And there was nothing to trouble you,
No Zombies or Red-Heads,
Or pesky B.O.W.s.
Now, I wanted to tackle Resident Evil from all angles so I thought that the best all-around method for that would be to experience the game from a fresh angle, so that meant an entirely new game with none of the 'clear-time' bonuses or 'warddrobe room keys' that you get from beating the game through before. This was as pure as it could be with the intention of drumming all those old feelings of fear and nerves that one gets the first time around without the benefit of an unlimited ammo rocket launcher once things get dicey. (Okay, I never actually unlocked that rocket launcher. I was literally 2 minutes off.) That being said, it's only been a year since I last played the game for 4 complete playthroughs, so bear in mind that my impressions are not even remotely virginal and I know this title basically inside and out. Conversely, bear in mind that I haven't played this game in a year so I may get stuck with incredibly simple tasks such as; how do I get the first key? (If I keep making blunders like that then this series might take a while to get out.)
Just so that you know what to expect going forward; I intended for these 'in Depth' tagged posts to serve as a blog-essay, summarizing everything about Resident Evil in order to learn and critique all the different ways that Capcom tell their story, set their mood and drive their themes. Of course, as these will be multipart, and these games don't exactly have clear-cut mission layouts (unless you count the way that the first games are split into distinct roaming areas.) I will be choosing very arbitrary cut-off points of analysis from a progression standpoint to ensure that I don't take on too many topics at once that I won't loose the strength of my analytical eye. Also, obviously, I'm about to spoil the ever-living crap out of this game, so if you've never had the pleasure; pick up Resident Evil today for a little under £20. It's worth every penny.
Firstly, it should be noted that I'm not actually playing the original Resident Evil (Although I am actually familiar with that title because I played it back in the day when I was wholly too young to do so.) That is because, as good as the original was, Capcom went back to the drawing board to re-envision that game in 2002 with the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil. A remake that, in 2015, got a full remaster and re-release on modern-day consoles, making it a lot easier to get my hands on that rather than the original title. Also, this Resident Evil was the one that I fell in love with in my later life, so it makes absolute sense for me to start with this title. (The basic layout of the game is the same anyway, just performed to a much higher standard.)
At this point the 'rescue' squad scans the wreckage with their weapons out and drawn as though their raiding an active shooter compound. (Seriously do not want these guys coming to 'rescue' me.) They find the helicopter abandoned, apart from the clawed-out face of someone called 'Kevin' who doesn't actually show up on the S.T.A.R.S list of operatives. (Is that a budding mystery or a slip-up, you decide!) For some reason this incentivizes the team to take to the woods in search of survivors; again, gun first. It is now that we get a scene taken right from 'Evil Dead' as our perspective switches to that of a dog as we see it attack and brutally maul poor mister Frost. (Taken too soon.) What follows is a frantic race through the woods as the team are pursued by rapid, and undead, hounds capped off by the best, and most odd, line read in the entire game. Observe:
At this point the game takes over as the story branches out in two different ways depending on who you choose to play as in the selection screen. Not only does this add a re-playability factor to the game as both storylines feature different beats and even unique characters; but it also adds a subtle layer of difficulty selection as Chris' playthrough is objectively harder than Jill's. (Likely due to the fact that he starts without a firearm.) For the purposes of this analysis I choose to play as Ms. Valentine as hers is the campaign that I am more inherently familiar with. (Perhaps I'll have the time and inclination to branch out after I'm done.)
In Valentine's path, the team find and enter Spencer Mansion only to find that Chris has vanished and Wesker is clueless about where he got to. So, in a situation wherein they are one-man down and another man missing, the team immediately decide that the wise thing to do is split up Scooby-Doo style. This paves the way for Jill and and Barry to go searching on their own and run into that incredibly iconic cutscene wherein you meet the first Zombie. Now, I'm being 100% honest with you all when I tell you that; I used to be scared out of my mind of that cutscene. (Bear in mind that I was too young to be playing this game at the time, so I was bound to get freaked out by something.) I just remember being stunned by the way the game blacks out everything and focuses on the grotesque face of the beast, a face I would then see in my dreams. Honestly, that scene right there is likely the reason why I never played this title to completion until over a decade later. (That's an effective scare right there.)
If you're me and wish to conserve ammo, this scene is immediately followed by you hightailing it back to Barry in the knowledge that he will off the thing for you. The two of them acknowledge that something is very wrong with this mansion and then travel back to the main room to find; surprise, surprise, Albert Wesker has vanished into thin air like Macavity. (oof, there's a reference I hope nobody gets.) Barry offers Jill her character specific tool, which is a Lockpick (Perfect for "The master of unlocking") and then decides to go off on his own giving players the opportunity to settle into the game properly and start investigating this maze of a mansion.
