Games I Played in 2025 - Resident Evil (2002)

 

Console: Gamecube, Wii, PS3, PS4, PC, Xbox 360, XB1, Switch

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: April 30, 2002 (Gamecube), January 20, 2015 (PS4)

Resident Evil (2002) is a survival horror remake of the 1996 game of the same name. It's centered around inventory management, threat management and puzzle solving. To be quite honest, I've never been a survival horror person; I'm much more into horror adventure, action, or visual novel games and games that lean more into spooky than scary. However, I love watching people play games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and as a way to step out of my comfort zone, I decided to tackle this game. 

There are many ways to play and replay this game, but I stuck with a playthrough on Very Easy as Jill. To people used to these games this might be off-putting, but to be completely frank, I don't think I would've been able to finish the game if I weren't on Very Easy. I'm that terrible at these games. Nonetheless, I've got a good grasp of what this has to offer either way.

 

Almost immediately, Resident Evil (2002) wows with its visuals. The prerendered cutscenes are predictably blurry and lowres on modern hardware, but once you're in the game proper, the visuals pop in a way I've rarely seen. Every camera angle feels cinematic and makes you feel tense. The backgrounds are gorgeous and the character models fit in perfectly in a way that doesn't let them blend in either. I'd go as far as to say that this is one of the prettiest, moodiest games I've ever played. The only thing I can really criticise visually is the characters' faces: they're all very stiff and don't emote very well, which leads to a lot of awkward cutscenes. The eyes especially all look dull and lifeless.

I was hesitant at first to play this game due to the fixed camera angles; I'm unfamiliar with games using these, only having played the first Devil May Cry, and with the equally unfamiliar tank controls it was actually a pretty intimidating thing to go through at first. The fixed camera's main issue is that sometimes, enemies are completely quiet and you don't have time to react to them when the camera angle switches. Luckily, though this happens every once in a while, it's not actually that common of an occurence. It's a little annoying, but not a dealbreaker or anything, especially since on harder difficulties you'll know most of what's coming anyway. The story is nothing special, with predictable twists, awkward cutscenes with campy voice acting, and characters that don't act like  people. It's hard to describe, but everything feels stilted, especially due to the stiff faces. While the PS1 original had meme-worthy terrible voice acting, here it's just kind of campy and not as memorable or funny.

Luckily for those who don't want to deal with tank controls, Resident Evil (2002) also offers full analog control, which lets you move freely like you'd expect. You can even play the game with both at the same time: the dpad provides tank controls and the analog stick provides analog controls. I played exclusively with tank controls for two reasons: I wanted to learn how to use them in general, and I feel like the game was designed with them in mind, so it just felt right. The main thing that stands out is how much faster you are with analog controls, not in terms of speed but in terms of reactions; if you need to do a 180 turn, there's no friction there, while with tank controls you need to hit the back and run buttons first, which awkwardly stop you and let you do a quick 180 before you can keep going. While not much of an issue at first, later enemies and bosses are a lot quicker and it felt like I was being held back by the tank controls. Dodging attacks felt difficult in a sluggish and unfun way, and making space usually resulted in the camera angle switching, leaving the enemy or boss off-screen. Thankfully, aiming is very easy, since you only need to look towards an enemy and pull the trigger to land shots. It can get a bit dicey with multiple targets, but that's a pretty rare situation.

The biggest thing I disliked, though I'm almost certain this is more of a taste and unfamiliarity thing than a poor design thing, was the inventory management. As mentioned, I played as Jill, who has 8 inventory slots (Chris has 6) and I frequently struggled with it. Between my weapons, my ammo for said weapons, my healing supplies and my key items, I found it really difficult to keep my inventory clean and to have enough space for everything. This is compounded by the fact that you can't drop items or combine healing herbs as you pick them up, you have to either use something or go back to a save room with an item box. While movement isn't exactly slow, it's still a tedious ordeal after a while, especially when there's no more enemies to contend with.

 

Which is something else that stood out: for a game seemingly built on resource management, it felt very difficult to dodge or avoid enemy encounters. Almost every enemy is encountered in narrow, claustrophobic corridors, which makes it hard to really do anything except get hit and then try to rush past the enemy, and with tank controls it's basically impossible to juke them. So after killing enemies, you're often left with these moody corridors that lack any tension as you run back and forth solving puzzles. The game does throw a few curveballs your way and even has zombies that come back to life, but it's ultimately a lot of the experience, especially when played blindly.

Despite being reasonably short once you know what to do, Resident Evil (2002) has pretty good enemy variety with nearly 10 enemy types. Zombies have stronger late game versions and both come back to life stronger if their heads aren't decapitated or if their bodies aren't burned, but ultimately they're weirdly the least intimidating and scary enemy in the game. Zombified dobermans, sharks, spiders, wasps, snakes and crows all felt more panic-inducing to me, whether it was due to the danger they posed, their speed, or their numbers. Only one enemy kind of fell flat to me, the Hunters, which feel like they're randomly added to the game to spice things up during an area revisit. They're still stressful to deal with, of course, but they don't feel as integrated to the game as the others.

