Retro Corner: Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PS1) Review · 5:57am Oct 11th, 2019
A new edition of Retro Corner is up, and we check out a first entry game to what put the survivor horror genre into popularity. The Original Resident Evil is frequently touted for its infamous dialogue and where the horror genre became popular in gaming. Of course, this didn’t start with RE as games prior to 1996 were already out doing just that. If you recall, I did a review on the original Alone in the Dark for PC two years ago. Unfortunately, not many gamers know a trilogy of that series existed in the 90s nor do they realize the second title got ported to the PS1. In fact, this goes back to a game Capcom made in 1989 called Sweet Home for the NES. Sweet Home never saw a release outside of Japan because of localization issues. However, where do you think Capcom got the idea? It was from both Alone in the Dark and Sweet Home that gave the studio the concept they needed for inspiration.
Now, due to me reviewing RE1, I am including a PS1 section because of how many survivor horror titles this system has. I can’t think of a better list to review then from this console’s backlog of horror theme titles. RE1 really took the genre in the right direction where Alone in the Dark failed to do. The inaugural game improved the controls and concepts of traps and enemies better than what AITD could ever do. I remember how many people would make this series a noteworthy name to other major hits on PS1 in the 90s. I weren’t be surprised if this jump-started the zombie crazy again since they weren’t any serious stories with them in that decade. The first entry used the perfect environment of a mansion to give gamers that classic horror feeling. It really was a great way to start the series as Capcom would return to this same concept occasionally.
