Of the mainline entries in the long-running Resident Evil series, Zero is perhaps the most obscure. You could chalk part of that up to originally being a Nintendo platform exclusive, with its original release dated all the way back in 2002 on the GameCube, before eventually receiving a lackluster Wii port in 2009. However the lauded remake of the original 1996 Resident Evil, often coined the 'REmake', is without a doubt one of the most celebrated games in the series despite also for the longest time existing as a GameCube and Wii exclusive.

That people don't tend to bring RE0 up very much in RE discussions is thusly less to do with its limited playerbase and simply down to how it's... just not all that great. While it's not quite bumping elbows with such bottom feeders as Resident Evil 6 (which is still in a league of its own as far as bad RE games go; Code Veronica makes for the second worst by the by), within the pantheon of the core releases at least it's really not that far off.

So, what is it exactly that buries RE0 so far down into the dirt? Well for starters, you have the very component that sets it apart from the likes of every other survival horror entry of the franchise, being its two character setup. Most RE games tend to give you a choice between two characters to play as, though RE0 was the first to feature two characters operating simultaneously. It's certainly an interesting idea in theory, and it seems like it was inevitable given how even the original Resident Evil was at a time designed with two characters coexisting together. Unfortunately there's really not very much benefit to the dual-protagonist setup, and in most cases actually hinders and pulls the game down to new disastrous depths that could have been avoided. For one thing you have your playable leads, Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen.

Combat for Two

From a story perspective they're perfectly fine, but Capcom's meager attempts to mechanically separate the two results in a few silly contrivances even by RE standards. Like, for one example, how they've made it so only Rebecca can mix herbs--healing poultices--together. In a vacuum wherein no other RE game exists, sure, it makes sense given that she's been specially trained as a medic and all. But there's been a lot of RE before then, and it's already been established that seemingly every citizen of Raccoon City knows how to mix some leaves together. As a result Billy is (and continues to be this many years onward) quite literally the onlycharacter in the entire video game franchise that can't mix herbs together. It's absurd!

The only other most notary difference between the two is how much damage they can withstand. Billy is a bloody tank and can take a rather copious amount of damage. More so than your average RE protagonist even far as the survival horror entries are concerned. Rebecca by comparison is a porcelain vase, which is fair given that he's a marine and she's still only an eighteen year old girl that specialises in the medical field. However what this results in is Rebecca often times feeling like a liability. If you're to play this game how Capcom (most likely) intended, then you'll have both Rebecca and Billy rollin' together. What this then leads to is Billy leading the charge, while Rebecca just sorta stands beside him, maybe occasionally chipping in if you set her behaviour to attack. If you're to attempt to flee or avoid enemies instead of taking them on, having two characters doing so simultaneously can lead to a few complications. For one most of the game's environments are as closed in and claustrophobic as you'd expect, especially in the Train and Training Facility sections. It can be hard enough to maneuver through a horde with one character, let alone when you have another that's just as vulnerable as you trailing behind or to your side.

The character differences simply aren't drastic enough to give either character their own role beyond Billy = Leader and Rebecca = ...? Rebecca for example has a medicine case as her personal item, but it's only used on two separate occasions to solve a puzzle, reducing it to nothing but an extra inventory slot you probably wish could house something else. I would have hoped that it could have been used to reverse the effects of healing items, exactly like what George could do in the RE: Outbreak series. Meaning you could add a blue herb into the mix so it can instead heal you, rather than simply curing you of poison. Billy's the same way, again with his one major benefit being that he can take more damage. As such they fall into very restrictive roles, with Billy again clearly operating as the leader who handles most of the combat, while Rebecca basically functions as a pack mule to carry more stuff.

Thanks to the two-character setup the combat is also kind of a mess. You do have a couple of basic AI guidelines that determines whether your partner will attack or not, and whether s/he follow or stay on the spot. But in the heat of you fighting for your character's life the AI is merely a handicap; an additional health bar you have to watch to keep the 'You Are Dead' screen at bay. When standing by your side, even with attack mode on, their rate of fire is pretty slow, meaning they don't really contribute much to the fight. And considering that they still of course use up whatever ammo they have in the process, it's preferable in most cases that they don't attack. If you try to run away, with attack on or off, they'll follow you without any concern of any enemies in their path, sometimes resulting in them taking damage. Given that combat can oftentimes result in a lot of shooting, running to a safer area, and then shooting some more, the AI lacks the intuitiveness to really keep up. You can at least use the right analogue stick to move the AI manually, but in the midst of all that may be happening it gets to be a hassle that I really wish I didn't have to deal with. Especially since you may accidentally move them outside of the camera angle you're in. So, what's the alternative? You basically explore as a single character, and must then potentially kill any enemies on your way to provide a safe path for your other character, or you attempt to avoid enemies with one character at a time. When you consider the first option... well, what's the bloody point of having a secondary character? And when you're avoiding combat you're still having to do so twice, with one also essentially having half the health of another.

