Over the last week i dusted down the cube and began my series playthrough leading up until RE5 and decided to go through them in story order.

First off, i think this game has been harshly treated. Yes it is certainly not perfect, the controls and partner zapping is awkard, the lack of item boxes hurts and the plot and dialogue is laughable in places however they are plenty of excellent moments, and with the big debate right now about the series switching from survival horror to action horror, it was refreshing to play an 'old school' resident evil title.

The train section is top notch, you feel confined and restricted, is Billy Coen gonna sneak up behind u and snap ur neck? The rain splattering against the windows, all the passengers dead.
The train starts up, you feel genuine panic as you head off into the unknown, realising that Enrico and the others have been left behind. You form an uneasy alliance with Coen, and the adrenaline rises as you race to stop the train from crashing.
The pace then slows down as you investigate the Training Facility. I believe this is one of the most atmospheric sections of any Resident Evil games. The pre-rendered backgrounds are gorgeous, and arguably suppass those of Remake in some places. The building really does feel like an old relic.
Ammo is scarce, the atmosphere unnerving as back in Raccoon City, Wesker and Birkin monitor your progress. Documents tease about the history of Umbrella, the creation of the T-Virus and the conspiracy that surrounds the late Dr Marcus.
Not to mention that this is one of the harder games in the series. It took me 6 saves and 6 hours to clock it, though i was so low on ammo by the end i had to backtrack almost right through the entire game to pick up precious little ammo caches i had missed.
Finally, the queen leech fell and i said my goodbyes to Billy. I wonder if he will pop up again sometime? For now, i head towards the mansion that Enrico was talking about...I wonder if the others are still alive?

I urge those of you who read this to give this game another chance, now onto the Remake...

I edited the title of the thread so it fits along with the other playthrough threads, do the same for REmake if you like.

I will be here with my impressions when I get around to this game... which I dont want to play really but I'll force myself to.

So much hatred. Trust me, after playing through it again seven years later I guarantee you will find new love for the game. For one, it is the last big budget classic title and while most of us love Biohazard 4, you've got to miss the old engine. Not to mention a great musical score and Rebirth-like visuals.

You'll see, haha. Can't wait to hear your impressions.

I finished this game not too long ago and I enjoyed it very much. I would agree that this game looks as good as the REmake. The train section was excellent, although I felt it was rather short. I found this game to be quite challenging. During my first playthrough I used all Shotgun Ammo and all six Grenade Launcher rounds on the game's second boss to no avail. Also, as Yama stated, the musical score is also very good and does a fantastic job at establishing a mood.

You know every time I play it I enjoy it just fine. I dont think its a bad RE game at all, its pretty good. Its significance of that game to me that always brings me down. That was the game in which I realized I was bored of the formula. It almost pained me to admit it. I felt nothing the first time I played Zero, it was a hollow experience for me, that never happend with me and a true RE game. It was the lowest point of the series for me. I have all these great memories of all the other RE games but when it comes to Zero I just feel disappointment.

I've always loved RE0.

The main reason is because it was my first Resident Evil so I guess at the time I had no other RE game to compare it to besides RE2.

I beat it again just last month after about 2 years of not touching the game and it still hits me the same way.

Ok, time to continue this playthrough and play this game. First some backstory.

Lets go back 2002, REmake was released and was an excellent game but for me personally something about it just didn't click with me like previous RE games. Maybe it was cause it wasn't a new story, or maybe the formula was just getting way to predictable. A few months later RE Zero was going to hit and I told myself that I would like this one much more cause its a brand new fresh RE game. I got myself worked up as I always do, got all ready for a brand new RE game, woo!

And then I played it. This is the story of how the T-Virus was released, seriously, this is what they come up with. The train part was cool but soon I was wondering what in the hell is up with the story, we have this guy that looks like a FF reject. We have the two most worthless main characters in any RE game (sorry Rebecca fans). Bravo team was practically nowhere to be found, i thought this was going to be their story.

Instead we got this game that had a place that was like the mansion. A place that was like the plant in RE3. A place that was the tram in RE2. The game had no identity at all, besides the train, it was like glued recycled pieces of previous RE games. Then there were the gameplay changes which made everything worse. No item boxes, sweet idea right... wrong, now I have to drop everything in a central room. Two people, eh, didn't really add anything at all.

Is it a horrible game, no, its just a game that goes through the motions and offers us nothing. By the end of RE Zero I found myself lost, my love for this type of formula was over, Zero crossed the boundary of being stale. It was time for a change, this series was going nowhere... thankfully Mikami saved it all. Which would lead us to RE4.

But first I revist this game. Even though I have some hatred for what this game stood for, as I explained above, the actual game itself is fine. Everytime I replay it I find that I do have a good time, its still a type of game I love, when I replay it there is no emotional attachement, I just play it for what it is and thats a decent game in the series. I bet my impressions below will be more positive than my feelings above.

And I will start now... be back later.

Resident Evil Zero - The Train

Started the game, intro movie of train being attacked. Bravo team lands, random truck turned over and now there is a fugitive on the loose. Becky enters the train, zombies (she doesn't seem so surprised, then again no one in RE is ever that shocked). So you wander the train, shoot some zombies and meet up with Billy. At one point that new STARS dude bursts through the window, totally forgot about that, talks about monsters all over the woods. A few moments later you get a radio from Enrico talking about how dangerous Billy is, wtf dude, the woods are crawling with mutant monsters, who cares about the escaped convict!!

You team up with Billy and start the whole co-op thing. There are those scenes where you climb to the outside of the train, while its moving in the rain, beautiful shots. But am I crazy or in general are the backgrounds not as good as REmake, hell when I fought the dogs their animation and models didn't look as nice. Also why remove crimson heads and defense items, I'm not a fan of how Crimson heads are made but I love them as an enemy, defense items were great. It almost seems like Zero was made first, then REmake and they got released backwards.

