What was set to be a solid remake with great expectations by GC owners, turns out to be more trouble than it's worth!

User Rating: 7.7 | Resident Evil GC
It was first on the Playstation 1, that gamers around the globe got to shoot down, with much wetting of pants, their first zombie. Resident Evil created a new genre for games to follow in their masses, and created probably one of the most impressive and successful franchises to follow. The game showed a rather block-like Chris Redfield take down a blob-looking, moaning zombie (we presumed)...While at the time it was revolutionary, the transition to Gamecube has unfortunately not made the improvements it should ought to of had! What is first noticable of the Gamecube version is the stunning presentation, the opening FMV sequences are spectacular and really introduce newcomers with some real hard heart pumping moments, and old time gamers with admiration for the games new return. The real time graphics work well, with amazing models and very detailed pre-rendered backgrounds, with some amazing lighting effects. But the layering between characters, objects and other models, with the backgrounds, does create some extremely jagged edges which are very noticable throughout most of the cutscenes. But this shouldn't really put you off. The sound is fresh and along with some tense music and nail biting ambient sounds, it really immerses you into the mansion of which the game is based. The sound effects are decent but not outstanding, anyone with any knowledge of game development will tell that it has been taken out of a library. The gameplay is very smooth and is easy to pick up and get into the game, even if you haven't played for quite some time, although there is some annoying bits with the characters slow reaction speeds at times you need to 'get the hell outta there' there are some new functions that make up for it. Such as the ability to do a quick turn by using the C stick or by pressing down on the analog stick and pressing B at the same time; Chris or Jill will do a 180 turn and will give you more time to run away from any enemy that may have gotten a bit too close for comfort. Also there is the ability to counter zombie attacks with knives or grenades; any that tries to bite you will get a knife in the mouth or a grenade; then it is shot to have its head explode and I've also seen a tasser, but as of yet, never used it. With all these qualities it should be hard to see where this game goes wrong, but unfortunately where it does fail, it overshadows any other enjoyment you may have from the experience. The first thing I noticed was the difficulty, even on easy the game seems to be a bit too ruthless; it still has the same lack of ammo and resources, but seems to add three times the enemies, and thier inability to die. Zombies that are shot down, need to be incinerated with fuel and a lighter, and Capcom have charmingly enough, not given you enough Kerosine to do so, meaning that Zombies that are left to lie, come back later as Uber-Zombies that run and have the capability to do a lot of damage. But thats all if you can even shoot a zombie to the floor, I spent about eight bullets to kill one zombie! The Camera is also an issue, it usually is positioned a place where you can't see anything, and even though you may think it clever of the developers to have you not know whats around the corner, the fun begins to run thin, fast! Also with the camera changing so much as you enter the next section of the room, it seems to slow for about half a second, now if you are already annoyed by running out of all your resources and being cornered by fifty or so zombies, you begin to notice the little things, and this is one thing that will irritate you; you'll be finding excuses to hate the game even more. In conclusion, I will say in the most simple of forms; a game for hard-core fans of the Resident Evil franchise, and I do not mean just if you like most of the games, only consider this if you have all the T-shirts and posters, games and books. For everyone else; rent before you buy! In a last note, I personally enjoyed half my time with this game, and when it does not suffer from its 'faults' (many may consider the content of my review to be non-sense), it is a very enjoyable and terrifying game that lives up to the genre its original created, all those years ago.