Fetch Zombo Fetch!
Resident evil on the Game Cube is a remake of the classic horror game of the same name originally released some five years prior (1996). While the game gets a major face lift it still holds on to enough of its precursors tropes to make it a hard game to enjoy thoroughly.
The game starts off with you playing as Jill or Chris, the last remaining survivors of S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Services) It is your job to investigate a creepy mansion where the prior team vanished mysteriously. The story isn’t much, but the sense of mood and atmosphere the game creates more than makes up for it. From the visuals; which are among the very best on the Game Cube, to the subtle and extremely effective sound design, you will constantly be carrying a sense of dread as you explore. Always yet never knowing for sure what is around the next corner; and that’s not just because of the spastic camera and ultra sluggish controls.
As mentioned earlier this is a remake of a game created in 1996 and you could tell that 3D gaming was still young. For starters the controls are really, really stiff and a mind trip to boot, do to the constantly changing perspective of the camera. More difficult to overcome however is the ENORMOUS amount of back tracking and fetching of items your going to have to do. There is a large amount of doors that need keys and items to be combined and weapons to carry to keep the undead at bay. But you can only carry eight items at a time (only six if you play as Chris) the rest must be placed in a stationary item box. In print that doesn’t seem so bad, but it is, and actually much worse in practice. I understand the developers didn’t want you becoming a walking armory but this was sheer torment. I would surmise you spend almost half your time in the game running back and forth, from your item box, to destination. To item box, back to destination. To item box. This almost completely ruins the game. Only the knowledge that the game is never to far off from surprising or scarring you witless will you continue on fetching mindlessly.
Resident evil is a mix bag. The exploring aspect of the game are great, and really make up for the poorly conceived puzzles and outdated controls. Its just a shame you don’t have a zombie dog sidekick that could do all the mindless fetching for you, if you did this game could have been great. Sadly however zombie dogs are only good at playing dead… though they do do that very well.