Then there's the inventory, which honestly feels like another contrivance to justify having two simultaneous characters. Both Rebecca and Billy have but only six slots (which at least makes sense for Rebecca since that's how many she in the first RE), and most weapons that aren't handguns require two slots to carry. This thusly makes trying to eke out on your own a doomed affair, which is only compounded further by the lack of item boxes... Yup! No item boxes! You can at least drop items on the ground, but whereas with item boxes you could always store stuff knowing you can recollect it later on, once you've dropped an item in RE0 it's staying put unless you decide to return and pick it back up.

However there are quite a number of segments spread throughout the game will split the not-so-dynamic duo up. On two occasions you're forced to only play as one character, though for the most part such occasions typically involves one character having to use a hookshot to reach a different level of the area. From that point they each explore different segments of the location, sending items to and fro via a dumbwaiter if need be. On one hand this actually makes smart use of the two characters, better than any occasion where they're together. But on the other this then also brings me back to the inventory. When you've got both characters with 12 slots altogether, even if they're still split between two characters, it's reasonable enough as to not get in the way too much. But when you're forced to split up, while also having to account for weapons (and the hookshot too for that matter) that take up two slots, the level of inventory management can take its toll. The game isat least generous enough to allow you to use items immediately upon deciding whether to pick it up or not. Though besides healing items that's only if you have a spare slot available. So, say you want to make a molotov? You have the empty bottles but can't carry the gascan; rather than being able to combine them right there, you must first drop something onto the ground, then pick up the gascan, combine then together, and then pick up whatever it is you dropped. That is if you can find it, since items can sometimes overlap one another and certain camera angles can completely obfuscate just where the Hell the game placed them.

Then there's the issue of understanding which weapons to give each character. Without foreknowledge of what's to come, you're basically making a guess over which character may need the grenade launcher more for example. And such weapons are too big to trade via the dumbwaiter as well, so one character will likely have to be stuck with inferior weaponry. Separate saves are a necessity to say the least.

Even after saying all that, what is probably the best part of the whole game is actually when the game forces you to play as Rebecca on her lonesome. This is funnily enough the best outcome of the two character setup, for how it first lulls you into a sense of comfort from having played as Billy for so long, only to then be forced to play as the weaker of the game's two protagonists. It's a pretty great 'pulling the rug from beneath you' sort of moment.

Unfortunately the inventory issue plagues even this. Because there's no actual warning to when the event occurs that leaves Rebecca on her own, you could potentially find yourself ill equipped to temporarily continue on as Rebecca. If you're playing it the way you probably should, she ordinarily exists to carry all the healing and key items. The only weapons she'd have are ones that are out of ammunition. And then there's still the problem of her only having 6 slots at that. In fact for my own latest playthrough, even though I knew when it was coming, I decided to still leave her with the grenade launcher thinking there'd be ammo to collect for it down the line. There wasn't, and due to also carrying the handgun w/ ammunition, and then soon procuring the magnum w/ ammunition, I kept having to drop the grenade launcher, pick up key item, use key item, and then recollect the grenade launcher. In fact one time during this process I actually lost it completely! Shortly before you face the Proto-Tyrant, you need to collect a key to start the elevator. I thusly left the grenade launcher on the turntable I used to get there in the first place. However the boss battle brings a shutter down, halting any potential backtracking to the area. Even though you can make your way back to where you first took the turntable down, it can't be brought back up. The grenade launcher was thusly lost for good. Until I reloaded my last save, meaning that I had to face the Tyrant again but now at least with the knowledge of where not to drop... anything. So, that happened.

There are terrible demons... Ouch!

While Billy is a perfectly fine RE protagonist, in that he's not exceptionally annoying and has just enough personality to set him apart from the likes of Chris and Leon, since the years have passed I've often begun to ponder a particular 'what-if' scenario within the RE0 canon. One wherein he was replaced by fellow STARS member and eventual giant snake chow Richard Aiken. Rebecca and Richard had already been established via the game manuals as being somewhat close, with Richard taking it upon himself to try and make the rookie of the team feel a little more confident in her incredibly stressful position as a police officer. A buddy, of the cop nature, if you will. In the original RE it's also possible for you to meet Rebecca looking after Richard and his ugly snake bite, whereas in the REmake that's actually the only method to meeting Rebecca for the first time. They're the only Bravo members in the whole game (the first RE is) that are seen to interact, hinting towards a friendship that may have been important amidst the goings on of everybody somehow splitting up and becoming zombie (and crow, snake, dog ect.) fodder. Furthermore, in Umbrella Chronicles, there exists an unlockable campaign that stars Rebecca and Richard exploring the Spencer Mansion leading up to Richard's inevitable injury. That may have been released in 2007, but it still adds to my disappointment of envisioning RE0 instead featuring Richard as the leading lad rather than Billy.

Billy is again plenty suitable for the game, but he hasn't been seen or even mentioned since. I'm sure they're probably gearing him up to reappear amidst their current battle plan of ''PANDER TO YOUR HEARTS CONTENT'', but nonetheless it's hard not to imagine a slightly more tragic relationship centred on you playing as Richard, all the while knowing his ultimate fate in the next chronological game to follow. With Richard in the role instead, there'd also be no pressure for Capcom to reintroduce another long-forgotten character later in the series, as that character 'arc' would have long since been wrapped up as it were, too.

