You don't freely control the camera during your endeavors.
There is also the matter of those undead freaks roaming about, some of which are apt to return, stronger than ever, if you aren't careful enough to torch their corpses or land a blood-spattering headshot.
Escape is your primary goal, but doing so means collecting and inspecting jewels and other doodads, and then figuring out where to put or how to combine those doodads. members, though it is soon clear that the fate you should most worry about is your own. (The acronym stands for Special Tactics And Rescue Service.) You spend most of the game exploring a mansion in which you've become trapped while investigating the disappearances of other S.T.A.R.S. You play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, members of a special ops force called S.T.A.R.S. If you're a total newcomer to Resident Evil, some background is in order. Resident Evil, even purely within a modern context, is an engrossing adventure that benefits from tense exploration and clever environmental puzzles. You can feel the tension as you quickly wade through the water, hoping to avoid the creatures snapping at your heels. And while the dogs get all the attention, the sharks swimming around an aquatic arena are even more terrifying given their extreme mobility. The fear didn't come just from the loud shattering and throaty snarls, but from knowing that I was defenseless for several crucial seconds once a set of jaws sunk into my forearm. I yelped when those dogs crashed through the glass, even though I knew they were coming. These kinds of horror-story jump scares are a matter of routine in modern games and cinema, though the game still makes the most of them. Solving a puzzle is to wipe away some of the fog that obscures your understanding.ĭon't get me wrong: the frights remain, though I suspect that you won't leap out of your seats as often as you'd expect, whether or not you've played Resident Evil before. Behind every door are glimpses at the mansion's history, hints of experiments gone wrong, and bizarre contraptions coated with an occult veneer. Yet Resident Evil's finest asset is how it invigorates exploration by making every room you unlock an enigma.
Much has been made of the series' scares: that moment at which zombified dogs leap through the hallway windows and viciously attack you is one of video gaming's most iconic moments, after all. Yet if any lesson is to be gained from Resident Evil 6, it's that you needn't mess with a good thing, and Resident Evil, even purely within a modern context, is an engrossing adventure that benefits from tense exploration and clever environmental puzzles. Resident Evil HD reveals the same mystery, surrounds you with the same areas, and requires you to solve the same puzzles, a slight disappointment given how the remake recontextualized the story and expanded the gameplay. Your other memories of 2002's remake, however, should be far more reliable. Not pictured: fake shotgun required to solve the related puzzle. Now Playing: Resident Evil HD Remastered Video Review Jill with a shotgun. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's