"You have once again entered the world of survival horror… good luck!”
Horror has never been my forte. As someone who grew up with heavy restrictions on what media I could access, horror content has always been a roadblock for me. The gore, the heavy themes it may cover, or the general anxiety trip it may give a viewer, it always turned me away. That being said, over the years I had always heard about the fabled “Resident Evil”... a revolutionary survival horror franchise that has shaped the medium many times. Despite my fears and anxieties, something about those first four games drew my attention. In 2021 I booted up my DS emulator to play Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, an amazing port of the 1996 classic. It won me over.
The gist of the game is this: You’re an elite police squad tasked with finding survivors of a rumored incident in the Arklay Mountains. However, you and your team are tracked down by terrible dog-like creatures and driven into an abandoned mansion. Your mission? Find the whereabouts of the B.R.A.V.O team, and most importantly, survive. The rest of the story is rather subtly told through optional documents you can find scattered throughout the mansion, adding hints and context to what exactly happened in this place. It adds an uneasy atmosphere as you put the pieces of the puzzle together. Occasionally, you’ll have a cutscene interacting with one of your teammates (either Rebecca or Barry depending on who you play as). I really like this story. It’s very simple across the board, but the way it’s all connected gives so much intrigue to the average player. What are these creatures? Where do they come from? What exactly is happening in this mansion? These questions fill your head as you reluctantly open another door in the mansion, pursuing a way out of this hellish place.
Resident Evil, while a game that visually doesn’t hold up, still manages to keep an amazing atmosphere by making the player uncomfortable. The dated and low budget graphics give an uncanny feel to the visuals, always making me feel uneasy even on repeat playthroughs. There’s something about the barrenness, the lack of detail, the fear of the unknown that makes me feel this way. It’s something only enhanced by it’s inherent datedness. The save rooms have an immaculate atmosphere to them. The relaxing yet melancholy tune rings in the background while you sort out your inventory and plan out where and how you want to approach your next destination. The sequel to this game, Resident Evil 2 is one of my favorite video games of all time from a visual standpoint, but Resident Evil’s lack of production value in terms of presentation is why I love its graphics so much.
This is mixed with the unbearably awful voice acting. I don’t think I even have to elaborate on this, but yes, Resident Evil’s voice acting is atrocious. The script was already bad enough but the deliveries of LITERALLY every line feels awkward or wooden in some capacity, it’s hilarious. But in a way, it really fits the b-movie horror kind of vibe the game has. There’s the anxiety of the horror and action mixed with the inherent campiness of the writing and performances. I could go on for hours on why I love this garbage so much honestly.
And of course, there’s the gameplay. At the time of this writing I am on my SIXTH playthrough of this game, the first four times on DS, a fifth on PS1 (True Director’s Cut), and my unfinished sixth playthrough also on PS1. Resident Evil isn’t a very long game, nor a hard one… after your first playthrough. The first time I played the game I performed so poorly and took FOREVER to finish it, but I did a revisit playthrough the following October and it was so, so fun. Once you start to learn item/enemy placement, optimal routing, puzzle solutions, etc you get to absolutely DASH through the game which I find so fun. I even did a no ink ribbon playthrough as Jill under three hours which gave me the infinite rocket launcher just for the heck of it LMAO. Finding that ammo you so desperately needed, a herb to refill your health, clearing out a room of enemies normally tricky to maneuver, it gives me a similar feeling to Symphony of The Night where it’s just so satisfying.
I get that the gameplay isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. Survival Horror is a genre with very limited appeal, it just so happened to captivate me out of the gate. But I implore you, if you have interest in this game or series? Try it. Please. I put aside my initial skepticism and anxieties aside to experience this, and now it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I know this is probably a really incoherent or weird review, and that’s fine. I replayed this game twice because it’s October lol, and I plan to do so every succeeding year.
Reddish /06/ True Director's Cut