And speaking of the characters, the dissonance that is now created concerning Rebecca is hard to ignore. In RE0 she's one of the leads, and while you can (and should) largely play most of the game when possible as Billy, there are sections where you have to brave the monsters as Rebecca. Hell, she manages to (temporarily) take down a Tyrant! Point is RE0 puts Rebecca forward as being a pretty capable young woman... only the original Resident Evil portrays her as somebody who can't even hold her own against a single Hunter. It's not like she's merely a damsel in distress, and must even save Chris on up to two separate occasions, but given that she technically has an awful lot more experience with this stuff before the Alpha team have even arrived, you'd think she'd be the one leading the charge. As opposed to primarily hunkering inside medical rooms. Though they do at least make a cute reference to her inability to play the piano perfectly.

The story itself is serviceable, and Rebecca and Billy mesh pretty well together as a team. Though their lack of interaction beyond cutscenes is pretty noticeable, which creates this huge gaps of the two not saying a whole lot until the next cutscene. A different time of course, but considering how chatty the characters all are in Revelations 2 of last year, going back to RE0 has only highlighted the lack of dialogue between the two.

I quite like the premise of Billy's marine backstory, but they unfortunately do very little with it. It honestly feels as if there's some serious material at play here, concerning his unit that decides to just lay waste to an innocent village. But then given Capcom's level of storytelling it was probably for the best they didn't indulge much further.

Monkeys, bats, and leeches - oh fuck!

This may seem like a given to most, but RE0's controls are a little stodgy. Now yes yes tank controls blaarg, but I'm talking even amidst the series own standards. The remake is a prime comparison of how much more fluid the controls feel even with the tank control restrictions. For Zero however, it's as if everything has a few extra frames to it. Everything just seems to take a little longer than it would in other RE games. And no more is this a pain than against a few particular enemy types:

Annihilator

A pretty generic (if appropriate) term for them, but they fit right alongside the likes of Hunters and Lickers. These furry little fuckers are introduced before you've even put the main HUB area behind you. And while they look like they might resemble the Hunter equivalent of a faster, more ferocious enemy type, Hunters are in fact in RE0. And they got nothin' on Annihilators.

For one thing they're pretty damn small, while also being much faster and more aggressive than any Hunter. They have a similar assortment of attacks and are probably just as powerful - speaking for both their offense and defence capabilities. The worst part of it all is when there's multiple of them (so, always), because even if you keep one at a bay there's bound to be another that leaps right at you. And once they're close enough, they will just keep on slashin' at your heels as if they're peeling an onion. Their attacks are also so fast that the simple animation of aiming your weapon down to get a shot at them is too slow. Before you can even pull the trigger chances are you receive another slash and will flinch as a result. When you've got two or three all around you doing this you're essentially stunlocked until death. It's fucking maddening.

Giant Bat

This is a boss battle as opposed to an enemy type, thank god. Still, it's probably one of the series' worst I'd go as far as to say. Since it can fly, you thusly have to aim upwards to get a shot at it. Problem is the angle isn't the most sufficient to really see just where it's hovering and where you should shoot. Fortunately the game has auto-aim! Oh, but what's that? Now it's decided to spawn a bunch of smaller bats thereby giving you a dozen more enemies for your auto-aim to track? Well ain't that swell! The most suitable weapon is the shotgun given its trademark spread, but if you don't have enough ammo and have to fall to a different weapon, then know that I emphasise with your plight.

Marcus Mimics

Theeese antagonising shits. These Marcus Mimicking motherfucks! Seriously, for all of the fear and anguish that was spawned surrounding the Crimson Head zombies in the remake, they're mere rotten flesh waiting to be redeaded compared to the Leech zombies of RE0. Hell, Nemesis feels like he's more of a pushover than these guys!

God, where to begin? Well for starters they're extremely durable, as you may expect. They can withstand more damage than most bosses in this series. And you'll encounter multiple throughout the game. They're not mandatory to kill, but in some cases might as well be since they're likely patrolling areas you'll want to backtrack to. Also, for as durable as they are, if you don't kill them with fire, then before they die what remains of them will then begin to convulse and bubble up before exploding - which can often times kill you if not at least deal a significant amount of damage should you be caught in its range.

Their offensive capabilities are just as terrifying, too. Their main attack involves a gooey pimp slap, which has a lot of reach and can be pretty damn difficult to avoid. Though what's even worse is that slap of theirs often also brings them in close, giving them ample opportunity to do a bite, making for its one-two punch (and bite) equivalent. If you're playing as Rebecca you're likely being taken down to half health if caught within their leechy web. They're real fast too, course, and since you often encounter them in corridors and such they can be almost impossible to avoid without taking some damage in the process.

As said before fire works best against them. Though your only means of fire is incendiary rounds for the grenade launcher, which are pretty rare to find, and molotov cocktails, which are far more plentiful. The problem is the actual animation of you throwing a molotov has a windup; when viewed outside of any combat it seems hasty enough, but in the heat (hur) of combat with one of those things on your ass? forgettabouiiiiiit Similar to the situation with the annihilators, their attacks are so damn fast that they can often cancel out the animation of you trying to light up some leeches. They're an absolute pain and one of the most infuriating enemies throughout the whole series, right alongside a similarly stretchy enemy type by the name of Bandersnatchers. Which also happen to be from Code: Veronica, FYI. Follow the mo- bad video game design.

