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Got Flesh?
November 25, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Osei Tyson
Resident Evil Ø is the long awaited prequel to Resident Evil, the game that started it all. Starting off as a Nintendo 64 game. Resident Evil Ø has been in development for over about 4 years. But now utilizing the GameCube's advanced processing power, Resident Evil Ø will amaze players with flawless animation, living environments and the best graphics in a video game ever! Well until Resident Evil 4 hits your GameCube. After having the outstanding remake of the first title come out just a few months ago, GameCube owners finally get the beginning chapter of the whole franchise. However, Zero is somewhat of a mixed bag. Those who are in love with the series will still love it, but the new innovations of the zap partner system and ability to drop items isn't as revolutionary as Capcom totes them to be.
However, the game is still fun, and for those still wanting a night filled with fright, can't go wrong with! Zero, just be wary that Capcom hasn't changed much from their normal survival horror formula sticking with the "if it isn’t broke, don't fix it," theory on control and gameplay.
Resident Evil Ø begins in July of 1998 in the suburbs of Raccoon City, a small town located in the Midwest. Several reported incidences of people being eaten by a strange creature have surfaced. The Raccoon city police department viewed the terrible murders as a top priority and quickly decided to send in a special task force, the S.T.A.R.S Bravo team. As the team heads to the scene of the murders, the helicopter that was transporting them begins to have mechanical problems, eventually crashing deep into the forest surrounding Raccoon City. While the Bravo Team was successful in escaping from the crash, they had lost all of their equipment and weapons. As they began to gather their wits, the team saw a shocking image. Before them lay a half-destroyed, over-turned transport truck with corpses of several navy officers that had been gruesomely killed and mangled. Under orders from Commander Enrico, the Bravo Team began investigating the disappearance of Captain Billy Coen, one of the officers who were supposed to be in the over-turned transport yet his remains cannot be found. Little does the Bravo Team know that this investigation is the beginning of a horrific nightmare?
For anyone who has ever played a Resident Evil title, Zero plays the same. It still consist of you walking around shooting zombies and other supernatural beings, and solving mysterious puzzles that require the infamous special keys and jewels. However, Zero does mix things up from previous RE titles by having the ability to play as two characters simultaneously. You'll control Rebecca Chambers and Billy Cohen throughout the game and this proves to be rather interesting in the RE franchise. Normally in other areas, the cutscenes of characters would make the general statement of "splitting-up" as a good ideas, often leaving players wondering why in the world the characters would split up and go alone in these evil places. But, Zero clears this up with the ! ability to be both characters. At first you may be skeptical about controlling two characters at once, however, don't be, it's a piece of cake to do. The computer normallly controls the other character making it follow you and shoot at zombies and what not, and you also have control over the character with the C-stick.
It takes a bit to get use to but becomes rather easy with little time. However, the two chracters can split up and by pressing the X button, you can switch back and forth between the characters. You also order your partner around to follow or stay put by pressing the start button. This is used to solve puzzles that often are solved with the two characters being split up and having to get out of a jam using an elevator system. The inventory screen is a little different now as they now show both characters' details. Here you can find Partner options and you can play around with tem to suit the situation you are in. You can even swap items between the two invento! ries by using a cursor. Remember those chests in Resident Evil which allowed you to place items as you could hold only six, there's none of them anymore so you'll have to place them on the floor if you want to carry more items and also take a note on where you put it because it may be important further on in the game.
The idea of this character splitting could have been great, however it's limited because most of the time, the puzzles when the two are split stay this way througout the game. As for the way the characters control, its still the same akward control scheme from every other RE game, and the only real gripe about the game is the lack of innovation. The train that the characters are on for some of the game, still feels like the mansion, or police station or whatever building. It still feels like you are confinded to one small area as in all the other games. This also lead to some problems because for some reason this game has alot of load times between doors and st! airs, and there are a lot of doors and stairs. Backtracking is reduced to a minimum if you split the two characters up yourself and have them go on opposite sides to explore, which is thankful, but the puzzles are still somewhat confusing for the most part. However, the game is still scary and things will jump out often enough, but bosses will appear out of nowhere and since the drop-any-item-anywhere feature it's kind of hard to determine what you need and what you don't. But, this is a welcome addition to the game. All in all its still what we all love about the Resident Evil series with added bonuses that the Evil fans out there will love.
