Wait, whats that you say? Yes, you're right...E3 has come and gone, and yes you're right, Resident Evil 0 is in fact not released yet, even in Japan. So why in the hell am I making an impressions post?
Recently released Japanese demo's are your friend.
First of all, if you're a total Resident Evil freak, and you must play RE0 right away in any way, shape or form...I wouldn't advise that you import this demo. If you know what you're doing (And it isn't very hard to figure it out.), this demo should take you about a mere six to eight minutes to finish, and in my opinion it really isn't worth the oh...$30.00 it will cost you to import this disc (Insane? Agreed...then of course I'm not the one who bought it.). So what do you actually get in that six to eight minutes of play? Allow me to welcome you back to into the world of survival horror.
The demo starts off like every Resident Evil since part two. The Capcom logo, followed by a screen of the game littered with blood, guts and dead bodies lying everywhere, warning you that the game is meant for mature audiences and conains graphic violence of the zombie-slaughtering kind (You don't say...). As the typical routine goes, you arive at the title screen where the only thing left to do is to push start and get to the aforementioned slaughter.
BIO...HAAAZAARD.... **Does the shifty eyes** ....ZEEEEEEEROOOOOOO...
Mr.Soda, meet Mr. Monitor. If that makes it into the final version, then by god. We got ourselves the game of the year (I would have gotten a soundbite, but I was without my camera for once. I'll try as soon as I can though.).
Now onto the real part of the disc, the actual game. After I wiped the spittle away from my mouth after going into an orgasm of giggles at the declaration of the games title, I was met with a screenshot of a train, and a bunch of Japanese text. Seeing as how I'm Joe American, and I had absolutely no idea what any of those squiggles meant, I just waited for the game to start. That's one of the bad things about the demo disc, you don't get to see the opening cinematic. Even though I really don't want to ruin the game for myself, it would have been nice to at least see that, considering that the opening to the GameCube remake of the first Resident Evil was availible online even before the game came out. Now it was time to get down to business.
Right away the demo throws you into the middle of the action with zombies comming to life in front of your eyes. You start the demo as Rebecca Chambers (If you don't know anything about Resident Evil 0, Rebecca was the medic from the first game and the only surviving members of the first team sent in to check out the mansion. If you don't know who I'm talking about now, then you probably don't care about Resident Evil anyways and you should be ashamed of yourself.), aboard that mysterious train that has been apart of many previews of the game. After taking out the 2 zombies that came to life, I decided to mess around a bit. The controls are still exactly the same as every Resident Evil title, and I'm fine with that considering that I never had a problem with them. One thing that I do like about RE0 though, is the improved control using the analog. You see, in the Resident Evil remake for GameCube, I felt as if the analog was so sensitive that I couldn't even run in a straight line, so I just used the digital pad. In RE0 though, this is a completely different story. Using the analog I felt totally confident in my zombie dodging skills. I was jukin' and jivin' in no time. Very nice indeed.
After running around and killing some more zombies, I suddenly remembered about the character zapping in RE0. If you don't know what I mean, I'll explain. In Resident Evil 0 you can switch between both characters, Rebecca Chambers, and new guy Billy Coen, an escaped convict who's been wrongly accused for a crime that he didn't commit (Isn't it always that way?), at any time in the game. You just push start to go to the menu, go over to the left and click on their picture. Exit the menu and voila, instant character change. This dosen't mean that the other character is safe though, if you leave them in an area where zombies (Or worse.) may appear, they'll be attacked and radio for your help (This happened to me once during the demo, but there was no other way to get the other character over there, so I had to fight it solo.) Also, if both characters enter the same area, the computer will take over the other character and follow you around and attack enemies at will. Think of it as a ghetto co-op mode. Some puzzles in the game require you to make use of the character zapping as well. For example, if you find a key that another character needs, just send it up to him on the mini-elevator. So now that we all know the rest of the story, I can continue. I switch over to Billy, and right away it hits me..
This game is beautiful.
To be honest, nothing really changed graphically from the Resident Evil remake, except for the backrounds, and what an amazing job they did. Everything feels alive. Billy starts out standing next to what appears to be a mini-kitchen. Theres a stove with pots and pans, teeter-tottering back and forth due to the motion of the train, water in one pot sways back and forth. It was really pretty amazing. The rest of the backrounds all have little touches to make them special in their own little way, (Once again, with amazing light sourcing. Theres nothing like seeing Rebecca playing the role of the shadow of death as you spew lead at zombies) but the kitchen really stuck out in my mind.
Of course, being a demo and all, I was disapointed. A lot of places were blocked off, so when you tried to open certain doors, or go up the ladder to the top of the train, instead of getting the loading animation you get a crappy looking screenshot and some text which probobly reads "Back dat' ass up!". Another gripe is that there was no real suprise. I remember in the demo for Resident Evil 2 (The main reason why everyone bought Resident Evil: Directors Cut for Playstation) I almost crapped my pants when I saw a licker crawl past the window, or when the zombies burst through the boarded up windows to reach out. Like I said, no suprises, outside of a few dogs where I didn't expect any. The weapon selection for the demo is bare, but I'm not complaining. I got to mess around with the pistol (Feels slower than the RE Remake), the shotgun (It only holds 2 rounds now) and the knife, which is a shadow of it's former self. In the past two Resident Evil games (Code Veronica and the Remake) the knife was the weapon of choice against most enemies, seeing as it was so over powered. In Resident Evil 0, if you think you're going to knifin' around and shank yourself up some zombies, think again. I got put in my place a few times for trying it.
So am I happy with Resident Evil 0 in all of it's six minute glory? Yes. Why? I'm a whore like that. It's too early to say "THIS GAME IS GREAT!" or "THIS GAME SUCKS!" of course, but at least I can rest assured that my patience is probably going to be paid off. It's prettier, it controls better, and the zapping system spices things up. Also, this is the last Resident Evil to fully tie up the storyline before Resident Evil 4 is finally released. All in all, I'm pretty excited for the final product.
Lover, I Don't Have Time
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