One of the harder games in the series but that only adds up to the excellent survival horror experience that is RE0.
Games and their ever growing focus on storylines have also now moved up to setting prequels, which again may made be for the fans, but of course thats what the sequels and prequels in games should be made for...right CAPCOM??
The appriopiatly named Resident Evil Zero being a prequel sets before even the very first incident involving the infamous BOW's themselves, or so we thought. RE0 places you initially in the small shoes of STARS Bravo team Medic/Rookie Rebecca Chambers. RE0 at first gives you some extra insight onto the STARS Bravo teams initial investigation though you'll soon enough lose track of them all and mainly have the focus of how Rebecca ended up alive and well awaiting in the Mansion.
So while the Bravo members are all present, they sadly only act as cameo's and most don't even have any dialoque. After a malfunction with their helicopter the Bravo team land in the middle of the Arklay Mountians forest and begin there search for whatever has been causing these grissly murders.
Though a twist is besides the inevitable 'zombies and monsters' they also come across what seems to be an escaped military criminal by the name of Billy Coen. So Billy while maybe a side quest of sorts becomes one of the teams goal to subdue and capture for arrest...which of course makes sense at first but after all the crap the team go through with all the strange and bizarre happenings it seems kind of silly that they'de still be focus on Billys capture.
But anywhoo, after landing the team split up, of course, with Rebecca heading out on her lonesome and stumbling upon an abondoned train. She makes her way on board and soon enough will come into contact with the infamous Marine Billy Coen, though at first unco-operative they will eventually form a duo of sorts which is a first for the RE series and very succesful gameplay mechanic IMO.
So both will now the majority of the time be by each others side with you able to control each character at a time and switching between the two with just a press of a button. With you in control of one the AI will of course handle the steering of your partner, though you may slightly tweak the AI as how they should act though sadly there isn't all that much control I'm afraid. Your only choices are to etheir have your partner choose to attack enemies or not, or follow you or prefer to stay behind in the room he/she is currently in.
Of course having two very different characters equals to them each having their strengths and weakness'. But of course comparing them will obviously have you taking the role of Billy for the most part.
Billy may take a much more sustainable amount of damage than Rebecca and also is more accustomed to handguns so with him in control theres a more chance you may luckily pop a zombies head much like a magnum shot. His downside though is that he cannot mix herbs, which is their to of course to give Rebecca some use but in all honesty doesn't add up with him to date being the only character who lacks the ability to mix herbs.
Rebecca on the other hand can mix herbs, she also has a chemical set for mixing chemicals she may come across, though there mainly to progress the story through puzzles and not neccasrily to create any sort of potions ect. Her down side is her incredibly fragile health, with Billy probably being one of the strongest RE characters so far with him literally being able to withstand bites among bites off zombies and being flung around by giant bats and scorpions Rebecca only takes around 4 zombie bites before she finally becomes another casualty of STARS. Together their differences do add up for you to really stradegise and what not to with whom. But in all honesty what i'de expect mainly is of course Rebecca acts as a sort of pack mule while Billy takes the lead.
Also having two characters now certain puzzles you'll encounter will alsl require both to perform certain actions, in terms of the characters and puzzles though Billy is again needed for most for his robust strength is maybe pushing a metal box out of the way of pulling on a rusted handle. Still the two character puzzles add a nice bit of variaty to the general RE puzzles and work well in terms of uniquity and difficulty.
The inventory system in RE0 has also been tweaked, now instead of the typical eight slots both characters each have 6 slots. Plus instead of every item taking up one space larger items this time around such as a shotgun will now take up two slots, so the inventory system is as muddled as ever though still copable if you've lasted this long with the series. Plus there is no longer any magical item boxs to store your items safely, instead your characters have the ability to simply leav items on the floor awaiting your return if needed. A handy ability is also when viewing the map you may also check to see which items have been left where, so while items box's may be sorely missed the new item mechanic still works well and is also a much more realistic approach aswell.
Besides the now person of two characters at once the general gameplay is the same as where used to.
Camera angles plenty full of enemies with a lack of ammo to fend them all off. Puzzles of course like i said are present and boss battles are littered throughout all offering a challenge and different tactics for defeat. So this title is at least aimed at the fans of the old school RE survival horror and IMO is a great addition to the series at that.
My main problem with the gameplay though is how 'slow' it all seems. Many of the games animations are all very slow paced and will definatlty get in the way of trying to avoid certain enemies. An example would be the 180 degree turn that is now famed for being one of RE's biggest life savers along with the first-aid-spray. In RE0 it is surprisingly slow and really doesn't help in trying to make a quick getaway from a nearing enemy. That said, in RE0 your most likely to have a harder time than usual trying to avoid the enemies espeically due to most enemies now having incredible speed of easily catching up to your characters and again to the overall slow pace of the in-game animations.
Gameplay though with its minor faults of course isn't nothing new, and netheir is the quality of everything else in RE0.
The sound for example is fantastic with the overall soundtrack being what you'de expect with many different violin tunes to be found and tense boss battle themes. Voice acting too is also surprisingly good for a RE title, though of course not anything to say MGS standards but still has a beleivable script and some decent performances from most, espeically on Billy's behalf.
Graphically....at first when checking out the screen-shots on the back of the game-case, in all honesty i didn't beleive it. The graphics of the day were some of the best i've ever seen and some of the best RE graphics without a doubt, even to this day I still think they have stood the test of time and combined with a HD-tv look even grander. The cutscenes are all lively and enjoyable to watch and the FMV cutscenes are in short 'phenomenal' with the opening being another truimph for the RE's series trademark gorey openings.
The story is littered with cameos and guest appearances though of course the main focus will be of Billy Coen, Rebecca Chambers and a strange unknown young man who seems hell bent on revenge on UMBRELLAS...and with that motive it could basically be anyone but the twist at the end indeed should shock most.
On your first go it should take you maybe 8-12 hours I'de say with reasons to go back for maybe if you didn't from the start try your hand with the hard difficutly or to maybe try and beat your time and possibly unlock some hidden weapons. Extra costumes are of course soon to be available to you and RE0 also contains a not very thrilling minigame but still an ok ride through with also a number of goodies to unlock for the main game.
On an ending note this game may not be totally neccesary for any upcoming RE fans but for those in need of a challenging survival horror experience or maybe to learn even backstory about UMBRELLA, Wesker, Birkin and more this is easily goes in the 'must have' category.
Final Score-8.8