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    Resident Evil 0

    Game » consists of 26 releases. Released Nov 10, 2002

    Resident Evil Zero is a prequel to the long running Resident Evil series, being set merely a day before the Mansion Incident of the original Resident Evil. Zero has players simultaneously control two protagonists: STARS Bravo member Rebecca Chambers, and escaped convict Billy Coen.

    RElapsed Fan - Resident Evil 0: Post-game Thoughts

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    nightriff

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    Edited By nightriff

    Confused why I’m doing this? Read my initial blog

    Want some pre-game thoughts about RE0? Click here

    No Caption Provided

    Resident Evil 0 for the most part is a totally confident game that probably gets too much shit over the years for trying different things but not completely following through on them. First off I’ll state that my nostalgia wasn’t completely ruined, it was more affirmed while playing. As said, I thought I would be saying “I remember this” quite a bit while playing, and that certainly was the case as I came across things and I would go “ugh….I remember this.” Not all of it was bad but it was a lot of annoyances came flooding back to me. My nostalgia for the most part allowed me to remember what I loved most about the game (isn’t that what nostalgia is supposed to do), but replaying the game didn’t ruin still what I enjoyed most about the game, so I’m happy and not in a dark place. So let’s get into it.

    There was potential here
    There was potential here

    As said, RE0 tried to do some new things but just didn’t quite take it all the way. First and foremost the 2 protagonists and the ability to switch between them. I still think this was a cool idea and the execution of the mechanics are awesome. You can leave your partner in another location and they will have to defend themselves if something bad were to come at them. Your characters are always in danger and that adds tension. I always hated leaving one character alone not knowing what could potentially happen to them. But for the most part that was never the case and I can only now think of a handful of times where the protag I left was even attacked. It should’ve been a big deal for them to stay in a single spot in a creepy mansion/train/facility. So while it worked for me, eventually the tension wore off and it wasn’t a big deal that I was using the hookshot to leave Billy alone, rather they have never been safer in the game when I have to leave them, that stinks.

    My next issue isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but something I wish didn’t occur so often. That would be how often the team was split up in uninteresting ways. I was surprised how often I was leaving one character alone or a character disappeared for “x” reason. This leads to a lot of how I felt in the above paragraph, separating should’ve been tense, rare, and only done when needed. Rather I might argue that you spend most of the game controlling one character while the other is waiting, trapped, in trouble, etc. How did a puzzle not involve that both characters had to move to separate parts of a setting to do two things at once BUT both were in danger and you had to switch back and forth to make sure they were doing ok. The train could've done this but rather only one character is in danger while the other just chills in the control room, a lot left on and off the table with this design choice.

    Puzzle was a lot of fun to figure out
    Puzzle was a lot of fun to figure out

    The puzzle solving between them could’ve been better, and they showed signs of some interesting ideas but again, didn’t execute. I look specifically at the box puzzle near the back ¼ of the game where one is trying to make a line of boxes and the other is controlling the obstacle in the way. This is probably the only puzzle in the game that I will remember as it took time (but not too much so it would become frustrating) and took coordination as both protag’s job depended on the other. It was a perfect balance that hadn’t been seen in the game yet. The rest of the puzzles were more annoying or lacked imagination. I don’t remember RE1 extremely well but some puzzles are ripped right from that game, and then the puzzle solves itself for you (tablets to lower the observatory, I was surprised I didn’t have to actually place them in the order of the motto). This is a lead in to the next big issue.

    The Mansion. This place is the least imaginative and the most “by the numbers” feel and leads to the middle part of the game feeling meh. I understand why it is there in that they wanted to try and create the feeing of the first game again with the mansion. But that really only works when the entire game takes place in and around a singular place, you become familiar with your surrounding and eventually you know this place like you know your own home. Maybe it’s unfortunate that the mansion comes after the train which is a wonderful, claustrophobic, tense setting but even then I don’t think my opinion would change that much. This was the part of my playthrough where I was most worried that my nostalgia would be crushed, but Capcom came back with the Water Treatment Facility which is a very interesting and engaging setting.

    You could've been more...
    You could've been more...

