A bit of backstory: I grew up watching an older childhood friend play through the classic Resident Evil games and I eventually picked up RE1 Remake, which I still have yet to beat after many false starts and failed attempts. At the time, I found the controls frustrating and the difficulty overly punishing. Despite this, I adored the story and watched through the cutscenes on YouTube, and also read the amazing novelization by S.D. Perry many times in my youth.
Like many fans these days, I didn’t actually finish a RE game until RE2 Remake, which I found much more accessible. The puzzles were fun and frantic, and while there was a lot of backtracking, I didn’t notice it because the police department was relatively small and you could carry more stuff per trip.
Since then, I’ve gotten into most of the RE games with modern controls, and demystified overhead tank control games thanks to the classic Silent Hill games, Onimusha, Parasite Eve 2, and Crow Country, all of which I love.
Despite all that, I’ve attempted to go back to RE1 Remake a few times and have had a really bad time. I love the atmosphere, but even with the controls figured out, the game feels more like a chore than RE2 Remake, which feels much more tightly paced. The mansion feels a lot bigger and is more confusing to navigate than RCPD, plus you have fewer item slots as Jill than as Leon/Claire. And then there’s the time-wasting mechanics like how you have to set zombies on fire to keep them from coming back to life, how damage calculation/headshots are RNG and not based on player skill, or how you can’t take the shorter paths through certain doors without the lock breaking, forcing you to take longer to get to the first major item box, which you have to trek to and from constantly every time your inventory fills up.
About six months ago, I finally made it out of the mansion and to the courtyard (which took me 15 hours of playtime lol), but then I got so burned out I quit, and after trying to start up again recently, I don’t remember at all what I need to do next. (There’s like, pool tables and giant spiders and stuff?)
I’m definitely an casual RE player, but I’m kind of just holding out hope for another remake so it’s not as much of a slog. But there’s no confirmation that will ever happen beyond leaks and RE1 has been a big unclosed book in my gaming life. On the other hand, I might be forcing myself to play a game I don’t like because it’s widely considered a classic.
Update: I think I’m going to skip RE1, and if Capcom ever flat-out says they have no plans to do another remake, I might try it again, but I have the novelization and honestly enjoy that more. I appreciate all the advice!
Most of the horror in Resident Evil comes from the bad controls. Playing the game is like having one of those nightmares where your body will not move right.
I agree. It can be a very effective narrative device, and I really enjoy Silent Hill for that reason. I’m pretty okay with tank controls these days, and it’s actually all the other weird RE1 Remake-specific mechanics that drag down the experience for me, like the Crimson Head and locks breaking and the mansion layout and never having enough inventory slots, which for me ends up being more annoying than scary.
It’s ok to not finish a game you’re not into. End of story. Life is too short and there is no need to justify this to anyone.
You’re not alone in never finishing RE1, and I’ve played pretty much every other RE game.
If you’re starved for survival horror, Steam has an expansive indie scene with some really good entries on the subject. I could recommend Crow Country and Tormented Souls 1+2 if you haven’t heard of those.
I’ll try out Tormented Souls. Thanks for the recommendation! I love Crow Country. That game really perfected the overhead survival horror style, in my opinion, and has so many better mechanics that I wish existed in RE1 remake.
I think if they were going to make one they would have done it before RE2 remake… But maybe they will redo 0 and 1 who knows.
Yeah, it’s really hard to say. The only thing we have is leaks for an equally hypothetically RE0 Remake, with people saying, “Well, if they do all the assets for 0, they might as well just do an RE1 Remake.” But I really hope they do, acknowledging of course that RE1 Remake is available DRM-free on GOG, so thankfully that version wouldn’t fall by the wayside.
The current era remakes are just different styles of games than anything released before the original RE4. IMO the things you say you don’t like are part of what make this game fun and great. But plenty of people feel the way you do. There’s no wrong answer here.
Btw, just in case you give it another try, some tips:
- don’t kill every zombie/enemy, some are easy to avoid
- don’t burn every zombie body. You can run around the crimson heads (the zombies who come back) usually
- if a pool of blood appears under a zombie when it dies, it won’t come back as a crimson heads, you don’t need to burn it
- a zombie killed with a headshot won’t come back
- most guns will head shot at a close range if you aim upward. The range is different for each gun. Pistol sucks at this but shotgun is reliable.
