Completion Time: 17h:46m:00s
Rating: 8/10

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Another Mansion?

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So soon? Yes, somewhat accidentally, I decided to complete two horror games structured around mansions back to back. But as opposed to "The Haunted Mansion", everyone is familiar with Resident Evil. Whether it's the original, the 2002 redo, or the HD remake, you surely have some passing familiarity with the game that started a multi-media PlayStation franchise? Well I sure do, as I went over last year. For this first game, I have at least played it before and I remember having a decent enough time. But I was much younger and couldn't wrap my head around a number of the puzzles, so this is not just my first time completing the game, but even finishing it. Let's go!

I hope there are no zombies this time around...

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A Night to Remember

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You know what you're getting into with these types of games, so there isn't too much to say. It's a survival horror where you find yourself in an isolated location, and you have to fight monsters and solve puzzles to make your way to a helicopter (feels like it's always a helicopter?). As the night progresses, you'll find keys that unlock other keys, and vague boxes that you'll need to inspect to get even MORE keys, and the occasional gem that you have to insert into a statue doesn't hurt. All the while, somebody on the S.T.A.R.S. team is a traitor and is lurking about! I know this was more impactful in a time when we didn't have almost 3 decades of games to build upon, but it's always fun to go back to these sorts of things and already knowing where everyone ends up.

Best pals Chris and Wesker hangin' out

I complained about the variety of creatures in Resident Evil Zero because they were mostly animals, and it's funny in a way because I didn't remember the same basically applying to this title as well. You've got your zombies and freakish monkey abominations, of course. But you can't forget about the dogs, bugs, giant snakes, regular snakes, giant sharks, giant spiders, even giant-er spider. Lots of animals to go on here. And I've calmed a bit on this, it makes sense that animal testing is the first go to for a medical/research facility. I was mainly keeping the Crimson Heads and the like in mind when thinking back on the series, not to mention the variety that the series builds up over time. But animals are a humble, and sensical start. The chimeras were something I was unaware of, having never made it that far in the game prior, and I hated these things with a passion. But kudos to a game being able to creep me out in this way, I REALLY don't like things with flailing, spindly limbs such as these things.

Disgusting little ghoul

I've always had a problem with extensive backtracking, and this kind of game lends itself to that premise. But as you progress through the campaign (and especially for subsequent playthroughs), you find yourself having to revisit previous areas less and less as you start to remember where everything is naturally located. My main gripe this time around is that I've always felt the "Examine" mechanic was never well thought out. Some of the puzzles and combat encounters can be challenging, but nothing as much so as running around the mansion for 45 minutes only to realize that you never actually investigated an item in your inventory. It isn't like the game doesn't tell you about this feature either, it does let you know and reminds you when necessary. But there's a lot going on here! I don't have time to investigate a dog collar to get a coin, only to then ALSO investigate the coin to get a fake key. There are lots of pieces here that can verge into obnoxious early point-&-click adventure game territory, but again I can get over that. It isn't as intrusive as I might make it sound, but the instances where it cropped up where standouts in time wasting.

How do you fit a key into a collar? Turn it into a key, of course!

For me, this game really shines through its boss battles. There are a handful, and they range in how involved you can say they are, and they all boil down to just shooting an enemy until it dies. So, no real inventive puzzles or ways to actually bring down these baddies with the exception of king shark Neptune (though I'd hardly call that a boss fight). But snake Yawn and the original Titan have so much fanfare and booming music behind them that I can't help but get hyped, even if I'm just running around in a circle. My favorite little tidbit is that the final encounter with Titan on the helipad doesn't... always happen? I guess it depends on whether or not you save your comrades, which shift depending on which of the two characters your playing as. But if you're doing a speedrun and not opting for saving these comrades, the game helps you out a little by just letting you get on the helicopter. I'm assuming this was intentional, as the stakes with the final fight don't feel as strong if you don't have a character cowering in the corner as the beast wanders towards them.

Shark's biggest weakness: electricity. Few know this!

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Completing the Game

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As with every RE title, there are unlockables for clearing certain modes and doing speedruns. Well, sort of. Something that I noticed with this one, at least on the GameCube, is that there are multiple modes that you can unlock to play, but you don't have to beat them to unlock anything. This was cool, because it took the pressure off of me! I messed around in the three additional modes a bit, but I didn't commit myself to them so I could focus on the speedrunning, which is what really took the wind out of my sails. At any rate, beat the game twice to unlock "Real Survival Mode", which means that all the item boxes are isolated and don't connect. This is a pain in the ass and I find no enjoyment in this mode! I think primarily because backtracking already gets on my nerves as it is, and I tolerate it for the sake of these games. But this requires constant back and forth even long after puzzles are solved, and you better remember where you stored certain items or else you'll never find what you need!

How can you play an RE game without a box loaded with garbage?

If you beat the game three times, you unlock the "Invisible Enemy Mode", which is also pretty rough because you literally can't see ANYTHING playing this. You can still listen for enemies, and there are environmental clues that'll tell you an enemy is close. But I couldn't imagine trying to do boss battles through this mode, and I think if you want to keep your sanity, you need to make sure you're unlocking those special items! What are those? Well, if you can speed through the game in 5 hours and 3 hours, you'll unlock the endgame rocket launcher and special handgun respectively. The handgun is nice, the rocket launcher is... less nice. I could rarely get it to hit, and it takes an awful lot of time to fire a single round. I'm sure it works decently enough on bosses, but I never tried to engage bosses with this item. Didn't help that it was the last thing I unlocked anyways, so I never got a chance outside of just experimenting around with it!

Notice how the zombie can be seen in the mirror only, that's kinda cool

If you go through and beat the game twice as Chris and twice as Jill, you'll end up unlocking the alternate costumes for both which is... something. These always feel weird, because it doesn't really add anything to replayability. I feel like for these types of games, it's always more interesting to just leave the costumes as something that cheat codes can unlock. Leave the unlock parameters for gameplay modes and special weapons, please! Finally, once you've beat the game once with Chris and once with Jill, you'll unlock the "One Dangerous Zombie" mode. Through this, there will be a lumbering zombie with bombs strapped to him following you around through the earliest portions of the game. Shoot him, he blows up, game over. Simple as, especially if you've gotten accustomed to speedrunning at this point, because you should be able to dodge most zombies at this point in your playthrough.

See Jill fly!

As usual, I enjoy the survival horror game but I hate the process of completion, because they're always unhinged and with WAY too many components, many of which aren't really worth it. But just playing the game is fun enough, and I'm happy that I can finally put a notch in my belt for such a legendary entry in the genre. I have plenty of blind spots when it comes to things like this, but RE is no longer one of them. Well, the original anyways. I still have 2, 3, and 4 to go through in the coming years. Maybe I'll take care of 2 AND 3 next October, we'll see if time permits.

This is another entry in a series where I go through and complete every GameCube game, as it is the largest part of my video game collection. GameCube Games: 27/652