This review contains some spoilers. So, I have now played Chris' campaign like 12 times and the same goes for Jill which is much to little when thinking about how great this game is. It's the definition of a flawless masterpiece and deserves to be on every Top 5 video game of all-time list. Now let's start with the games design. The graphics look beautiful, you wouldn't think this game came out in 2002 and I would go so far and say that the "Remastered" release looks even better than RE5 and 6. The pre-rendered background give the game a great aesthetic look and the use of shadow and light effects is also well done. Looking at the zombie's shadow when they are knocking on a window is breathtaking when combining it with the cinematography or should I say fixed camera angles. If this would be a movie it would be a contender for film with the best cinematography of all time pretty much rivaling the likes of Halloween (1978) and Shining (1980).
The music much like the environment adds a lot to the games atmosphere and Remake has by far the best score in the franchise followed by Code Veronica. The environment is also the best in the series as it first of all had the Spencer Mansion ,which is far more original than just running around in an zombie infested city like shown in most zombie movies, and second it offers most varieties as you also visit a cabin in the woods, a forest (when just short), a tank with zombie sharks, a cave with boulders that Chris wasn't able to bunch back in 1998 and a lab.
The puzzles are also some of the greatest in the series if not the best. Just like the environment they offer a lot of variety and are very challenging but besides of that there isn't much else to say but getting the items for them is a scary fun scavenger hunt.
It's also the scariest game of the series not just for the environment but also its monsters. Crimson Heads are a nice addition to the game as it makes you think twice wether you are willing to kill a zombie with the low resources you got or not as only a head shot or a destroyed leg will kill them for good. You can burn their corpses but fuel is also very low in this game. Hunters take 3 shot gun shells to be killed and they can kill you with one instant kill attack and if you forgot to save, well then have fun playing thru the living nightmare you survived so far all over again. There is also another monster additional to the remake, but I will talk about this a bit later.
But where the game really shines is the story and its characters. I never understood why many people view movies with simple stories as simple but still good but why this does not go for RE baffles me to this day. Most of Resident Evil's story gets told by it's files and finding and reading them really makes me feel like some sort of detective that is trying to solve the mystery about the happenings in the spencer mention. And yes, mystery equals good story telling just like character development does! Reading all the files written by some of the scientists who became victims of the T-Virus outbreak makes everything about it so intriguing "Mm, itchy tasty" and I like how everything gets revealed piece by piece which will lead to the big picture about the Umbrella conspiracies. I still can't find any contradictions and story inconsistencies in this game, which is what would make a story bad objectively speaking.
So, I revealed my reasons why I love the execution of the story so much but what about the characters that carry out the story? REmake has my favorite cast of major characters. Wesker, Jill, Chris, Rebecca and Barry are all in my Top 5 RE characters list. I like the interactions between them. Chris having that big brother attitude when talking to Rebecca who is all scared and afraid as a still young and unexperienced girl (let's act that RE0 doesn't exist, ok) and member of S.T.A.R.S, she never thought she would experience something like that in her career wasn't she. You can see her sorrow when she is crying over Richards death after Chris told her she got eaten by one of the neptunes. I like how Jill and Barry always ask themselves what is going on in the mansion which combined with reading the files increases my interest to find out what happened her even more. It almost feels like I am with them....in the mansion. I wish they would still have the "Jill Sandwich" and the "master of unlocking" line from the original in the game as I can't see how this would hurt the remake. You can also see that Barry goes thru a lot as you find out Wesker is using him for his personal benefits. Speaking about Wesker. He isn't the great villain as he is in Code Veronica and Umbrella Chronicles but going back and see where it all started with him makes me appreciate him more and more. Especially after Umbrella Chronicles since this game shows more of him in the time of the mansion incident and the T-Virus outbreak. The reveal of him being the villain working as an Umbrella scientist and double agent was also done very well. For me the characters in this game feel like real people. Real people that are inexperienced with the things they are witnessing in this game and they feel especially real than compared to most video game characters from the same era that are basically super human or one man armies. And of course, there is also Lisa Trevor who has one of the most tragic back stories of all time but I don't want to spoil this. It's a great subplot, which is surprising because of stories actually suffer from sub plots more than they actually benefit from. I didn't say much about her when talking about the monsters but she is just as intimidating as the Crimson Heads and Hunters if not more in some cases.
The voice acting is pretty good for 2002 standards. Chris and Jill had actually the weakest voice actors with Barry surprisingly being the best. I wouldn't change anything from it though as it just like the gameplay and the music goes perfectly hand in hand with the story, the tension and the mysteries.
This is a no brainer but adore this game. If RE2 remake is a Hollywood blockbuster with zombies and RE4 is a campy B-Movie than REmake is pretty much an arthouse film with zombies and monsters. It's in my opinion the best game in the franchise and one of the biggest pieces of art and of course if I would give this a review score, I would give it a 10/10.
