Resident Evil 0 – A Masterpiece, Obscured

Review by BerlinRain

The prevailing, and most prevalent, view of REØ is one overwhelmingly negative. It isn’t a case that the majority of fans hate REØ (though, no doubt, some do) but more a case that the general feeling surrounding the game is negative. Many fans see that REØ’s failures outweigh its strengths (a quick trip to YouTube or Spotify podcasts will demonstrate this) and that the failures outweigh the strengths to a significant degree.

I first played REØ on Gamecube for about 20 minutes around 2003 but didn’t come to play it thoroughly (or any RE game, for that matter) until around 2021 when I bought REmake HD, and after completing that a number of times went to Ø. Ø quickly became my favourite by a long stretch and the only games to get close to the heights of Ø are the 1996 original of RE (which I first played in 96 at the tender age of 7); the original of 3; and 7 but they still fall very far short. I.E., in my opinion, REØ is the giant of the RE world, dwarfing even the closest competitor.

I was surprised, therefore, when I started to watch videos & listen to podcasts to find that literally no one else (that I have found, at least) feels the way I do. I have thought a lot as to why REØ is so poorly received in the fandom and think that it deserves someone fighting for it. I will say that I won’t consider the story (though I do think many of its perceived problems are easily explained & justified) because even though I love the theme and world of RE, the story is only ever a sidenote.

In short REØ is a masterpiece but obscured, like the painting in Marcus’ office, and I hope to clean it in what follows.

Gameplay

Survival

If REmake is a survival horror game then Ø, as its counterpart, is a survival horror game. Which part we prefer, the survival or the horror, will impact our enjoyment of each game. So much of the gameplay in Ø emphasizes survival over anything else that we need to bear that in mind as we consider the gameplay.

Survival horror revolves around a number of aspects: combat; inventory management; limited resources; route planning; and tension or ‘stress’ that comes from having to do the first (combat) with all that comes after it. Survival horror forces us to make decisions: Should I risk losing health or use some of the few rounds I have left? Should I pick up this item or leave it for later? Should I carry extra ammunition or a stronger weapon? Ø forces us to make more of these decisions because it has 2 characters. 2 ECGs; 2 inventories; travelling with both characters etc., and these choices are significant and can leave a lasting impact on the rest of our playthrough.

Combat

Ø’s combat is, in the main, standard RE combat. There is nothing remarkable about it and its early days as a N64 game shows through in its simplicity (contra REmake and 4 which added a number of new mechanics). It is not remarkable but it is hard – Nintendo hard – and this adds a great deal of stress.

Ø forces us to engage in more combat than many traditional (I.E., not 4-6) survival horror RE games. Only the RE engine games on their ‘Madhouse mode’ equivalent force combat in the same way. Ø has tight corridors without a proper mechanic to juke zombies (contra REmake) due to zombies’ huge reach & and often places difficult enemies in front of key items (Mimicry Marcus in the Leech Room & Narrow Corridors A and B; Hunters in the Training Room & Breeding Room). The risk of losing health when attempting to avoid enemies is great and thus Ø builds tension.

In addition to all this, Ø adds enemies that are unusually agile (Eliminators) or have long range attacks (Mimicry Marcus) and all this comes together to make ammo & health more precious, and to make any unavoidable encounter significant.

Puzzles

The puzzles make use of the character zapping but not to great advantage. Some of Ø‘s puzzles are classic RE puzzling at its finest (The Animal Food Chain certainly being the standout) but it forces use of the zapping not where it really works (such as when we’re forced to split characters in the train and in the lab) but where the zapping essentially becomes a glorified control terminal as it does in the combat zone and block-pushing puzzle. This area is where the zapping becomes more of a gimmick to the game’s detriment but when Ø focusses on RE-puzzling it is replete with cozy environmental puzzles that encourage engagement with the physical world around your characters.

Planning

Items

Dropping items is an unpopular mechanic but by removing the convenience of Item Boxes the game forces more decisions on us: where are the safe rooms; where do I need to keep key items; how easy will it be to retrieve the items later? It amplifies the effect of ‘Real Survival’ in REmake to the point where it is no longer a choice and even more limited because each room has an item limit.

A common complaint about dropping items is that it is inconvenient. However, given how the game is constructed, it doesn’t seem that convenience was ever the intention. Rather, it seems that it was adopted precisely because it was inconvenient. Ø again increases the intensity of the survival aspects of survival horror because now not only the number of magnum rounds matters but where they are does too. This is beautifully exemplified in the Laboratory where sending Rebecca or Billy up through the hole in the ceiling without a heavy weapon leaves her/him to fight 2 hunters with a pistol.

