Resident Evil 0 was better than I remember…
So I recently finished Resident Evil 0, and it was honestly a lot better than I remember it to be.
I haven’t played this game since its Gamecube launch. I still have my Gamecube copy infact.
Part of my motivation for revisiting Resident Evil 0 was Resident Evil 9. With RE9 out, plus the new Generation Pack releases, I’ve been in the mood to revisit the series. I picked up Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 0, and then also grabbed Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 - that latter of which I’m a little cautious about because I’m not really an “action Resident Evil” fan. I much prefer classic survival horror Resident Evil myself.
And Resident Evil 0 definitely scratches that old-school itch. Here are some key takeaways from this latest playthrough:
The Character Swapping System Is Fine Actually
One thing I realized pretty quickly is that I actually didn’t mind the two-character swapping system at all.
I understand why people dislike the lack of item boxes. That criticism makes sense. But personally, it never ruined the game for me the way it seems to for some people online.
In fact, I actually like parts of the inventory system. Being able to drop items anywhere and swap between characters freely is pretty convenient in its own way. The problem is that the game probably should’ve combined that system with a limited number of traditional item boxes.
I think the perfect middle ground would’ve been placing maybe three item boxes throughout the game:
One near the training facility typewriter
One in the underground laboratory section
One near the final save area late in the game
That alone probably would’ve solved most people’s frustrations.
The interesting thing is that the game does eventually open up shortcuts and loops back on itself in a pretty smart way. For example, I had to run all the way back to retrieve the hookshot at one point, which was annoying—but then I realized there’s actually a shortcut elevator that reconnects a huge portion of the map. Once the game opens up, backtracking becomes much faster than people make it sound.
Now don’t get me wrong—it’s still annoying sometimes. But for me, it never crossed over into “game ruining” territory.
The Enemies Are the Worst Part of the Game
One of my biggest issues with Resident Evil Zero are the enemies.
I really did not enjoy fighting a lot of them.
Leech Man in particular was incredibly annoying. I understand he’s vulnerable to fire, but the animations for using Molotov cocktails are painfully slow. Your character has this long wind-up animation before throwing the bottle, and meanwhile Leech Man is stretching his ridiculous tentacle arms halfway across the room smacking you before the attack animation even finishes.
It just feels clunky.
And then there are some of the other enemies:
The giant frogs
The Eliminators (those horrible little white monkeys that hop all over the place)
The leech creatures
A lot of them just feel designed around frustrating the player rather than enhancing the survival horror atmosphere.
And because the game still uses tank controls with pre-rendered backgrounds, aiming at these nimble enemies can feel really awkward at times. The slower combat animations don’t help either. Sometimes it feels less like tension and more like the game is fighting against you mechanically.
That’s definitely my biggest criticism of the game.
The Pre-Rendered Backgrounds Are Gorgeous
One thing that really surprised me replaying this right after Resident Evil Remake was just how much better the pre-rendered backgrounds look in Zero.
Seriously.
The environments here are gorgeous. A lot of the backgrounds have incredibly fluid animation work that almost looks like FMV at times. Some of it probably is FMV layered into the environments, while other scenes just have extremely convincing animated effects.
Either way, the visual presentation holds up remarkably well.
Ironically, replaying Remake in HD made some of its older static backgrounds feel a little rougher than I remembered. On CRT displays back in the day, they looked incredible. But at modern resolutions, some areas show their age more than I expected.
Resident Evil Zero, meanwhile, consistently impressed me visually. The environments have a richness and motion to them that really elevates the atmosphere.
It’s honestly a really nice-looking game.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, I enjoyed Resident Evil Zero quite a bit.
If you’re a fan of classic survival horror Resident Evil - i.e. the tank controls, the slower pacing, the puzzle-solving, the pre-rendered backgrounds - I think there’s a lot to appreciate here.
Yes, the inventory system can be annoying.
Yes, some enemies are absolutely obnoxious.
And yes, the game could’ve benefited from a hybrid item-box system.
But despite those issues, I still think it’s a solid entry in the series.
It feels very much like classic Resident Evil, and after replaying it, I think its reputation is a little harsher than it deserves.
Now onto Resident Evil 5… which should be interesting considering how much I prefer survival horror over action horror.
We’ll see how that goes.