Anime Forum Games Links Movies Music Profiles Survivor TV Shows Resident Evil Zero takes places right before the original Resident evil game that was released on the Playstation and was later remade for the Gamecube. In Resident Evil zero you take the role of Rebecca Chambers, the newest member of S.T.A.R.S. as her team lands in the woods outside of racoon City, only to be attacked. Rebecca finds herself alone and on a train where she meets escaped felon Billy Coen. Together they ride this empty train where the dead aren't what they appear. The story sheds light on a number of things that fans of the series have been curious about. As always, the story also has plot holes and the North American version of the game has a bad translation when it comes to a date that messes up the story line. Of course, it's fixed in the other versions of the game. What Capcom did with the remake of the first Resident Evil is expanded on with Zero. The graphics are sharper and look more polished and the characters no longer look like they are made out of plastic. Animation is fluid and looks good. The backgrounds are done in great detail and the lighting effects add a special touch to it all. The details in some of the rooms are amazing and make the game feel real. While bad voice acting has always been common in the Resident Evil games, this game has some decent voice acting. The music is creepy and adds to the atmosphere of the game. I find the music outside the church to be very unsettling. The sound effects are great from the screaming of the monkeys to the soft sounds of your shoes walking on carpet. Much detail went into the sound effects and when you can tell what is ahead from the noise it's making, you know a lot of time was spent on getting the sound perfect. The control is still a problem for the series. It still feels a little stiff. While the Gamecube control might feel weird for a lot of games, it feels almost natural for this one. You move around using either the D-pad or the analog stick. You can move the secondary character around with the C-stick. A is the ction button. B lets you run and Holding R makes you aim your gun which you fire by pressing A. The Z button opens you map and a nice diagram is presented that tells you how to look for stuff. The X button lets you switch between your characters and the Y button opens your menu. It's very simple and easy to get the hang of once you get past how awkward your character is moved. The control is also very responsive. For the most part the game play hasn't changed at all but with a few changes it almost plays like a different game. For the first time in a Resident evil game you control two characters at the same time. It's very simple to do and it adds a lot to the game play because each character is more suitable for certain things and it's up to the player to decide who to use at certain moments. However, there are times when you're forced to use one character for something because the other is unable to. The game takes place in a couple different settings, each full of areas to search and you do have a lot of backtracking to do but it never feels too tedious. The normal enemies are here like zombies but now there are monkeys and bats and the newest creature, leach zombies which are like the Bandersnatches from Resident Evil: Code Veronica X which explode and cause massive damage if hit by their explosion. The enemies AI isn't the brightest around but they don't just stand there either. Another new feature in this game is that there are no longer any item boxes. Instead you can leave items laying around the areas and you can just go back and pick them up and to make it easier on the player, the map shows where each item is. You can play the game on one of three modes, Easy, Normal and Hard. You get a ton of save ribbons and healing items on easy but you don't get a rank at the end and no bonus except the Leach Hunter mini game. Only on the other settings can you get the rank and other goodies. The game isn't that long and can be beat in under five hours and with only one path to play the game through with this isn't very long. However once beaten you can unlock a mini game called "Leach Hunter" which is fairly long and does provide a challange. You can also replay the game with unlimited ammo and new costumes once you beat it on Normal or Hard. Overall, Resident Evil Zero proves that you can have a good game with great graphics. Capcom delivered a solid game that doesn't feel like rehash like most of their games do these days. Fans of the series owe it to themselves to play Resident Evil Zero and people new to the series can start from the begining of the series with this game and work their way up. Control: 7 Game Play: 8 Graphics: 10 Replay Value: 3 Sound: 9 Story: 8 Grade: B or 85/100 Reviewed by: Americanpieflute Reviewed on June 1st 2003