Long before Resident Evil 5, before movie rights were even thought of, there was the original.

The opening was campy live-action footage, the story was straight out of a B movie script and the game was, frankly, scary as hell. Going from the bright spite-based graphics of the SNES to the first-generation polygon-based games of the Playstation was one thing. Leaving the Mushroom Kingdom behind and entering the mansion for the first time was quite another. When the detached hand was first seen in the opening sequence you knew you were in for something different. Even the loading times associated with the Playstation added to the tension. When a room was entered a first-person picture of the door would slowly creak open while the disc was loading. On the other side might be a save room, a roomful of zombies, any number of mutated animals, or later in the game a creature not even conceived of such as the Hunter. Even "dead" enemies had to be avoided, as a prostrate zombie might made a sudden snack of your ankle. Chris Redfield stomped many a head my first run through the game. Puzzles added some complexity to the game, though most were simple move the statue or place the emblem types.

Anyway, the highly trained Special Tactics and Rescue Service (STARS) Bravo team is sent to investigate a rash of murders outside Raccoon City. When nothing is heard from them, Alpha team is sent in. Finding a severed hand, Joseph Frost is killed outright by what seems to be attack dogs (Jill: "Joseph!!!"), leading to the pilot abandoning the team while the survivors barely make it into a seemingly abandoned mansion. Agreeing to split up to search the mansion, the team soon learns that something horrific took place there. All the player has is his or her training, intelligence and a trusty sidearm. None of these alone is enough to survive what will be encountered. As the story progresses you learn of Umbrella Corporation, an experiment gone wrong, a betrayal within your team, and of course the fates of the Bravo team members.

Resident Evil has more than its share of memorable moments during the first play through. From the first zombie encounter (eating your comrade, at that!) to the almost too quiet hallway with a few too many windows for comfort to the first time you get the shotgun (and realize you should have brought the broken shotgun with you). Even later in the game, when you thought you had seen it all, the game would throw a fresh surprise. You cleared the mansion earlier, encountered new horrors in the guardhouse and surrounding areas and now have to go back into the mansion and deal with zombies again. Or so you think. A cutscene reveals the Hunter for the first time in all its deadly glory. Even with the Game Shark turning Chris or Jill into a virtual Terminator, you are not safe. A quick lunge and a swipe of the Hunter's claws and you are decapitated, wondering where it all went wrong. The only other enemy capable of punking out the Game Shark was the Tyrant. At least then you had the Magnum and a better idea of what to expect.


I spent many hours playing this original game, loaned out my original disc and then bought Director's Cut when it wasn't returned. This led me into the sequels for the Playstation, Code: Veronica for Dreamcast and RE0 for the Gamecube. Unfortunately, the years have gradually diminished the time I have for playing video games and RE0 was the last one I picked up. I hear the remake of the original for Gamecube is one of the best games yet, as are RE4 and of course, RE5. It is no secret that the first game influenced my then-seventeen year old self (and not a gun owner at the time) to crave the firearms used by STARS. Thirteen years later I have the Beretta, played with the M202A1 rocket launcher and can buy the shotgun any time. That Colt Python? A bit too expensive for my tastes at the moment. There have been scarier games (Silent Hill) and great sequels since (most of them), but Resident Evil will always be my nostalgic survival horror game of choice.