Finished my second completed playthrough of Chris’s scenario, and honestly after being so harsh on it for the past two years I think I understand it a lot more now.
It’s fair to say that most people usually enjoy Jill’s scenario far better than Chris’s, and for valid reasons too. This includes me too, actually, as it’s just a more comfortable experience to easily blast through while also starring BARRY BURTON, who couldn’t love that. She gets the bazooka, which decimates most enemies, she has a lockpick, getting the best ending is far easier, she has an easier time getting the shotgun, everything is just wildly convenient for her, and it is fun! The low difficulty of her scenario makes it more revisitable while also shorter, and I’ve played through it about 5 times now, including a run where I used no ink ribbons while finishing the game in less than 3 hours, which was a rewarding experience. But it is suspiciously too easy.
Entering Chris mode with this same mindset is like being hit with a reality check, he has it rough here. Smaller inventory, no bazooka, no lockpick, no Barry bailing you out to get the shotgun early, none of that. On paper, literally the only advantage Chris has is that he has far more health than Jill, which can be shrugged off by most players, but in my opinion it actually serves a key purpose during the early game. Since ammo for the handgun is rather sparse, and you’ll want to save most of your shells for the mid-to-late game, taking advantage of Chris’s larger health pool is actually very handy for essentially damage boosting areas with zombies that you are never gonna revisit, and believe me, Chris (at least on the standard difficulty) is REALLY tanky, and I was surprised during this revisit at how handy his durability was for this function. It also makes purely knifing some early area rooms in favor of wasting the handgun a valid strategy, because Chris can take quite a beating if your knifing is sloppy. I don’t ever see this brought up but I find it quite unique and rewarding in this context.
Chris overall I think has a better overall emphasis on the core inventory management and survival aspects of the game. Because of what little Chris can hold at a time, there were several trips I took with literally nothing on me just so I could pick everything up in an upcoming area. It was tense and in some cases could look extremely unsafe and stupid, but I find this technique very rewarding and suspenseful because I was making a major risk in favor of gaining more reward by not needing to backtrack, rather than keeping a weapon, it’s ammo, and 1-2 healing items on me because it feels more comfortable. The uncomfortability here heightens the tensity of the situation, which I would say is important in a horror game.
Despite all this praise I do have to knock the third “chapter” of the game for being extremely tedious and frustrating, that being the second mansion visit where all the hunters are occupying the area. As Jill, it's a breather because this is a perfect spot to unload all of your grenade and acid rounds on the hunters, but Chris has no such luxury, and it becomes unbearable as a result. The infamous stunlocking and instant kill attacks that these battletoads offer make for a spot that, last year, made me drop my entire Chris run. You WILL be punished here if you wasted a lot of your shells before this section (I circumvented this by beating Plant 42 with only the handgun). Now, you do get the magnum in this part of the game, which is a one hit kill on every normal enemy type in the game, but since ammo for it is rather sparse, and you most definitely want to save it for the final boss(es), it’s best to get rid of like 2-3 hunters using it in this entire section and either trying to outrun or use the shotgun on the rest. And also last to mention is the inconvenience of trying to find Rebecca when re-entering the mansion before the invisible timer goes out, which if you play poorly will result in a guaranteed bad ending and Rebecca most certainly… without a head on her shoulders to confront you.
That aside, I found this scenario to be a tightly designed and overall rewarding experience. It can be frustrating, and it will kick your ass if you play poorly. But managing to get through it gives me immense satisfaction, and I certainly plan on trying to perfect my runs in the future, because Chris’s scenario is an interesting facet of how good Resident Evil 1’s design truly is. It’s Resi 1 at it’s most tense, because of having lesser resources while also dealing with a more punishing difficulty curve. I’ve already got most of what I’ve wanted in challenging myself playing as Jill, so I find this to be the best next step. Definitely give this mode a try if you found Jill’s scenario too easy and need something to quench that thirst of needing a nore challenging experience.

The Spencer mansion is one of my favourite video game locations. The music, the layout and the aesthetic on the ps1 are just so creepy and perfect. The tunnels and the lab are fine, but definitely don't hold a candle imo.

