(Excerpt from Retro Review as it appears in FEARZINE Magazine Issue #2) With the recent re-release of Resident Evil on GOG, it seemed like a good time to give the granddaddy of survival horror games a fresh look. If you are new to the genre and have never played the original Resident Evil, this is for you. Resident Evil is one of the most well-known horror franchises in the world, and the first game is a beloved classic among fans, but how does it hold up almost 30 years on? The first things to be aware of for new fans are also staples of the genre: tank controls, fixed camera angles, and bad voice acting. These are all things that I personally love about playing the older games, and they make me laugh. If you are new or have never played these games before, you may feel differently. Tank controls seem to be a love-it-or-hate-it mechanic. They are when your player character moves like, you guessed it, a tank. Up makes you go forward, down goes backward, and left or right turns the character, respectively. I think this adds to the tension and, in a way, mocks the way a person might struggle to move in a horrific situation, but you might think it just feels bad and dumb. Then there are the pesky fixed cameras, which look great but make for many missed shots and even more missteps. If you can see past those and the absurd voice acting from a time when video games were not taken seriously, you will see why the series has endured and become a cult classic. I personally love these games for the puzzle solving, the inventory management, and the joy of watching a zombie's head pop from a shotgun blast. Thankfully, you can now play RE 1 via GOG, and it's the PC version, which, to my glee, has more gore and bloody scenes than the original PS1 version. FInd the full review at Fearzine Magazine dot com
