Genre: Survival Horror
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
# of Players: 1 Player
Memory: 9 Blocks
ERSB: Mature
Supports: Progressive Scan, Dolby Pro-Logic II
Also On: None
Website: ResidentEvil.com

Resident Evil Ø is the long awaited prequel to Resident Evil, the game that started it all. Starting off as a Nintendo 64 game. Resident Evil Ø has been in development for over about 4 years. But now utilizing the GameCube’s advanced processing power, Resident Evil Ø will amaze players with flawless animation, living environments and the best graphics in a video game ever! Well until Resident Evil 4 hits your GameCube. After having the outstanding remake of the first title come out just a few months ago, GameCube owners finally get the beginning chapter of the whole franchise. However, Zero is somewhat of a mixed bag. Those who are in love with the series will still love it, but the new innovations of the zap partner system and ability to drop items isn’t as revolutionary as Capcom totes them to be. However, the game is still fun, and for those still wanting a night filled with fright, can’t go wrong with Zero, just be wary that Capcom hasn’t changed much from their normal survival horror formula sticking with the "if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it," theory on control and gameplay.

Presentation
Resident Evil Ø begins in July of 1998 in the suburbs of Raccoon City, a small town located in the Midwest. Several reported incidences of people being eaten by a strange creature have surfaced. The Raccoon city police department viewed the terrible murders as a top priority and quickly decided to send in a special task force, the S.T.A.R.S Bravo team. As the team heads to the scene of the murders, the helicopter that was transporting them begins to have mechanical problems, eventually crashing deep into the forest surrounding Raccoon City. While the Bravo Team was successful in escaping from the crash, they had lost all of their equipment and weapons. As they began to gather their wits, the team saw a shocking image. Before them lay a half-destroyed, over-turned transport truck with corpses of several navy officers that had been gruesomely killed and mangled. Under orders from Commander Enrico, the Bravo Team began investigating the disappearance of Captain Billy Coen, one of the officers who were supposed to be in the over-turned transport yet his remains cannot be found. Little does the Bravo Team know that this investigation is the beginning of a horrific nightmare?

Graphics
The best. That’s it. The best. The character models are stunningly realistic. The enemies are just a delight to look at. The pre-rendered backgrounds are so real you think you could go out and touch them. The backgrounds move in certain cases now, which is great such as moving water in pots, rain effects splashing against the train, the lighting effects when the train starts moving, and wait till you see the cool effect when you get on top of the train. The ATI Gekko chip really gives exploits the power of the GameCube. The zombies are horrifying, and their realistic look gives are real thrill. I’ve been killed many times just because I was looking at the graphics of the game, and I would just stare at the zombies because the visuals were so amazing. Resident Evil 0 has the best graphics of any game ever made. Summed up in one word WOW!!!

Sound
The music is great in this game. Mostly due to part that it really does add to the atmosphere of the game. The characters for the most part suffer from the B-movie acting school, except Billy, he normally sounds pretty good if not a little clichéd. But mostly, the actors get the job done without being too corny. Rebecca’s cute voice will have you melting inside. The sound effects will make you jump. I caught myself jumping just when a door would slide open. So the good sound this game has truly does help to add to the mood. Enter Dolby Pro-Logic II and you can easily scare your piss right outta your blatter. The sounds of the leeches in the game will have you hearing them all day. In school, work, even on the toilet. Best sound in a game to date period.

Gameplay
For anyone who has ever played a Resident Evil title, Zero plays the same. It still consist of you walking around shooting zombies and other supernatural beings, and solving mysterious puzzles that require the infamous special keys and jewels. However, Zero does mix things up from previous RE titles by having the ability to play as two characters simultaneously. You’ll control Rebecca Chambers and Billy Cohen throughout the game and this proves to be rather interesting in the RE franchise. Normally in other areas, the cutscenes of characters would make the general statement of "splitting-up" as a good ideas, often leaving players wondering why in the world the characters would split up and go alone in these evil places. But, Zero clears this up with the ability to be both characters. At first you may be skeptical about controlling two characters at once, however, don’t be, it’s a piece of cake to do. The computer normallly controls the other character making it follow you and shoot at zombies and what not, and you also have control over the character with the C-stick. It takes a bit to get use to but becomes rather easy with little time. However, the two chracters can split up and by pressing the X button, you can switch back and forth between the characters. You also order your partner around to follow or stay put by pressing the start button. This is used to solve puzzles that often are solved with the two characters being split up and having to get out of a jam using an elevator system. The inventory screen is a little different now as they now show both characters’ details. Here you can find Partner options and you can play around with tem to suit the situation you are in. You can even swap items between the two inventories by using a cursor. Remember those chests in Resident Evil which allowed you to place items as you could hold only six, there’s none of them anymore so you’ll have to place them on the floor if you want to carry more items and also take a note on where you put it because it may be important further on in the game. The idea of this character splitting could have been great, however it’s limited because most of the time, the puzzles when the two are split stay this way througout the game. As for the way the characters control, its still the same akward control scheme from every other RE game, and the only real gripe about the game is the lack of innovation. The train that the characters are on for some of the game, still feels like the mansion, or police station or whatever building. It still feels like you are confinded to one small area as in all the other games. This also lead to some problems because for some reason this game has alot of load times between doors and stairs, and there are a lot of doors and stairs. Backtracking is reduced to a minimum if you split the two characters up yourself and have them go on opposite sides to explore, which is thankful, but the puzzles are still somewhat confusing for the most part. However, the game is still scary and things will jump out often enough, but bosses will appear out of nowhere and since the drop-any-item-anywhere feature it’s kind of hard to determine what you need and what you don’t. But, this is a welcome addition to the game. All in all its still what we all love about the Resident Evil series with added bonuses that the Evil fans out there will love.

Conclusion
As innovations go, Zero has some of the best of any game in the series. Foremost is the Partner Zapping System that allows you to control both Rebecca and Billy together, or solo at will. Zapping not only forces you to remain acutely aware of your status and surroundings, but also lends a unique strategy element that’s lacking in other Resident Evil games. The other key new feature, removal of convenient Itemboxes, makes the game take much longer to play out than it should. Playing sans Itemboxes was a novel idea, but in practice their absence makes the game more cumbersome than challenging and you’ll spend a great deal of time making repeat long-distance trips to transport key items between locations. The boss battles are also problematic as they frequently arrive without warning and often time after a thorough schooling send you back to the last save point. Setbacks aside, Resident Evil 0 is a redoubtable addition to Capcom’s long-running survival/horror franchise, and fans of the series will eagerly eat it up. Even after seven years of sequels and side stories, RE still gives good fright that you can’t find anyware else. A must buy for older GameCube owners.

~ditto~

The Good
- The best looking console game
- Best sounding game
- Fresh style of playing Resident Evil

The Bad
- Bosses pop out without warning
- Drooping an item only to go wayyyy back for it
- Leeches are horrible creatures

The Stupid
? Billy never really hits on Rebecca(hey she’s of age)