Resident Evil 0 – Varied Inconsistencies
March 13th, 2010
There are a couple of odd inconsistencies in Resident Evil 0. It’s a given in this series to expect a crummy plot and wooden characters, but defeating Marcus and the leech queen at the end of the game was disappointing in how irrelevant it was to what I consider to be Resident Evil 0‘s core asset, the empathetic relationship between Billy and Rebecca. Resident Evil 0 defeated my expectations by delivering a un-bombastic narrative, a good story. I found myself deeply engrossed in these two characters and their journey as two strangers. They didn’t speak much and nor did they need to as their relationship developed through the pragmatic functions of the game. Including Marcus as a villain feels contrived, as though the series is carrying out it’s duty of upholding the mannequin heroes and villains trope. Continuity-wise he was already accounted for by the in-game journals and notes, there was no need to resurrect him. And overall I feel disappointed that Resident Evil 0‘s great narrative was squandered by series ritual.
Marcus, as the deliverer of forced narrative, also detracts from the relationship that I feel the player makes with the environment. This association with ‘place’ is perhaps what people might call the player narrative, it’s difficult to classify since the aforementioned Rebecca-Billy relationship is also probably part of the player narrative too, although it also has fixed narrative from the director. In any case, Resident Evil 0 is a beautiful game. Sure, it may be a little monotone in comparison to Resident Evil Remake, however, I think it’s easy for the player to grow an attachment because it’s so convincing. Admittedly, I am a patch disappointed at the lack of animation gone into the stills (what is there is phenomenal), originally hearing that the stills were much more animated than RE Remake, but what is there pulls the player in with great ease. Marcus, just as before, breaks the relationship a little, we don’t care about him, we care about his estate and the activity that happened around it.
The final, and I guess most obvious, disparity regarding the plot is just the difference between the professional rendering of the environment and the vintage of the gameplay compared to the dialogue. Again, improbable video game nonsense that has the quality of a teenage fan fic, set at ends with the high quality presentation. Similarly, the tank controls and the presentation don’t match either.
Other inconsistencies are well established, like how Resident Evil 0 was marketed as Resident Evil on a train (the Under Siege 2 to accompany my Syphon Filter analogy ^_^), when in fact it’s just the B-sides of Resident Evil Remake. Seriously, the train sequences composes the game’s intro and everything after that is Resident Evil redux, mansions, laboratories and the like.
To conclude my extended commentaries of Resident Evil 0, I figure that it’s worth mentioning the forced sexism imposed by the game since it is a disparity of sorts. This sexism is the justification for the partner zapping system. That is, each protagonist is assigned traits which differentiate them from their partner and therefore forces the player to utilise each characters strengths. These traits can be inferred as sexist, on two levels. The first being that Billy is stronger than Rebecca, both in health and the ability to push large crates, while Rebecca can mix herbs and chemicals. Yeah, that’s pretty blatant in assigning gender stereotypes. The second point is a direct consequence of the first in that since Billy can take more hits, it’s best to use him most of the time since after all this is a game of survival and using the character with the most HP is the the wiser decision. Unfortunately, the unintended—second!—consequence, on top of the first, is that since Billy becomes the default character for tackling enemies he needs to store all the important items, and Rebecca is thereby relegated holding duties. So what is Resident Evil asserting? That women are only good for holding things?
I don’t honestly believe that Resident Evil 0 is sexist, it’s just an interesting observation to make. Theorising for a minute though, I reckon Capcom probably wanted to remedy this issue (not just for sexism’s sake but to keep a balance between the usage of each character) by prescribing Rebecca with her own solo sections without Billy. There’s the first part of the train sequence before they team up, the entire factory area and it’s extremely useful (although not mandatory) to use her for the first floor of the laboratory. Overall, these constitute maybe a quarter of the game, which is pretty significant.
Conclusion
This posts marks the end of my Resident Evil 0 coverage, I also wrote a post 2 years ago on Resident Evil Remake and although it’s shit, maybe you wanna check it out. You know, despite some pretty significant flaws, I really enjoyed Resident Evil 0 as it partly mirrors the atmospheric game of solace I mentioned in The Ideal Prince of Persia. Try it out, I think you’ll dig it.
Resident Evil 0 – Twin Phenomenas
March 12th, 2010
In Resident Evil 0 there were two “phenomenas” which occurred during my play time that have no relation to the patented “partner zapping” system.
Calculating Progress by the Inch
Sure, it’s probably no Demon’s Souls, but as a game in tune with survival, Resident Evil 0 sure does make you respect each inch of progress. Because resources are so scarce and the chance of wasting precious resources so opportune, minor developments feel like large triumphs. The fear of stifling one’s progress goes hand in hand with the fear of being scared. What I’m trying to say is that the “survival” and the “horror” sure do go well together. ^_^
This also bears a metaphoric likeness to my personal experiences as a kid and maybe your’s too, that is, if you’re anything like me, ie. big scaredy cat. When you had to get up and leave your room in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, it was a pretty big deal, right? You’ll sit their in bed spooked, because you’re so frightened that you become more observant of the sound around you, and psychologically it takes on an imagined life of its own. Finally, you summon the courage to go, you know that you can’t hold it in, it’s not worth it, so you open your door and run down the hall trying hard not to survey the darkness, otherwise if you stare for too long *insert childhood nightmare* will jump out at you. You finally make it to the toilet, do your business, make the fast escape back to the bedroom, climb into bed and only once under the covers breathe a sigh of relief. Resident Evil 0 sort of reminded me of this experience as a child, in part, it’s a simulation of the experience. You’ll check the map, section out the unexplored areas from the safe zones, plan a route which’ll return you safely to a save point. Just as when I was a kid, anytime I see (think I see) a monster of some sort (I mean, one more dangerous than a common zombie), I’ll flee immediately to the nearest door. You kinda tense up in these moments of running down the hallway, the difference being that one is primal fear and the other is more a fear of survival. Once I return back to base, I usually feel pretty relieved and even though I’ve only walked down the hall and bagged a few new items, I feel impulsed to save my game, to seal that progress in amber. Fortunately I could see what was going on, I could see how Capcom were playing gamers right into their hand, intending for them to needlessly save. I avoided this a lot actually and always found myself throwing away ink ribbons. Take that childhood fears!