So... how is it as a port?

It's pretty solid, as to be expected. It's received practically all of the same polish and spit-shine as the remake saw a year before (jeez, how time flies...), with an alternate analogue control and widescreen options to boot. Though I can't say I approve of the added eyeliner they draped over Rebecca; that and her eyes in general look like marbles they're so weirdly reflective and shiny.

What's probably the biggest addition to the port is Wesker Mode, which you unlock upon completing the game. Though while it seems pretty zany at face value it's unfortunately rather bland. All it does is switch Billy for renowned series antagonist Albert Wesker, dressed in his RE5 attire as opposed to his STARS uniform I'm disappointed to say. He does have a couple of unique abilities, being a hilariously janky looking sprint and this weird Optic-Blast thing - an ability he's never exhibited in any other game in the series. Wesker is thusly extremely overpowered, making it a literal breeze to rush past enemies if you don't instead decide to make all of their heads immediately go pop. Oh, and Rebecca's still there, too. Sporting some admittedly awesome new digs that make her resemble a sort of Weskerette. But this mode honestly only makes Rebecca even less ancillary, as she herself doesn't gain any new abilities. It's fun for maybe the first hour, but really you're just playing through the main game again only now with the removal of any challenge whatsoever.

It is kind of funny to have it essentially make a complete mockery of what is otherwise the hardest entry in the survival horror era of games, but it's hardly interesting enough to still justify another playthrough. That it's still Billy's voice coming out of him in the cutscenes is kinda goofy, though. It would have been pretty incredible if D.C. Douglas could have just recorded all of Billy's dialogue (if not some new stuff) with Wesker's trademark inflections! But as is he only provides a few lines of dialogue when you tell your partner to follow or stay put. Again, it's kinda meh and the novelty is very short lived. Still probably a better alternative to playing the Leech Hunter minigame at least.

Honestly the best thing about this whole port is how you can change between your costumes on the fly in your inventory! The game's default costumes are unlocked from the start as well, however all of those new ones I've been hyping are all either preorder bonuses or DLC... I totally put down the £2 to get those alternate STARS outfits for Rebecca.

Oh! Conclusion

To put it simply virtually everything that RE0 still manages to do right has already been performed better in other RE games, and everything else it has to offer for it to stand out ironically enough has only made it worse. At its best it's still generally pretty average, but it fails to keep to even that level of quality in large part due to its attempts to strike out and carve its own path. While it deserves the kudos for at least trying something different, a failed experiment still amounts to a failure. And there's ultimately nothing in RE0 that you couldn't get out of the far superior REmake, to the point where RE0 kinda feels borderline obsolete within the series as a whole.

It sure does look pretty, though.

RE6 still a good game.

I bought 0 when I bought a gamecube way back when but only wound up playing it for like 30 minutes. Leech Zombies, everyone's favorite.

I don't get the hate for Resident Evil 0, despite this exceptionally detailed post (I'll share more of my thoughts when I'm not on my phone), whereas Resident Evil 6 is the epitome of a poor Resident Evil experience.

Edit:

I suggest re-reading Resident Evil 6 reviews, but chief among its faults, enemies, alive or dead, did not react to weapons fire; bosses refused to stay six feet under; quick-time events required reflexes not possessed by the average human; vital gameplay tutorials remained hidden in the two-seconds-long loading screens; and aiming down your firearm’s sights produced a field of view so narrow you could kiss the character’s ears. Jake was also the unlikeliest protagonist in the series (when has Wesker ever given two shits about someone other than himself?), and crafting health-replenishing pills took upward of ten different button presses. While the developers only patched it into an acceptable state months after release, please tell me how original Neo-Umbrella is as an organization. Nothing can save that game's story.

Resident Evil 0, on the other hand, pioneered the partner system that would define every ensuing Resident Evil, and its AI conserves ammo unlike the wasteful practices of Resident Evil 5's Sheva. Dropping items for later use is never a hassle, either. Any items you with interact with, even if you don't pick them up, are marked on your map for later. Moreover, the areas are small enough that backtracking is no worse than the first Resident Evil or its remake. If I recall, you can't even leave items on the ground. You have to juggle them between items boxes and your inventory. Resident Evil 0's two-protagonists spiel doubles your available inventory, too. How many slots did Chris have in Resident Evil? Six. Jill? Eight. At most, Jill could carry ten items in Resident Evil 3.

I won't defend the unoriginal monsters, though they do make sense from a narrative standpoint. The apes, insects, and such were used for testing before humans. That said, I think Resident Evil 0 has one of the strongest starts of any Resident Evil game, even Resident Evil 4. The train serves as a unique aesthetic to teach players the basics. The original Resident Evil overwhelmed people with doors, both locked and unlocked, from the start. On the train, it is impossible to lose your bearings, and you get accustomed to switching between Billy and Rebecca to solve rudimentary puzzles.

