Resident Evil 1996 Review

As I creep though the familiar-yet-eerie corridors of Resident Evil, I can't help but feel terrified of Crimson Heads. Even 19 years after I first encountered them, it's genuinely frightening every time they spring back to life to try to tear a hole in my esophagus, but they're also a great example of why Resident Evil still holds up. Inconsistent art and persistent clipping problems give away that this is an update of a 1996 survival-horror game, the scares, puzzles, and atmosphere of the creepy corridors of Spencer Mansion are as potent as ever.

Ever since the tweaks made in the 2002 GameCube remake, Resident Evil has been a tense game of resource management. The makeover to the many rooms, puzzles, and monsters give it an edge that significantly surpasses the original game. Every zombie you spend precious ammunition to kill becomes a ticking time bomb that’ll turn into something much more deadly if you don’t dispose of them properly with fire or headshots.

That persistent danger is what makes the frequent backtracking through this labyrinth of locked doors something more interesting than typical busywork. As Resident Evil uses adventure game-style design to send you looking for keys and objects that have to be examined closely to solve puzzles, then brought back to the right location, you can feel the stakes rising as the chances of getting mauled or caught without the right resources increase.

Resident Evil is a gauntlet of twisted monsters and hard decisions. Make the wrong choice or take too long on some objectives, and sometimes you’ll pay for it with the death of a comrade or missing out on precious resources. It’s punishing at times, and managing the different inventories of two playable characters forces you to be smart and frugal with regard to what you carry with you. The constant pressure makes it a difficult game to play by design, but one that still manages to be fair.

This HD remastered edition of Resident Evil looks pretty good on the new-gen consoles, thanks to 1080p resolution and some nicely touched up backgrounds and textures, with the PC version offering the highest settings and a nifty option to switch between 60 and 30 frames per second. The biggest improvement across all versions is the ability to scale the experience the way you want to play it. You could choose between 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, and you can swap the original “tank-style” controls for a more modern setup that moves your character in the direction you push the stick.

THE VERDICT

I love coming back to Resident Evil, and this version does a good job of updating the look and feel of an old game for a modern audience. Some of the older visual flaws detract from the experience and pulled me out of tense moments, but the gameplay hooked me right back in. Resident Evil relies on atmosphere, tough limitations, and danger creeping around all corners, and this port recaptures the formula of a classic, relentless survival-horror game.