Routes

The first playthrough of Ø is tough (I remember completing it for the first time – sweating as to whether I had enough ammo to distract the Queen and enough health to absorb her damage) partly because the game, sometimes unfairly, without warning removes a playable character from the game (e.g., Rebecca falling through the floor; and Billy being taken out of action by an eliminator) or forces us to separate our team with the hookshot but without the knowledge of what we might need.

But this changes on every subsequent playthrough because now we know what we need but need to plan much further ahead in order to make sure we have it. It’s no longer a case of planning one trip from one item box to the next but long sections with enemies & puzzles. Contrary to popular belief it is not the unknown that causes the most fear but incomplete knowledge of what is coming (there are psychology studies that show that content & trigger warnings increase intensity of unpleasant emotions) and REØ gives us that knowledge: We know what is coming but don’t yet know what conditional we will be in when we get there.

Characters

Ø takes the 2-character-2-campaign style of RE1 but increases the need for micro-managing and decision-making by putting them together. Rebecca can mix herbs and chemicals but is the weakest character in any mainline RE title and the game never lets us forget it. We need Rebecca close by but she is always vulnerable and if she ever gets touched by an enemy, she’s on caution. Billy, on the other hand, is much tougher; does more damage; and can push heavy objects for puzzles but his inventory fills up quickly because he can’t mix herbs. Ø brings in risk/reward in a way that no other game really has by introducing vulnerability normally only seen in hard/NG+ modes into the normal playthrough.

We will probably resort to leaving Rebecca in a safe place and sending Billy alone which almost makes things easy to manage, despite the limited inventory, but now we are faced with a different obstacle: a game that is designed in every way to be played with 2 armed characters is being played with one. Now Billy, who seemed so strong a moment ago, feels underpowered everywhere so we must rely on his superior speed when unarmed, and in the sections where we must play as Rebecca alone our vulnerability is palpable. Route & character planning becomes the essence of the game when faced with this kind of character dynamic.

Boss Fights

Ø‘s boss fights are rightly criticized: Bosses in Ø lack vision and most don’t work well as far as gameplay is concerned. Ø seems more concerned with drawing parallels with other RE games in boss fights than having an interesting artistic vision but what they lack in vision they make up for in function. Ø‘s boss fights are survival fights. We don’t need the impressive skills to overcome Nemesis in Ø but we need to use up precious resources. The Scorpion (knife kill aside); Centurion; and Final Queen Leech all drain our ammo reserves, and the Bat; Tyrant; and First Queen Leech will drain our health more than ammo: each boss in Ø serves to remove a large portion of our reserves (and therefore feelings of peace & security) and so means each decision as to what normal enemies to kill and when remains forefront in our mind. The fact is that if we have planned poorly then we might simply not have the resources to kill the boss whatever our combat skill is.

There’s so much downward movement throughout the game it’s almost symbolic, like Silent Hill 2, only to rise out of it all on the elevator to the final boss encounter.

Graphics

Ø‘s graphics are usually where any criticizer stops: all appreciate the beauty and quality of the game.

I won’t consider the HD remaster here due to the change of Rebecca’s model & many missing animations but of course there is a crossover. I also recognize that this is largely subjective but I do subscribe to objective & measurable standards of beauty and will write as such. I.E., see a prominent but invisible ‘in my opinion’ before these statements.

Ø is certainly the most beautiful RE game. Its beauty surpasses any of the later games despite their greater fidelity and clarity and surpasses any before it due to its greater artistic vision and composition. It is in the running for most beautiful game of all time and, with my bias acknowledged, I can scarcely think of a game that rivals it. Every part of Ø is beautiful – every part a work of art. Ø as an entity belongs in an art museum as much as its disc does in a GameCube.

There are 3 factors in addition to its high-quality graphics that lift it to so lofty a height:

Attention to detail

Ø‘s designers were designers of the very small, not just the large. They saw the large structure but built it on a foundation of small pieces. It is these small pieces that add so much to the beauty of the game and make it feel natural and real (as in tangible & immanent, not realistic). These small pieces don’t draw attention to themselves and almost go unnoticed in the same way that subtle techniques in music production are not obvious in a mix but make the whole track feel alive.

The inventory screen & map are such examples: they work together as a seamless machine with small moving parts and sliders everywhere. Many of these parts move in response to different actions in the screens and add that weight of reality even if we don’t notice those details. The machine parts and panels with their twisting dials and thin metal connectors and clasps tie in with an old, analogue feel that connects them both to the typewriter. The whole Ecliptic Express exudes this atmosphere so that at the start of the game everything from the menu to the gameplay feels coherent and grounded. Finish this off with beautifully textured, warm toned panels that look almost like old vellum and you’re in for a real treat. This is in stark contrast to the embarrassment which is the RE4’s inventory/map/save room triumvirate which, though detailed, doesn’t have the moving parts and is graphically inferior and REmake’s which, though it has a few moving parts, doesn’t have that attention to detail and doesn’t hold together in tone and consistency like Ø.