One pretty cool thing about RE1 is how it uses characters as a difficulty mode. Jill is of course easy mode, while Chris has less inventory, less weapons and a harder starting path. Director's cut in particular even introduces more literal easy/hard modes, the latter moving items around, making it more repayable for people who had played the original. Personally I just beat the default mode with both characters, so I can't speak for how good arranged mode is.

Back on the topic of Chris' starting path being different - it is kind of weird how his early game is different to Jill's, but by the time you get to the residential area they just become the exact same. It makes playing them one after the other refreshing at first, but horribly repetitive by the end.

Camera angles are used to such effective degrees in this game, never knowing what lies not only through the next door, but even the next step you take could reveal a horrifying danger.

I'll commend the games use of a QoL feature in telling you when a key has unlocked all doors and the ability to discard it, but criticise the lack of this feature for other key items, like the cranks or lighter.

Resident Evil is a pretty huge horror game icon, and for good reason. On a first playthrough the unknown is terrifying. The lack of ammo, and even times you can save, make the survival aspect one of the best (though it may also turn some people away). The lack of inventory space, especially for Chris, may also annoy some folks, especially those who don't know what they're doing and will end up carrying key items back and forth from limited storage boxes.

Also as much as I love how they integrated loading screens to be suspenseful for the actual gameplay, there's so many of them, and with the amount of backtracking even a seasoned player would do, they can break pace way too much.

Resident Evil 1 é com certeza um dos jogos já feitos. É bizarro o quanto moderno e datado ele é AO MESMO TEMPO.

Como o primeiro jogo da franquia eu esperava bastante coisa... negativa. Mas com certeza eu fui provado errado com o quanto que ele acerta logo de primeira. Vamos começar com o principal dos jogos clássicos: a EXPLORAÇÃO.
RE1 tem uma exploração não linear bem bacana, depois que tu pega a armor key você libera praticamente metade da mansão pra explorar do jeito que quiser, e isso é muito legal. Você pode fazer as coisas na ordem que quiser e como sempre um item leva a outro item, uma dica, um documento e é algo que sempre estimula o jogador a investigar cada cantinho pra achar novos itens. Esses que você sempre tem que ficar de olho no espaço do seu pequeno inventário. Admnistração de recursos também é algo importante aqui, principalmente com você tendo que ver se tem espaço o suficiente pra pegar os itens e também salvar o jogo, uma outra mecânica que em outros jogos seria praticamente banal, mas que aqui adiciona ao medo de perder um progresso absurdo.

E é claro, os famosos controles de tanque que aqui não estão a coisa mais refinada de todas mas que em questão de minutos você já consegue acostumar. Isto unido com uma trilha sonora muito boa e cenários interessantes provavelmente deve te fazer perguntar... Porque esse jogo tá tão baixo na lista. Bom... Vamos lá.

RE1 inegavelmente envelheceu, talvez não em sua filosofia de level design, essa continua bem atual, mas sim em outros aspectos. Primeiramente, o mapa desse jogo é uma merda. Simplesmente os caras esqueceram de colocar um cursor ou seja, TU NÃO SABE de onde tu veio direito em salas com bastante caminhos pra seguir. Alguns cenários inclusive tem uma iluminação tão baixa que você realmente DEPENDE do mapa pra se localizar.

Mas no fim, como primeiro jogo de uma franquia de survival horror que praticamente iniciou e revolucionou o gênero por inteiro... Poderia ter sido bem, mas BEM pior.

Having this version of the first Resident Evil pop up on PS+ Premium just as I'm beginning a new series playthrough is terrific timing.

There's not much to say about the first RE that hasn't already been said. Though I had a negative experience on my first playthrough of the original release (possibly the fault of the emulator?), returning for this PS5 emulation is a sweet treat. The settings may not be the greatest but general control is fine and I played through the whole game without any issues.

