The game for this weeks Video Game Book Club is 1996’s Resident Evil for the original PlayStation.
Resident Evil was the first game to use the term “survival horror” where the emphasis is as much on avoiding combat as it is trying to be prepared for it. Ammo and health items are scarce so each enemy encounter forced players to decide if it’s worth using precious resources to fight or finding ways to avoid the encounter.
Share your thoughts and experiences with Resident Evil in the comments.
Itchy, Tasty
RE:DC was one of my first video game experiences. I remember being like six years old in '98 and scared as fuck watching my mom play it. The L hall where the dogs jump through the window still gives me such anxiety.
The original music was great. I’ll never know what compelled them to make the DualShock version have such shitty music.
I didn’t know that about the soundtrack. I didn’t get a PS1 until after RE2 was out, so I had only played the director’s cut on PC.
I remember being stuck for a long time after clearing most mansion and the like garden area… Bout the time when the fish type monsters show up… I needed a certain key to open a door to progress and basically you had to unplug a dirty tub in one room but It took me like a month to click there cause it wasn’t obvious.
The resident evil series back then really got you immersed in scrounging for clues and many things were not visible… It really combined well with the atmosphere… Wasn’t easy to just check online if you were stuck…
We’re really spoiled by online guides now.
I remember being stuck for ages on the picture puzzle where you had to press the buttons under the pictures in age order and 11 year old me just couldn’t figure it out. Months later I spotted the solution in a magazine. It was like finding gold.