In addition to this Ø has so many intricate animations (many missing in the HD) over the prerendered backgrounds: Rain drops coming in through broken windows; rocking chandeliers and overturned glasses & bottles; moths around lights; and grass moving in the wind are only some of them. Many of these are almost invisible on a CRT but come together to give a kind of ‘full-mouth’ sensation where the world has substance. This is easily seen when moving from Ø to ØHD because even though both are beautiful the original has weight, warmth, and beauty which HD does not.

Camera Angles

Each angle is important in any camera angle driven game because if they are poorly chosen the game’s difficulty is artificially increased and it becomes frustrating rather than fun. Ø’s beauty is increased by its unrivalled choice of camera angles. Ø does not capitulate to the horror stereotypes of dark, moody shots at crooked angles (which is much more common in REmake but finds its epitome in modern camera angle games such as Tormented Souls I & II), rather it focusses on the artistry of the shots. Perspective and angle serve the dual purpose of gameplay and beauty. The train is used to its best advantage with many long; low & long; and high shots in order to emphasize that you are travelling – both we, the players, through the train but also the train itself which is moving.

We travel through a series of beautiful oil paintings – angle to angle, location to location – which the artist has carefully constructed to transport us into a world rather than to view the world. The angles are chosen with such taste and subtlety that, like Renaissance art, the aesthetic of the games takes on a timeless quality. Like Renaissance art, even though the quality & the resolution of the images are surpassed in the years to come, the skill of the artists overcame those limitations to construct something truly spectacular.

Colour Palette

The colour palette is consistent throughout the whole game which ties everything together. There is green hue of sorts present in everything but every other colour reaches back to that green and references it like hearing the key in a piece of music. This is beautifully done in a way that allows focal point colours to standout and prevent ‘palette fatigue’ and becoming boring, unlike REmake; 4; & 5, in particular. The colour design is as if the whole game is a huge oil painting, where the artist chooses each colour carefully to keep the tone of the whole piece consistent. Even the unlockable costumes have that same tone (some of the HD Remaster costumes stray from this) so that even when Billy is running around looking like he just stepped out of GTA5 and Rebecca is in denim & cowboy boots it looks authentic: the costumes are unrealistic for the situation but still feel that they belong. Billy’s suit; Rebecca’s leather top; or her denim shorts are all the right hue, perfectly shaded or tinted to belong in the game whether you are in the train; the URC; or the water treatment facility.

The colours are saturated, rich, and full – particularly the reds & yellows – which makes blood & fire stand out but also gives warmth to the many elaborate carpets; paintings; and textured surfaces throughout the game.

Theme & Tone

Ø is unusual in the RE series because of its very Japanese horror. RE is, at its core, a Japanese studio copying American action-horror. Where American horror (films & games) tends toward a cycle of ‘tension; jump-scare; reprieve’, Japanese horror has a much longer cycle which focusses on constantly building pressure. Its overtly Japanese tone also explains its wackier story & villain – what’s more early 2000s Japanese game than a man, made of leeches, somehow singing opera and string instruments at the same time in order to send other leeches to attack a train?

Bar the train, which is almost comfortable and warm to mess with our expectations, everything drips with a depressed and macabre mood. The game becomes progressively grime & filth encrusted and, visually, there is no reprieve. This is enhanced by the film-like soundtrack, which is far more focussed on merging with this backgrounds & situations rather than a more ‘set-piece’ style of composing which has memorable melodies that we then associate with certain locations. Ø is a masterclass in atmosphere: audio & visual become a cohesive whole which directs you again and again to the grim situation Rebecca & Billy are in. The Umbrella Research Centre is a good example of this, where we move from a train crash site to a filthy sewer and then to the main hall with is foreboding score & tone; and then (after some exploring) down through the hidden corridor behind the painting; down again to rescue Rebecca; further down to the combat testing zone. There’s so much downward movement throughout the game it’s almost symbolic, like Silent Hill 2, only to rise out of it all on the elevator to the final boss encounter.

What certainly is symbolic is the beautiful way in which the game ends: Rebecca; having been rescued, protected, & carried by Billy, the man she sought to arrest; is given a thumbs up from him, as she gave to Bravo Team at the start of the game, before the camera pans out to show us the whole game & the Rebecca’s future in a single image – a fragile butterfly caught in a spider’s web.

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