It's an excellent port, just like the REmake was. As a side note it BLOWS MY MIND that people think RE6 is anywhere near as bad as RE0. RE0 is the worst mainline game without question, in every single way other than visuals. Crap story, crap systems, crap characters, crap environments. Code Veronica is my second least favorite, but it has its moments. RE0 has nothing except for some decent buildup of the Wesker/Birkin side of things and a couple of cool Matrix moments from Billy.

Nice write up. Not gonna defend 0 here. Not even sure if I want to play this... Maybe if the wesker mode was more campy. I thought when they announced it they were going to rewrite the story with wesker, not just have Billy's lines come from wesker.

Yup this article continues to tell me that it isn't worth playing Resident Evil 0. It really is to bad they messed up inventory management so much after doing a reasonable job of giving the player better options in most other RE games. Also those enemies don't sound like well designed enemies. At least they did a good job of porting it.

My playthrough of RE0 at the end of 2014 is still fresh enough in my mind that I'm probably good not revisiting this fancy-pants HD version until it goes on sale. We've had this discussion before, though I don't think I have as much of a problem with the two character stuff as you do. It's occasionally clunky and never truly well-realized from a puzzle perspective, but I think we can both agree the scariest part of RE0 (aside from the leech zombies) is the inventory management. Being forced to cart the hookshot to Marcus' lab is more than a little infuriating and it brings to mind the idea of trying to play REmake Real Survivor mode with Chris.

While I might like the game more than you, it still occupies the second-to-last spot on my personal Resident Evil tier list, below 3 but above Code Veronica. The thing I like about Zero, and the thing it does really well, is that its environments are still atmospheric as all hell, even if the Umbrella Training Facility itself is kind of a bland, mansion-like environment that only gets cool when you're in the basement. I also have a fondness for the last third of the game, Marcus' lab onward, and I think that Water Treatment Plant is a fun contrast to the evil laboratories these games usually end with.

I guess my question is, did anything specific stand out to you on this playthrough that maybe didn't before?

I might be a bit controversial when I say that they should do a RE with no combat. I would rather they refine their puzzle and inventory management systems. They would still have enemies, but instead of fighting them in a shooter-like fashion, you would trap them in various environmental ways. Good write up. I might play this eventually, tho.

I was actually contemplating getting this very soon, but reading your write up here convinced me not to. This is the only mainline game in the series I've never finished. It's been so long since I've played it, and I don't remember large chunks of it, but I definitely remember being endlessly frustrated by the inventory management and worrying about both characters. I'll probably wait for a sale, because I really would like to revisit it someday. I just don't feel like dealing with the game's shitty design choices at the moment.

That said, I did always like the opening on the train. That whole environment was great and and served as a great and effective intro. I remember the rumors before the game came out that the entire thing was set on the train, and just thinking "how the hell is that gonna work?" As it turns out, it was still by far the best part of the game.

And I'm gonna go ahead and say that Code: Veronica is a WAY better game than 0, simply by virtue of not being strapped with bunch of failures of experimental game mechanics. Of course RE6 is still, and hopefully will always be, the worst in the series. 0 would be my second least favorite, but it's still leagues better than that shit.

mang u crazy

@boss_kowbel: I, er, think you misread me as you're preaching to the choir with your RE6 tirade. Unless you were responding to FCD? But yeah, I consider RE6 to be one of the worst across the entire franchise.

But the AI doesn't conserve ammo, it just shoots at such a slow fire rate as to where it doesn't matter. That is unless you've got it equipped with a bigger weapon like the shotgun, which you should probably never do I'd say. As I mentioned in the blog I only gave Rebecca weapons so as to hold onto them; I never actually allow her to use them unless I'm the one controlling her. The only instance where I'd allow her to fire away was during the first phase of the final boss, because why wouldn't you.

The AI in RE5 is a different conversation, one I've had many a time over at this point (I really oughta get around to writing about RE5 one day; figured I might as well wait for the inevitable remastering, though), but I've always stood up for it in so much as you let it use separate weapons to your own. So say you use a handgun, you give the AI an assault rifle, that way you're not eating into each other's ammo pool. Also a sniper rifle, because the AI is a living legend with one of those.

But it is a hassle, though, as I explained in the article. While yes items are marked on the map, the game can sometimes place items you've dropped so close together that's it's all down to chance for whether you collect the one you want. And again, in certain locations items can become obfuscated because of the camera angle. Being able to drop items is a brilliant idea for one of these games, but at the cost of the item boxes? Hell naw. Item boxes are superior because there's usually so many of them that you never need to backtrack too much when you want to take something out of it. Whereas with dropped items that could go either way. The hookshot is the prime offender, to which for many I'm sure has been left at the wreckage of the train, only for the game to eventually demand you return there all the way from the church... With newly spawned annihilators everywhere to deal with along the way, too.

Yes, they have 12 slots between them... but so many of the game's weaponry takes up two slots, which also includes that damnable hookshot piece of shit, too. That's not the case in any other game besides RE2, and even then that only accounts for really powerful weapons like the flamethrower or rocket launcher. I'll agree that Chris's inventory is a little stingy in the remake (especially regarding the small keys), though the remake is designed to where the shotgun eventually overtakes all the duties of the pistol, whereas in RE0 there's not enough shotgun ammo to procure for that to happen. I thusly never felt comfortable in giving up the handgun - I did eventually get rid of Rebecca's pistol, but for most players I'm sure they'd be too afraid of abandoning any weapon for good. Especially since without item boxes, you could drop it somewhere and it could be such a distance away that it might as well be gone for good. With item boxes, however, you can rest assured that the handgun would never be not too far off if you'd need it again.

