Let's go back to the beginning; to where it all began. In 1996, Capcom released a little game called Resident Evil. It was a charming game that took place in mansion full of puzzles and mysteries and zombies that wanted to eat your flesh. This game alone started what would be the golden age of "survival horror" games. Games such as Silent Hill, Clock Tower 2 and Parasite Eve. Horror games existed prior to Resident Evil, but it was this game that really popularized it.
Fun Fact: The game was originally titled Biohazard, but was changed because that name was copyrighted by some stupid metal band in North America.
This classic intro summarizes the basic plotline of RE. In a sleepy town in the American Midwest, a series of murders prompts S.T.A.R.S. to send the Bravo team to investigate. STARS stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service. Why a supposedly small town would need two teams of this highly specialized police unit, I don't know. Bravo team goes missing so the Alpha team goes out to look for them. They get attacked by monsters in the forest and hide out in the mansion where by sheer coincidence, the entire plot takes place.
Words cannot describe how much I love this intro movie. It holds a special place in my heart. I know it's the edited English version but that's all we had. The B-movie charm, the low budget crap, the terrible acting and nonsensical situations really get me. Ever notice how Wesker is wearing his sunglasses at night? Why did the helicopter abandon them? The official explanation is that Brad "Chickenheart" Vickers, the pilot, was a coward. Really? You'd think they'd keep notorious cowards, who are given nicknames that they are cowards, from joining a special police unit. Why the Bravo team crashed so close to the mansion or why they crashed at all is never explained in the game at all and seems to be just plot convenience. "Joseph!" "No! Don't go!" Man, I love this shit.
Fun Fact: In the English version, they edited out a lot of the violence and made it black and white. Also censored was the scene of Chris smoking a cigarette because smoking is a bad influence for kids to have in their bloody, violent, zombie-killing game.
In the game, you get to choose between two characters: Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. Each character differs in stats like health and items. The story flows differently too. Chris is partnered with Rebecca from the Bravo Team while Jill has Barry for backup. The story flows more or less the same in the big picture. If I may, I'd like to share an in-joke RE fans have. Characters in the original RE seem too overqualified to be where they are. Take Chris for example. His official bio states that he's a fighter pilot and marksman for the U.S. Air Force but "retired" after conflict with his superiors at the age of 23. Seems a little too young don't you think? Oh, and Jill is ex-Delta Force apparently. I don't think women can serve in the Delta Force. Rebecca really takes the cake however, graduating from college at 18 and being an expert in Chemistry and Medicine. How she ended up in the ass-end of nowhere in America puzzles me.
Fun Fact: Delta Force recruits must, in fact, be male.
Much of the game involves you solving puzzles in a mansion with only one bathroom. You get the keys, push the statues etc. All the while fighting zombies with limited supplies. This is what the "survival horror" genre boils down to basically. It's better than it sounds.
Anyway, the main gist of the plot was that the mansion was a secret laboratory where the Umbrella Corporation was making bio-weapons. The bio-weapons being those mutant creatures you encounter. Zombies, zombie dogs, zombie sharks, zombie plants, zombie crows and hunters. The big reveal in the end is that Wesker was a bad guy all along and blackmailed Barry to help him. Wesker unveils the ultimate bio-weapon in Umbrella's arsenal which is a massive creature called the Tyrant.
Fun Fact: The game was originally titled Biohazard, but was changed because that name was copyrighted by some stupid metal band in North America.
This classic intro summarizes the basic plotline of RE. In a sleepy town in the American Midwest, a series of murders prompts S.T.A.R.S. to send the Bravo team to investigate. STARS stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service. Why a supposedly small town would need two teams of this highly specialized police unit, I don't know. Bravo team goes missing so the Alpha team goes out to look for them. They get attacked by monsters in the forest and hide out in the mansion where by sheer coincidence, the entire plot takes place.
