I'm sorry to everyone out there who will call me a heathen, but I just don't have the time for a game where I can lose potentially hours of playtime because of an arbitrary limit on how many times you can save your progress.

I know that this game is good, and I love me some horror, but I don't understand why I should have to potentially never finish this game just because of the high difficulty and unforgiving save system.

I want to enjoy this game so bad, but if the save system was better, I honestly would; Silent Hill lets you save as many times as needed, and at least when you lose your progress due to the difficulty on Dark Souls, the game automatically saves AND you can regain everything you dropped. If you die on this game, you gain literally nothing and lose everything - that is not a system that makes me want to come back for more, it is frustrating and makes me want to quit.

Sin tener las mejores piezas, con destreza y buenas ideas, consiguen hacerlas encajar en una aventura compacta y mucho más divertida de lo que se podría esperar uno. Poco hay que comentar sobre los controles de tanque y los ángulos de cámara, el propio Mikami lo tiene claro, son un parche. Y buscar llaves y abrir puertas en un diagrama de flujo mientras gestionas recursos funciona aquí por lo centrado que está el juego, pero no habría que esperar mucho para ver lo deficiente de la fórmula. Y aun con eso, el resultado es esta odisea de estética pulp por escapar de la casa encantada que nos empuja a profundizar en el terror que se esconde bajo la superficie. Totalmente merecido el estatus de clásico.

This game is great and all, but it's also such a tonal oddity with regards to the Resident Evil series with just how insanely campy the whole thing is. The suspense sequences still work, although I think most people notice just how amazingly terrible the voice-acting is in this game - where characters generally talk about horrifying things as though they were an excited child or something.

I think this game also feels a bit clunky as well - doesn't really have the satisfying mix of action and exploration that Resident Evil 2 has, although it still works - and I especially like just how much this game exploits the strangeness of this one mansion, filled with all of these strange rooms which are otherwise abandoned or decayed or infested with all of these strange creatures.

But this still was also a really revolutionary game with regards to its survival horror mechanics, how you had to conserve ammo and healing items, you could only hold a limited amount of items - and the clunky tank controls themselves definitely served a purpose where it made combat just a bit more weighty but also not always a viable option. There's still something about this game which definitely still works - especially with what it plays with, but then it's also hard to tell if the silliness is self-aware or not.

I don't know, I think this game just feels way more slow and drugerous compared to the sequels - which definitely does add to the atmosphere, but it also can feel just a bit overbearing at points - yet this game still definitely works in terms of a really spooky game. I can nitpick this game all I like, but it's not going to change the fact that this is one of the definitive survival horror games - and for a good reason as well.

The progenitor to Survival Horror shambles its way into gaming history. This was definitely one of the biggest games to ever have come out in the 32-bit era. It was a killer app for the PS1 and a massive success for Capcom. It's been 25 years since this game came out. Are you feeling old yet? Cause I sure do.

I was actually born the same year that this game came out, but I would never get the chance to play it until I was around 13 years old. I did play the other games like Code Veronica, RE4, RE5, and the RE Outbreak games (absolutely underrated), but I wouldn't play the original PS1 trilogy until they were put onto the PS3 Store.

Not to mention I was too scared shitless to play them when I was younger anyway. I used to watch my two older brothers play Resident Evil 2 and 3 but there were moments where I got so scared that I would run into another room and cover my ears because they blasted that shit on the TV.

And I honestly don't blame my younger self, because even 10 years later, at 23 years old, there was a very unexpected moment in Resident Evil 1 that actually made me jump, probably cause the dated graphics and sounds just made it even creepier. I'm referring to the Forest scene when he jumps at you as a zombie when attempting to pick up the grenade launcher.

I had never seen that happen before, so when it did happen my whole body just recoiled. Perhaps it's because I hate jumpscares in games, but that just shows that even 25 years later this game can still get the jump on you and make you piss yourself. That's how revolutionary these older games are. Timeless classics that are still a joy to play to this day.

{ Story }

July 24th, 1998

A series of mysterious murders take place in the Arklay Mountains, located on the outskirts of Raccoon City. The Elite S.T.A.R.S team (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) are dispatched to investigate. The Bravo Team were first sent but they have lost contact with HQ, so then the Alpha Team are dispatched to investigate their disappearance.