...Now this is a weird one because nowhere did I critique the enemy design. I think they're no worse than any other game in the series, and in fact I think the Proto-Tyrant in particular looks fakkin' awesome.

The train is indeed a great opening chapter and makes for a sound tutorial to easing in players to how the game operates. Though that said the main bulk of the game takes place in the training facility, which just seems like a less memorable Spencer Mansion. Also, I actually really like how open the first RE is. I love how they allow you to explore at your own pace from the get-go; it's daunting, but it works to the game's favour, especially since you can collect all of the necessary crests/death masks in any order. No other environment in this series is as well designed as the Spencer Mansion. With the shortcuts you unlock, and the way you slowly accrue better weaponry allowing you better handle enemies you may have avoided previously, it's very much akin to an environment out of the first Dark Souls.

Anywhoo since this is such a long response imma leave it here for now, but as always I will respond to everyone who's kind enough to comment!

@yummylee: My Resident Evil 6 rant was more to express that I have nothing good to say about it, beyond it looking pretty sometimes. Resident Evil 0 may as well be Resident Evil 4 by comparison.

But the AI doesn't conserve ammo, it just shoots at such a slow fire rate as to where it doesn't matter.

I actually found the AI to be invaluable during a boss fight. Rebecca fires only when you do, whereas Billy unleashes hell. I had no problems taking control of the other character temporarily (via the right analog stick) to keep them out of danger while also providing fire support.

the game can sometimes place items you've dropped so close together that's it's all down to chance for whether you collect the one you want.

Maybe I'm a case study, but I never encountered a problem picking up the items I wanted, even after dropping them en masse.

Item boxes are superior because there's usually so many of them that you never need to backtrack too much when you want to take something out of it.

I'm replaying the Resident Evil remake now and I'm having to backtrack as much as (if not more than) I did with Resident Evil 0 HD. You don't encounter your first item box, at least as Jill, until you're 20 minutes into the game. For new players, it's entirely possible for them to fill their inventory before locating said item box.

whereas in RE0 there's not enough shotgun ammo to procure for that to happen.

Again, that's an issue I never dealt with. I combed over every room, and by the end of Resident Evil 0's campaign (on normal difficulty), I'd saved more than 50 shotgun shells. I also carried the grenade launcher and magnum on me at all times, because I don't bother picking up herbs or first aid sprays.

nowhere did I critique the enemy design

It's a qualm I've seen mentioned in other critic reviews, and I only mentioned it as a contrast to my praise for Resident Evil 0; I'm hard-pressed to find further faults. I prefer its straightforward environments, though the villain is a load of anime rubbish. I get why people may not like the inventory management, the story, what have you, but as someone that's played every Resident Evil, to actively hate it is beyond my understanding.

I mean, it kinda blows my mind that you think RE6 is better than RE4. Also that you like the CG RE movies. But, yanno, things and stuff.

Cheers. And yeah, I'm real disappointed, too. D.C. Douglas seems like he'd have been willing to record it all, too. Guy loves his Wesker - I guess it's still pretty much his most defining role, for better or worse. Well, that and Legion.

Credit where credit's due, it is indeed a really damn good port job.

The Water Treatment Plant certainly makes for a change from the classic Umbrella lab, but I think I prefer the factory in RE3 for my non-lab ending environments.

As to your question... I don't think so. I had forgotten enemy placements and precisely where to go due to Zero being the one I've definitely played the least, but everything I disliked is still exactly how I remembered it basically.

I don't think that's a controversial opinion, I'm sure plenty would like a purely adventure-style RE game. I mean i guess we kinda got that with Haunting Ground? Clock Tower 3 too for that matter - though CT3 at least isn't very good. Still, even as someone who likes the combat of the old-school RE games, I'm certainly not opposed to one that doubles-down on the adventurin' and (presumably) the horror along with it.

White Night is another game that's very akin to an RE game but without the combat.

I played an hour or so of RE0 a few years ago and didn't remember being too impressed, but returning to it now and starting on hard mode I've been enjoying the game quite thoroughly. I always felt that these games were too generous with their items, and RE0 is exactly the kick in the teeth I've been wanting from RE. My main issue with the game though is that the research facility level doesn't feel anywhere near as inspired or memorable as the Spencer mansion. Even the hallways in REmake had something interesting going on for each frame, and RE0 doesn't have that same spark. As a game level its actually fairly good and while the puzzles aren't particularly hard they're still satisfying to solve when you unlock more parts of the house. Also, the train section is actually a lot better than I remember it being. They managed to make it feel interconnected, kind of like what Dark souls did.

