Resident Evil Zero (2002)

A couple of years ago there was a Capcom Publisher Sale and I picked up every RE game I didn't have. Since then, I've been gradually playing through them. RE:0 is easily the worst of the lot, so far. An amalgamation of all the worst features from previous games, supported by a plot that was weak and fairly uninteresting.

Instead of giving you a crate to store your items in, the game forces you to place everything on the ground. If you hunt and collect everything you can, then you'll end up having a room with the floor covered in gear. Of course, the rooms have an item limit, so you'll have to pick a second room to store the remaining goodies. Then you'll just end up leaving most of them behind anyway when you progress and different areas are no longer accessible.

The boss fights were okay, but the puzzles required almost an obscene amount of backtracking. This was largely running through rooms that were already cleared of enemies and waiting on door animations, which just made the experience painful. Boss fights were also often placed far away from save points, so if you happened to die, you could waste an incredible amount of time loading your save and then traveling back to the boss room.

Lastly, the camera is awful. I found the camera angle trigger placed in odd locations. I might take a single step back in a room to move out of a boss's range and suddenly my angle has changed to a view that does not include the boss. Now I'm blind firing or retreating to locate a new angle where I can see the boss again. Or my partner, who has terrible AI, is taking a beating and I can't see them to rescue them.

If you're a completionist, go for it, but if you only want to play the good RE games, skip this one.

My Resident Evil Reviews:

• Resident Evil 0
• Resident Evil 1 - Remake
• Resident Evil 2 - Remake
• Resident Evil 3 - Remake

Resident Evil Zero, a game so misunderstood. Rarely is it brought up without being immediately trashed for “tedious, broken mechanics”, and it’s nearly universally seen as Resident Evil Remakes ugly attic-dwelling cousin.

And I don’t blame anyone for feeling this way. The tedium of both: lugging around every individual item due to the absence of storage boxes, while also trying to juggle two characters with questionable AI… its flaws can easily overshadow its greatness. But what I discovered on a recent replay is an immensely satisfying, fun, challenging game that really rewards veteran survival horror fans.

It’s really a shame, because I feel like a few extra guidance tips could have salvaged the whole experience. There is the infamous hookshot debacle: an early game item that almost everyone drops, only to realize you need that very item near the end of the game. This means you have to backtrack through swarms of enemies, draining your HP and ammo. But what if Capcom had just left a convenient note stating how it’s an important item that will help you throughout the facilities?

Since it was my second playthrough, I knew there were many similar pain points in store for me, so I did some research and made a list of tips to help make it a smoother experience. And it really did make all the difference, it smoothed out the many jagged edges and I realized just how great the underlying game is.

No doubt, it still has its tedium. The item box issue still gives moment of utter boredom, making multiple trips, watching the same door animations over and over. But it also made me think, strategize, and really feel that sense of “survival”. The combat is quite tough too, and it really challenges you in every way that the genre can.

There’s a lot it does really well - it’s every bit as beautiful as the 2002 remake, with richly detailed environments. It’s got some great body horror, fun puzzles, and b-movie charm. It’s a game meant for the most hardcore fans- just do some research first.

Ok so I do play on easy, as a preface, but I found this game to be very fun despite alot of common gripes. I totally left the hookshot in the train rubble and had to go get it but other than that I found throwing shit on the floor to be fine. Definitely not as good as magical item boxes but it was okay for me. I also found playing as two characters pretty fun, I like how this game gave Rebecca more of a story and I think that Billy is a very underrated RE character.

The setting is beautiful and interesting and while I didnt find the villian that compelling, his leeches were p cool and creepy. I like the GameCube Era for RE, I think everything just looks so good in the style they used for that time period.