    Some other annoyances and problems:

    • I hate the leech zombies, they were just bullet sponges and just got more and more annoying as I got deeper into the game. I swear the first few I encountered could be taken down with several shotgun shots, by the end I had to empty an entire clip of shotgun into them and even then they might not have gone down.
    • Forgot about enemy invincibility frames, which that might be the big issue I had with enemies as I never quite adjusted to the time frame of when they are vulnerable and when they are not. It’s just weird that some enemies you can always damage and others have a good 3 to 4 seconds in between opportunities to punish them. Led to a lot more wasted ammo than there should’ve been.
    • The church/gondola part sucks ass. While the mansion is disappointing, this part was by far worse, thankfully it led to the Facility otherwise I could be singing a different tune about the game.
    • I was surprised how many bosses were fought solo, just caught me off guard. Thus I was surprised how few bosses there were and how big of gaps there were between them, I don’t know how much time exactly but I could easily argue at least 2 hours if not more between the centipede and the bat.
    • Lugging the hookshot around sucked and probably should’ve just been swapped with Billy’s lighter, that was only used one damn time and you didn’t even have to burn bodies or anything like you had to in the REmake. At least make the hookshot a one slot item rather than two. One of the major highlights of the game was finally getting rid of that bullshit item.
    Do I have to?
    Do I have to?

    While I think its lame now, I thought this part was awesome at one point.
    While I think its lame now, I thought this part was awesome at one point.

    Now comes what I loved. I still like both main characters. I really don’t get the hate that Billy receives (if you want to bitch about the Matrix stuff then go ahead), it seems unwarranted and I’m glad he was just different. I like that he isn’t apart of STARS and friends/acquaintances with all these other characters beforehand. I would argue he is the one thing the developer took a chance on and succeeded. I really like his backstory of being wrong conflicted for war crimes and the idea that he was being transported to the Umbrella facility to be tested on (something I never put together years ago but did now). If anyone would like to state why they think he is a bad character please post, I would love to read why because I currently don’t understand that thinking.

    No Caption Provided

    Rebecca is young and naïve and it works, her interaction with Billy wouldn’t make sense if she was someone with a lot of authority; that relationship would’ve ended on the train when they first met if that was the case. She severs her role well and look forward to how she is portrayed in Resident Evil as I’m planning on doing a Chris playthrough. She grows up over the course of the game and is reminiscent of the most recent Tomb Raider (obviously not as dramatic or up front as TR, but I’m connecting the dots).

    No Caption Provided

    I still think the game looks gorgeous for being as old as it is. It's crazy how well the Gamecube REmake and RE0 have held up over a decade now. The lighting effects are fantastic, the sound design was top notch in my book.Overall technically impressive

    Those are the main things I wanted to talk about after beating RE0. It’s a weird experience as it is the first RE game I’m playing in this process so my opinion could drastically change by the time I hit RE2 for an example. Even though I listed far more problems than things I liked, overall I did really enjoy playing it and better yet I'm excited to jump into the next RE game. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t already a fan of the Resident Evil series, but I have a hard time seeing this as the black hole of the series some people over the years have labelled this game. As said, maybe in a game or two I will think this was an absolute pile of shit, we shall see….

    On to....(or read my thought on RE:DC here)

    No Caption Provided

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    Quarters

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    Glad to see you still ended up enjoying it! I definitely don't feel the same, but oh well. Hopefully the rest of the series works out for you.

    I've never had a problem with Billy. I thought he was a perfectly fine character, kind of in the vein of characters like Carlos and Sheva. He served his purpose well, had an interesting backstory, and was likeable enough. One timers(as of now) who are just relevant to a single story. Rebecca's okay too, her RE0 version is definitely the best. She gets kind of weepy in RE1 and Umbrella Chronicles, compared to her fairly strong nature in RE0. That's probably my biggest complaint about her.

    The leech zombies are meant to be killed with fire. Explosive/Acid stuff really wreaks havoc on them, but bullets don't do crap.

    I really liked the idea of switching back and forth between characters, but I hated the inventory management system. Especially that freaking Hookshot. UGH.

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    nightriff

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    @quarters: I love the fact that he is (and I know he is) a one and done character. While he doesn't walk off into the sunset like I originally thought, we watches Rebecca do that instead. And we just leave him and he's on his own. No bullshit like he's a man on the run but taking it to umbrella. He just disappears from this point on from the fiction, and I wish more series in all media would do the same.

