Summary
Welcome to RE-Rewind. Brig Newspaper's latest column tracking the importance of gaming's most iconic horror franchise. Each article in this series will focus on one mainline Resident Evil entry in the run-up to Resident Evil Requiem.
To start this series, we have to go back to the beginning. Resident Evil 1, well-loved but not accessible for a modern audience, this game embodies the soon-to-be three-decade-old franchise’s greatest strengths.
Conceived as a reinterpretation of Capcom’s 1989 game Sweet Home, what audiences know as Resident Evil came to be after long-time series creator Shinji Mikami was told to create the game around a haunted mansion.
Starting production in 1993, the game took the team at Capcom Production Studio 4 three years to finish. During development, the team pulled inspiration for the mansion from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and the zombie element came from engaging with George A. Romero’s Living Dead series of films. The game was also almost developed with a first-person perspective.
After releasing on the PlayStation 1, Sega Saturn, and PC, the game would receive almost universal praise, with GameSpot claiming that the game was “a superslick, realistically mapped, and ultra-violent” entry into the survival horror genre.
However, the true horror and brilliance of Resident Evil 1 wouldn’t take shape until Capcom remade the game in 2002.
The Greatest Survival Horror Remake
Released and developed on Nintendo’s GameCube, the Resident Evil 1 remake takes the great foundations of the original release and builds upon them in a way that makes it the premier way of playing through this horror classic.
Retaining the pre-rendered backgrounds that are still close to photorealistic today, the atmosphere got given a major upgrade. The lighting of the Spencer Mansion is expertly hostile; hallways and corridors are lit by moonlight that reflects the windows’ design across the walls and floors, and what little overhead lighting there is immediately provides a sense of relief against the daunting dark where the zombies lurk.
The entire experience is a masterclass in tension on a lighting front alone. Accompanying this design tension-centric design philosophy is a soundtrack that works to leave the player guessing what awaits them behind each prolonged door-opening cut scene.
Composed by Capcom’s in-house team, Shusaku Uchiyama, Makoto Tomozawa, and Misao Senbongi, tracks like Save Theme, Cold Water, and the eternally unsettling Vacant Room are now classics to most fans of the series. The entire soundtrack wraps around the settings of the game to both push and pull the player between objectives and encounters with mutated creatures.
Moving away from the art of Resident Evil 1 remake’s horror and more towards the characters that inhabit said horrors takes us on to explaining the story and cast of the game.
Iconic S.T.A.R.S Since 1996
If you’ve heard of Resident Evil, it’s likely you’ve at least heard either the name Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine as well. Both playable characters of Resident Evil 1 are icons in the modern gaming landscape, but put against their later appearances, they can seem quaint in comparison.
Chris doesn’t display much of the Macho-bravado he’s known for later on in the series, and Jill doesn’t have much in the way of a hero moment until Resident Evil 3. Instead, both characters take on the classic survival horror archetype of a fish out of water. Though trained as search and rescue operatives, they’ve never encountered bio-weapons before, so they are forced to adapt to their new situation, and save as many of their crew as they can along the way.
The hook is there from the beginning, and the journey both characters take is full of mystery and small insights into their developing personalities. It’s not until both leave the halls of the Spencer Mansion that they become the badass anti-bio terrorism agents fans know and love them for.
On a gameplay front, Chris and Jill differ greatly. Both characters start with the same equipment, except Chris’s inventory is limited to six slots, whereas Jill gets a generous eight slots. This means that playing as Chris involves a lot more decision-making from the player. Will you take that green herb to heal yourself in a pinch? Or should you grab a batch of shotgun ammo to clear the east hallway of zombies? It’s the classic survival-horror dilemma distilled into a single option.
Personal Experience
On my first run of Resident Evil 1 remake, I chose to play as Chris. This choice was down to one thing – I thought that Chris looked funny compared to Jill. This choice would haunt me during the rest of my ten-hour play-through.
As I slowly crept along the mansion interior, dodging zombie dogs and conserving as much ammo as I could in fear of a boss enemy waiting around the corner, a realisation hit me: this is the most immersed I’ve been in a video game since I played the original Silent Hill 2.
This immersion carried me through the mansion, into the garden, to face a giant mutated plant, and finally a descent into a secret underground laboratory to face off against the Umberella’s pharmaceutical company’s greatest weapon, the almost unkillable Tyrant.
My time with the game was nothing short of eye-opening; it was all I could think about for days at a time. I wasn’t new to the franchise, but I had never had the events of the game spoiled for me, so every discovery was just as fresh as the last.
Ultimately, I left Resident Evil 1 with a new appreciation for the franchise, as if the first remake was as good as this, surely Resident Evil 2 remake would be even better?
Stay tuned to Brig as we continue to explore the Resident Evil franchise – next up: Resident Evil 2.
Featured Image Credit: Capcom
Fourth year Film and Journalism student
Deputy editor
Contact - deputyeditor@brignews.com