As a side note, the route planning aspect I mentioned is very interesting as it matches well with the detective feel to the game, personally speaking, I think it gives the player an independence and I really appreciated that.
Tactical Item Dropping/Littering
The absence of the bottomless item box and the inclusion of a second partner, forms a new phenomena of its own, which I’ll dub “tactical item dropping”, I like the sound of “tactical littering” better, but it doesn’t suggest function so much. Anyways, I digress, tactical item dropping is the phenomena whereby you leave items in the environment based on a strategic purpose. This phenomena isn’t emergent or anything, it’s basically imposed on the player, since the limited 6 item slots per character offer little flexibility. Basically, guns, ammo, health and puzzle items you want to keep with you as much as possible, however, sometimes these pile up, in which case you’ll leave some items and set off to use the others, hopefully returning with free spots in your inventory. The trick is to leave items in “safe zones” so that you won’t have to waste bullets or health retrieving what you’ve left behind later. In many ways, the strategic item dropping enhances the route planning nature of the game and creates a stronger distinction between safe and unsafe areas.This all adds to the co-operative tang to Resident Evil 0.
It sounds a little overbearing and I have no doubt that Resident Evil 0 was strong criticised over it’s strategic item dropping. There’s a great deal of micro-management involved in the process which can be a little burdensome at times, considering how many menu you have to sorta through, however, I rather enjoyed it.
The items that you drop are shown on your map too, which is handy as upon leaving an area as you’ll refer to the map to see what you’ve left behind and discover a sort of tracing of your history based on the trail of items strewn in your path. Each item is indicative of a sacrifice you had to make, so the symbolism here is important.
Additional Readings
Resident Evil 0 – Detecting a History of Solace
March 10th, 2010
Three ideas were cycling through my mind when playing Resident Evil 0, figured that they’d go well together in a tasty dish. Bon appétit.
Beccy, Billy and Detective Dan
Even though I’ve completed Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 3 and other puzzle-heavy adventure games, Resident Evil 0 was the first time I actually felt like a successful detective. (Maybe these aren’t the intents of the Resident Evil games, but it’s certainly something I’ve inferred from playing). With the other Resident Evil games I usually have to drip-feed my way through on a play guide since I struggle to solve all the puzzles by myself. In Resident Evil 0 though, I only consulted a FAQ for trivial matters such as overlooking small details. I’m so pleased with my new-found interest in “detective” gaming and now I want to try out similar titles. I’ve been thinking hard about why Resident Evil 0 was a softer nut to crack and besides simply getting lucky at times, here’s my reasoning:
Resident Evil 0 is very segregated. Sure, the training facility is clearly the largest single area in the game, but each of the 6 self-contained maps are small enough not to be overwhelming, in fact some of them are just short pitstops. The mansion in Resident Evil, on the other hand, is terribly overwhelming. In RE Remake, if you miss one clue then there are plenty of potholes to fall down, but in Resident Evil 0 the options are fewer and therefore it’s easier to remain on track. Resident Evil 0 also begins on the Ecliptic Express which acts as a fantastic tutorial area since there are very few ways to make a wrong move. Resident Evil Remake, however, quite brutally starts you off in an open mansion and every time a new key is discovered the newly available areas are many.
A Slice of History
I think it’s important for us to enjoy a game on its own terms, on what the game is supposing, rather than a fixed set of expectations, hearsay or assumed norms*. As I established in the prior post, Resident Evil is an important part of our history and for this reason I interpret Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 0, particularly in a current context (even though I played the GCN version and not the recently released Wii version), as something of a time capsule which has captured a certain style of play, the old-way of doing survival horror, in a very fresh, attractive-looking wrapper. It feels well-worn without suggesting so by the presentation, and that makes it more palatable point of entry for a given slice of our history.
At the same time, Resident Evil 0 is essentially the B-sides of the original game, a classic and that itself quite the companion piece to those wishing to further explore the history of this genre.
*It’s for this reason that 2D games or obscure genres such as shmps or on-rails shooters almost always get panned by critics. Games which involve killing people whilst ripping off hollywood tropes are idealised and other genres are seen as derelict.
Game of Solace
As I discussed in a previous article on Prince of Persia, I’m finding that I prefer games which just shut the hell up when it comes to narrative. I enjoy details being left as implicit and the environment allowing me to become subsumed in the atmosphere. Resident Evil, just like Prince of Persia has the awkward tendency to kill the atmosphere with shit narrative, I just don’t care.
The sad fact is that both of these franchises feature gorgeous environments and atmosphere that I enjoy becoming immersed in. Resident Evil 0 was admittedly one of the closest games I’ve experience to my imagined “Game of Solace”. It was, for once, quiet and allows the player to explore the environment at their own will, without needless interruption. I guess this is why I’m so fond of Resident Evil 0.
Welcome to Daniel Primed, my self-titled games analysis blog and the online supplement to Adventures in Games Analysis.
Reader Emails | RSS / Email Feed
Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 - $7.99
Level Design: Processes and Experiences
Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Design - $5.99
Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I - $5.99