I have mixed feelings on the moments where both characters separate, because on one hand it can create a situation where you're stuck with a character who has to deal with a bunch of shit with next to nothing, but on the other it can create a lot of tension if you only have barely enough to get through. There was a moment in the game that trapped me as Rebecca in a room with two hunters and she only had a pistol, but I still managed to make it out. (I guess my experience with pistol only run for REmake helped me out there.) Then there was the fight with the giant centipede where I had Billy use mixed herbs that Rebecca dropped to pick up the key. I guess luck and some skill have kept me from getting too fucked in this game.

The unrelenting difficulty has been enough to win me over on this game though. I got to a situation where I thought my game was fucked when I had to take on a leach zombie with Billy in danger status, only to find out there was a green herb next to it, which rebecca could mix with her red one. RE has never been this difficult, and I love it.

@yummylee: Ha, fair enough. I guess we'll always agree to disagree. I just feel like RE0 is a fundamentally bad game, whereas RE6 is at least far more playable. And RE4 would be perfectly fine if it had just been paced better. Way too long, too many repetitive environments, and Ashley got kidnapped way too much. Other than that, it had a strong basis for the rest of the series, and there are some great moments (the village, stuff with Krauser, a few other bits and pieces). I could definitely do without caves for a few Resident Evils, though. I think the cave portions in each game are always the weakest segments of the game. RE0, RE1, RE4, RE5, RE6...all of those parts blew.

Huzzah! Influence!

The train sequence is a great opening and is definitely one of the most evocative environments in the game. Though for how much the train tends to represent RE0 (to the point where you'd think it was the game's Spencer Mansion/RPD Station equivalent), it's funny to consider then that it actually only takes up maybe like a.... fifth of the entire game. Which no doubt speaks to how far the game falters from that point on.

Zero manages to stand above Veronica because i think it's at the very least a great looking and, at times, a highly atmospheric adventure. It certainly doesn't compare with the likes of the remake on that front, but it's still superior to the Dreamworks art style of Veronica. Plus Veronica has Steve Burnside, which honestly makes it a prime candidate to be shot directly into the sun and erased from history.

I wrote an awful lot as to why I think Veronica is the second worst mainline entry of the series over here! It may be @nightriff's blog, but I responded to it with what was essentially a blog all of my own... :P

Oh no, the AI will most definitely fire on their own if they're set to attack. Though it's probably because their fire rate is so slow that you may not notice it and would assume it only fires when you're firing.

Also, there's only actually two bosses in the game wherein you fight with both characters - the second Proto-Tyrant fight and the Leech Queen fights. Though you can at least choose to fight the Tyrant on your own by simply telling the other to stay put in a different area, which is most definitely the way to go because of how slim the battle arena is. It can sometimes be tricky in maneuvering past the thing on its own, let alone with another character in tow.

The first phase of the Queen Leech is thusly the only boss in the game where you're forced to have both characters unloading at once. Though by that point I'm more comfortable in letting the AI let loose some grenade launcher rounds, since you might as well have the AI doing something. Though because you're definitely going to be wanting to move about pretty frequently, it still involves you having to constantly turn the AI's attack patterns on and off. If it's still set to on, the AI may still keep on firing at the boss instead of sticking close to you.

You do also fight it for a short while in its second phase, though the bulk of it involves you once again playing as only character while the other turns all of the valves. That said I do think this is a pretty good end boss and is probably one of the survival horror series' best even.

I suppose so, but it happened enough times for me to stand out. One example in particular was the room in the train where you collect the hunting rifle, with another being that save room near the end of the game with all of the bunk beds.

You're not wrong, it could potentially take a new player a while to find an item box. However because of how the mansion is designed, you're constantly unlocking shortcuts to give you more freedom in how you travel throughout the building, which includes quicker (and potentially safer) routes back to the item box. Plus you could still, say, leave your handgun in one of the mansion item boxes and could then reclaim it when you're in the end game laboratory. Which is a luxury you're not afforded in RE0.

I was playing on Hard mode, so that no doubt accounts for why there was so little shotgun ammo. Not enough to replace the handgun certainly anywhoo. Still, without any item boxes it always felt like more of a gamble in abandoning a weapon completely. Who knows if I would keep finding enough shotgun ammo to sustain till the end? Maybe I'd eventually want to start saving it for bosses and would instead prefer to fall back on my handgun. A handgun, if left back in the an earlier environment, might as well be gone for good.

@yummylee

Oh no, the AI will most definitely fire on their own if they're set to attack.

I've tested this before on normal and easy. I have no idea if the difficulty affects AI behavior, but Rebecca will not fire a shot unless Billy is in danger. In the room to the right of the first mansion typewriter, I stood by the door while zombies slowly shuffled towards me. Rebecca only used her weapon when a zombie grabbed me or when I fired the first shot, and the same rules applied to the leech men and roaches.

Distance also seems to affect Billy's mindset. On the second Tyrant fight, I murdered it with Rebecca (going for that Officer Chambers trophy) and seven magnum rounds before Billy fired one. The Tyrant didn't take a step towards me.

I'm not saying the AI can't vary in its behavior from time to time, but I've had to do some testing to the anxiety of starting the game on hard.