The first thing I will point out about the setting of Resident Evil is the great way in which is leverages traditional Gothic themes in order to establish the oppressive nature of that genre. We see that not only in the grand towering nature of the rooms that we travel through, such as the entrance hall and the dining room, but in the surprisingly interactive environment that is littered with morbid themes and tragic imagery. One can click around the environment and read several descriptions about the art on the wall, some of it even comes into play later in the form of puzzle solutions. It should be noted, however, that due to the pre-rendered manner of many environments in this game, it is hard to make out the pictures themselves, so that description is all you have to go on. The effect of this, intended or otherwise, is that players are allowed to envision the environment in their own mind and make it as spooky as they need to. (A fantastic way of playing on the almighty imagination.)
Resident Evil also does a great job of playing on the oppressive nature of wide open spaces and the confined manner of corridors. Capcom pull this off through their feature which some would argue has aged poorly and I would say was taken too soon; fixed camera angles. As you explore the Spencer Mansion, you have no control over where your camera will show which allows for the team to manipulate what you see in order to heighten your fear of the unknown. Perhaps they will position you in a way where you cannot see around that next corner, or become uncomfortable as the shot becomes ever-so-slightly odd. It's a brilliant way of harnessing the camera-angle magic from Horror movies and bringing it into the world of gaming and it is so effective. Upon entering the 'Bird cage' room I literally felt a shiver run down my spine, and this is a game that I've played ad nauseam. (That's the power of strong atmosphere.)
That is helped, of course, by the powerful sound design that recognizes that universal truth; "Art is as much about what you leave out as what you put in." In the wide open spaces of this game, you'll often find yourself accompanied with no music whatsoever, and will have to listen to the echoing of your own footsteps broken up the occasional crack of lightening. In tighter spaces, you may hear the occasional vague melody that mostly features haunting drawn-out notes to heighten your even present fear that something is watching you. The silence works wonders with the camera angles once you start entering problem areas, as you can start hearing the rattling moans of the undead in the distance but be unable to pinpoint them. One of my favourite examples of this comes from the mirror room early on, where you can see just around the corner but the bouncing nature of the undead moans will still trick your mind; it's truly an unsettling feeling.
All of those effects are ancillary, however, as your key worry at this point in the game is finding your bearings and figuring out the layout of the Spencer household. Despite it's intimidating size, the Spencer mansion is surprisingly restrictive at first as you find most of the doors are locked with different keys unlocking different doors. At the beginning of the game you have no keys and can merely try each door and note down the iconography adoring each lock detailing which key opens which door. Once you find the first key, your exploration opens up for you to find another and on and on. In many ways, this makes Resident Evil feel like an elaborate puzzle game bought to another genre, similar to the Hitman games. (I'm starting to realize my own niche biases.)
Navigation is helped by making use of your handy UI tools that keep things convenient yet still vague. By this I mean that your handy map will mark down locked doors as well as rooms that still have lootable items in them, but it won't reveal what doors need which keys or where those items that you can still collect are located. Plus, your map is imbued with a 'fog-of-war' mechanic wherein you have to visit a room in order for it to show up on your map, making it impossible to get a grasp on the scale of your environment at first glance. Of course, this can be offset by collecting the maps around the house, but these are all option objectives and reveal just the floor that they reside on. You'll find the first in a curiously simple 'push-the-thing-to-get-to-the-thing' puzzle, but the rest may require a little more ingenuity and/or perilousness.
As your exploration is so restricted to begin with, you're first ports-of-call will likely be going towards the mirror room and the room with the trapped key. That latter location does a great job in setting the tone for the kinds of traps that one can expect to come across, by pitting you against a problem with no apparent solution. There is a key in a pedestal that locks you into a death scenario as soon as you retrieve it, meaning that players are forced to leave the thing behind and come to terms with the fact that some solutions are not immediately obvious, backtracking will be a necessity. The mirror room is a lot more straightforward in it's threats, in that it is full of zombies, which works because that room contains the first puzzle solution, the Peridot tipped arrow head. (Something that I completely forgot about, and literally walked past when I played this last night. Seems this mansion is more confusing and winding then I initially thought.)
That arrow can be manipulated into opening the grave site out back, after which we are welcomed into one of the most overtly horrific locations in the game. These 'catacombs' showcase a row of sculpted faces that are missing thematic features, a book full of secrets and a hanging, bleeding, sarcophagus that is suspended by four chains. (Just the perfect man-cave for old Mr. Spencer, I suppose.) It is in that book that we get another key mechanic of Resident Evil game's; Item manipulation. You can mess with items in your inventory in order to solve puzzles or flesh out your understanding of them. This type of 'hands-on' approach creates an investigative aura around the act of exploring that makes players feel like they're taking an active part in unravelling this mansion's history. Because they kinda are.
The key you get from that book really starts to open up the world of Resident Evil, and the information in that book gives you a goal to focus on for the first act, but I decided to use that freedom to b-line for the first item-room as I needed to process everything that I had been through for this analysis. (Incidentally that was my first save and I did nearly die getting there. Total dumb move on my part.) There are, of course, several more key aspects of Resident Evil to discuss and walk through but I feel that I've already covered a decent amount today. I'm certainly looking forward to diving head first into this series from the strong beginning to the rocky end, and maybe learn some valuable things along the way,
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