But fuck that!! We have a sick casting intro to show off first!

- Chris (cancer is for pussies!!) Redfield

- Jill (best fucking girl!) Valentine

- Barry (what is it?!) Burton

- Rebecca (don't call me little girl!) Chambers

- And Albert (the greatest fucking haircut in all of humanity!) Wesker

cough!! cough!!

I don't know what's wrong with me. I do apologize.

Okay so uh, after that mind boggling intro we are thrusted into the Spenser Mansion. Chris goes missing after the team flee from a pack of infected dogs, one of your comrades gets eaten alive, and your helicopter pilot Brad takes off on his own like an asshole. Not long after that you encounter one of its inhabitants, who has been zombified. The FMV cutscene where he is chowing down on one of your comrades is still creepy to this day.

It reminds of a lot of those creepy stop-motion animations I used to watch when I was younger.

After that Wesker goes missing as well. So the mission becomes simple: Look for any survivors and find a way out of here, while also uncovering the mystery as to why the damn place is overrun with zombies and other horrifying creatures. It's a goal that is consistent in every early Resident Evil game. It's short, sweet, to the point, and it's a good excuse to go blow off zombie heads with a shotgun.

The storytelling is not why these games are so renowned. It's the atmosphere, the emphasis on survival, the horrifying monsters, the iconic characters, and the sick ass soundtracks.

But there are memos you can obtain that give you more backstory on what happened to the residents that were here. The Itchy, Tasty... memo comes to my mind when I think of them, that one was my favorite, as it shows the horrors of the process of turning, and how it makes the person go mentally insane, especially since the virus doesn't cause any pain.

{ Gameplay }

I played Code Veronica a lot before playing these older games so I was already used to the tank controls. I always found it funny that there was a significant amount of complaints when it came to the tank controls.

It's a third person survival shooter with fixed camera angles. The tank controls work perfectly for a game like this, and I'll explain why.

Pushing up makes you go forward no matter which direction you are facing. Pushing down makes you go backwards, pushing left or right makes you rotate left or right. Which means that every time the camera angle changes, you don't have to reorient your movement on the control pad or thumbstick.

There are games that have this constant problem where the camera changes perspective but there are no tank controls, meaning now you are pushing the direction the opposite way, and it can get disorienting. You have to reconfigure your movement with each camera change. But you don't have to worry about that in Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.

Which is why I believe tank controls are perfect for these games. It just feels a lot more natural. The game would have been much more clunky if it had 3D movement controls with a fixed camera.

What's very interesting about this game is that your gameplay experience is dependant on what version of the game you are playing.

When Capcom launched this game in Japan, it was easier than the Western release. For example when draw your weapon in Biohazard (the Japanese name for Resident Evil), your aim will snap to its nearest target, and pushing L1 lets you either switch targets or snap your aim back onto your enemy if they move off course. So if you're fighting anything other than a zombie, this makes the combat so much better.

But in the vanilla Western release of Resident Evil, the auto aim was cut out on purpose. They also removed some ammo spawns and spawned more enemies to make the game harder.

From what I have read, the reason why Capcom did this was because of game rentals over here in the States. In Japan, game rentals were banned, so Capcom made the English version of this game harder to squeeze out extra rental money, because you couldn't complete the game in one sitting. The internet wasn't as big as it is now. The only efficient way you could get a guide was to buy a Strategy Guide but those were like half the price of the game itself.

I can get why Capcom did this, but to purposely hamstring your game for the sake of extra money is bullshit. Capcom did put the auto aim back into the game but it was only for future versions such as the Director's Cut and the Windows 95 PC Version, and oh man, I will get into that later. The Director's Cut version is just.. ugh.

But I will give my opinion on which version you should play, because there are like 5 different versions of the game, not including the 2002 Gamecube Remake.

There are two characters you get to play as, each one with their own scenarios which take 3-5 hours to beat each if it's your first playthrough. You can choose between Chris and the dreamy Jill Valentine.