Playing Resident Evil with such convenience is a treat but it comes at a cost. Sadly, this version on the PS4/5 is locked entirely behind a subscription, but there's obviously an easy way to acquire this game, yourself. That being said, it's rather integral you play the original Resident Evil.

Though not the first survival horror game, Resident Evil set it on the map and charted a long history full of great titles in this series (and several others) to this day. Though there's a lot of jank to get around if you're solely raised on 8th gen gaming, a diamond of level design, atmosphere, and inventory systems sprouts before you.

(played as jill)
awesome game!!! very fun puzzle solving, great audio design and beautiful pre-rendered visuals make RE1 an absolute treat. story is engaging the whole way through, the voice acting is great in an endearing sort of way but the localized text is genuinely great, i love reading all the lab reports and such. the item management can be a little difficult sometimes, i'd often go out of my way to put away certain weapons and key items only to realize i needed them 3 rooms ahead from where i was. (not entirely sure how much of this is my fault!) i think it's cool that this is basically just a sierra/lucasarts style adventure game with combat. remains to be seen if i will do a chris run... excited to check out re2!

One of my favorite opening scenes to a video game. Maybe I prefer this to the remake. I could say it’s the simplicity of it, but perhaps it’s the doors we shouldn’t open or the jill sandwiches. It could even be the blood that we hope isn’t Chris’ that we found in “the dinning room”

There’s just something about this franchise that I can’t really explain in words. It just does what it does, that is being “resident evil”. Even the basement music adds to the culture of this franchise.

Every time I go through that opening scene, I like to quote the lines as it’s happening, however this playthrough (as it has been many years) I have completely forgotten about “Stay Alert!” from Wesker, so when I heard that I genuinely bursted out laughing. I love you Resident Evil.



“Stop it, don’t open that door!”

Talvez a melhor versão do primeiro jogo

Como mencionado na review do Director's Cut Dualshock Ver, a única mudança entre os dois é sobre a trilha sonora. Pois tirando esse criação bizonha, todas as outras alterações que a Capcom trouxe nessa versão, foram bem boas. Como joguei a versão da trilha bizarra e isso é a única coisa que diferencia, acho justo poder relatar isso aqui e marcar também como jogado, afinal de contas, é 90% igual e estou montando minha lista definitiva de todos os Resident Evil, então, preciso passar por esse aqui com o registro.

Como pode um jogo ser tão competente no que se entrega?

personagens carismáticos, um humor LINDO de tão inocente.
RE é um jogo muito feliz e eu fui feliz jogando ele! Em qualquer outro momento teria muito medo de jogar esse jogo, mas para minha surpresa encontrei um humor imerso em uma mecanica de fragilidade e gestao de recursos. Muito bem feito e bem pensado, esse jogo se domina.
Irei par a aversão mais atual do RE agora, ansioso!

There are a few reviews here giving the Director's Cut version of RE1 shit, getting it mixed up with the Dual-Shock DC that has the clown car music. That one deserves everything it gets but I believe the original DC is the definitive way to play classic Resident Evil 1 aside from the DS port. What a fantastic game and start to the franchise.

Assuming you're already comfortable with the tank controls that the series utilizes up to 5, RE1 DC holds up fantastically. There are some PSX era flourishes that could be changed for quality of life purposes (quick map button, auto-knife equip with button-press) that the DS version introduces but this version still plays very well for being close to 30 years old. More than any other game in the series, it feels like one big puzzle that becomes an absolute joy to put together quickly on replays. Ammo, healing, items, and enemies are all placed and paced in an almost perfect, deliberate manner. The Spencer Mansion is beautifully simple, and the environment expands in scope without ever feeling overlong. Quick to navigate and quick to beat, even on a first playthrough, it naturally encourages while rewarding you for learning and replaying with that knowledge.

The DC having arrange mode expands replayability in interesting ways after becoming grotesquely familiar with the game's placements. My only real complaint about this game is that hunters fucking suck. I can appreciate backfilling the mansion after I assume most people have essentially cleared it out but I never want to see that head-rolling end game screen again.