Thankfully, after some time, my mom was kind enough to buy me Resident Evil: The Director's Cut. As cheesy and B-movie as it was, it fucking ruled, and I knew I had to get the other games. Not long after that, I got Resident Evil 2 and then for Christmas I got my hands on Nemesis.

As of now, the RE games I've played are as followed: RE1, RE2, RE: Nemesis, RE: Code Veronica, RE4, RE Survivor and RE: Outbreak File #2. What I will be discussing here, and in two following articles, are three lists. The first list will be what I love the most about the games, the second will be what I hate most about the games, and the third will be a "What the Fuck?" list that points out things that are just...weird and creepy and don't really fit into one or the other.

So let's get going!


You think you got it bad with Zombies?
There's a giant animal over there, and God knows what that thing is across the city...

What made the Resident Evil games so unique was that while it was a zombie game, zombie's were truly a minor threat as the game went on. In the first game, you only had to deal with zombie men, dogs and birds, but after a while you learned that this shit wasn't gonna be easy. The T-Virus that made these ungodly creations has different effects on other species, causing some to grow to incredible sizes, such as snakes, insects and other creatures (one of which I'm saving for another list). You would also find yourself battling bizarre human experiments in the games, like the Hunters, Lickers and God knows what else (again, see below for another). Some of these would disappear with RE4, which I did have some disappointment with, but that's passable because with that game, the disease had changed from the T-Virus to the Los Plagues.

Napoleon Bonaparte?!
Oh wait, it's not...

When the movie Evil Dead was made, it was very much a B-movie, but it took itself seriously. By the time Army of Darkness came out, the film said "fuck serious" and just went all out B-movie. Resident Evil seems to have followed that same line of thinking, as RE1 was a B-movie that took itself seriously, but by the time RE4 came out the designers had also said "Fuck it". Evidence of this is one of the main antagonists, Ramon Salazar, a villain who's about as tall as my 1 1/2 year old niece and has one of the craziest fucking castles ever built. Before getting to the castle, you had to deal with farmers and common folk who only had common items as weapons; the creatures in the castle have armor and fighting weapons from the middle ages. The traps in the castle are just insane, as a hallway is designed for the lead female to run down it and lean against a wall at just the right spot...which she does. Then there's the Salazar Statue…Check out the Salazar Statue on Youtube with Benny Hill (click HERE to watch it)...Oh you will laugh.

Behind every scary visual is a scary score.

Video games have produced, without question, some of the most amazing soundtracks in history. Some examples being the Metal Gear Solid series, the God of War series and the soundtrack to Shadow of the Colossus. Resident Evil, likewise, has continued that tradition. The games have had some amazing music to them, such examples as Mr. X and Nemesis having a score that appears every time they arrive in the game. My absolute favorite though would easily be the Resident Evil 2 Save Room theme. It's a piano theme that's very low, dark and almost sorrowful, and it's a perfect fit for a game in a world that's been dropped strait to hell.

Ah, just read a book.
A book by S.D. Perry.

There's a rule in Hollywood: if it's inspired by a game it's going to suck. Thankfully that rule doesn’t apply to literature. S.D. Perry, who had done a few Aliens and Aliens vs. Predators books years before, would helm the RE games move into the world of literature, and do an amazing job of it. In the first RE game, you had character choices with either choice leaving the other character dead in the end; in the book, she made both options work and had both characters live through the night. Not only did she do amazing work with the game inspired stories, but she also wrote in-between books that would tell of events that took place between the games. I was rather bummed to see her stop her work at RE0, since she could no doubt have made RE4 an amazing read. Petition anyone?

Wow, that giant pale guy with claws is huge.
He could be a basketball player or wrestler or….wait, why is he coming after me with his claws up?

Without question, my most favorite things about the RE series are the bad ass main bosses. In the first RE, it was the Tyrant, a giant man with built in weapons on his left hand. Game two, it was both William Birkin who in a constant state of mutation and Mr. X who was an un-evolved form of the Tyrant. Game three had one of my favorites to date, Nemesis, a tentacle clad behemoth that can fire weapons, and has enough intelligence to do specific tasks demanded of him. Tyrant would return for Code Veronica, although Alexia was unique but not up to par with the freaks before her. The bosses of RE 4 were great, but in a different away, again, because of the mutation of the disease that would cause their change. One of S.D. Perry's in-between books also has a Tyrant creature with a "T-Rex like head on it." Too bad the game makers didn't read her books and capitalize on it. I still would have thought it awesome if a Mr. X and the Nemesis had somehow crossed paths and didn't get along.

So that's my favorites list. However, nothing's perfect, and this game series has a shitload of imperfections. Check out the next issue to see my Top 5.