I have a love, hate relationship for the Resident Evil franchise, I loved 1 and 2 I somewhat enjoyed 3, ok 4 was just about ok, but in some ways moved in a direction that took me some time to appreciate. Resident Evil 1, a game I played first on the PlayStation One over a friends house, as I never actually owned the game myself till it arrived on the Nintendo GameCube with some improvements along the way. When I think of Resident Evil, it’s that first jump scare, not a mindless zombie but the zombie dogs jumping through the glass window along that corridor, damn I pooped my pants back then being so young.
If you have yet to experience Resident Evil, let’s give you a run down. The game is a pure Survival Horror, which will require you to learn resource management and simply survive by any mean necessary. In this game, you get to play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine in the third person perspective each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Playing as Jill allows you to unlock doors with a picklock and carry more items, but can not deal as much damage or take as much damage is Chris. As I just said Chris can dish out the pain and take more pain, but carries fewer items and can not lockpick.
Your main goal is to simply survive, by navigating this huge mansion and the surrounding area, while taking on zombie dogs, zombies, giant spiders, and more delicious zombie type creatures. You must pick up items, find herbs to heal and stock up ammo, while also examining items to solve puzzles which can open up new areas. You will find your inventory is very limited, very similar to real pockets, they not endless right? so you will often find yourself juggling around items to manage your inventory more effectively.
Now you might be thinking this game is all gun hoe, but you be thinking wrong, as I first did when I got to play the game years ago, ammo is limited, so you are best to avoid rather than shoot to kill as and when possible. Get attached and take damage, best to have herbs in stock to heal up. Damage can come not from just standard hits, but you can also take damage from poison, this will require serum or special herbs to cure. So word of advice, if you are going to kill a zombie make sure it is dead by burning it, otherwise you better kiss your arse goodbye as they get stronger and deadlier.
To help you navigate you get a map the fills up as you progress, you can also pick up maps along your journey that show hidden unexplored areas. While traversing around you might have picked up a ribbon, these are used to save on an old school typewriter, not a PC. Be warned though, as, with ammo, ink ribbons are limited so save when you feel it is 100% required. That’s basically it, apart from one thing, who you choose to play and the choices you make will affect the ending of the game.
So what has happened, what has brought your two main playable characters to this mansion? well, the year is 1998 and a series of odd murders have happened in the town of Raccoon City. STARS short for Special Tactics and Rescue Service are called in to investigate, poor peeps. Bravo team goes in first, but communication with them in lost so the alpha team is sent in. They find bravos downed helicopter, but upon landing they are set upon by those damn zombie dogs, during the attack the helicopter pilot that took the alpha team to where they found bravos down helicopter pisses his pants and flies off, seeing the rest of the team running and shooting for survival as they head towards the mansion. Poor saps, what’s next for them, oh well.
As you progress through the game you will meet the Bravo team to a degree, learn about the umbrella corporation and the T-Virus, find survivors and hopefully make it out alive, die trying, or quit, your call, its a good story and a good game so I would say stick it out to the end and hope Resident Evil 2 and 3 head to the Nintendo Switch.
So are you thinking of purchasing the game? its £29.99 possibly the most expensive version of the game with the only added benefit of being able to play anywhere at any time. Comes in at whopping 14.4GB download size and seems to be only available from the Nintendo eShop. You can play the game in widescreen mode or the original mode 4:3. Playing the game for the uninitiated might feel somewhat clunky, as the camera and character positioning can cause frustration. For example, You move your character forwards with there back to you, then when the camera angle changes and you now see your character from there front still moving forward on your analog stick, you stop pushing up and try again, but low and behold he moves in the other direction, so you will need to push down on the analog stick instead. This is a pain in the arse when battling those pesky zombies.
Now Capcom could have worked some magic into this release and added motion controls, but nope, direct port, come on Assassins Creed 3 Remastered has motions controls and so does the new Sniper Elite V2 Remastered. Maybe touchscreen controls to help manage inventory, nope not even that.
Graphically the game performs well, nothing to worry about there, both in handheld and docked, and if you are on the can (toilet), you will be shitting yourself more than normal, thanks to Ahhh WTF jump scares.
So what do you get? Resident Evil from 2015 ported to the switch with little to no added benefits the switch has to offer with a price point that might put many gamers off from buying if they have the option of buying or owning the game on a different platform. In all honesty, I would buy it, as being a fan of the franchise and wanting the game on my switch is a no brainer, I just wish they added more features and yes it was released at a much lower price tag.
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