    That's what I've heard about Rebecca, so it stinks that she does go from this now confident character who has seen shit, to a weepy (as you said) character in RE. She deserves better in my opinion.

    I know fire was meant for them, just didn't want to waste a space on the cocktails. I'm sure if I managed better and realized they always supply gasoline and bottles before an encounter I wouldn't have been annoyed, but I took the all guns approach.

    Yup hookshot sucks, it would've been redeemed (ironically) if the final boss required the use of the hookshot. Make sure you have Rebecca holding the hookshot as there is a valve she needs to open on the roof. Oh Billy is holding it? You're fucked. Just as the final fuck you of that worthless item.

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    Yummylee

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    #3  Edited By Yummylee

    Nice to see you came away enjoying it even after all this time. I feel like I already said most of what I wanted to in your pre-game blog, though overall I mostly agree... sort of. I don't look as fondly towards RE0 for a lot of the same reasons, but the positives weren't quite enough for me to pull it out of relative mediocrity. The hookshot and the inventory management in general a pain; it was a neat idea and they're at least trying something new, but still... inventory boxes worked for those games. I guess the hookshot is the primary offender, and on the plus side when you knew where to use an item but were lacking another (literal) piece of the puzzle you could leave the item you do have in the room you know you're going to need it.

    Still, most of the puzzles don't really do well by the cooperative feature. From what I remember a lot of it primary involves you just sending items to a fro via dumbwaiters -- and omg the dumbwaiter transition is just soooooo slooooow. In fact the game as a whole has a strange slowness to it; all of the animations take much longer to perform than the remake for example, which is actually rather snappy all things considered.

    I thought Billy was OK (though definitely ''of his time'' what with the silly tribal tattoo ect.) and I still really like his introduction, as they try to make you wonder whether Billy's as much ''scum'' as Edward accuses or not. I also think they done well by Rebecca by making her appear overwhelming but confident enough in her abilities. One of my favourite segments in the game is where Billy's pushed over into the water by the leech zombie and you're forced to play a rather significant portion alone as Rebecca; it totally plays on your accustomation to (most likely) controlling Billy almost exclusively given he's the tank, while delegating Rebecca to essentially functioning as your pack mule. That is unless you need herbs mixed... Real stupid how Billy is literally the only RE character who doesn't know how to mix herbs. RE0 also makes Rebecca's frailty and lack of combat prowess in the original RE kinda bizarre really. I mean no other STARS member during that time goes through as much shit as she does! Two damn days of it all... She also apparently misplaced all of those weapons she procured as well, I guess...

    As I mentioned in the other blog I always wished the other character was Richard Aiken, as they had already portrayed a friendship in the remake at that, so it would make his inevitable death have just a little bit more weight. I guess I can see your point that it's actually a benefit that Billy is one of the few characters that sort of has an end to him, but still I think I just want more recurring RE protagonists. Capcom keep leaning so damn hard on the core four of Chris, Jill, Leon and Claire. The return of Barry was real swell at least! But still most characters beyond the core four tend to make their appearance and then disappear. Sheva's inactivity in particular is real strange, especially since she doesn't even show up in spin-offs or makes cameos in minigames or anything. My theory is that Sheva basically represents Capcom having to adjust RE5 to work around the racism accusations (it's already public knowledge that RE5 was initially single-player), so once they were done with RE5 they were done with Sheva and loathe what she stands for.

    Also, Leech Hunter is one of the RE's worst minigames. It's not quite as bad as Code: Veronica's Battle Game, but it's probably just below it.

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    nightriff

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    @yummylee: Pretty much what I learned from this was that every bad thing I've heard about the game since I became re-interested in the series, they are all true but it strikes me as something of "how much are you willing to put up with." Don't want to reiterate the blog too much but yeah, the hookshot is absolute bullshit, the co op puzzles left me wanting, and yeah the game did feel slow but I assumed all (early) RE games move at that speed (we shall see...). I remember transporting a ton of items back and forth through the dumbwaiter back in the day, I sure was patient. As stated, I think Billy is a good to great character, Rebecca has a good arc in the game (sounds like its ruined in RE1) and that separation you mentioned was fantastic, is a close to an hour of gameplay that you are all alone and unsure of what happened to Billy (rather than him safe in the kitchen waiting for you to send up the ice pick), could've used more tense moments like that. And again, the things I enjoyed about the game made up for its weaknesses and bullshit in my opinion.