So the train starts moving after you see this opera singing dude in a white robe standing on a hill. You get spilt up, I had Billy end up stuck in the room needing the pick to get out. How do you get him out well you have to use the item dolley thingy. First put the key in the dolley, send it down, load, open it up, get the item, run across the whole train to get the pick and eventually put it in, to raise it up, to get it to your partner... not fun.

At least getting the pick is great cause it gives us the first boss fight of the game, the really well done giant scorpion fight. This is the way to start a game, big boss fight right at the start, and its a rather good one too. So I killed it and freed Billy. There is just to much running back and forth on this little train, I like the uniqueness of the location but its to much running back and forth. To stop the train you got to split up again, one has to go all the way to the other side of the train, at least there is a timer and awesome timer music. Ha, the STARS dude is a zombie, dont remember that. There is the cutscene with Wesker and Birkin, yes needs more of this. So once the characters are in place you have some simple math puzzle to do and thats the end of that part of the game.

There is a cutscene revealing Marcus to Wesker, I love what is said. Young Marcus says he is going to get revenge on Umbrella and then proceeds to sing to Wesker and Birkin, its so stupid. So the train wasn't even as good as I thought it was, already too much running back and forth, the co-op "puzzles" seem to make things more time consuming rather than offering any real puzzle to solve.

Next is the training facility.

Resident Evil 0 - Training facility

Well what do you know, I am really enjoying myself now. The training facility is a really well done central hub area. The good thing about playing Zero is that I dont remember much about it so everytime I do play it its almost like playing a RE game for the first time. And true to form, i lost myself in this central location, I forgot which paths to take, or items to find in order, I just played the game mostly fresh and enjoyed it a lot. Its got a nice progression it to it, it slowly opens up in managable pieces. I also really like the music in this place.

But there are still issues that keep coming into play. Zero is still a well made and designed RE game, its just the choice for two characters and no item boxes do hurt. I choose to use the central hall as my item box, its where I store all the items I dont need. Problem is, say I do need something, I always have to run back to that same location, at least the game tries to keep everything close and connected. Then there is the two character aspect, I find myself constantly using one character rather than two cause with two I cant evade enemies efficiently. When I got to charatcers I can run around enemies just fine but my partner will probably get caught as a result, its annoying. So I usually choose Billy, tell rebecca to stay back and scout ahead. Problem is so many times I need Rebecca, I need extra slots or whatever so I end up running through the same areas twice, once with Billy, then once with Rebecca, I see twice the amount of load screens. During most boss fights the game forces you to use one character cause it knows that fighting enemies with two is usually a mess.

If they had not gone down that route, say this was a totally traditional RE game it would be right up there with any of the games. Its a lot more RE1 than any of the others I would say and I think having REmake come out right before this game hurt it, cause it was like two similar RE games at the same time.

Anyway back to what I enjoyed about it, the formula is still intact so I am still finding my way through these labryinthian areas solving puzzles and killing enemies. The puzzles are good so far, it might make use of the two player dynamic a little to much, like its usually one character stay back while one goes ahead and then both have to do something.

In the facility there are mostly zombies but also those damn insect things, man they are creepy. Of course leechman, ugh I hate this enemy, I find it annoying. The bosses are great though, funny thing happend with the centipede boss. Rebecca had most of the ammo when she got caught so I had to fight the creature with a grenade launcher (6 rounds) and a handgun with just 10 bullets. I emptied all I had, nothing, I had no knife, so I had to run out of the room, get to the central hall and pick up the hunting rifle, run back, magically rebecca was still alive and I managed to kill the thing with one shot, PHEW.

The game started off cutscene heavy but once you reach this location it really lets you go. It wasn't until you get to the basement when you get a new cutscene. As much as I dont care about the addition of Marcus to the storyline i love that this game explores the origins of Wesker and Birkin. Once in the basement there is the eliminator encounter where you have to save Rebecca, again I love it when action music comes on and there is some goal to reach. These damn monkeys are like wimpy hunters, but damn are they fast. While in the basement there is that gun room where there was a battle arena set up. Hunters!! I love this part, it shows the functionality of the location, many times in RE you have to suspend belief cause the rooms and the stuff in them dont make any sense, but this fits. Its a place where they tested Hunters combat ability from a window above and manipulated cages and such. Great part of the game.

So I got all the tablets and rotated the observatory and made it to the church. I remembered to bring the hookshot this time, I swear every time I play I forget that thing at the train. So I used Billy to go into the church and bat boss fight. Another awesome boss fight, thats 3 for 3. I got annoyed at the little bats cause they kept getting in my shot, I wasted so much grenade ammo.

I stopped when I took the elevator down to that library area. I never have good memories of this place, I think its cause its filled with leech guys, meh. I dont like the motolov cocktail as a weapon and its easily the best one to use against them, it just makes for a messy fight. I dont enjoy fighting them like I do other enemies.

Overall I am liking it a lot, but then again I said I would, this always happens. I always enjoy myself when I play it but when I finish I just forget about it, its good just not memorable.

I really enjoy this game. It's a great way to learn a bit more about Wesker and Birkin's background. I'll be honest, they were the reasons why I bought the game in the first place, lol.

Gameplay wise, I don't really have any complaints, other than the AI for your partner character can be sluggish at times. My partner usually just stands there if you get bitten or captured by a BOW.

Puzzles were pretty enjoyable, except the one where you had to get the valve handle. Lol, I screwed that up so many times.

The only thing I didn't really like was the leech hunter minigame. It was fun, but I think it would've been neat to see Wesker & Birkin be playable in the scenerio.