Jill is basically the Easy Mode of this game, because she gets two more inventory slots than Chris, she gets a grenade launcher early on, and she has a lockpick which she can use to open certain doors and drawers that contain ammo, Ink Ribbons, and the Magnum, the most powerful weapon in the game.

Chris gets none of this. And in order to open drawers you need Small Keys, which actually takes up a whole inventory slot for some fucking reason. Jill gets 8 inventory slots, whereas Chris only gets 6. Even two inventory slots makes a big difference because that means that you will be backtracking to an Item Box more often than you would be with Jill.

Be honest, Chris sucks in this game.

Since this is a Survival Horror game, the goal is about escaping rather than fighting everything head on, because ammo and healing items are limited. Once you run out of resources, you're fucked. This is where the survival part comes in.

Which means that every single enemy encounter in this game means that your brain needs to make quick decision making. Do you waste bullets and shoot the enemy down so that you don't have to worry about them anymore? Or do you risk taking damage and running past them so you can save your ammo? But if you take too much damage you need to use healing items which are also limited.

What sucks is that many of the areas are tight hallways in which you must kill the enemies to avoid taking damage, but that has become a habit in these games, but it isn't as bad as Resident Evil 0.

I swear to God that whole game is just narrow corridor after narrow corridor. Most of the time you have to fight to progress. Also doesn't help that you have to control two characters and your partner can get hit while you're trying to progress. Ugh.

The herb mixing also has strategy behind it. Herbs take up inventory space, but you can combine herbs to save up space. And which herbs you should combine is another layer on top of the decision making.

There are three types of herbs: Green (G), Red (R), and Blue (B). You have free reign on how you want to combine them. Green herbs restore health and blue herbs cure poison.

And red herbs combined with a green herb fully restores your health. Red herbs cannot be used alone though, they have to be combined with a green herb before it can be used. And only a maximum of three herbs can be combined.

G: Heals 25% of your health

G + G: Heals 50% of your health

G + G + G: Heals 100% of your health

G + R: Heals 100% of your health

B: Heals poison

G + B: Heals 25% of your health and cures poison

G + R + B: Heals 100% of your health and cures poison

There's also the question of what weapon would work best against each enemy. The pistol is good for taking down zombies and dogs, but the pistol is not very good for zombie crowd control. A shotgun would be much better for this situation. And because of the pistol's low damage, it's not meant for CQC (close quarters combat). A shotgun is good against larger enemies like Hunters and Spiders, but the Grenade Launcher is way better because Hunters die in like one shot from that.

The Magnum is best for 1v1 boss fight situations since it does the most damage in the game besides a rocket launcher, but Acid Grenade Rounds are just as good.

Yeah uh, if you're arachnophobic like me, you're probably gonna fuckin' hate this game because you fight giant infected tarantulas. Hell, there is a boss fight (that you can skip) where you engage a fucking HUGE tarantula. I mean, that kind of shit is why I dropped Metro Exodus. I can't handle spiders being right up in my face. I will actually have heart failure.

The spiders in the Gamecube Remake are easily the grossest enemies in the game. They look disgusting, they move funny, they spit acid at you, and when they die their babies come out of them and come after you. Just.... Uggghhh!!

I'm so happy the spiders didn't return in Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakes.

Just writing about them is making me shiver with serious unease. My anxiety just shot up. Moving on.

Acid Grenade Rounds deal the most damage as opposed to Regular or Incendiary Grenade Rounds, but those are harder to come by. The harder the weapon hits, the less common ammo is for that weapon. So you really have to conserve your most powerful ammo for boss fights and whatnot.

Be careful when using the Grenade Launcher. There are three different types of grenades, but you have to use up all six shots of ammo before you can reload the launcher with a different ammo type.

Also, aiming up with a shotgun when a zombie is right in front of you will let you blow their head clean off with one shot. And if more than one zombie is close enough you can blow off their heads as well. But you can also risk getting a hickey while doing so. Don't let em get too close.

The Item Box is one the most important aspects about these older games, because you can't drop items, but every item can be dropped into a box and then retrieved from any other box.

How does that work? shrug Video game logic. But imagine if it wasn't like this. The flow of the game would be so much worse, it would be a real pain.

