Resident Evil Zero is not entirely a bad game but it is without a doubt among the worst Resident Evil games I have played. I have a furious dislike for Resident Evil 6 and don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things wrong with RE6 but at least the good moments are better than RE0. Staring this review comparing Resident Evil Zero with one of the most disliked entries of the franchise doesn’t make a good case for it but surely there is some good in it.
Since the title says this is more of a ramble than an actual review I’ll tackle it as so. I will cover some things I liked and some I didn’t in no specific order.
Item Management
This is by far one of my biggest gripes with the game. Like most Resident Evil games you have item slots for what you can carry and this is just fine; the first issue here in Resident Evil Zero is that items that would only occupy one slot in many games, like the shotgun or the grenade launcher no occupy two. Add to it the fact that each character has very few inventory spaces and to my knowledge there’s no way to add more slots, like you can in Resident Evil 2.
Where is the item box?
This is kind of a continuation of item management but for some reason the developers decided to remove on of the most beloved features of the series: the item box. Since you can’t carry everything you find around the game with you, like you can in many games, you would put them in the box that would appears in some handy locations throughout the game making it a breeze to get that ammo you need or some healing items. That was a good mechanic, right? Well, not good enough for Resident Evil Zero because…
Throw items on the floor
Because in case your inventory is full you should drop items on the floor. Sure, there is a small positive side to it, as you can decide on what to carry at that specific moment without having to backtrack, but the deal is you will have to backtrack unless you enjoy leaving items that might be useful behind.
As the game progresses you may find your precious items (even plot specific items, mind you) laying around all over the place. What makes it even worse is that as you progress to new locations you might wonder what would you do about carrying your items? That’s it, make I don’t know how many trips back and forth to carry them from on spot to another, and you’ll have to do that on more than one occasion.
Constantly changing characters
The stand out feature of this game, at least at the time it was made, is that you can control two characters instead of just one, Rebecca and Billy. With this there are some puzzles that needs you to control both characters and put them at different locations to solve it, which is nice, but in my opinion the few moments this was good don’t justify the hassle of having to babysit two characters.
Puzzles vary in quality
This is very subjective as weather a puzzle is easy or hard depend on the person and weather it clicks on not with you. I thought the puzzles to range from easy to hard, which is fine, some were very smart, but there is one that is hardly a puzzle that I thought to be infuriating. In a moment in the game you get access to a room wit ha piano. I used Rebecca to play it, nothing happened but I got an achievement, so I thought it was just a reference to Resident Evil 1 and moved on. Of course that wasn’t it, I was stuck and after looking up online I thought I had to use Billy to play the piano and now it open a secret passage.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand these characters should complement each other but some input about it would’ve been nice, something like Billy saying that he could do better, or Rebecca saying she should have done more piano lessons, anything.
Story is horrible
Sure this is a prequel to the original but honestly Capcom could have done a better job at putting this together with the rest of the series. The story overall ranged for me from I don’t understand to I do not care. Not even the main characters have much redeeming qualities in that department. Billy at least has some sort of a backstory, which was nice, I admit, and the way he and Rebecca create this friendship is also nice, although a bit quick, but that’s understandable.
Even making some concessions here and there the overall story was a disappointment. The ending scene where everything is set to auto detonate out of thin air was as lazy as writing can be. It was so bad I was laughing while this happened.
Dialogue is atrocious
Since I was talking about laughing I should mention this too, the dialogue. It starts fine but as the game goes on it keeps getting progressively worse, to the point the end of the game it was cringy.
Environments are gorgeous
Like the Resident Evil 1 Remake, this game has amazing visuals. The backgrounds are pre-rendered and I dare say they are among the best I’ve seen. The ambience is incredible and even though I have been complaining a lot about the game so far this was for me a strong point in making a case in favor of Resident Evil Zero. In a horror game, for me, ambience is key and this game does a great job at it.
Camera angles vs Controls
This is a point I don’t feel it works in favor or against the game but I would say it depends on the player and it’s something to keep in mind. With fixed camera angles, and mind you, I like it, there is the problem of the occasional weird angle when moving from one screen to another and it does happen here. Thankfully it’s rare but it did happen.
Now bear in mind, if you decide to go with tank controls these camera angle issues I mentioned go away in a moment but I do have to admit I’m kind of enjoying the “3D controls” for some newer survival horrors.
Some enemies can be a pain
Complaining about the enemies may sound like a bad move in a survival horror as they are part of the experience to make it more engaging but there are exceptions. In my case there are the monkeys and some bosses.
The monkeys are small, keep jumping around and I even got the felling they can stun lock you with ease. Unlike the hunters which make me want to run away, the monkeys just make me pissed.
The bosses are fine if for one thing, their life total. Some I felt as if they were bullet sponges.
Music is good when there is music
While playing I managed to notice a few tracks, very few in fact. The game would use these tracks many times but I got to give applause to how good they are. Some were so good I even took a stop to listen, they were that good, I’m just a bit sad there weren’t more of them. Honestly though, I rather have fewer tracks that are all good than have a bunch that are mixed, so I say it’s a win for Resident Evil Zero here.
Conclusion
I sure have my complains about Resident Evil Zero but I have to add that even with lots of complains I did have an overall good time with the game. There are many good moments here, it’s just a shame there are also a bunch of horrible decisions together with them.
I started this post comparing Resident Evil Zero with Resident Evil 6 and while the former doesn’t reach the lows of the latter, it also doesn’t reach its highs. I remember that when I finished Resident Evil 6 I was pissed (and that’s not the case here) but believe or not I still think I’d rather come back to Resident Evil 6 than Resident Evil Zero.
In the end it is among my least liked Resident Evil games but I still think it deserves a playthrough.
Mayonaka Reviews 