    One thing I would like to add is that I am willing to bet this has the best single player RE game with an AI partner (haven't played 6 but I'm still confident in my statement). Sheva just always seemed over whelmed and wasted a shit ton of ammo (why I remember regulating her to handgun and submachine duty, stop wasting my healing items girl....god damn); RE4 works with Ashley in that you have to protect her and they give you options to just have her hide, that takes away from tension now that I look back on it; RE0 they both work together well, the AI in my experience never wasted a ton of ammo, if anything they were too cautious, and being able to just control the AI with the C stick is great (something I don't remember being in 4, 5).

    I made the choice of staying away from the mini games for the most part, maybe I'll try the HUNK one in RE2 just for fun but doesn't have some conditions you have to meet to unlock so I doubt I'll be able to try my hand at it.

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    Yummylee

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    @nightriff: To be honest I thought the whole 2-player aspect of RE0 was underused. As I mentioned earlier chances are high you're basically just going to be rolling along as Billy while Rebecca functions as extra inventory space. That's how I played it anyway; I'd leave her with her samurai edge and key items, but weapons and ammo were always stuffed in Billy's pockets. Plus because the environments are as claustrophobic as you'd expect, it often felt like there wasn't enough room to accommodate them both, especially should there also be some enemies in the room alongside you. I can explicitly remember having to move them both around just so I could actually maneuver through the environment at times. Think there was one particular room involving a box pushing puzzle -- not the one with the valve, though, which I agree was actually a pretty decent puzzle. Still, overall it rarely felt like it was put to good use.

    Then again I've always thought Sheva as an AI partner is perfectly competent! So long as you stuck her with different weapons to yourself, she was golden. I always preferred to equip myself with a handgun while the AI would have an SMG for example, and would always give her a sniper rifle as the AI has incredible accuracy with it. Typically would be the bolt action rifle as it has can store the most ammo in its clip, so that way the AI isn't wanting for ammo while I too can equip myself with my own rifle. Don't get me wrong, RE5's friendly AI is far from ideal (and it also makes playing Professional mode close to impossible on your own), but as far as friendly AIs go in games, without being outright invincible, RE5's might be one of the best I've encountered.

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    nightriff

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    @yummylee: I guess I'll use those tips when I get to RE5, Shiva = Sniper Rifle. I don't remember Shiva fondly during the gameplay and it was a contributing factor to my negative feelings of RE5, as a character she was serviceable even though she was mainly there so Capcom could play the "we aren't racist" card.

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    Yummylee

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    @nightriff: What version of RE5 will you be playing? I would assume PC, but if for whatever reason it's the PS3 version (AKA the worst version) I'd be more than willing to coop with you!

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    nightriff

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    #8  Edited By nightriff

    @yummylee: I'm going to play everything within the PS ecosystem (outside of RE0 of course) as I still like the idea of trophies and its easier than digging out old consoles for the other games, what is your PSN? Going to be a while before I get there, hope you are patient.

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    Yummylee

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    @nightriff: Yummylee. Easy to remember :P Though fair warning, the framerate for the PS3 version is real dicey, just to let you know upfront if you're especially framerate sensitive.

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    musubi

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    I really like RE Ø a whole lot actually. The leech enemies were a fun twist as was the coop puzzles. I've been hearing rumors that they are giving it the RE HD treatment. If that is true I'm totally on board.

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    nightriff

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    #11  Edited By nightriff

    @demoskinos: There are rumors for one and with some minor improvements it could be a great remake. Billy's tattoo in HD would be pretty sweet.

    @yummylee: Framerate is not an issue for me, played it on the PS3 originally, I'll add you when I get a chance.

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    JoeyRavn

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    #12  Edited By JoeyRavn

    I've been playing the RE series for the first time in a somewhat chronological order for some time now. I'm about to begin RE5 one of these days. RE0 was solid, though it felt like an extension of REmake more than a game on its own. At least, I liked it more than either Code Veronica X or RE4.

    Then again, I absolutely hated CVX and RE4, so RE0 had at least that going for itself.

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    nightriff

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    @joeyravn: What didn't you like about RE4 may I ask?

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