Words cannot describe how much I love this intro movie. It holds a special place in my heart. I know it's the edited English version but that's all we had. The B-movie charm, the low budget crap, the terrible acting and nonsensical situations really get me. Ever notice how Wesker is wearing his sunglasses at night? Why did the helicopter abandon them? The official explanation is that Brad "Chickenheart" Vickers, the pilot, was a coward. Really? You'd think they'd keep notorious cowards, who are given nicknames that they are cowards, from joining a special police unit. Why the Bravo team crashed so close to the mansion or why they crashed at all is never explained in the game at all and seems to be just plot convenience. "Joseph!" "No! Don't go!" Man, I love this shit.
Fun Fact: In the English version, they edited out a lot of the violence and made it black and white. Also censored was the scene of Chris smoking a cigarette because smoking is a bad influence for kids to have in their bloody, violent, zombie-killing game.
In the game, you get to choose between two characters: Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. Each character differs in stats like health and items. The story flows differently too. Chris is partnered with Rebecca from the Bravo Team while Jill has Barry for backup. The story flows more or less the same in the big picture. If I may, I'd like to share an in-joke RE fans have. Characters in the original RE seem too overqualified to be where they are. Take Chris for example. His official bio states that he's a fighter pilot and marksman for the U.S. Air Force but "retired" after conflict with his superiors at the age of 23. Seems a little too young don't you think? Oh, and Jill is ex-Delta Force apparently. I don't think women can serve in the Delta Force. Rebecca really takes the cake however, graduating from college at 18 and being an expert in Chemistry and Medicine. How she ended up in the ass-end of nowhere in America puzzles me.
Fun Fact: Delta Force recruits must, in fact, be male.
Much of the game involves you solving puzzles in a mansion with only one bathroom. You get the keys, push the statues etc. All the while fighting zombies with limited supplies. This is what the "survival horror" genre boils down to basically. It's better than it sounds.
Anyway, the main gist of the plot was that the mansion was a secret laboratory where the Umbrella Corporation was making bio-weapons. The bio-weapons being those mutant creatures you encounter. Zombies, zombie dogs, zombie sharks, zombie plants, zombie crows and hunters. The big reveal in the end is that Wesker was a bad guy all along and blackmailed Barry to help him. Wesker unveils the ultimate bio-weapon in Umbrella's arsenal which is a massive creature called the Tyrant.
The Tyrant betrays its master and kills Wesker. (Or did it!?) We fight the thing but there's nothing a few magnum rounds or acid grenades can't fix. We defeat it but not before Wesker, or dumbass accident-prone Rebecca, activate the self-destruct sequence. We run to the roof and signal Brad, who was circling the forest all this time, with a flare. What, did that helicopter have infinite fuel?But no! The Tyrant bursts on to the rooftop with renewed strength an vigor and out hero is on the ropes. With time almost running out, Brad finally does something useful with his life and drops a rocket launcher onto the helipad. Are rocket launchers issued to the police force? Whatever. We slay the beast and then establish the long running RE tradition of escaping on a helicopter. In the canon ending, Brad, Chris, Jill, Barry and Rebecca all make it out somehow. Don't ask how they all simultaneously escaped because they just did OK? They escape with the truth but will anyone believe them?
So that's RE. In 2002, Capcom released a gore-geous remake of RE on the Gamecube. It had realistic graphics and kept the gameplay more or less the same. Ironically, it had much better voice acting despite having no real actors on screen like the original. The puzzles were reworked to mess with our heads but overall, the REmake was a glorious tribute to the original. The REmake did tweak the plot a little by adding an entirely unnecessary "Lisa Trevor" subplot but I don't want to get to deep into that. Just remember the simple story of the original because that's as understandable as it's going to get.
Fun Fact: If you believe the novelizations, Raccoon City is in Pennsylvania which is not exactly the Midwest. Most consider the novelizations as pieces of crap though.
Before we leave, It must be mentioned that Resident Evil has the reputation for having probably the worst voice acting in the history of video games. If you would just blare a vuvuzela everytime a character speaks, it would actually be better voice acting. And now, without further ado, behold. House of the Dead cant hold a candle to this shit.
The best.
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