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The Review

Aaaah, the review...I'd say something witty but I can't think of anything at the moment.




The Graphics

Call me crazy but the graphics in Zero just don't have the same impact they did in the Remake. It's the same graphical style, even slightly improved...but it just doesn't have the same chutzpah. Maybe it's the fact that the areas you explore are too varied to get a full sense of the atmosphere. The one true downside to the graphics was the sheer laziness of the monster design. While I can understand that all of the monsters would be the same the fact that they didn't make many original zombie models bothers me. There are large amounts of zombie models that are identical to models used in the Remake. A good third of the monsters in it are Richard. While there are none of the zombie models from the Remake in some areas there are far too many duplicates hanging around in the same room. So all in all, while the graphics are exceptional they are also extremely lazily rendered in places.

Graphics: 8



The Story

Zero's story is a wee bit on the "no fucking way" side. While the other RE games all have a sense of "however unlikely this is there's a chance it could happen someday." Zero doesn't have that at all. It's more science fiction then survival horror and it completely ruins the creation story of the T-Virus hinted to in previous RE games. All in all, Zero's storyline bothers me. It's the only RE game that suffers from Capcom's piss poor story linking and plot hole management.

Story: 6.5



The Gameplay

The gameplay in Zero is a fucking hiccup. I'm not really one to judge Capcom's decisions but it's a really bad idea to make a faux two player game when the RE games are primarily single player. Having a tag along for most of the game destroys the feeling of urgency during combat. There's also the fact that the second character, Billy, is a fucking tank. Rebecca is too weak while Billy is far too strong. The balance of the two characters is not only skewed in that aspect but also in the item management feature. You have twelve slots of item space, yet for at least half of the game you won't have the space to pick up items because each character has to carry their own ammo and weapons such as the Grenade Launcher and the Shotgun take up two spaces instead of one. This severly limits the items you can carry and due to the fact that item boxes are non-existant I found myself cursing every time I had to pick up an item because I had no fucking space. And don't get me started on the control scheme. It's even worse than the one in the Remake, and thats saying a lot. The basic controls are there but the movement is too loose and I often find myself somehow turned around when I'm supposed to be turning a corner. The use of the C-stick to control your partner's movements when you need them to stand somewhere is near pointless because you can position them all you want they'll still walk back behind you unless you leave them behind. Which is moronic since if you're playing as Rebecca and you need Billy to take a few hits because you're near dead...Billy will most likely not take the hits he'll just walk out of the way and let the monsters kill you. The only real use for your partner is to use them to tell if there are monsters in the room because they'll aim automatically. The pointlessness of your partner is only obvious when you're surrounded. The moronic AI doesn't shoot half as quickly as they should, often resulting in the death of the character you're controlling if you're not quick on the trigger. Once you get used to the partner mechanic you'll do fine but for most of the game your partner is just a walking, talking item box. In conclusion the Zero parnter gameplay had potential but the complete lack of AI for your partner ruins it. They're barely smarter than the average zombie. And thats not even the worst part. On Easy I had ammo out the wazoo...on Normal I often had less handgun ammo than Shotgun and Grenade Launcher ammo. Which isn't good because you don't want to waste such ammo on normal enemies, especially when a zombie can survive a point blank shot from a standard grenade. The entire game is unbalanced, be it the fact that zombies can take up to eight hits on normal or that you have almost no ammo to kill them with, or that your partner is so stupid they get chomped more often than a donut in a room full of fat kids.

Gameplay: For control 6 for the game itself 7.5



Replay Value

Yeah, Capcom fucked up in the replay department. The game itself isn't good enough to justify playing more than twice and the 'mini-game' you get for beating it is a living fucking hell. The extra weapons are all well and good but there are no cool extra modes like in the Remake. I could barely bring myself to play Zero a second time to write the walkthrough and gather the puzzle solutions. It's nowhere near as good as the Remake and if it weren't for the Gun Survivor games, Zero would be hands down the worst console Resident Evil.

Replay Value: 6.5



Overall Grade: 6.6






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