grey, soupy morass of generic sameyness.
At least the indie scene has really come along this generation

The Enchanting Wizard Of Rhythm

Oh, and good blog. REmake rocked my socks fo' sho'.

Arttemis

Absolutely agree with the weight each of these points held, because they mean nothing in the action series RE has been since 4. As fun as RE4 was, it was as disconnected to the rest of the series as Harvest Moon is to Blast Corps. Change the protagonist, remove the 4 mentions of Raccoon City, and take out the glimpses of Ada and Wesker, and you're left with a new IP. It's a great game, but it turned the genre on it's head.

/soapbox And the same genre shift seems to be starting with DMC. /sb

It's not that they changed the camera and controls, but the emphasis on action, the ammo-producing corpses, and abandonment of familiar locales. Obviously the survival aspect is more niche than action (gee, no shit), but why serialize an IP just to transform and disfigure it later on?

Lost in Nightmares DLC was an example of how slow, atmospheric gameplay can still apply to the 3rd person perspective. I'm not saying we have to return to mansions and/or Raccoon City. The spirit of a familiar town overrun by geneticly manufactured zombies is what matters. Things could have escalated to metropolises that don't resemble a mansion or police department at all. To reiterate my point, more than the camera perspective changed with RE4.

The saddest thing is that the biggest entry into survival gameplay died because people would rather play an action shooter with a sprinkle of shock scares (which are optional if RE5 is any indication). A genre dies because of corporate homogenization, and when people complain, others can't bear to listen because they're too busy aping on the camera tropes and miss the entire point. There's a time and place for each genre, and no justification to transform a series known for one into another.

acetated

Pre-steroid Chris ftw. Want to go play this now.

azzxl

The first few games were poorly designed between the unresponsive controls, bad camera angles and tedious backtracking heavy puzzles, badly translated and dubbed dialogue and boring story only someone with nostalgia goggles could still call this game good. Four is the only numbered game in the series I would call good.

Don't get me wrong the first game is a classic but that doesn't mean it's not a poor game, also is anyone over the age of eight actually scared by any of these games?

redsun

Great article. I really liked the Gamecube version of this game and maybe someday I'll build up the nerve to replay it.

Taerdin

I think RE4 is the best RE game as well.

I also think it's survival horror, and that people are perpetuating some kind of weird argument that a game isn't survival horror if it has x amount of action. Which is pretty bullshit if you ask me.

Fossegrim

Totally agree. Also a big middle finger to every critic ever criticising Resident Evil's Tank Controlls. I still can't wrap my head around how tank controlls are so hard to grasp for some people. You press up and your character goes the way he/she looks. What is the big deal ?

There is also no survival horror game where manouverability through the environment is extremely fluid and responsive.It is all about taking away power from the player and not making him some vanquishlike sliding and strafing god.

Even Amnesia, one of the most praised survival horror games of the last years does not control entirely perfect.

zombiecowboy

The graphics hold up so much even now. Not many games have this much care and attention to detail as RE:Remake.

EternalDeathSlayer

The problem is with the game, not the critics. The only thing that remains strong about this game is it's ability to make you not want to open certain doors or take specific paths and routes. That is it. The dialogue is atrocious and the characters really never gave us a real reason to root for them or like them other than how they were screwed over by someone on their team.

Of course I forgive the game because it's didn't commit these sins now; It committed them like 16 or 17 years ago, back when games of it's kind were still in their infancy. And I don't mean survival horror games. I mean mature games with spoken dialogue on a console.

It was ahead of it's time. How many other games used voice acting in their in-game engine back in the mid 90s?

But the game sucks today. Even the REmake is barely worth a person's time. The only thing that will scare you are the zombies and dogs that pop out of closets and through windows. Typical horror fare.

Resident Evil 4 was and remains the series high point. All that came before were great at the time but serve no purpose today other than to remind us where this once great series came from.

"You were almost a Jill Sandwich"

Sonintega

Tank controls on a human are not a selling point. It takes a huge lapse in reasoning to accept that a person will move that way in any situation. Who do you know that, in the even of a zombie uprising, would intentionally shamble slower the undead and turn so laboriously? Does that person have a zombie-death-wish? It makes no sense and should not be lauded as anxiety inducing in a fun way. No, it's an extra layer of difficulty that need not exist as soon as any better method of control is designed.

