Reposting my full opinion on Resident Evil Zero for the game, which comes out in a couple weeks;
I'll give a detailed (but non-spoilery, don't worry) impression of what I think of Zero, which I've played three times on Gamecube/Wii, the most recent playthrough being one I held RIGHT BEFORE REmake HD was announced in 2014.
So in case you don't know, Resident Evil Zero is getting an HD Remaster for everything including PC, releasing on the 19th:
Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster
You can get Zero HD Remaster for $15 off GMG with the 25% off coupon right now, I will add. Coupon expires on the 12th. If REmake HD is any sign, it won't get any cheaper than that for over a year either.
GMG 25% off coupon (expires on the 12th): 25PERC-2016GM-WTHGMG
Before I get into this, keep in mind my impressions are off the original Gamecube/Wii versions. The HD Remaster has some new additional content, mainly in the form of new costumes and a new unlockable Wesker Mode, plus the HD version is slated to probably be the best looking old-school survival-horror game to date since they seem to have Zero's original assets and are making updated HD versions of them, plus on PC it'll run at 60fps, so keep this all in mind.
---
Resident Evil Zero is the 'prequel' entry of the series, telling the story of STARS Alpha Team, y'know, the people that Bravo Team in the first Resident Evil find all massacred and dead at the start of it. You play as the youngest member of the STARS Team, the recently graduated medical genius, Rebecca Chambers, who shortly after the game begins get paired with an escaped convict known as Billy Coen, who reportedly murdered as many as 18 people and was being transported for execution. Rebecca doesn't trust Billy at much at first, but the two of them bond through the twisted horrors they find themselves in, and get wrapped up in where it all goes wrong in Raccoon City.
Maybe more-so than any other entry in the series, you will find people have RADICALLY different opinions on Zero. If you ask and read around, you'll hear a pretty even split of people who consider Zero one of the best and one of the worst of the series. Why is this?
Well, for one, Zero sort of came at a bad time when it originally released. Survival-Horror games were starting to become over-abundant, and Zero hardly did anything to shake up the formula (we'll get to some things it did change, though...), and in its own series, it released between REmake and Resident Evil 4. Yes, two of the best regarded entries in the series. So, Zero had the rough job of being the average middle child. More-so, many went into it with expectations after the aptly atmospheric REmake and... Zero does not live up to those standards. It has a few moments here and there, but it doesn't come close to the oppressive atmosphere that REmake had.
However, Zero I also think is far better than many think it is, and I'm hoping this remaster will change some's opinion on it. It is a bit of a bumpy ride, but it has some pretty good highs and lows to speak about.
Firstly, let's get the obvious out of the way; This is an old-school Resident Evil game. It doesn't have more action than older entries in the series (about the same amount of action as RE2, under RE3 a bit), there's back-tracking, opening weirdly locked doors, limited supplies and ink ribbon saves, fixed camera angles and tank controls. It's that type of game, and in that regard it plays about how you expect, albeit there's some pretty big differences here.
Firstly, and I say this as a huge positive, I really like Zero's puzzles. In fact, I'd go as far to say that this title has the best puzzles out of all the Resident Evil games. I think the puzzle element is somewhat overstated in the RE series; They have the occasional puzzle thrown at you, but a lot of the time the puzzles are simplistic or mainly, "Find X item to do Y elsewhere." This doesn't exactly break the mold there, but I feel they have both some of the more fun yet challenging puzzles in the series, and they're a bit more frequent than other RE titles. None are really frustrating, but there's a good variety and challenge to them, more than we see in other entries in the series. It's a bit hard to talk about without spoiling said puzzles, but there is a surprising amount of versatility of the puzzles, and there's something like over twice as many puzzles as there are in other entries in the series. This can be a pro or con based on who you are, but I found the puzzles mostly actually quite fun as opposed to the frustrating kind.
In Zero, you control two characters, Rebecca and Billy. On the fly with a simple press of a button, you can switch control of characters. The system is surprisingly easy and fast, even if the character is on the opposite side of the world from you, it switches between the characters in about a second rather instantaneously. While you're not controlling the other character. they are controlled by AI (though in the original Gamecube version you can manually move the second player with the C-Stick). but can use given commands through the item screen menu or some simple button presses in-game. You can tell them to either follow you or stay, and to either shoot enemies on sight or to reserve ammo and not fight. The AI has pretty good aim, but the ability to tell them to shoot/not shoot is incredibly helpful. Both Rebecca and Billy are mostly the same, but Billy has a bit more health and can move heavier objects, but can't mix objects like herbs or chemicals, while Rebecca can mix herbs and chemicals and fit through tighter spaces but has less health. The story sometimes can have one of the characters be trapped or preoccupied and unplayable for a sequence, and you can't switch characters during this time, or if one of the characters is in another room than who you're playing as and is being attacked by a monster (they will radio you for help in such cases);
Now, one of the game's most controversial elements; Dropping items. For the first (and only) time in the series, instead of having item boxes to drop and pick up items from, you now can drop items on the floor wherever you want! And this has some conveniences; no longer when you have your pockets full and you find a key item will you need to run back or waste an herb to pick it up right then, you can drop the herb and come back for it later!... But there's also some annoyances with this, since you can drop an item off somewhere and then find out you need it, and have to run back to wherever you dropped it off at and then back to where you need to go. This doesn't sound as bad on paper, but the game is deviously designed to make this a bit frustrating at times. Because you have twice as many item slots as usual with two characters, the game gives you far more items than usual to carry around. One of the most devious things the game does is that they make you have to go back to use this godforsaken huge-ass
, that is only needed once in the game pretty early in the game you probably left near the beginning of the game, that you suddenly need again towards the end of the game and have to back-track all the way back to get it. This moment almost everyone goes through is the peak of the most frustrating moment of this mechanic in the game, and comes off more devious since you know they had to know no one without knowing about it beforehand would of held onto that huge-ass thing that had no use for hours.
