Residentantvania – Review of games inspired by the early series Resident Evil
Game Resident Evil (Re) from the studio Capcom I went out back in 1996 and gave rise to a whole new back Survival Horror games. Basically, the creators of the game Shinji Mikami and his team drew inspiration from games as Alone in the Dark (PC) 1992, Sweet Home (Famicom) 1989 from the same Capcom, Well, John Romero’s films about revived dead – zombies.
The essence of the gameplay Re was survived on the territory of the mansion, stuffed with aggressively tuned undead. Immediately, in addition to the classic two -legged dead, there were zombies – animals (dogs, crows, etc.), and sometimes completely incomprehensible chimeras or especially enhanced opponents – tyrants that arose as a result of experiments of the pharmaceutical corporation "Umbrella".
The main character had to solve various puzzles, fighting off the revived dead and finding new types of weapons during the game, combining objects, create various first -aid kits, new types of cartridges, etc.
IN Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica Initially, a third-person view was used with a fixed camera and backs (at first simply with static pictures), after which it changed to “classic, with a view of the back”, and in the last games RE 7 and Village completely moved to the first-person view.
But we are interested in the initial period of the formation of a cult series of games, which gave rise to quite a few creations that many mechanics from the original re. Also, in the vast majority of cases, the management system “like in a tank” was used (the player controls movements relative to the protagonist, not the camera).
Let’s start with the trilogy Dino crisis , released Capcom, The first part of which was released in 1999 on PlayStation 1 (PS1). The plot was a science fiction militant about a special forces group, which is planted on a small tropical island, where, as a result of the experiment of the scientist Dr. Kirk with the “third energy”, the ancient lizards are filled in time and the island is filled.
The game has completely borrowed all the key points of the original Re: the search for key items, combining components in the inventory and constant struggle with the advancing monsters (this time with dinosaurs). According to sales of June 2020, the game was sold by a circulation of 2.4 million. copies, was warmly met by players and ported to PC and DreamCast (DC) in 2000.
After the popularity of the first part, the sequel was not long in coming – Dino Crisis 2 I went out in 2000 on PS1 and became a direct continuation of the story. Regina remained the main acting person, but sometimes the game switched us to her partner – Dilan.
The plot was based on a rescue operation on the island near the fictional town of Edward City, which was covered by an anomaly, after which our old friends-reptiloids penetrated from the past. The game was sold in a circulation of 1.2 million. copies, which was noticeably worse than the result of the original, and also ported to the PC in 2002.
Another interesting project was the game Nocturne , Developed Terminal Reality And released Gathering of Developers, In the genre Survival Horror. The game was released in 1999 and told the story of a stranger (Stranger), a kind of prototype van Helsing, who needed to complete the tasks of a secret government organization SPOOKHOUSE to destroy various evil spirits – vampires, dead, etc.
Events developed after the First World War, from 1928 to 1932, and an interesting feature was that the game was divided into four episodes.
In the first episode, we had to penetrate the castle with vampires (Germany), passing through the forest with werewolves. The second episode forced the stranger to investigate the strange activity of the dead in the vicinity of a small town in Texas. In the third episode, we were sent to Chicago in order to find out and disrupt the dark plans of Gangster Al Capone. The fourth episode transferred the protagonist to France to the provincial cemetery, where the dead were raging off.
For its time, the game was innovative in terms of graphics, offered an interesting gameplay and seized it with its plot.
Nocturne was warmly met by players and critics, typing on the aggregator Gamerankings 75% of positive reviews and sold in the amount of 109 thousand. copies (October 2001). The game engine served as the basis for the series Blair Witch, The first part of which was released in 2000.
A series of games about a witch from Blair dates back to an American low -budget film Blair Witch: Coursework from the other world (1999) and a fictional chronology of events.
The first part is called Rustin Parr , And the main character is a girl named Elslet Holliday or Doc, who, like a stranger, is a member of the organization SPOOKHOUSE.