Tank controls are just as much an artifact of early 3D design as pre-rendered environments that force the player to shoot blindly and willy nilly at an enemy that they know is there but illogically can't see, or having bizarre, abstract puzzles (read: fetch quests) that require retreading most of the environments repeatedly to pad game length. These are old game design stop gaps, not things that actively improve an experience. Metal Gear Solid was a tense game that discouraged shoot-outs with a top-down perspective, yet the lead could move in any direction, and crawl, creep or run as the situation demanded. And it was fluid. The momentum is always forward, puzzles at least attempt to make sense, even when they are fetch quests, and you could save in most situations, cus people got shit to do and don't need games telling them how to spend their time. As soon as MGS released the developers of Resident Evil should have made efforts to improve functionality on a basic level, at the very least just so there isn't as much of a cognitive disconnect between what the player wants the character to do and what they are actually capable of doing.

You like old games? That's super sweet. That means that you were playing them when they released, cus otherwise I find it incredibly hard to believe that you'd accept that kind of treatment if it were released today without that firsthand experience in the way-back-when. Resident Evil 4 and 5 may be a bit too shooty-shooty and lack any meaningful suspense, but they are very playable, in a way that is fun. Fun that doesn't require the player to be the unique type that gleans satisfaction from anxiety, and have that be the only method the game allots you of getting said satisfaction. I'm looking forward to 6 because I like the cheesy, ham-fisted storyline and the playability of the recent games. I'm sure I'll find it scary enough, I tend to get panicked pretty easily. That said, I am getting the huge box set of most of the series for PS3, because the early games to hold value as the foundation for a lot of modern design choices, and are probably still enjoyable in their own right (I'm more patient than I was fifteen years ago). I think if you spent more time thinking about what the modern games offer, instead of what they lack, you'd enjoy yourself more and wouldn't need to pine after bygone eras so much.

Fossegrim

I would like to shit everyone in the face who is calling RE4 a survival horror game (or even just a Horror game). It is not.

killias2

@Taerdin

I think most people would cite "vulnerability" as a major element to the survival horror genre. To the extent that you can "fight back," it's less survival horror and more action.

Of course, I don't think this is an absolute truth. Left 4 Dead has lots of action and is all about surviving horror....

Arttemis

There's no reason every combination of gameplay can't exist. Cinematic camera perspectives with slow gameplay, neo-RE 3rd person action horror, and something I desperately want in the middle.

To repeat what Phoebus said, the elements this article praises have nothing to so with the camera or controls, but the post-RE4 fans don't realize there was more to the series than that, then proceed to ignore it.

BrainWasher - supply everything you said to DMC1,3,4's combat and you'll see why some people aren't happy about the change to in DmC. The changes to technical gameplay in that series are just as dramatic to its fans as these are here.

Jobie24

First time I'm commenting on an article, but I just had to.

You've said everything just perfectly right, Allistair. I can't tell you how many times I've given this exact same speech to a group of friends. None of them have ever understood. Looking at the comments that have been written thus far, I can see that the overwhelming opinion is sadly that RE *is* dated. But as you say in your article, and as I firmly believe, it's much more that gamers and critics have gone soft. Anyone who's played through the Resident Evil remake can attest to this. Anyone who played through it with a walkthrough because it was too hard, or never finished it because they got too frustrated, missed out on one of the greatest immersive experiences that interactive gaming has to offer.

To me, humbly, no game has combined storytelling, game design, and aesthetics in a more pleasing, complex package. I've played a lot of games. I'm very good at games. I'm very critical of their quality, and I can firmly say, no game I've played has ever, ever held up to this one.

I'm alone in ^that, but I can't believe that people won't even admit that it's a great game based on the controls and save screens alone. I want to ask those people: What is important to you about video games? Do you want to just see flashy numbers and colors announce how much fun you're having? Do you want the game to tell you what it wants you to do obviously, in advance, so there's no way you can fail? Do you want to explore a genuinely frightening and dangerous world or fucking not?

That's what I'd want to ask them.

MonsieurMeu

My favourite RE. Nice article!

Fugly Duckling

YES. YES. A thousand times YES.

This was my very first RE game. It got me interested in the series, and even when playing through certain parts with a friend, there were times when we both freaked out. The first time Lisa Trevor knocked Jill over the head we looked at each other, both of us in suspense with a look that said "What the shit just happened!?"

I played through it so many times, and ended up getting nearly every subsequent release of new REs and catching up with rereleases of the older games.

The controls never stopped me from enjoying the game. Even being my first RE game, the controls never stopped me from enjoying the game. I played it in 2003, and even with an aging ten year old control scheme, IT NEVER STOPPED ME FROM ENJOYING IT.

Thank you for reminding me I love this game.