I have generally always felt that Resident Evil 0 was the weakest of the original fixed-camera angle style games in the series (except perhaps for Outbreak which I haven't played enough of to form an opinion on yet). Replaying it now...I probably feel about the same. But I do find that as many faults as the game has, I still think it's mostly a pretty good game that while it makes some missteps, experimented in important ways that weren't all bad. On the whole, I still like the game, but comparing it to its fellow classic Resident Evil companions, it's hard not to see the rough edges.

First, the good, the game looks great. In my opinion, 0 looks about as good as REmake, maybe even a little better at times, which is saying something since I love the look of REmake. There's a bit of fuzziness in the cutscenes and a bit of inconsistency in the environment design, but the backgrounds in this game are really beautifully designed for a game of this time. The train segment at the beginning especially looks fantastic. The mansion also looks quite good, even if aesthetically it's a little recycled from the Spencer mansion.

While I'll get into some ambivalence here, I do like some of the experimentation in the game. The two most striking changes are the shift to partner-based gameplay and the new inventory management system. Apart from a few short segments, you have the ability to switch between two characters, Rebecca and Billy. Many puzzles require maneuvering both characters into the right position or splitting up to accomplish something in two different places. Additionally, the characters have certain advantages and disadvantages. For instance, Billy is tougher but Rebecca has the ability to mix herbs, which he can't do. For the most part, I don't really like the idea of this buddy system that detracts from the iconic dread of solitude the series to this point thrived on. However, from a gameplay perspective, it is mostly implemented well and jives well with the game's narrative themes as these characters, initially hostile strangers, are forced to work together and become closer in dire circumstances. There are some hiccups such as being unable to switch characters while one is being grabbed, which seems like the exact moment you'd want to be able to swap. But for the most part, the system isn't just tacked on and is integrated with the game's structure quite well.

Given you have two characters, you also get double the inventory space between them, which seems like an obvious advantage in a series that to this point has put a lot of emphasis on limited inventory slots. Perhaps the game's biggest flub from a gameplay perspective is how hard they over-balanced to make up for this. Both characters are given only 6 inventory slots with no side packs that expand your slots. Further, there is shockingly no magically-connected item boxes that were an essential staple of previous games. To make up for this, you are able to drop items on the ground anywhere and trade items between partners if they are close together. While this system was a worthy experiment and wasn't terribly designed, in practice, it ends up being a pretty major annoyance. For one, there are several important items like shotguns/grenade launcher that take up 2 of those precious 12 slots. Carrying ammo, a healing item or two, and a back-up sidearm will just about max all of those slots out quickly. When you also need slots for keys and key items, this is a problem, especially when one recurring key item takes up 2 slots itself. While it should encourage some interesting gameplay decisions like having to choose things to leave behind, the ability to drop and pick up items on the ground just results in doing a bunch of inventory management, sometimes taking several minutes of rather uninteresting gameplay to accomplish during a game that should be tense and engaging. The UI for this isn't entirely terrible for its time, but it can be fairly clunky and time-consuming to do all this menu-ing without a more streamlined system. Not to mention, I find people generally end up picking a hub room that they dump all their items in, creating a de facto item box that may need to be ferried occasionally to the next segment of the game once unlocked. I don't think this system is totally awful. After all, pretty much anyone who's played the earlier games has at least once wished their character could just put down an item to pick up another one, rather than having to run back to the nearest item box. And honestly, if it just had a bit of tweaking (maybe an extra couple slots or fewer double-slot items), it probably would've been fine. Which is unfortunate given how much this slight imbalance tends to result in recurring annoyances that really drag down the game's pacing.

I feel like the environments and atmosphere of the game are hit or miss. While things look great, this game really feels like it lacks in the iconic atmosphere of the other fixed-camera games. This is likely in part due to the fact that you have a partner, shedding some of the core themes of isolation. But there's also just less of a dreariness to most of the areas of the game that makes the game feel a bit more like the action-horror the series was moving toward soon after this entry. The train again is a standout section that acts as an exception to this rule with the dimly lit tight corridors delivering on the tense exploration of previous games while offering a really fresh new iteration. But it only does so much as the setting for the first hour. Despite the fact I still mostly like the game, it is the one that on balance feels the least like a horror game of the mainline entries to this point.

