Resident Evil 0

As mentioned in my intro, they took the formula of survival horror they made famous, and added some ideas that were scrapped in prior entries to due to technical limitations. New to the series was the concept of two players at the same time…sort of. Just about 10 percent in the beginning on Rebecca’s bogus journey. Billy Coen, a US Marine who was under Military Police custody to be executed for the death of 23 people but whose convoy was attacked by zombies and freed, suggests they stick together in what flies in the face of the split-the-party logic prior games employed. You can control Billy or Rebecca, while the AI controls the other  is pretty good about the set commands you give them. It can be set to shoot, stand, or follow as examples. You can nudge them a bit with the c-stick/right analog in case you need to place them in a exact location.

Yes, with two people, now comes puzzles that make them to stand on a switch, one person be on side, while the other does the thing to solve it. Continuing from 1 is where each character has a special item, trait to differentiate them. Rebecca’s medical training means she mix herbs as well solve chemical puzzles, and Billy gets the lighter to light up Molotov cocktails, the new arsenal which is an empty bottle filled with gasoline, stuffed with cloth and set on fire, to literally kill the undead/mutated with said fire. There will be times where you will be split to give you a small breather of juggling ammo and health items, which I’ll talk about next.

Combat/monster wise, its the same as it ever as, the balancing act of when to run and when to shoot. Now made more intense with more primal baddies as I mentioned in Sound, also adding leeches to fray. Yes leeches, but not ordinary leeches, oh no. By themselves they can be stepped on by running over them, but if they congeal together, they become a deadly force to match Crimson Heads in 1 in which running is usually the better idea, though if you want to throw Molotov cocktails (hint, hint), I’ll leave that to your discretion. When you come across a certain section with giant frogs, don’t bother, keep it moving and thank me later.

Limited saves via ink ribbons and typewriters are back, but gone are the magic item boxes that store your inventory of ammo, health items, puzzle parts, etc. Instead, in a series first and last, you can drop items on the floor to come back for them later. Once you attempt to pick up and item, but opt to leave it, will mark it on your map where it is, so you don’t have to write it down or really extend your long term memory. Some items may take up more than one item spot in your inventory as to balance out the fact you have 12 slots combine so while your trusty handgun takes up one, the shotgun, grenade launcher will take two. This will lead to some medium-long term planning, as you’re thinking if should keep it ‘traditional’ where you dump some items in the room with the typewriter, or leave as is as you know you’ll be back tracking to get to new areas after getting a specific key or puzzle part. This may take some trial and error just like in 1 where you may want to test out a run from the last save to the next, with the added wrinkle of what to carry and what to leave behind. This does add extra friction to a gameplay formula that mastered the friction tolerance a player will take and still stand, even love, to at times threatening that balance.

Lore wise, we sort of get the answer of what happened to STARS Bravo Team, and does get a bit more into the founders of Umbrella. We got mentions of Ozwell Spencer in 1, the Ashfords in Code Veronica, and now James Marcus, the one who apparently birthed the T-Virus after tinkering with the Progenitor Virus they picked up in Africa (And part of that story is expanded in 5). He was tasked to train a new generation of researchers which included Albert Wesker and William Birkin, though it seems he did some…extensive testing to get his results. You’ll get the rest of the story after reading notes, diaries and other entries.

After reaching the end credits, you can get some new costumes, as well as purchase additional ones with the HD versions for extra panache. There’s also Wesker Mode, which as it sounds, replaces Billy with Wesker post RE 1, with super powers and all, with Rebecca getting red eyes to match. There’s also leech hunter mode which has you tasked to find the blue and green leeches and get out. The the various zombies and mutated beasts have other ideas. As with 1, you can attempt to do speed runs, aim for the S rank so you can get fun infinite ammo weapons for future play throughs.