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Important Importables
Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
Capcom’s Wii re-release of Resident Evil has met with a lot of criticism. This is probably justified. Gamers are a passionate lot who develop intense devotion to their franchises.
“Why waste development on a Wii port of a Game Cube port of a PlayStation game when you could be developing a new Resident Evil game?” they cry. There are two problems with this.
First, Capcom is developing a new Resident Evil game for the Wii called Darkside Chronicles. Second, the argument is based on the assumption that if Capcom weren’t porting Resident Evil, that this development time would be spent on yet another Resident Evil game, which it of course wouldn’t be.
Ports are easy. Ports are cheap. And when they’ve got “Resident Evil” in the title, ports make money.
So, here we are with Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil. The game is 13 years old, although only 7 years older than the Game Cube remake it more closely resembles. And, sadly, Resident Evil is showing its age. Not in appearance, mind you—the game actually looks quite good—but in how it feels. How it moves around.
Your fear can’t kill you, but…
By now, even people who have never played a Resident Evil game should know the story. Evil corporation does bad things with chemicals. People die. Soldiers investigate. Soldiers die. More soldiers investigate. Terror ensues.
Amongst the survivors are Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield. You control either of them, or eventually both, since going back through the game as the other character provides a somewhat different experience. Through an overhead third-person point-of-view, you explore various creepy locales that are infested with zombies, rabid dogs, giant spiders, etc.
Although you have free reign within the house, camera control is predetermined. In other words, as you walk down a hallway, the camera isn’t positioned behind you. Instead, it automatically flips to locations determined by the developers. This allows for the developer to control the look and atmosphere of the game, providing an effectively creepy experience and causing some dissonance and frustration with the controls.
...your controls can.
Capcom provides multiple control schemes, none of which are a significant update. Whether you play with the WiiMote, the WiiMote with Nunchuck or a classic controller (I’ve been using my old Game Cube WaveBird), the controls remain a rigid, awkward mess.
To move forward, you hit up. To move backwards, you hit down. To turn, you hit left or right. It sounds easy, but that depends upon which way you’re facing and whether you want to run with any degree of accuracy. Considering that much of the game involves scurrying past zombies, the inability to do this fluidly will lead to unnecessary deaths.
But is it fair to criticize Capcom for not updating the controls? This is a port, after all. It’s not a remake or a re-imagining. I have a feeling that if Capcom tackled the control scheme, gamers would complain about the lack of updated graphics or new levels.
By keeping everything the same, Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil remains a cohesive package that plays just like it should, for better or worse. Plus, considering we’ll be getting more of these Resident Evil Wii-makes, keeping our expectations in line can result in faster ports.
“Whoa! This hall is dangerous!”
Anyway, the game is still great. This is a creepy, creepy game that provides plenty of good scares and thrills. I jumped on numerous occasions when a zombie or dog would crash through a window, or when a zombie, believed dead, would suddenly groan and stand up behind me.
Plus, it plays out very well. The progression is linear but there’s freedom of movement through the various locations. In other words, although the path from A to B may be rigid, you can do as much as you like on the way there. And you’ll likely need to. The keys/emblems needed to open doors and solve puzzles never seem to be nearby.
In addition, not only is this game tough (both with the zombies you must fight and the puzzles you must solve), but you’re severely limited in the amount of saves and items you can carry. Save games and items can only be accessed from certain rooms, so you’ll be returning to these rooms more frequently than you’d like.
The story builds at a methodical pace that heightens the terror within. Being able to run around and blast everything would ruin this game. So, although you may not get a lot done in an hour, it will go by quickly and it will always leave you wanting more.
“You did just fine. This case was just too strange.”
As a result, Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil is a tough game to recommed to anyone who’s already played the Game Cube version. It’s also tough to recommend it to those accustomed only to the Wii’s fantastic WiiMote + Nunchuck control schemes.
And, yet, it’s an outstanding game that everyone—especially fans of Resident Evil 4 and Umbrella Chronicles on the Wii—should play. This would be easier to suggest if the game were priced at $20 instead of $30, but if you’re looking for some good scares, a solid story, and a little bit of history behind the Resident Evil characters, you’ll get your money’s worth.
Read [Gamertell] Read [Resident Evil]
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