The story of the game is...not great. The character interaction with Rebecca and Billy I think is decent at least. It's very basic, predictable, and cheesy at times. But none of that is outside the B-movie theme common to Resident Evil so I don't really hold that against it and their character arcs are otherwise sensible. But the rest of the game feels like the first time the series really started stretching into a more detrimental level of silliness. This is apparent from the first time we see our primary antagonist, a long-haired man in some kind of...robe (?), singing in the rain? They were certainly going for an aesthetic, but I can't help but feel like it was out of place, at least for the series to this point. The game does aim to flesh out the history and origins of Umbrella and features some interesting and unique motifs like the leeches that bring something new. However, as a prequel, the game is kind of laughable. It requires a fairly massive suspension of disbelief to think that Rebecca survived this incident, learned everything she did, then went to the Spencer Mansion right after and just never thought to mention anything about any of it to Chris. This is kind of an issue with a lot of prequels, but it's pretty damn egregious with this one. It doesn't ruin it for me, but I've always felt the inconsistency was a little jarring even for a Resident Evil game. That said, Rebecca was always my favorite character in Resident Evil 1 so I definitely loved having a game featuring her front and center from a selfish fan service perspective and I'd love to see her in another entry, however unlikely that may be at this point.

Aside from some of the hang-ups mentioned above, the gameplay is mostly pretty good. Even if there's some lack of creativity and recycling of prior games—especially in the mansion—the game still feels like its own unique adventure. The puzzles are decent and the map layouts and exploration work pretty well with the established formula. My most recent playthrough was on hard mode, which I found fairly challenging, coming to it after having not played this game in a good while. I will also say that this game features much more annoying and cheap enemies than some of the games closer to it. While nothing really beats the hunters in the first game, some of the enemies in this game are really frustrating to fight, especially with their tendency to stunlock you. The boss design could also use some work, with the infected bat being arguably one of the worst boss designs in the series. But all this said, if you enjoy the Survival Horror gameplay of the classic Resident Evil games, there's definitely more of that here and you're likely to have a good time, even if it doesn't live up to some of the better games in this style.

This will always remain a weird game in the series for me. Despite having some things I really like about it and feeling like it continues the trend of innovation with each of the classic style RE games, I can't help but also feel like it's where they started running out of ideas for how to keep this style fresh and engaging. I don't consider it a flop by any means and would definitely recommend not totally skipping it for those looking to play through the mainline games. I get a little tired of the fact all anyone wants to discuss about RE these days is "which game will be remade next" but I think my feelings on this one are somewhat illustrative. That's that—while I don't think it's realistically in the cards anyway—this is probably the classic game I'd like a remake of least. And this is because while I think there are opportunities to make a remake of several of these early games really shine, this one's problems are less about polish and more about the fact that the basic premise is just kind of weak. Not only is it a prequel that makes very little canonical sense, but aside from the train—which admittedly I do quite like—there's just not a lot about this entry that is so iconic we'd get that thrill of nostalgia from seeing it remade. And I think that sentiment is part of why this game is on the lower end in the early series for me. I'd probably count it as 3.5 stars rather than 3 since I just love this gameplay style that much, but I think rounding down is appropriate to make that score better align with my feelings on it relative to its neighbors in the series.

My other Resident Evil reviews:

• Resident Evil (1996) - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil 2 (1998) - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil 3 (1999) - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil: Survivor - ★★★

• Resident Evil: Survivor 2 – Code Veronica - ★★

• Resident Evil Remake - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil Gaiden - ★★

• Resident Evil 2 Remake - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil 3 Remake - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil 4 VR - ★★★★★

• Resident Evil 4 Remake - ★★★★★

On paper, this should be the ultimate 6th generation Resident Evil game: a prequel using new console technology to explore more expansive environments inspired by the original game that started it all. Goodbye Raccoon City; hello again to dilapidated mansions and underground facilities. Returning to that well is a great idea and should have allowed Capcom to provide backstory clarifying what started the events in RE1-3. Unfortunately, Capcom’s execution leads to the worst game in the series to this point.