In addition to extermination of evil spirits, the game sometimes offered interesting riddles, such as deciphering the recording on the tape recorder by switching the bass, timbre, and high frequencies.
Blair Witch Vol 1 criticized the uncomfortable viewing angles in some scenes and for the monotony of forest locations, but at the same time praised for realistic shadows and competent sound accompaniment, catching the Sassens.
The game was sold 49 thousand. copies as of 2001 and received 73/100 on the portal Metacritic.
In the same 2000, the second part was released – The Legend of Coffin Rock , About the search for a ghostly soldier of the Civil War in the United States, and the third – after her – Elly Kedward Tale , telling the story of the priest and witch hunter Jonathan Praya, whose ghost appeared episodically in the first part and is the background of the first two episodes.
This series of games did not receive great glory or fame and after the first part fell lower in the estimated rating, selling worse and worse (16 thousand. copies – volume 2; 8.5 thousand. copies – volume 3, respectively). It is also worth noting that the entire NOCTURNE – Blair Witch line was released exclusively on PC.
In the future, studio Terminal Reality I released a trilogy about another character from NOCTURNE – Dampira Svetlana, renamed the Rhine and named Bloodray, but this is another story.
Another game, very similar to the early parts of Re, was Countdown Vampires developed K2 LLC and released Bandai In 1999 on PS1. The main plot of the game was inspired by the film by Robert Rodriguez "From sunset to dawn". The goals in this game were vampires who could be turned back to people with the help of special weapons and holy water.
The name of the game appears the word Countdown – reverse countdown. In the RE series, and indeed in other games, developers often use reception-for a limited amount of time the player should leave the region or have time to get somewhere. So, in Countdown Vampires, a reception with the end of the time was used indecent times, which rather irritated the user and did not benefit.
The game received 53.4% on https://zplaycasino.co.uk/ the portal Gamerankings Based on 10 articles of critics. Subsequently, the studio took part in the development of Resident Evil 5.
The next lot of our review – Martian Gothic: Unified , developed by the studio Creative Reality and saw the light in 2000. History unfolded at the Vita 1 space base located on Mars, and we had to manage three characters. All the mechanics again sent us to Re, the walking zombies – opponents, combinations of things in the inventory and the solution of puzzles, but at the same time the heroes could move during aiming and shooting.
Of the advantages, one could distinguish an original plot, a vital need for interaction between all three characters, good sound accompaniment, of the minuses – frankly outdated graphics (PC, PS1) and not always a convenient angle of viewing of cameras. According to the version Gamespot Mg: U received 5.9/10.
In the same 2000, it came out Carrier , developed by the studio Jaleco Ltd And released XICAT Int for dc. The game in a pleasant way highlighted completely three -dimensional graphics, while the bulk of the games of a similar genre was made against a pre -reversed background. The same fact was a minus – although it all looked an order of magnitude better than its competitors, with a large number of objects in the frame, the game naturally began to "brake".
The events of the game unfold on the American aircraft carrier Hamdal, the connection with which disappeared after the attack on the base of the Southern Cross terrorists and the seizure of the ancient organism in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. The main characters are the NTA (Sparc) investigative group, who arrived to find out what happened on the ship. Once again, we have infected dead people, riddles and this is all. The game received 70% of positive reviews on the aggregator Gamerankings.
It is also worth noting a series of games Parasite Eve (1-2), although it is role Survival Horror. The closest to the genre of interest to us brought us the second part of the series.
Initially, the plot for the first part was the bestseller of the Japanese writer Hideak Sanya “Parasite Eve” in the genre of a fantastic romance of horror, which, by the time of release of the game on the PS1 in 1998, had already acquired a movie screening, and also went out in the format of manga.
The game was created by a notorious studio Square Enix (in those years, SquareSoft), which has already had such hits as Final Fantasy (FF), Chrono Trigger, Front Mission, etc.