However, the game is still fun, and for those still wanting a night filled with fright, can't go wrong with! Zero, just be wary that Capcom hasn't changed much from their normal survival horror formula sticking with the "if it isn’t broke, don't fix it," theory on control and gameplay.
Resident Evil Ø begins in July of 1998 in the suburbs of Raccoon City, a small town located in the Midwest. Several reported incidences of people being eaten by a strange creature have surfaced. The Raccoon city police department viewed the terrible murders as a top priority and quickly decided to send in a special task force, the S.T.A.R.S Bravo team. As the team heads to the scene of the murders, the helicopter that was transporting them begins to have mechanical problems, eventually crashing deep into the forest surrounding Raccoon City. While the Bravo Team was successful in escaping from the crash, they had lost all of their equipment and weapons. As they began to gather their wits, the team saw a shocking image. Before them lay a half-destroyed, over-turned transport truck with corpses of several navy officers that had been gruesomely killed and mangled. Under orders from Commander Enrico, the Bravo Team began investigating the disappearance of Captain Billy Coen, one of the officers who were supposed to be in the over-turned transport yet his remains cannot be found. Little does the Bravo Team know that this investigation is the beginning of a horrific nightmare?
For anyone who has ever played a Resident Evil title, Zero plays the same. It still consist of you walking around shooting zombies and other supernatural beings, and solving mysterious puzzles that require the infamous special keys and jewels. However, Zero does mix things up from previous RE titles by having the ability to play as two characters simultaneously. You'll control Rebecca Chambers and Billy Cohen throughout the game and this proves to be rather interesting in the RE franchise. Normally in other areas, the cutscenes of characters would make the general statement of "splitting-up" as a good ideas, often leaving players wondering why in the world the characters would split up and go alone in these evil places. But, Zero clears this up with the ! ability to be both characters. At first you may be skeptical about controlling two characters at once, however, don't be, it's a piece of cake to do. The computer normallly controls the other character making it follow you and shoot at zombies and what not, and you also have control over the character with the C-stick.
It takes a bit to get use to but becomes rather easy with little time. However, the two chracters can split up and by pressing the X button, you can switch back and forth between the characters. You also order your partner around to follow or stay put by pressing the start button. This is used to solve puzzles that often are solved with the two characters being split up and having to get out of a jam using an elevator system. The inventory screen is a little different now as they now show both characters' details. Here you can find Partner options and you can play around with tem to suit the situation you are in. You can even swap items between the two invento! ries by using a cursor. Remember those chests in Resident Evil which allowed you to place items as you could hold only six, there's none of them anymore so you'll have to place them on the floor if you want to carry more items and also take a note on where you put it because it may be important further on in the game.
The idea of this character splitting could have been great, however it's limited because most of the time, the puzzles when the two are split stay this way througout the game. As for the way the characters control, its still the same akward control scheme from every other RE game, and the only real gripe about the game is the lack of innovation. The train that the characters are on for some of the game, still feels like the mansion, or police station or whatever building. It still feels like you are confinded to one small area as in all the other games. This also lead to some problems because for some reason this game has alot of load times between doors and st! airs, and there are a lot of doors and stairs. Backtracking is reduced to a minimum if you split the two characters up yourself and have them go on opposite sides to explore, which is thankful, but the puzzles are still somewhat confusing for the most part. However, the game is still scary and things will jump out often enough, but bosses will appear out of nowhere and since the drop-any-item-anywhere feature it's kind of hard to determine what you need and what you don't. But, this is a welcome addition to the game. All in all its still what we all love about the Resident Evil series with added bonuses that the Evil fans out there will love.
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