While it is nice being back in the spookier settings reminiscent of RE1, everything here feels like a pale imitation. The areas are larger but feel redundant, their increased size forcing long periods of backtracking. The puzzles are similarly underwhelming, requiring thought but never giving you the feeling of excitement you got from finally cracking a challenge in the original. The best part ends up being the opening section in a derailed train, if only because having to run through train cars provides a locale not seen before in the games.

That train section is also the first time you’re forced to use one of the game’s two new features: dual protagonists you can switch between at will. This feature is ultimately a mixed bag, as the middling puzzles often ask only that you have one character stand on a button while the other rides up a lift. The best applications are when the characters are forced to split up and assist each other through actions in their designated areas. While switching between characters is no longer a mind-blowing concept, those stages do provide some unique gameplay not seen in the preceding RE games.

The gameplay itself is typically fine but undercut by one glaring choice: the elimination of item boxes. While previous games would allow you to deposit unwanted items in dropboxes and then access them in any other dropbox in the game, RE0 requires a player drop any unwanted item and then return back to it if they ever wish to use it again. Sure, the logic of the dropboxes never made sense, but they were an integral part of encouraging proper item management while also not making it so difficult as to infuriate the player. The only arguments in favor of getting ready of the boxes, then, are to make item management less strategic and less enjoyable. It is a befuddling design choice that caused me to never use items like the magnum simply because I had to quickly abandon it and never wanted to backpedal through multiple large stages to reclaim it. It also makes saving even more of a chore, requiring you to remember to drop ink ribbons right by any typewriter so you’re able to save whenever needed.

Much of what I have written thus far is negative and may be giving short shrift to how well the game controls and looks for its time. However, any praise that could be leveled at this game on those fronts is undermined by the fact that REmake plays the exact same but with the added benefit of its impeccable level design. It’s a wonder Capcom didn’t hold off on releasing it until after RE0 so this wholly new game could get the praise for any advancements, and that game’s shadow continues to loom large over RE0 to this day. There’s just nothing being done here that you can’t experience in a better package with REmake.

RE0 could have salvaged itself with a great story that fully delivers on the promise of being a sequel featuring Rebecca in the lead-up to the Spencer Mansion Incident. Unfortunately, there’s practically nothing noteworthy about RE0’s story. What is here is mostly told through documents picked up throughout the game, detailing how Dr. Marcus developed a virus before being taken out by Birkin, Wesker, and Spencer. Naturally, his corpse was then taken over by a virus-ridden slug and brought back to life as a weird magical slug-man. It's a weird approach to a prequel, adding new strange layers to the canon without answering the questions players inevitably bring to the game. Maybe the story would have worked if it was less thin, but what’s here is both unsatisfactory and forgettable.

Most everything in RE0 is serviceable, which is why I assumed I’d give it 3* and call it a day. But as the credits rolled and I asked myself “That’s it?” when thinking about the story’s resolution, I realized that I couldn’t come up with a good reason to recommend a gamer spend their time on a middling game in service of a subpar (almost nonexistent) plot. Life is too short. This review likely reads as more frustrated than I actually am; if anything, I’m more frustrated that the game provided so little to evoke intense feelings. This is the first RE game where I doubt I will remember anything about it in a year. With so many other games in the series, just read the plot summary of RE0 and play whichever entry is next on your list.

I did enjoy playing this one, and it was a nice (assumedly) final dip into that classic Resident Evil formula that I've come to love. The environments were of course very nice to look at, I always love the Resi settings.