Jobie24

And thank you, Allistair. Thank you so much for writing this.

Arttemis

Since when has it been cool for people who don't like a series in a particular genre to dictate the direction its gameplay takes? Evolution can take place, but completely abandoning the roots and premise of what the series originally stood for is past the line of needing to go ahead and make a new IP or spin off.

Taerdin

Occams electric toothbrush

I think Resident Evil 2 is still my favorite of the series but damn if this remake didn't just set the bar for what a remake could really be. I still have my copy and cherish it. I miss the slower pace and creepy atmosphere of the early Resident Evil games but have grown to appreciate what Resident Evil is now, an action game that's fun if silly. A nice look at a game that many of us hold dear.

BoomingEchoes

REmake was by far one of the best remakes I've ever seen in pretty much any media format, hands down. The game took an existing product I played about 50 times (between the original release and its directors cut) and made it so I wanted to play it another 50 on this single, newer, release.. All without making any of the elements seem dated or used up.

And that bit about ink ribbons really is true.. Having to find an item that has a limited supply (though, I always had far too many and never once ran into the problem you mentioned about only having 1 one you at a time), then having these type writers so spread out, made it way more scary in terms of not wanting to die.

What really helped this out too, in this release, was those red zombies, the ones that don't really ever die.

Oh, and the limited inventory space.. That helped lot too, you either take a ribbon or you can't. Jill wasn't so bad, but Chis was pretty rough.

Even playing Silent Hill 2 HD I found that there was far more save spots then I remembered there being, and the only thing that kept me scared at all was the fact I was trying for the "you can only save twice" achievement in my first time returning to the game in 10 years or so. Otherwise it was a non-issue, cause all I'd need to do if I wanted to save what I had done was backtrack to the room (albeit, doing so is kinda tedious in that game)

BrainWasherAttendent

This reminds me also of how JRPG's get BASHED by western racist and elitist media, so they can promote WRPG's, that are equally predictable and confined by its genre. It is OKAY to have jrpg's exist simultaneouslynwith wrpg's.

I play both! What a concept. You don't need to hate one thing to love another thing. This is the fundamental flaw in all of the negative commentary against japanese games. Isn't that a form a bullying, you pansies? LOL

Same goes for Nintendo hate. If you had been around, you would know that they've ALWAYS done things their own way, and could give a flying fuck what SEGA, or anyone else was doing. Understand? No. Of course not....just keep spewing your peer approved hatred for anything that you perceive is not accepted by the hipsters and your opinion will be safe! Hooray for U.

BrowneyeWinkin

Best in the series.

Pre-rendered backgrounds need to make a comeback, lyke now.

AceFlibble

I can't stand RE4 and 5 (and god help that demo of RE6), while I still play RE1-C:V. They still entertain me, for all the right reasons and just as much as they always have. Never had a problem with the controls, love the gameplay, like the story - as ridiculous as it is - and I wouldn't trade 'em for the world. I've no problem saying that I think the RE games should have stuck to the old formula, that it was a good formula and you're a fucking eejit if you say otherwise.

Ahem.

Klarden

REmake was an awful remake as it screwed up most of the pacing of the original (you could set the best route for yourself, if you know the game, and almost completely avoid backtracking, which was a fun part of "getting better at the game", while REmake forces you to backtrack constantly), made inventory management more boring and tried some things which did not work with oldschool RE (but later worked fine with RE4 and newer ones), like more "heavy" physics and animations with slower turns, slower aiming. Zombies became more annoyingly deadly making handgun almost useless... With my all respect for a lot of ideas in it and for the work of Shinji Mikami, REmake was a really bad take on Resident Evil. I still consider RE3 to be the best oldschool RE game as a whole (both mechanically and atmosphere-style-wise. Obviosuly, the first RE is very different and REmake wouldn't and shouldn't have been like that, but it shouldn't have went for much much more slower pace and more annoying backtracking either.
Resident Evil was never about fear, it was never ever a scary game. It was a fun horror game, whith solid mechanics and memorable style, setting and characters. REmake tries to be "scary" and "tense" in all the wrong ways, and, really, it shouldn't have even tried.

polarbearcubz

I never had a problem with the controls of the classic games. At the time the RE games were the next new thing and I still feel they should revert to making the series about survival horror opposed to action.
Anybody can make an action game, it takes a real artist to draw you in and leave you on the edge of your seat in pure terror

Nuff said

orniletter

No mention of RE: Revelations ?
The Parts on the boat felt like a pretty good compromise between classic and new RE.
Good game, best graphics on the 3DS.