The plot of the game tells about the evolution of mitochondria-special types of cells that exist in the organisms of people and giving supernatural abilities, and the main character is a police officer of New York Ayia Brea.
The plot tie takes place in the opera, where the main anti -unionist of history actress Mellis Pierce or Eve literally burns all the spectators and which the brave aya will pursue the whole game. Unlike a Re here series, we could give the name of the main character, as a result of which the voice acting of the game suffered – all the dialogs were in subtitles format.
The battle system was a cardinal difference, here the developers screwed the ATB shuttlecock (Active Time Battle-mechanics from the FF series), after which the player chose the type of attack. Also at the beginning of the battle, the camera seemed to provide us with a space characteristic of FF games, which was not possible to leave until the end of the battle. Together with these innovations, a character level appeared, who, with an increase, made the hero more tenacious.
But back, as they say, to our rams, we are more interested in the sequel – Parasite Eve 2, published in 1999 on PS1. 3 years passed after the events of the first part of the game-the main character Ayia Brea, entered into a special unit called Mist, whose task was to destroy the non-mitochondrial creatures (NMC) and the preservation of their existence in secret.
In this part, the developers approached the mechanics of the early Re as much as possible, removing the ATB scale and returning the battle in real time, but at the same time, the character’s pumping remained. The visual series changed for the better, the creators to the maximum used the PS1 resource.
Games were highly appreciated by critics Gamerankings/Metacritic – 1 part 77%| 81/100 and 2 Part 78%| 79/100. There was another third of The 3rd Birthday, but it was rather a spin-off of the series and turned into a classic third-person shooter with role-playing elements.
Do not forget the series of games Alone in the Dark, which have been released since 1992 and had a great influence on the emergence of a phenomenon of Re. By the way, we are waiting for the next part on January 16, 2024 (we promised to restart, if they did not transfer again). The plot of history was spinning around the private detective Edward Karnby, investigating various cases with the intervention of otherworldly forces.
Separately, I would like to note the 4th episode of the New Nightmare franchise, which significantly buried in terms of graphics and possessed its gloomy Lovecraft Sharm.
The action of the game was unfolding on the mysterious island of "Shadow", to investigate the mystery of the family of Mortons, and mystical and frightening creatures who were afraid of light performed enemies. It was possible to play both for Edward Karnby and for his partner – Alin Sadrak.
AITD: TNN was released in 2001 on platforms such as PS1, DC, PC, and according to Gamerankings The game was rated at 69.97% (PC).
Our time
Yes, this generation of similar, but good games could not leave the genre lover indifferent. To this day, I warmly recall how I chopped on my old PC in the openly crooked port of Resident Evil 3, and later in Dino Crisis 2.
Well, what is modern – whether the genre has sunk into oblivion Survival Horror, with a characteristic static camera? Recently, on the Internet, a project surfaced, interesting from my point of view for fans of this type of game.
ALISA is a project of an enthusiastic developer Casper Cross, deliberately executed in the spirit of the games from PS1 and released in 2021 on PC. We have to play for Alice – a special agent of the Royal Guard (the time of events is the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century), which falls into the countryside, pursuing a person who stole important drawings. In the process of persecution on Alice, strange monsters attack, after which the girl wakes up in a strange estate dressed in a blue dress.
Then the classics of the 1st Re begins: monsters (this time – in the form of revived dolls), puzzles, a limited amount of resources and other delights of the genre.
In general, it turned out rather suitable Survival Horror, With a pinch Clockpunk`a. In the store Steam – Assessment 91% of positive reviews based on 678 votes.
Also among modern games it is worth noting things such as:
Tormented Souls, 2021
Murder House, 2020
Summing up
So my review is coming to an end, I admit honestly – I did not play some games from the article from the word at all. I did not pursue the goal of covering all the games of the genre in question, but tried to mention the most loud titles. If someone liked it or learned something new-excellent, no-well, it happens.
Thank you for your attention!