The switching between two people was a cool idea, though it did feel underutilised. And the absence of chests to store items for future save rooms around the areas, and the choice to just "leave" everything on the floor if you didn't want to/couldn't hold it ended up more of an annoyance than a challenge, especially because of the backtracking I found myself doing.

Overall I don't think this game will be too memorable when I look back on my playthroughs of the series, but I did enjoy playing it and that's what matters. Now, on to Resi 4, and I can't wait. :)

So I'm a little late to the Resident Evil party and played my first RE game only two years ago, which was remake of 2 on the PS4. Since then, I have slowly gotten through them and I've played so far 1-5, 7 & 8, and this was the first one I was disappointed in. (But that's probably partly due to my high expectations as I enjoyed the others so much, even 5 which was supposed to be one of the "weaker" ones.)

It started off pretty strong with the train which I thought was a really cool and memorable setting. Unfortunately that was the only interesting one as the later ones just felt like rehashing the other games, except the others did it better first. Especially 1, which was a 10/10 game for me. Maybe if I hadn't played that first I would've liked this better, who knows...

My main gripes about the game were the lack of an item box, which at first seemed like a cool idea but then just got annoying really quickly. Also, this one felt much more linear compared to the other "old-style" RE games, which I don't think was a good choice for these less action-heavy RE games. Linearity works in 4, but not here. Some of the puzzles were pretty fun, especially the ones that utilised the two-character system but overall they were way too easy.

I don't know if this is a controversial opinion but i loooove these prerendered background, fixed camera angle types of games. It gives a lot more control to the creators to frame the scenery in a more meaningful way and some of the backgrounds looked really good, I especially enjoyed all the fancy stuff in the train. I wish they still made games like this as I prefer it to the free camera 3D games, but I'm probably in the minority here :D

Overall it wasn't a bad game, but I was a little disappointed as I've greatly enjoyed all the other RE games I've played. This was the first one that I wanted to end sooner, even though it wasn't even that long, only 8.5 hours. Overall, I'd rate it 6.5/10. Also, this is my first review here and I suck at writing, so it's probably all over the place, sorry about that XD

Intro

And so, my quest to play through the entire RE franchise (as it exists on Steam) begins to wind down. I was going to play Village after Revelations 2 but when I saw this little guy peeking out at me from the corner of my Steam library, I knew I couldn't resist. It didn't exactly have the best reputation among its siblings, but hey, it was the same style as the RE1 HD Remaster, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so how bad could it be?

Well...pretty bad. I didn't expect to come away from this game feeling that the aesthetics were literally the only good thing about it, but here we are. This could very quickly become a rant if I don't control myself, so here's a breakdown of my thoughts, piece by piece:

Visuals

As I said before, these are pretty nice. I love the prerendered backgrounds and feel that they add a lot of character to the game. The enemy designs are decent, with nothing particularly standing out to me, but they're pretty solid regardless.

Gameplay

Oof. This was rough, to say the least. I think this one wins the prestigious award of worst gameplay in the series for me. The game often switches the camera angle 180 degrees as you cross a room, which means if you move the joystick from where it was, your character immediately turns around to go back to where you came from, since the direction you need to hold the joystick is now mirrored. This made certain bosses which would otherwise be simple totally obnoxious, resulting in a very high number of deaths because I couldn't maneuver around the arena with precision. I don't recall the RE1 remaster being so bad about this.

Also, for each of these deaths, the game does not give you the bare minimum courtesy of restarting you from your last save. Oh no, you get sent back to the main menu and need to choose and load your file as if you had just started the game up. Painful.

Your AI partner (who you may switch your control to and from at will) is unbelievably stupid and will time and time again stand in the same spot not even firing their weapon as an enemy tears them apart. There was a particular late game boss fight where I literally had to jump between characters every few seconds in order to babysit my partner through the battle.