Zero is a gorgeous game, and it has some settings both typical and atypical to the RE franchise. As most probably know, you spend the first hour or two of the game on a train, which is very structurally sound and quite different than any other RE location to date, and it works quite well. Zero kind of has something like a mixture between RE1 and RE3 in terms of pacing and locations... Zero has a higher number of locations like RE3 (five main locations in all, compared to the three in most other titles), but are a bit smaller than some of the bigger RE locations. You back-track and open up new areas, but also kind of progress from location to location as you do in RE3. I also quite like the locations in the game, a few say the locations get dull after the train, but I completely disagree! I especially like the
half-way through the game, and the
a bit later in the game. The game also has fantastic art direction, and almost all the backgrounds in Zero are animated in some way with subtle movements that add a lot to the feel of the locations.
The locations are met with some pretty good music. Zero isn't the best RE soundtrack, but it is a solid standing which captures the mood of the game pretty well. Here's a few samples:
Save Room Theme (one of my personal favorites in the series)
Adrenaline Rush (plays through a more intense part of the game)
Laboratory (there's a few versions of this theme, this is the first, and I personally love it)
Main Hall (main hall of the training facility)
Credits Theme (I love this theme too much, few orchestral takes on a few songs in the game)
While the game is a prequel, the story is kind of spoiler-y to some later entries, but not in any huge way (SPOILERS: Wesker and Umbrella are teh evilz!!111!1). While the story is focused on Rebecca and Billy (and most who play the game end up liking them as characters, so they must be doing something right there), the other story elements are not quite as interesting. The main villain in the game seems more like a Final Fantasy villain than something out of the RE series, and we get wrapped up in some scenes of Wesker and Willaim Birkin finishing up their researches as things at Umbrella begin to go to hell. It's not a bad story, not the most enjoyable RE story, but Rebecca and Billy are nice protagonist and make a good duo, so what more could you ask for, really? Though this is the point the story started going more off-the-rails for some.
One of the more disappointing elements of Zero is its enemy selection. It's not a small selection and mechanically they function all quite differently, but... Well, while the game has your Zombies and Hunters, most of the enemies in the game end up being giant animals, mostly insects, through almost the whole game. More than other entries, maybe even combined. All the boss fights but the final couple are against oversized animals, most of the enemies you meet are too, and the game is missing something that's a paranoid threat like Crimson Heads or a stalker like Lisa, Mr. X, or Nemesis. The closest the game has is something known as Leechmen, which in honesty can actually be pretty scary in how they appear, but it just feels like the selection is more... Timid compared to other RE games.
I think one thing is the game is missing maybe some of the 'wow' factor of other RE's. This is a bit hard to word, but it doesn't have the oppressive atmosphere or strategic path-planning that REmake has, it doesn't have the twisted monsters or two-character second playthrough path changes that RE2 has, or the memorable stalker and chaotic downfall of society chaos RE3 has, it has its own strengths in areas, but it feels more... Timid, if that makes any sense. it's kind of the quaintest Resident Evil game, given it has some high and low notes.
I also will throw out there the bonus content I enjoyed in the original and its improved now. The original costumes were grand, but the shit ton of new costumes are very cool. In the original game, when you beat it you unlocked Leech Hunter mode, which would lead to more unlockables in the main game if you mastered it, and was a lot of fun (I'd recommend digging into it a bit), and something I have not played, but Zero HD Remaster also adds in a new Wesker Mode when you complete the game now.
Summary/TL;DR:
Zero is a gorgeous and moody game with some fantastic puzzles, varied locales, likable protagonist that grow over the game's course (this might actually be the first time a RE game has character growth through the title actually, come to think of it), and some good bonuses. It lacks some of the series punches, with a somwhat timid enemy selection and a sort of annoying item system, but is a solid entry that I do hope some come to play and realize it's a solid RE game, maybe not the best in its series, but certainly not the worst, and an enjoyable ride.
PROS:
+Beautiful art direction and animation, maybe the best-looking old survival-horror game of all time
+Some good atmospheric music, solid soundtrack
+Billy and Rebecca are likable characters
+The puzzles are some of, if not the, best in the RE series
+Varied locations
+A few pretty good scare scenes
+Bonus content is fun.
MIDDLING:
/Playing as two characters you switch between is neither great nor terrible
/With two inventories, the game gives you a lot of Macguffins to carry around and waste space
/Atmosphere is usually more lightly coating than oppressive
CONS:
-Item dropping can be a drag sometimes
-Story outside of Rebecca's/Billy's tale is a bit odd and unremarkable
-Monster selection is timid by series standards
-Feels like it's missing some of the 'wow' factor of some other RE titles (IE, stalker enemy, strategic path-planning, etc.)
See what I think with the upcoming HD Remaster version just on the horizon, but if you want to pick it up from GMG for 25% off, now's your chance!!
Some misc screens of Zero: