Resident Evil - Original Playstation Version

I remember when I first played this game for the Playstation back in 1996. I was amazed by the graphics and "live action" videos. The music was eerie, the gameplay style was different for me back then and I've never really played a horror game before, it was great. But whenever somebody mentions this game, I can't help but think of the terrible acting first...



In the original PS1 version of the game, they introduced "live action video" using real actors which was something new for video games at the time. It all appeared to have been filmed in some foreign country or I can only assume this due to the fact that all the voices appear to be dubbed over. Regardless of the voice dubbing, this is the worst acting I've ever seen and that's what makes it so great. Also, the fact that they use fake Styrofoam looking dogs to attack somebody makes it supreme. To show you exactly what I mean, have a look at the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw5sQn5Cviw

Now after watching that, did you not laugh your ass off? If you didn't, that's fine but you still must have found the acting absolutely horrendous. I mean, look at the expression "Joesph" gives when he finds a severed hand (below).


Okay, maybe I can buy the expression but what about the noise he makes? Shouldn't it be more of a constant yell like "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"? It wasn't just the live action video acting that was bad either, the in-game voice acting was just as bad. Have a look at this small video below as an example:



Anyway, acting aside, the game was great for it's time. It was one of the first 3rd person shooter games I've ever played and it scared the heck out of me too...or should I say "startled" the heck out of me. The enemies/monsters themselves didn't freak me out so much by their appearence but either how they were introduced or suddenly appeared out of no where sometimes that got me.


I guess after looking at the "Cerberus" above, you'd wonder how an image like that wouldn't freak me out. Well, we're talking about the PS1 version of this game. At the time, the PS1 graphics were excellent but in today's standards, it doesn't look so great anymore. This game has been remade for the Nintendo Gamecube (next gen console of the time) where the game received a complete overhaul and the enemies looked more like that Cerberus above. But if you compare that to the PS1 version of the Cerberus, you get a polygonal mess. If you really want to know what I mean, watch some gameplay of the PS1 version below:

Resident evil (PS1) walkthrough - Cerberus

Now have a look at the Gamecube version below:

Resident Evil Remake Trailer 1 (GameCube)

The story wasn't so bad either if you could look past the bad acting. The mansion they were in was completely unbelievable to me...why would they complete such a stupid puzzled mansion? For example, there is a scene were you have to play the piano to open up a secret passage in the wall. In the secret room you find, there is a gold shield imbedded in some sort of statue. When you remove the shield, the door closes behind you and there is no escape until you put the shield back in. In order to keep the gold shield (used to unlock another secret) you must find an indentical wooden shield and replace it with the gold shield...blah blah anyway, my point is, why would anyone construct such a stupid mansion lol. I know it's a game and it's not supposed to come off realistic but still.



This game gives a pretty good explanation as to how Zombies came into existance. Well, every movie or game usually has their own explanation but I like this one the most. A pharmaceutical company called "Umbrella" tried to create a drug that could perfect a human being but instead tranforms them into a retarded zombie. That's the ultra short version of the story, check out Wikipedia for a full one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(video_game).




I can't tell you how many times I played this game over until I got to the point where I got the infinite ammo rocket launcher...at least I think it had infinite ammo. If you enjoy 3rd person shooter horror and don't mind retro games then give this one a try. It may be hard to find for the PS1 nowadays but hey try looking online...they got everything there ;)