Thx for all the readers and if you for some reason still haven't played this game. Go pick it up. As a Resident Evil fan, a zombie fan, a survival horror fan or an old school gamer you won't regret it. It really baffles me how so many people still haven't picked up REmake despite it now being out for every modern system, some people, I guess.
The music much like the environment adds a lot to the games atmosphere and Remake has by far the best score in the franchise followed by Code Veronica. The environment is also the best in the series as it first of all had the Spencer Mansion ,which is far more original than just running around in an zombie infested city like shown in most zombie movies, and second it offers most varieties as you also visit a cabin in the woods, a forest (when just short), a tank with zombie sharks, a cave with boulders that Chris wasn't able to bunch back in 1998 and a lab.
The puzzles are also some of the greatest in the series if not the best. Just like the environment they offer a lot of variety and are very challenging but besides of that there isn't much else to say but getting the items for them is a scary fun scavenger hunt.
It's also the scariest game of the series not just for the environment but also its monsters. Crimson Heads are a nice addition to the game as it makes you think twice wether you are willing to kill a zombie with the low resources you got or not as only a head shot or a destroyed leg will kill them for good. You can burn their corpses but fuel is also very low in this game. Hunters take 3 shot gun shells to be killed and they can kill you with one instant kill attack and if you forgot to save, well then have fun playing thru the living nightmare you survived so far all over again. There is also another monster additional to the remake, but I will talk about this a bit later.
But where the game really shines is the story and its characters. I never understood why many people view movies with simple stories as simple but still good but why this does not go for RE baffles me to this day. Most of Resident Evil's story gets told by it's files and finding and reading them really makes me feel like some sort of detective that is trying to solve the mystery about the happenings in the spencer mention. And yes, mystery equals good story telling just like character development does! Reading all the files written by some of the scientists who became victims of the T-Virus outbreak makes everything about it so intriguing "Mm, itchy tasty" and I like how everything gets revealed piece by piece which will lead to the big picture about the Umbrella conspiracies. I still can't find any contradictions and story inconsistencies in this game, which is what would make a story bad objectively speaking.
So, I revealed my reasons why I love the execution of the story so much but what about the characters that carry out the story? REmake has my favorite cast of major characters. Wesker, Jill, Chris, Rebecca and Barry are all in my Top 5 RE characters list. I like the interactions between them. Chris having that big brother attitude when talking to Rebecca who is all scared and afraid as a still young and unexperienced girl (let's act that RE0 doesn't exist, ok) and member of S.T.A.R.S, she never thought she would experience something like that in her career wasn't she. You can see her sorrow when she is crying over Richards death after Chris told her she got eaten by one of the neptunes. I like how Jill and Barry always ask themselves what is going on in the mansion which combined with reading the files increases my interest to find out what happened her even more. It almost feels like I am with them....in the mansion. I wish they would still have the "Jill Sandwich" and the "master of unlocking" line from the original in the game as I can't see how this would hurt the remake. You can also see that Barry goes thru a lot as you find out Wesker is using him for his personal benefits. Speaking about Wesker. He isn't the great villain as he is in Code Veronica and Umbrella Chronicles but going back and see where it all started with him makes me appreciate him more and more. Especially after Umbrella Chronicles since this game shows more of him in the time of the mansion incident and the T-Virus outbreak. The reveal of him being the villain working as an Umbrella scientist and double agent was also done very well. For me the characters in this game feel like real people. Real people that are inexperienced with the things they are witnessing in this game and they feel especially real than compared to most video game characters from the same era that are basically super human or one man armies. And of course, there is also Lisa Trevor who has one of the most tragic back stories of all time but I don't want to spoil this. It's a great subplot, which is surprising because of stories actually suffer from sub plots more than they actually benefit from. I didn't say much about her when talking about the monsters but she is just as intimidating as the Crimson Heads and Hunters if not more in some cases.
The voice acting is pretty good for 2002 standards. Chris and Jill had actually the weakest voice actors with Barry surprisingly being the best. I wouldn't change anything from it though as it just like the gameplay and the music goes perfectly hand in hand with the story, the tension and the mysteries.
This is a no brainer but adore this game. If RE2 remake is a Hollywood blockbuster with zombies and RE4 is a campy B-Movie than REmake is pretty much an arthouse film with zombies and monsters. It's in my opinion the best game in the franchise and one of the biggest pieces of art and of course if I would give this a review score, I would give it a 10/10.
Thx for all the readers and if you for some reason still haven't played this game. Go pick it up. As a Resident Evil fan, a zombie fan, a survival horror fan or an old school gamer you won't regret it. It really baffles me how so many people still haven't picked up REmake despite it now being out for every modern system, some people, I guess.