Game Review: Resident Evil HD (Xbox One)

So they finally did it…

Resident Evil on next-gen with achievements along for the ride & it’s as glorious as you might have expected it to be.

Now, let’s not beat around the bush here, Resident Evil is one of the most important franchises to exist in gaming. The first & many of the subsequent games are consistently ranked up high in many best games lists. Resident Evil may not have invented survival horror but it brought it to the mainstream.

The original game was eventually remade for the GameCube & what a remake it was. Well this version is that version but in HD & with quite a few nifty new features.

The story remains the same…S.T.A.R.S Bravo team were sent to investigate murders in the forests & mountains of Racoon City. They have gone missing so Alpha team is sent in. They find Bravo’s crashed helicopter before coming under attack by mutant dogs.

The survivors make their way to a nearby mansion that turns out to be a worse place than the forest outside. You play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine investigating the mansion & uncovering the truth behind a huge plot involving pharmaceutical company, Umbrella.

Visually Resident Evil HD is very nice to look & some of the more touched up areas of the game stand out wonderfully. The detail in characters & enemies is standout stuff with wounds & even name-badges being clearly visible. It is impressive stuff & something that never fails to amaze.

Gameplay is unchanged & made up of exploration & puzzle solving. The entire mansion eventually opening up to players with back-tracking a necessary tool. Puzzles require thought…some are devious if you don’t know the answer already. New players may not feel comfortable with these but returning players will feel right at home.

As well as graphical updates one of the major changes involves the controls. Now it’s not the free style you experienced in Resident Evil 6 but gone are the tank style controls that saw even turning a chore. The new control system (although you can choose to play with the old style if you want) is much more response & feels a lot lighter.

Resident Evil HD comes with a bundle of new modes to keep the gamer coming back for me. As well as varying difficulty levels from very easy to hard we have real survival mode (which removes the inter-connectivity of the item boxes) & invisible enemy mode (says exactly what it is).

The achievement system also creates longevity with such ideas as completing the game in less than 3 hours, completing the game using only your knife & finishing the game without saving!

I used to say that the GameCube version was the definitive version of Resident Evil & that every gamer should have played it. Well, no more…this is the definitive version of Residnet Evil & everyone should play it.

Do I really need to say anymore? It’s Resident Evil…