This is one of the only RE games that does not have the 180° quick turn. The quick turn actually wouldn't be a thing until Resident Evil 3. So sometimes it can be a pain in the ass having to painstakingly spin around to attack an enemy, especially if it's a Hunter.

And in the later games, your character's movement would be dependent on how much health they have. Getting into the Danger state makes them move like 80% slower. But in RE1 this is not a thing. And to be honest, I actually prefer that.

Because control is not being completely stripped away from you from losing too much health. It's already enough punishment that you're about to die and lose your progress. Why also make it impossible to get away from enemies?

When you die you have to reload your save file. You can only save your game using Ink Ribbons and even these are limited. So it adds yet another layer of decision making.

Saving too often would mean that you won't have Ink Ribbons for when you really need them, and it also affects what Rank you get when beating the game along with how long you take to beat it. Getting a better Rank will unlock better rewards like infinite ammo weaponry.

But the game does give you a lot of Ink Ribbons, so I doubt that you will actually run out of them, at least I never did.

I didn't find the puzzles to be too difficult. When I was younger I had a harder time navigating through the mansion than actually solving some of the puzzles. Though I do remember getting pretty stumped trying to find all the MO discs near the end of the game, but a quick YouTube vid helps.

Normally I hate puzzles when it comes to games but Resident Evil is an exception because the payoff is so worth it. Not to mention we have YouTube guides these days if you do get really stumped.

It really is amazing how well the gameplay holds up. The later games have more polish but the very first game set the standard for Survival Horror gameplay. It had a foundation and the later games just expanded upon it without changing it completely, that is until the later games after Code Veronica.

This game is the equivalent of playing chess. Every move you do is dependant on your wit and quick decision making, and every situation can be approached a different way. It's something that just doesn't get old any time soon.

{ Presentation }

The atmosphere of this game is executed flawlessly. The mansion looks more like a hospital than a lived in abode. I can clearly tell something is not right with this place. If you grew up with zombie movies from the 60s to the 90s and then played this game, then you must have felt like you were playing a George Romero movie. And it's intoxicating.

The mansion just looks unsettling. And what makes it even more unsettling is the lack of music at times. There is a good amount of tracks in this game, but the silence also plays into the atmosphere, it makes me feel really alone, and it's quite unnerving compared to the over the top action scenes from the later Resident Evil games.

It shows how far we have come in this genre. Man, I fuckin' miss games like this. I love modern Survival Horror games like The Evil Within 2, but you just don't see this style of game anymore.

The door animations were used as loading screens for the next area but it also gives you a feeling of tense unease, not knowing what might be on the other side of that door.

The character models and animations are jank as shit but that's the whole beauty of it. It just adds onto the charm.

The overall presentation of this game is a little bland and grayish compared to the later games, but you really can't criticize a game that took the first major step into a new gaming genre. That would be like staring at a nice painting only to bitch about the frame the picture was put in.

The narrative is a bit weak, but I enjoy the ride and the payoff is worth the journey, but god damn, the voice acting in this game is beyond appalling. It does add to the cheesey over the top action vibes of the later games, but sadly the performances can hurl you out of the experience like you're on a fucking trebuchet.

The voice acting in this game is such a meme that it even made a Guinness World Record.

Perhaps this is just another victim of poor localization that plagued this era of gaming. But it's not all bad. There are some hilarious moments in this game. Any scene that involves Barry I am all for it. But if you want prettier graphics and better acting then just play the Gamecube Remake. I'm pretty sure everyone, even if they haven't played the game, know about the Jill Sandwich joke that Barry makes.

Hell, there was an easter egg of that in Dead Rising. I always found this really funny, but in the middle of saying "Jill Sandwich", the voice actor for Barry coughs, so it sounds like he is saying Jibble Sandwich.

{ Best Version? }

The 2002 Gamecube Remake is a different ball park, so I'm just going to talk about the original 1996 game's ports.

But damn, this is really hard to decide... I have played the vanilla version of RE1 but I also played the Director's Cut but my god I can't stand that version. And yet it's more accessible for casual players. Lemme explain why I don't like the Director's Cut.

