Resident Evil

Reviewed by Lewis Denby (January 21, 2009)

In 1999, System Shock 2 showed the world that it's possible to craft an unspeakably brilliant and always-chilling tale, complete with horrifying characters and a relentlessly anxious and unfriendly atmosphere. It also proved that survival horror in its truest sense - a focus on the conservation of resources in a harrowing, otherworldly situation - doesn't have to be restricted by godawful movement and an errant camera, and certainly that tension doesn't have to be ramped up by not being able to see where you're going. Why, when we have a wonderful benchmark like that, are we still lapping up rubbish like this?

Reviewed by bloomer (May 03, 2009)

Conventional wisdom says that Survival Horror diverged into two broad schools in the decade following its widespread inception via Capcom's Resident Evil (RE). There was the Resident Evil school, which presented the player with a reality filled with physical threats and horrors, and there was the Silent Hill school, which toyed with the player's engagement with reality itself. Or; Silent Hill was about dreams and nightmares. Resident Evil was about trying to avoid being torn apart.

Reviewed by djy8c (December 23, 2003)

Welcome to the world of survival horror

Reviewed by jill (January 02, 2003)

Overview:

Reviewed by mrshotgun (March 15, 2007)

Before the release of the original Resident Evil in the mid1990s, the Survival Horror genre was an obscure, struggling subset of the Action genre. With sub par, little known games like Alone in the Dark and Clock Tower, Survival Horror was barely staying afloat. All that changed when Capcom, already a well established company with the legendary Megaman series under its banner, released a little game called Biohazard. It was an unexpected hit in Japan, and it was quickly released in the States, i...