Resident Evil 0

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Horror

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Resident Evil Origins Collection along with (the remake of) the original Resident Evil.)

Resident Evil 0 is a Graphic Adventure and Horror game that was originally released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 less than a year after the release of the remake of the first Resident Evil game before being ported to other platforms and remade, with this HD remaster reaching the Nintendo Switch in 2019. This zero in the title marks this game as a prequel to the series, taking place shortly before the first Resident Evil and telling the story of the first team sent to investigate a series of gruesome murders that unbeknownst to them were caused by zombies and mutated creatures, with one of the game’s dual protagonists, officer Rebecca Chambers, discovering the game’s other protagonist, convicted criminal Billy Coen, on a train attacked by mutant zombie leeches, not far from the mansion of the original game.

Even though its development originally started on the Nintendo 64, Resident Evil 0 shares a lot in common with the Resident Evil remake that it followed on the GameCube, including the series’ traditional pre-rendered backgrounds. As with that game, this release manages to still look good nearly 20 years later thanks to the HD remaster, although the game doesn’t look quite as impressive as the first game’s remake. While Resident Evil Zero still has detailed backgrounds and good-looking character models, it’s missing much of the impressive lighting and reflection effects that made Resident Evil remake so impressive. And like the remake, this game’s pre-rendered video is often too blurry.

In terms of gameplay, Resident Evil 0 has many of the same flaws as the Resident Evil remake and then some. As with that game, this game features terrible controls, an artificially-limited save system, nonsensical puzzles, and a frustrating inventory management system. However, this time around the inventory management is made even more frustrating due to the removal of the earlier games’ storage boxes, making players instead drop items to pick up others and run around the place to wherever they dropped things rather than a more convenient location. Ugh. If there’s one thing Resident Evil didn’t need, it was an inventory system that was even less convenient. In addition to this, the game featured a new two-character mechanic that held some promise, in theory giving players the ability to strategically swap back and forth between characters… but in practice it mostly worked out to an exercise in juggling inventory space and dealing with the game’s occasionally inadequate AI.

One other thing that should be mentioned here – this game was originally released on the Nintendo Switch at $30, which is absurdly steep for an upscaled port of a 14-15 year-old game. In the time since then, it has dropped down to the price of $20, which is a bit more reasonable and on par with other versions of the game.

However, regardless of price point, this is a Resident Evil game that’s not as iconic as the first game, doesn’t fix any of the problems earlier games in the series had, and actually adds a few, and doesn’t look as visually-impressive either. Because of this, Resident Evil Zero is a game that may be enjoyed by die hard fans of the series, but pretty much everyone else is better off not bothering with it.

tl;dr – Resident Evil 0 is a Horror game that follows in the footsteps of the remake of the first Resident Evil game with a story that takes place before the events of that game. While this is a decent port, ultimately this game isn’t anywhere near as iconic as the first Resident Evil, the visuals aren’t as impressive, and the gameplay has all of the flaws of that game and then some. The result is a game that only series fans should bother with.

Grade: C-

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