[h1]Eerily Similar[/h1]
While aesthetically very different from its remake, I was surprised by how structurally similar these two games are. I don't know why, 2002's Resident Evil is the remake after all. Needless to say, jumping into the 1996 original gave me an eerie feeling of familiarity. The gameplay basics of exploring the mansion, solving puzzles, finding key items, and encountering the undead are all there. I was able to blow through most of the game as nearly everything is a stripped down, simplified version of what appears in REmake. Puzzles are more basic and the mansion just has less rooms overall. Also, crimson heads aren't a thing, so after a first pass through the mansion's halls feel particularly vacant. It's cool to experience where all these tried-and-true survival horror game mechanics first coalesced though. And while it wasn't novel for me, I tried to keep my mindset in that realm, realizing that this game is a first of its kind and just enjoying the game for what it was trying to do at that time in history.
[h1]Visual Presentation[/h1]
Commenting on the visuals of a game from 1996 is a strange endeavor. I did not go through the effort to procure period appropriate hardware, like a CRT TV so that I could experience the original vision in glorious 240p, scan lines and all. I opted for the easy route and stuck with my 1440p, 144hz monitor. Now if you blur your eyes and take a couple steps back the pre-rendered 240p backgrounds scaled up to 1440p don't look too bad, but, in my opinion, there's a better option. This is where some modding comes into play. When I did my most recent playthroughs of my 100% legally obtained copies of RE 2 and 3 I used the relatively popular Seamless HD mods. These textures packs upscale the backgrounds and do much more to create quite the seamless, modern experience. Each of the original trilogy entries now has a mod pack, but at the time, I think, 1s wasn't done yet, so maybe that's why I held off at the time. Regardless, it is complete now and that is what I used to make this 1996 game more palatable on my 1440p monitor.
Like I mentioned before, the original trilogy is now purchasable on PC through Steam and GOG. And with those releases resources for players to find the best Resident Evil experience keep on surfacing. Recently I discovered this website, Mulderland, where someone has gone through the effort to create what are essentially fan-made, remaster mod packs. I never knew this was something I needed but wow, what a great idea. For the RE trilogy they put together Classic REbirth, Seamless HD, and many more little fixes and QoL stuff. This was exactly what I was looking and I can confirm everything worked without a hitch. It ran perfectly via Steam, textures were upscaled, and I was able to use my PS5 controller via the Direct Input option within Classic REbirth. But with all that setup-talk out of the way, what did I actually think of the visuals? Ehh, they're ok. Overall, it's just really bland feeling. I have a hunch that at this resolution with the higher res textures, a magnifying glass is put on stuff that was never meant to be seen this way. It's a lot of blank walls, flat lighting, empty corridors, and repeating wallpapers. On one hand you could say it's all very eerie and weird, but for me it was mostly just boring. Some backgrounds are really nice though, check out the one screenshot above. It has unique lighting with the moon and the lamp and a nice number of details on the desk. These touches make it stand out amongst what is mostly drab and naked interiors. For me, Resident Evil as a whole was visually uninteresting but it's hard to "follow up" your own predecessor which happens to be one of the greatest remakes ever made.
[h1]Verdict[/h1]
I'm glad I tried the original Resident Evil. This is definitely a situation where which one you played first matters. For some this is probably the definitive version. But for me it's a really cool historical artifact that REmake makes completely obsolete.
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