The residents of this mansion sure are evil.
Honestly, even if absolutely nothing about the gameplay entices you, this game is worth playing just for the atmosphere alone. That thick, almost dreamlike ambience that old video games were so incredibly good at that, an art that has seemingly been lost in the never-ending chase for photorealism and graphical fidelity. Don’t get me wrong, the modern RE games are great and the remakes are very impressive, but there’s just… something here that can’t be replicated. The complete desolation of a quiet mansion mixed with the tension of not knowing what’s hiding around the corner. The dark, foggy forest outside. The creaky doors, the unsettling decorations, the elaborate death traps, the dimly lit corridors – it’s like being trapped inside of a painting. And the fixed camera angles only add to the cinematic feeling of it all – sure, they can be annoying sometimes, but the gameplay is slow enough that I don’t think they’re too much of a problem, so it is a worthy tradeoff.
And all that without even mentioning the gameplay itself, which simultaneously defined a genre and yet still managed to be better than basically all of its later imitators. Ammo, inventory space, healing, even the ability to save – everything is limited. But every single item, every single enemy has been placed so meticulously that this intended scarcity achieves a perfect balance of being tense and stressful without ever becoming actually frustrating – as long as you play by the game’s rules, obviously (this is not a third person shooter). And sure, the camera and the movement and the shooting mechanics all clash with modern game design principles – but it all feels so intentional, it all adds to the tension and pulls you into the game’s world so hard that it feels unfair to call any of it “clunky”.
Yeah, this is one of the best games of all time.
Honestly, even if absolutely nothing about the gameplay entices you, this game is worth playing just for the atmosphere alone. That thick, almost dreamlike ambience that old video games were so incredibly good at that, an art that has seemingly been lost in the never-ending chase for photorealism and graphical fidelity. Don’t get me wrong, the modern RE games are great and the remakes are very impressive, but there’s just… something here that can’t be replicated. The complete desolation of a quiet mansion mixed with the tension of not knowing what’s hiding around the corner. The dark, foggy forest outside. The creaky doors, the unsettling decorations, the elaborate death traps, the dimly lit corridors – it’s like being trapped inside of a painting. And the fixed camera angles only add to the cinematic feeling of it all – sure, they can be annoying sometimes, but the gameplay is slow enough that I don’t think they’re too much of a problem, so it is a worthy tradeoff.
And all that without even mentioning the gameplay itself, which simultaneously defined a genre and yet still managed to be better than basically all of its later imitators. Ammo, inventory space, healing, even the ability to save – everything is limited. But every single item, every single enemy has been placed so meticulously that this intended scarcity achieves a perfect balance of being tense and stressful without ever becoming actually frustrating – as long as you play by the game’s rules, obviously (this is not a third person shooter). And sure, the camera and the movement and the shooting mechanics all clash with modern game design principles – but it all feels so intentional, it all adds to the tension and pulls you into the game’s world so hard that it feels unfair to call any of it “clunky”.
Yeah, this is one of the best games of all time.