For some reason the opening intro is in black and white instead of color. And the gore was all censored. Also they changed the soundtrack. The original version of the game had an excellent soundtrack, but the Director Cut's soundtrack is so fucking dreadful that it can take you out of the experience like with the voice acting.

Some tracks sound so bad that it makes me wonder how they thought that it was okay to release it, like the Basement music. It just sounds like a horde of elephants having oral intercourse with each other.

The Basement music in vanilla RE1 sounds WAY better. Some tracks also just don't sound as good. Why couldn't we just have the original soundtrack??

There are some good things about the Director's Cut. The auto aim is here for one thing, there are extra costumes for Chris and Jill, and there's the Advanced difficulty mode. Did you know that before you select the Advanced difficulty, holding right on the D-Pad for a few seconds will turn on double ammunition?

So now if you want to play this game on PS1 you have to decide. Do you sacrifice the auto aim for the aesthetics of the vanilla game? Or do you prioritize accessibility but you get an utterly butchered soundtrack and censored violence in the FMV cutscenes?

Then there is the Windows 95 PC version. The soundtrack and the gore are back to the way they should be, thank God for that, and the auto aim is here as well. What's amazing about this port is that unlike every other version of this game, you can skip the door animations. And holy fuck this makes the game go by so much quicker. Constantly going through doors and watching the animations every single time can really add onto the play time.

One thing that can be a bit off putting is that the enemies ooze out green blood instead of red, but maybe you'll get used to it. You can also get exclusive infinite ammo weapons like an Uzi for Jill and a Light Machine Gun for Chris. So you you relive your Rambo fantasies, baby.

It's actually pretty easy to get this game running on a modern day system thanks to the PC Wiki.

Then there is the Sega Saturn version.

This version also retains the original soundtrack from the PS1 vanilla release, but just like the vanilla PS1 version, there's no auto aim.

And this is the only port to have the Battle Mode, which is a mini-game like The Mercenaries in the other games.

You have to proceed to a certain destination within a certain time limit while killing enemies to add more time. The mini-game can be unlocked either by completing the game and saving the clear file, or by inputting a cheat code using a second-player controller with a save file set anywhere and then you hold X, Y, and Z and press Start at the title screen.

Finally there is the Nintendo DS port. Which is pretty cool because you got to play Resident Evil but on the go, but to be honest, I don't see why you would play this. All of the sound effects, music, and graphics are really compressed. It's like playing Resident Evil 2 on the N64.

I'd honestly rather just play the original PS1 or Sega Saturn version emulated on my cell phone. You're able to connect a PS4 controller to your cell phone via Bluetooth so you can play the game like that, so again, why play the DS version? Because you get a map on the bottom screen? Because the knife now has a quick select button?

Ehhhh... Yeah I'm good.

{ Final Thoughts }

This wasn't my first Resident Evil game and hell, it's definitely not the best Resident Evil, but it's the most important one. It grew on me a lot as I kept playing it. It's the game that brought horror gaming to the masses. And the Gamecube Remake is even better. The other original RE games are much better, but those games would have never existed if not for this one.

If not for the success Resident Evil 1, we probably would not have gotten games like Parasite Eve, Silent Hill, Dino Crisis, Fatal Frame, Eternal Darkness, hell even modern Survival Horror games like The Evil Within and Dead Space.

There are hundreds of games that owe at least a little credit to the original Resident Evil. You owe it to yourself to play this game at least once. Or hell, play the Remake that's even better. Just, play it goddamn it lol.

8/10

Have a nice day, Jill Sandwiches. 🧡

i am going to do my best to talk about this game without referring to the myriad of things i had heard about it prior. this game has a daunting reputation as a barrier of entry, but i'd rather focus this review on talking about the game than dissecting that.

it's incredibly tempting to write off early horror games as dated and fossils of the time, but that misses something integral to the development of games as a medium. resident evil is a genuinely scary game. maybe not always for the right reasons, but i feel fairly confident in saying that at some point during a first playthrough, you will get scared. again, maybe not for the content of "spoooooky zombies!! uh oh giant snake!!" but more for the gameplay side of things.