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Blair Witch Project: Episode 2 – The Legend of Coffin Rock
Blair Witch Project: Episode 3 – Elly Kedward Tale
Blair Witch Project: Episode 1 – Rustin Parr
Dino Crisis 2
Martian Gothic: Unified
Nocturne
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Resident Evil (1996)
Resident Evil: Zero
Parasite Eve II
Resident Evil Code: Veronica
Dino crisis
Outbreak: The New Nightmare
Tormented Souls
Parasite Eve
Murder House
Alisa
Carrier
Countdown Vampires
The best comments
I would still note that the blog about games similar to the Resident Evil 1-3, so mentioning Cold Fear in it would be wrong. This game would have deserved more the status of “clone Re4” if it had not come out with it almost simultaneously.
From games corresponding to the genre “Survival Horror”, I can remember the weak Curse: The Eye of Issis 2003. You can also turn the recent game Them and US into a classic Survival Horror, however, this will not do it with a good game. Silent Hill to mention really worth it, probably.
By the way, all more often in an indi-environment I meet isometric resident-like games. Heaven Dust, Lamentum, Signalis, Evil Tonight.
I read … burst off … Oh, the era left. I remember the first rubberings in the cat. Played in the computer. club. ️
At that time it was not bad, but already on PlayStation 2, X-Files, the most terrible “Kuon”, the beautiful “The Haunting Ground” (heiress “Clock Tower”), “Cold Fear” of course. But not mention "Silent Hill"! How so?! Reference.
Oh guys, I already understood about Silent Hill, thanks. I attach a scan of a draft from Google documents, just in the finish version I decided to remove the postscript, it was worth leaving.
Thanks for the detailed feedback. Just the idea of an article was born from a friendly discussion of old games. I took the courage to try to write a review, although before that I was not engaged in such. As they say – the one who does nothing is wrong.
The hefty plus.With the exception of a pair of games, there is everything on the disk to the 1st Sonya that still lives.And everything went without any google.There were only problems with dinocrisis-1 and Eve parasit-2.
I paid attention to Signalis while the material was selected, I will definitely look!
I advise you to look, such a rarity as Deep Fear.
Thank you, I’ll take into account the future.
Well, dear author, you have done a good job. Massive, even you can say so. However, let me insert your five cents. How to add a pinch of burning pepper to a cream cake)) so.
The principle of combining the presented games in one list is absolutely incomprehensible to me with a beard. Um … let’s look at your example, visual. Take Dino Crisis. See what is a small clip. The first part – yes, it is roughly speaking, a resident with dinosaurs. Okay, legitimate. But the second part is much more complicated here, because in continuation it protrudes more, roughly speaking, the action. You run from the stage to the stage, trying to dig dinosaurs as soon as possible without damage, thereby filling the glasses of glasses as high as possible, which are later converted into currency. And already buy a gun to your own abrupt. As if there are riddles, puzzles, keys, but there is much more action. Because of which the game was not very straight off, sustained, sustain.
Yes, and Parasite Eve, also not to say that he was close to the resident, to be honest. Just if Parasite Eve is suitable for this selection, then Silent Hill could be mentioned. You do not understand the wrong thing, we just do not see the connection between games. Except for one most obvious – all popular games of the first curling about horror films are collected in a heap. Simply, for example, Evil Dead: Hail to the King is very suitable for the classic series of the resident series of the resident. The game is not very popular, but in spirit converges. Or better famous Cold Fear. Although with some restrictions. In general, something like that) but nevertheless you have done a good job)
And hde Kold Fir? Forgot, did not know? Sit down, 4-))
I don’t know, we’ll see.
Yeah, thanks, I’ll look.
Thanks to the author of the blog.I found, downloaded and began to pass Alone in the Dark – The New Nightmare.It seems for the first time))) the truth in the place where I was inhibited as much as two weeks will no longer be.)))
Thank you, as they say, may be the memories.
Of the modern still Song of Horror, the abolished horror. But without a fighting, just run away and hide
