Grave Gamer News & Views — resident evil 0

Shots from PAX Prime 2015

Leather-clad, super-powered insanity comes to Resident Evil 0′s ‘Wesker Mode’

One of my favorite treats added to this year’s Resident Evil HD Remastered was being able to tread through the Spencer Mansion wearing Jill and Chris’ BSAA garbs – a unit that supersedes S.T.A.R.S. in the games’ mythology. Yeah, it was a touch anachronistic playing as the duo’s future selves (Chris’ arm pythons and all) but it was a neat bonus.

This? This is fucking insane as far as bonuses go. And of course I love it.

Included in next year’s HD remastering of Resident Evil 0 is Wesker Mode, a run through of the prequel where Billy Cohen, Rebecca’s playable companion in the game, is replaced by Albert “Global Saturation” Wesker in all his sunglassed, Hell Bent for Leather glory. Even Becca, now sporting a stylish mind-control amulet on her chest, joins in on the leather-mommy fun.

This isn’t the weak ass, double-crossing Wesker from the original mansion incident, either. This is the bullet-timing, red hot coal-eyed Wesker as we know him from Resident Evil 5 –  a game where 70% of his appearances consisted of him using his cheetah speed to plant a knee in Chris Redfield’s gut, except playable.

His abilities are weird this go around, too. I don’t recall him being able to expel lighting out of his eyes like an enraged thunder god at any point in the series… but I also don’t recall anyone saying that he couldn’t. 

Resident Evil 0 is prime for digital download early 2016 across Microsoft and Sony’s current and last-gen consoles, as well as PC. But if you missed the sublime remake of the S.T.A.R.S. Team’s worst outing ever, January 16th sees the physical retail release of Resident Evil Origins Collection, a pairing of both REHD Remastered and Resident Evil 0 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Check out RE0′s Uruboros fueled ridiculousness below:

Resident Evil 0 Returns to Consoles in Early 2016

Following the surprise success of Resident Evil HD Remaster, Capcom has announced it’s going to keep the remaster gravy train, er, full of warm gravy? All right, that got away from me – Capcom announced yesterday that horror-laden prequel Resident Evil 0 is next up on the remaster docket and that’s just gravy (shit! What is wrong with me?).

First released on the little-loved little love machine, the Nintendo Gamecube, in 2002, RE0 follows the ill-begotton journey of S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team’s 19-year-old medic Rebecca Chambers. The prequel details Rebecca’s worst night ever (before her other worst night ever in the Spencer Estate) as she partners up with a stoic convict named Billy Cohen and unravels a mystery surrounding the very origins of the Umbrella Corporation itself. What it doesn’t unravel is why Becca wouldn’t fucking mention any of these events to her comrades the next day in Resident Evil, but whatever – that’s video games.

Staff members that worked on the game thirteen years ago are back to oversee the remastering – including original director Koji Oda. Here’s a fun video of him having a green herb throttled his way by producer Tsukasa Takenaka. It’s fantastically awkward, and much bowing ensues.

Though it beautifully evolves the high fidelity graphics first found in REmake, RE0 doesn’t rank high on my list of survival horror favorites. A hastily utilized character “zapping” system and obtuse inventory mechanics that made it too easy to lose integral items throughout the stages (sometimes for-fucking-ever – lookin’ at you, train sequence) turned this horror romp more grueling than gruesome.

Despite its flaws (no item boxes?! I don’t care if they’re physics bending magic, I love them!), Zero still earned the respect of Resident Evil fans and will likely satiate gamers looking for more survival horror than boulder-uppercutting horror.

Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster is set for a *long breath* PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC release in early 2016 *exhale*.