Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#11: Resident Evil Remake

Rating: M

Players: 1

Price Range: ~$27 USD

A survival horror game.

This...was the other survival horror game to make it up this high, and is debatable if it is better or worse than Eternal Darkness, but it slightly edges it out, but only slightly. I'll get to why later.

But my gosh, this is a really fine game and one of the best remakes ever. To me, it is the last great game in the classic style, as afterwards, they were either...pretty rough, or are over-the-shoulder or first person.

I think the most contentious part of the game would be the gameplay, so let me explain that with context of the story.

There are two characters in the game to start as, being Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield. Both have significantly different mechanics around their playthrough. As Jill, your companion character that shows up from time to time is Barry Burton, a very underrated character, and for Chris, it is Rebecca Chambers, the sole survivor of the Bravo Team from S.T.A.R.S., the Special Tactics and Rescue Service.

I'll start with the plot, as, like the previous games and even quite so afterwards, the story is very cheesy, goofy, and doesn't take itself too seriously, which I like. While the original was more campy and arguably so bad it's good because of the terrible acting in it, they were relegated to something you look up on the internet as opposed to play the game itself, which I'll compare on a surface level in a bit.

Now, this is to simulate B-movies, and it does it well while remaining true to the series. You have very bizarre lines along with all of the charm that comes with it, like Wesker wearing sunglasses while still inside, even in group photos, which makes no sense, but that's the point, with even some puzzles, like how the Residence has a code to a door with a chemical room behind it that are based on the color and numbers on billiard balls. While you would have disbelief, the fact that the game really doesn't really try to shy away from how ridiculous it is, with the infamous file in which the person slowly turning into a zombie devolves into him saying just 'tasty' and 'hungry' is quite funny, however morbid it really is.

Now, that's not to say that there's no seriousness at all, as there is quite a few. A great example would be the storyline with the Trevors, in which George Trevor was actually the architect for the Spencer Mansion, creating and devising all of the ridiculous traps. When Umbrella believed that he knew too much, Wesker and Umbrella invited him, his wife, and daughter, in which they murdered his wife, experimented on his daughter to be an immortal and indestructible abomination you fight in the game, and leaving Trevor to try and escape his assassination attempt, in which he ended up in a hole from one of his own traps, where he would die of starvation and thirst. Really sad.

Of course, the story is very intriguing, like how the Spencer Mansion is all just a trap to wipe out the entirety of S.T.A.R.S., in which Wesker was a double agent for Umbrella the whole time to lure them, with all of the traps meant to kill them if they survived from the zombies and undead dogs outside. And, of course, the whole thing being because Umbrella, a pharmaceutical company that had a monopoly on the industry in the U.S. started to create bioweapons that lead to zombies and other monsters, became greedy for power to the point that a corporation became a constant antagonist even after the company dissolved in later games is obviously something that is relevant, especially in today's day in age.

I could go on about it, but Resident Evil's plotline in the remake is just classic and memorable, as is customary of the series.

And now...the gameplay.