RE0 is easily the most difficult, and while I'll admit that it was a nice change of pace to die so many times resulting in a much more methodical playthrough than I'm used to (because of how most RE games are hardwired into my brain), I still think RE0 is difficult for a lot of the wrong reasons. The remake on Hard mode feels like a fair but difficult challenge, whereas RE0 is kinda fucked in some regards.

Hmm, I stand corrected then!

Great write up Yummy! I think this entire blog post sums up why I only beat RE0 once back in the heyday of the Gamecube. For all the experimentation this game did and the potential excitement of seeing the fate of Bravo team before Chris and friends show up was a powerful draw as someone who loves the first RE to death. It just didn't deliver, full stop.

Like you said, the game feels slower (somehow),the AI buddy system, dropping items in rooms,the puzzles they had that required two people were just not very good and all sorts of other things felt like bolting stuff onto an game engine that was just probably not attuned to what they were trying to go to from the jump. I was also disappointed in the lack of Bravo team shenanigans, I wanted to see a little bit of incite into these characters before their eventual death and other then seeing Edward and Enrico once these dudes might as well of not existed. I also enjoyed Billy a lot as a character, his dry "man, fuck all of this shit" kind of attitude was pretty entertaining but he just feels like a waste in the grand scheme of things since he was a wham-bam thank you ma'am character of only showing up once and not really adding a ton to the overall fiction. I agree with adding Richard as the leading man would of added a lot of weight to things.

Imagine how much it would of made things more heart wrenching for Rebecca as a character if you look back to the REmake and think of all they went through together and Richard finally bites it. It would of done a bit more to convey the struggle of Bravo teams fight for survival before Alpha hits the scene, instead it's Rebecca and a surly ass convict against the world. The game could of probably done well of having a bravo team member having a support role of showing up every so often, kind of like how Jill/Chris would run into Barry/Rebecca every so often in the mansion. Maybe expanded upon Edward or another bravo team member like Richard or Kenneth (someone has to think of poor Kenneth!) of showing up to help with a couple of things and trying their hardest to link up with the rest of the team and maybe setting up more of an uneasy alliance with Billy. I suppose with always having another person in tow they didn't see the need to offer a support character since you always had one. It makes the general lack of conversing with each other outside of cut scenes much weirder looking at it now. Until the next cut scene it's just Billy and Rebecca in a room nodding at each other to do stuff with Billy occasionally going "Yeah".

I think even with all of this though I think Code Veronica is still lesser on the RE totem pole for me because of the general lack of a shit I give for the entire story in that game. It also being ground zero for anime Wesker probably being the biggest reason as to why, at least with 0 we got a little more of behind the scenes puppet master Wesker. I still think I want to play this game again (REmake takes precedent though! Need to buy that) but reading this just reminds me that playing through that game was kind of a hot mess. I've always been an intermediate RE player, I was never that great at dodging enemies and having to handle two characters at once to side line enemies or to do it twice with each character was just always an insufferable choice to make for me.

Still, I have a morbid curiosity to see maybe I'll find a new place for it in my heart. More then anything I just want to play some old ass Resident Evil again so I'll more than likely buy these two together and make a marathon out of it.

@lost_remnant: I know we definitely discussed this before, but yes, it's particularly disappointing that even if Richard isn't along for the ride, none of the other Bravo members are, either. Enrico and Dewey are the only two who apparently have something to say, while the rest just stand around all conspicuously quiet like. Also Enrico's insistence that Rebecca must apprehend Billy for arrest is the dumbest thing considering the situation... That he's also willing to leave the rookie member of the team to her own devices when he meets up with her in the lab makes him seem like a really terrible team captain!

Alright, it's gonna sound like blasphemy coming from me but bear with me.

I'm playing it with alternate controls...

I can explain!!!

Actually you already addressed this. I remembered the game feeling noticeably more sluggish than REmake which itself wasn't as fast and responsive as the old PS1 games. It reaches a point where tank controls just won't do anymore. It just feels awful where it felt perfectly adequate in older games. It also feels like the alternate controls work better in this one than in last year's remaster. They're still not great with the rapid camera angle changes but they still help make the game better and it needs all the help it can get.

In any case, i haven't played much yet, just the train section, which is the only thing i remember from this game until you get to the RE2 factory/lab environment.

Oh and that fucking bat...

@pr1mus: I actually tried out the alternate controls for the first time with RE0, and while they can occasionally make avoiding enemies like the leech zombies a little easier, I still really don't like how you're locked into place when switching camera angles. Just feels off and really finicky. The tank controls in the remake were never an obstacle for me, though. While your 180 degree turn isn't as instantaneous as it is in RE3, they're still fast and fluid enough that I got by without any serious issue.

I'm playing through RE0 the first time ever I'm at the Cable Car part. Loving and hating the game the OP's review of the game is pretty much spot on. The small item slots, No item boxes leaving stuff all over the place, Rebecca's weak health leaving you to explore almost excusively with Billy, Exploring versus the amount of enemies is like 10 times as much not enough combat. Like he said everything here was done better in Remake. This feels like a hybrid of Code Veronica and Remake with a worse inventory system. The controls weren't polished like in Remake which is odd considering how well that was done. All said I look forward to finishing it and probably playing Remake again instead lol. I'll probably tinker with this because of the Wesker mode and Rebecca costumes.