Evils Beginning Residence

Author's Rating:

Pros: More scary than RE4. Definitely worth the bucks if you're an RE fan.

Cons: Horrible movement and fighting will more likely get you killed than save your life.

The Bottom Line: 
I definitely recommend this game to any fan of the resident evil series.

Author's Review
So I decided to pick up the entire collection of the Resident Evil series after having bought my first RE game (Resident Evil 4). Finding the other games of the series in stores was near impossible unless I wanted to pick up a used version at GameStop, but I wanted my copy fresh, unscratched, and with a booklet to come along with it so I ordered this version online.

Storyline/Gameplay
Resident Evil 0 takes place before the mansion incident and reveals the unknown incidents leading up to how the T-Virus was created and how it spread. In this game you take the role of 2 characters. S.T.A.R.S. rookie Rebecca Chambers or Fugitive Billy Coen. There are times where you will need both characters to run through puzzles, and certain areas to complete tasks or just to survive attacks and move forward.
Throughout the game you will encounter many cut-scenes that give information as to your next set of tasks, or details on what is going on inside this mission. There is a chance you may want to play this game twice, as there are times you will have an option to send a character to perform a task, and there may be an additional or different cut-scene. This option shows that they put a great amount of effort into the storyline and design of the game.
What I wasn't too pleased with in the game was the controls for movement and attacks. You have a choice between different types of weapons (handgun, shotgun, rifle, knife, Moltovs, Grenade launchers, etc). With each weapon you can only shoot straight, up, or down. There is no cursor for aiming. You basically just face in a direction and hope your bullet hits your desired target.
Movement is another painstaking task and will almost always be a major reason as to why you get killed, other than the serious lack of ammo/bonuses provided in this game. In order to turn you have to use the left and right buttons on the control pad or analog stick. And then in order to move forward or step back you use up or down. It is very simple when you read about it, but when you play and see how horrible the movement is, then you'll understand why this game is such a pain to play and almost impossible to keep from dying over and over your first go around.
As far as the ammo in the game. Yes it is seriously low and it takes away from the fun in this game. It is hard enough that zombies don't exactly fall back, even from a shotgun, until they are near death. I would have thought you could get bonuses or pick up items from killing monsters, but that isn't the case, and this makes the game 10 times annoying. Another annoying part is there will be times when you hit dead ends, come back and find that you are being pursued by some loud, fast-moving, scary and obnoxious monster.

Graphics/Sound effects
The graphical effects in this game are superb. Just excellent. When I bought this game I knew it was old and I was thinking the graphics would not be as good as Resident Evil 4 considering the 4th installment was made a few years later. The terrain of the mansion and train you explore are incredible. You get the feel of being in a scary environment all alone. There is a good variety of monsters featured in this game, all having been displayed clearly in a 3d environment. They are scary and sure to have your heart pounding as you fight for your life.
The musical sound effects add on to the dark natured setting. On a regular tv it might sound okay, but I had to just jack it up by connecting the audio to my stereo. Playing this game late at night was just scary. I had to play and couldn't really go to get snacks because usually when I did that I would hear sounds that was so realistic I thought it was coming from right outside in my backyard.


My Final Opinion.
For me this is one of those games I will play occasionally, simply because the gameplay annoyed me greatly. It isn't worth the stress of playing the game in any other mode besides easy or normal. It will be shelved in my collection of games that I play once every few years. I'm not saying its a bad game, but it does frustrate me playing and getting killed by zombies that randomly appear all because the movement is just that bad and the amount of ammo provided is low. I want to be able to clear a room and know no zombies or monsters are coming back because they can't get in or because I killed them all.
Let's be realistic here (I know that don't sound right).