The removal of the item storage box makes no sense and only serves to make the limited inventory system more frustrating. They went out of their way to make sure you needed to manage items by dropping them on the ground to pick up later but also ensured that any items you dropped were accessible throughout the game, as long as you were willing to brave the slog backtracking for 10s of minutes to get to where you left them. While this is more realistic than a teleporting box, it doesn't add to the game in any positive way.

There's more, but I'll move on for now.

Plot

It's a Resident Evil game. Nobody plays these for the plot. But I feel it's worth noting that this is a particularly bland, half-baked feeling plot in comparison to the others in the franchise. The "Big Bad" doesn't even really seem to have a motive. Or rather, he does tell you his motive, right before the final battle, but the motive he tells you of doesn't even begin to align with the actions he's been taking all game.

The characters are all bland shells who don't really seem to know what's going on most of the time. Rebecca is fine, but doesn't make much of an impression, if any. Billy somehow makes even less of one, despite actually having a somewhat interesting backstory and what could have been an actual character arc if it wasn't totally ignored most of the game.

I was excited for fan favorite Wesker to be in this game, but he's barely in it and doesn't really play any significant role at all.

Sound

It was fine. Nothing offensive, but certainly nothing great.

End

I had a fairly bad time with this one. Still mulling over whether it's worse than RE6 or not, mainly because 6 forced me to play through four whole campaigns just to fully experience a sloppy story which could have been told in a single decent one. I definitely don't recommend this to anyone but hardcore RE fans who want to play them all.

It's not totally without merit, but the little that it has is not worth the pain you have to go through.

Now onto Village, the only entry I have yet to play. At least until the remake of 4 comes out.

Out of all the Resident Evil games released up to this point, this one would have to rank 3rd for me so far, just behind 2 and 1, respectively. The camera system is the best rendition of the style yet and allows for the combat and enemy discovery to be both more fair and still terror-inducing. The use of Rebecca and Billy (who is my favorite sidekick yet) is surprisingly smooth and gives the puzzles and gameplay far more complexity than was previously available. Of course, there are minor annoyances like the lack of an item box, but these honestly weren't as bad as they're often made out to be. The story also doesn't go into as much conspiracy or overall complexity as the previous ones, yet it still is intriguing. Overall, I definitely would recommend this one to fans of the series as it is incredibly fun and adds new layers to the games that came before it.

4.00/5.00

Full Review: https://watchreadgame.com/resident-evil-0-review/

I might be biased because I decided to start playing the original franchise with this game (having only played RE4 before). As my first true survival horror RE game, this was quite intimidating. The difficulty at first is a bit high as you don't know what to expect. What should I bring with me? Will I run out of resources? The experience was really tense, increased by its slow pace and the foreboding door opening animations.

The story and acting are pretty shitty. Some of the climatic moments had me laughing. But I don't think this is the kind of game I play for the story, so I think that's fine. On the flipside, the enemies and the pre-rendered locations provide a really atmospheric experience that had me always considering my next move carefully.

The biggest flaw is the inventory system. The fact of having to manage your items wasn't too bad, but having to backtrack to lug everything from area to area was the biggest problem.

My favorite parts are probably the moments where Billy and Rebecca have to split up to explore different locations simultaneously. Here you have to split resources carefully and venture into the unknown with your strength and inventory cut in half. It is great.

If you are willing to embrace the slowness and have some patience, I'd say you will have a good time with this game. If patience isn't your strong suit, you will probably despise it.

Coming straight out of the incredible remake of the first game, I got a little nervous when 0 immediately felt like a weaker RE4 style action game mixed with the visuals and fixed camera style of the originals.

I didn’t feel scared like I had in all the others I’ve played through. I decided to overlook it and keep going. The puzzles seemed a lot less difficult and more tedious. Lot of backtracking of course (since they inexplicably threw out the concept of item boxes).

Nonetheless I slowly started to get into it. Then some leech men and fucking monkey gangsters showed up, the difficulty shot from 0 to 100 real fast and I couldn’t find a health item anywhere. Fuck this game.