The bosses are pretty simple and are mostly just big versions of the animal enemies, as well as a tanky zombie and the final boss. The biggest standout is the game's equivalent to a "stalker" enemy that the series is known for, Lisa Trevor. This is because she is the only invincible enemy in the game, meaning she has to be avoided rather than fought (which is made fairly clear through the story). She only pops up a few times, but each time is pretty nerve-wracking. Her boss battle is pretty lame, though, as it's only about avoiding her and pushing pillars down the sides of the arena. She's probably the highlight of the story as well, with multiple in-game documents painting a really grim and heartbreaking backstory for her.

The puzzles are more plentiful than I expected, and they fall into two categories: find the thing and put it here, or kind of esoteric logic puzzles that aren't hard once you get it, but can be a bit difficult to parse. While I'm reasonably seasoned with puzzle games, a few of the puzzles felt unclear to me and I resorted to a guide a few times to spare myself an extra hour of wandering aimlessly interacting with everything. Near the end of the game, these get more plentiful as well. There's also times where it's not exactly clear what you need to do, with the biggest one being about halfway through the game; if you haven't investigated some particular parts of the map or simply don't remember them, then you'll end up stuck. Some of the more confusing puzzles are also optional, with the biggest one for me being the way to get the Mansion's 2F Map, which I never came close to figuring out. Sometimes it feels more like a point-and-click adventure game with slight moon logic than a survival horror game.

Nonetheless, the game's structure is pretty brilliant I'd say. Though your first blind playthrough will likely be over 10 hours, knowing what to do and where to go will significantly lower your playtime and allow you to finish the game much more quickly, which is actually rewarded. Multiple playthroughs are encouraged through costume unlocks, additional modes and even infinite weapons. There's three main difficulties: Very Easy, Easy and Normal, with one game clear with either character unlocking Once Again mode, which has Hard mode by default and can have "Real Survivor" and "Invisible Enemy" modes unlocked as well as an extra "One Dangerous Zombie" setting which is bizarrely impossible to toggle off once unlocked. Thanks to this, the game's slow survival horror and puzzle-centric gameplay turns into something closer to an arcade game once you know what to do. It's actually something I wish more games would do.

On top of the excellent visuals, Resident Evil (2002)'s atmosphere is really enhanced by the music, handled by Shusaku Uchiyama, Makoto Tomozawa and Misao Senbongi, and especially the sound design, handled by Atsushi Mori, Hideaki Utsumi and Yoshito Kato. Gunshots are punchy and loud, enemies make gross sounds, there's a constant storm outside that grumbles occasionally, and some rooms even have unique ambiance that will almost always put you on edge the first time. There's also some great use of complete silence in the game, which is sometimes even more effective than anything else.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Fantastic visuals and atmosphere.

• Fixed camera angles help more than they hinder the experience.

• Excellent musical ambiance and general sound design.

• Lots of replay value with unlockables, costumes and extra modes.

• Multiple control options to accommodate most players.

• Very good enemy variety for its length.

• Effective jumpscares that actually don't feel cheap since there's an actual threat and they're pretty rare. 

CONS

• Inventory management is frustrating.

• Puzzles can be a bit too vague, especially if you didn't happen to remember or spot something, and there's no real lifeline.

• Lots of running back and forth with no real obstacles, especially when all enemies in the area are dead and you're just trying to figure out puzzles.

• Character faces are very stiff and don't emote very well. 

• Fixed camera angles can result in some frustrating fights or unnecessary hits taken. 

• One of the unlockable modes cannot be disabled once unlocked.

• Very claustrophobic environments make it difficult or a non-option to avoid enemies.

• Some frustrating map design choices.   

• Story is nothing special, and the voice acting isn't as memorable or funny as the original, just kind of stilted.

 

WORTH PLAYING?

It's a classic for a reason, and I think anyone that enjoys horror games and can tolerate fixed camera angles and a bit of back and forth should try it. It's one of the best remakes and remasters I've ever played, and it's different enough from the original to not necessarily replace it. The amount of replay value is fantastic, it looks great, it plays pretty great, and anyone that likes survival horror will enjoy it to an extent.

I will say, however, that as my first "real" survival horror game (I've played Resident Evil Revelations, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, which all are much more horror action games with light survival elements), I found Resident Evil (2002) a little frustrating, but mostly because of the puzzles and the inventory management. I fully planned for my Very Easy Jill playthrough to be about me getting my bearings with the genre in general, and to then do a Chris playthrough on either Easy or Normal, but the thought of having to do those fairly tedious puzzles again while balancing a smaller inventory made me shy away from it. At the very least, it did allow me to get used to the controls and general feel of the game, so I don't regret playing it at all.

I don't know if this genre is truly for me yet, but I'm open to playing more of it now for sure, rather than being apprehensive about the idea.