i started with chris mode first because the game defaulted with it and i frankly am fucking cool like that, and christ alive, what an ordeal that was. a good one, mind you, but i would be lying if i didn't mention my regular debates over what to kill with the little ammo i could find. enemies are all over the place, and you truly feel outnumbered on a first playthrough. i could see many people disliking the idea of saves being both limited and requiring the usage of an item, but i think it adds depth to the game. every time i found an ink ribbon on my first playthrough, i felt an immense amount of joy and relief, if only for a brief period of time, because it meant that i had more opportunities to save my progress. with enemies that can instakill you and other enemies that can stunlock you, saving is something that you'll want to do simultaneously frequently and judiciously. there's a good tug-of-war between wanting to save and not knowing when to save. should i save now that i beat this boss? or is there something worse right around the corner? should i save now that i did this big plot event? or will i run out of saves later because i was too much of a wastrel with ink ribbons? i don't necessarily think limited saves should be used in every game, but, if you're going to use them, i think RE1 makes a very strong example of how to do it.

the game isn't incredibly difficult if you know what you're doing, however. this is definitely the kind of game that rewards repeat playthroughs on top of knowing item locations and room layouts. with as interesting of a location as the spencer mansion, learning room layouts doesn't even feel like a task and, instead, is part of the fun. exploring the mansion can be simultaneously dread-inducing and fascinating. you fear what's around each corner, but you're compelled to find out. there's a great gameplay hook in that, and RE1 capitalizes on it. something i appreciate more and more now as an adult is when a game is lean and devoid of filler but still has value in replayability, and this game hits it out of the park on that front.

overall i had a great time with this game and i think it's a classic that many people should try out. i don't think much if any of this has aged that poorly, and, if anything, i think it has stood the test of time.

edit as of 1/3/2024: original rating was a 4.0/5.0. backloggd doesn't let me show that in this review, however, because i replayed it at a later date and bumped it up to a 4.0/5.0. likely no one will care about this, but, for data preservation's sake, i felt it was worth mentioning.

Very fun. Enjoyed it a lot. All the 3d games from this time period have this, duplo, feel to the graphics that are really cute and give a bit of a disconnect to the whole thing. Gives a miniature feel while also adding to the horror.

The cutscenes and story are laughable, especially the voicework. Its cute though and its such a small part of the game that it doesn't take away from it. The gameplay is fantastic though, actually scary feeling but has a bit of a step to it. Everything in the game can be learned and understood. The zombies only take so many hits, the shotgun is an instakill. You can learn it all.

Really a great game. Would reccommend but download the ultimate director's cut version with the better music.

Did a Chris arrange mode run with no first aid sprays and saves for spooky season 2020.

Still a favorite, who knew...

I've really settled in to having my preferred method of playing this being an Arrange difficulty mode run in the dualshock version of the director's cut release. People don't shut the fuck up about the soundtrack (and for good reason to an extent) but when you get past the REALLY BAD tracks on it, there's a few gems. Also I grew up with that version and I associate the original soundtrack more with the 2002 remake so it just works.

The start of it all.

This is the beginning of one my favorite series of all time, It has been pretty much replaced by the remake but I still believe this game deserves to be played even if the remake is objectively better.

The cheesy dialogue and the way it looks gives it a certain type of charm that I feel was somewhat lost in the remake.

definitely give this a go if you haven't already.

The remake of this game is one of my favorite games of all time, but I had never actually played the original until now. All the enjoyment I got out of this game ended up coming from comparing it to the remake, because this game in itself is not very good. The key hunting gameplay that this game established felt great in the remake since it got you engaging with the atmosphere of the mansion, but the level of detail is so low in this version that the mansion just feels like a normal house. Everything is brightly lit and furniture is sparse, so it’s a trek across endless boxy rooms and encountering a minimal variety of enemies with not much else going on. In essence, it’s the ultimate barebones survival horror experience, with everything except the basic framework removed. I’ve played the other Playstation Resident Evil games and I like them a lot, so this one is falling victim to its own status as an innovator. It doesn’t hold up, but it gave us a lot of good games and spectacular remake, so I should probably let it off the hook.

funny voice acting and mid 1990s FMVs




greatest game ever made