I’ll give you the same advice that I give myself whenever I feel this way: There are already more genuinely good video games in the world than you will be able to finish before you die. If there’s a “classic” that you feel the need to experience, but you give it a solid chance and it’s just not “clicking” for you, put it down and move on to something else. You’ve tried it, that’s enough. Between all the games that exist, and trying to live a somewhat rounded life that has more than only games in it, you simply can’t get around to all of them.
im gonna finish ff IX damn
you!! meAbsolutely agree with this philosophy even though I find it hard to stick to. Maybe it was growing up with access to only a couple of games making me feel the need to eke out every second of value, but I do now need to tell myself if you’ve given it a proper go and aren’t really enjoying it then just move on, you have an ever growing backlog of other things to try out. It’s especially difficult with the live service fomo dark patterns that try to keep you coming back without you realising that you’ve just formed a habit rather than are really enjoying them!
This is the way. ⊹╰(⌣ʟ⌣)╯⊹
I used to think I needed to get around to playing the original Silent Hill at some point, but within the last few years, I realized I really don’t. I am not a fan of horror games and even if I just count emulation and ROM hacking, I have enough content to last me several lifetiimes, I’m good without playing a game that I only thought I needed to play because everyone says it’s a classic.
(There’s a lot more to add to this conversation but I’ll cut myself short to not have a wall of text.)
I had a similar experience. The low inventory cap combined with being able to find a wide variety of key items really burnt me out on the game quickly as, invariably, I’d end up needing to explore to find what items I needed to bring with me, which meant using up resources just to learn what’s around the corner, which often meant that I was better off finding a destination, then immediately loading a save rather than working backwards to get what I needed. That temptation to do a light version of save scumming (or just dying) really brought me out of the experience.
Another commenter recommended using a walkthrough and I think that’s a reasonable take (for me), in the form of “focus on the parts of games you like, and minimize the parts you don’t,” but my end goal has been “I have a friend who loves this game. Sometime I should invite them over and have them give me light guidance on what I should be doing”
If you are not into it you shouldn’t force yourself just because it’s considered a classic. It’s not like there’s required reading.
Also IMO a remake (especially how capcom is handling the RE ones) is not the same as playing the original game so I don’t think you should see it as a replacement, if it ever comes out.
This sounds more like FOMO than “I’m not sure if I’m gonna like this” type of situation. It sounds like you know for certain you’re not enjoying the game, otherwise you wouldn’t have called it a slog. I’d just move on, TBH.
“If it’s not fun, why bother?”
Personally, I think the classic versions are easier than the more modern remakes since you didn’t need to have any actual skill to do the combat. The puzzles are exactly the same, for the most part, but the combat is closer to RE4 than it was for 1, 2, 3, or Code Veronica.
REmake is one of the best horror games ever made, and the best Resident Evil game ever made.
I’d say it’s very much worth playing it, but no shame if you don’t vibe with it.
Yes keep trying. I just came back to re1 and I’m doing a playthrough now. Still a fun game. On ps4 you can change controls there are 2 options
I was like you. I didn’t finish RE1 for the FIRST time until like 2 or 3 years ago. I played the others, absolutely LOVED RE0 (it’s my favourite of all time, don’t judge) and really enjoyed RE2, 3, and Code Veronica on the DC. but I just couldn’t get through RE1.
what helped me was using a walk through. I also found the mansion confusing and got lost all the time. But using a walkthrough that didn’t have spoilers in it really helped and allowed me to enjoy the game a lot more. a lot less aimless backtracking as because of the walkthrough I knew where to go and many times later on I remembered stuff I needed to do and exactly where it was.
But even then if you still can’t stick with it don’t feel guilty or force yourself to. You already know the story, you know what happens, you know where all the lore from the first game leads to, etc. I forced myself in the past to play and finish games I felt like were a chore and I regret it. I mean I wasn’t a big fan of RE5 and 6 and I couldn’t finish them but that didn’t stop me from enjoying other games in the series. Hell I never finished Kingdom Hearts 2 but beat many of the other ones. I got insanely frustrated with the “dance water dance” guy and just stopped, never picked it up again and that was like 20 years ago.
