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"This was the first Resident Evil, which means it's old. But it's also extremely good."

The basis of Resident Evil was simple. Players would fill the shoes of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, young members of the Raccoon City special police squad S.T.A.R.S. A series of freak occurrences involving the S.T.A.R.S team would lead the chosen character to a (supposedly) deserted mansion, where a cluster of members they entered with would soon disappear with the rest already scattered across the grounds, dead or alive.

Of course, the mansion wouldn't be deserted. All sorts of biological mutations, rotting figures and lethal, clawed creatures would be there waiting for the player. This is what we call ''Survival Horror''; a game that delivers its scares while granting the player a limited amount of resources to complete their objective, throwing in a few taxing puzzles and, as the plot unravels, the player will find out just what or whom the initial incident leads back to. The game that launched one of Capcom's most critically acclaimed, best-selling and well-known series of games, Resident Evil, was among the first, and remains among the best, examples of this genre.

After you pick your victim (ahem) cop from the two available, you are treated to a brilliant sequence, in grainy black-and-white, with real actors not doing a lot of acting, that perfectly emulates the average, cheesy B-movie.

It's July 1998 (it's actually October 2003, but bear with me here) and the S.T.A.R.S Alpha team have been sent to the fictional Raccoon Forest, located on the outskirts of the fictional Raccoon City in the (probably, I'm not big on American geography) fictional Arklay Mountain Range, to investigate a series of sickly deaths, in which hikers, campers and the like have recently been ripped to shreds regularly by wolf-like creatures. A man's dog was never going to be his best friend when some unfortunate bloke had one of these things set on him. The Alpha team follow the Bravo team, who were sent in earlier but have not been heard from since they entered this very area.

The Alpha team is made up of six elite guys and gals: Joseph Frost, Barry Burton, Chris and Jill, who we know, Brad Vickers and Albert Wesker, the captain. They must be good, as not one of them is past the age of 40 and they have a ridiculous amount of experience between them: Delta Force, Air Force, SWAT Team, it goes on. The team are taken to the strike zone by helicopter, their mission being to locate the Bravo team and investigate the source of the attacks.

In the grassy area where they land, the Alpha team survey their surroundings, unaware there is a seventh pair of eyes hidden among the shrubs. Suddenly, Joseph sees a severed hand belonging to God-knows-who and squeals for help barely a moment before being mauled by the thing that the seventh pair of eyes belonged to. Brad, the pilot, who has been given the name ''Chickenheart'' by team-mates as he's a little coward (we all know the nickname could be considerably ruder, but I'll not elaborate), speeds off through the night sky leaving Wesker, Jill, Chris and Barry in deep, deep...swill. The remaining four members leg it to a nearby house.

Well, let's leave it there and not ruin the potential suspense any longer.

Resident Evil's gameplay is straightforward and effective. A few minutes after entering the mansion, you will find that you are not alone. The first enemy you'll see is a vile, flesh-eating zombie who will immediately lunge at either Chris or Jill, hoping to have fat, meaty brain sausages for tea, followed by a delicious pudding of small intestine glazed in stomach acid.

Neither of the two protagonists are particularly keen on becoming the main course or the dessert, so you must defend yourself or dodge the threat. Admittedly, the walking undead become rather unthreatening after you're used to them, as they're very sloooooooow and can be wiped out with a few well-placed rounds, sometimes even one if your Weapon of Mass Destruction is in a happy mood.

Zombies are not all that lurk behind the creaky mansion doors, however. More of the vicious Cerberus adversaries snoop about in the courtyard, while the occasional king-size snake, highly-smelly-but-highly-dangerous giant plant, ''Ultimate Bio-Weapon'' and terribly hungry shark (complete with sharp, auto-gnashing teeth accessories) await you in the later levels.

There are also what many players consider the toughest enemy in the entire series, the Resident Evil variation of the Hunter Alpha. These ruthless behemoths prowl around in place of many of the zombies in the latter half of the game, are virtually unstoppable in groups and enjoy slicing away at the feet of Jill and Chris, before backing up and yelling before taking away all evidence of a head our heroes once had. Pump a couple of shotgun shells into these beasts with your boomstick and they'll still be standing strong, awaiting your applause.

As well as living problems, there are also inanimate ones. While not as complex as some of the puzzles found in the later installments, the stuff on offer in Resident Evil (clearly set up by some insane, bespectacled old professor, but let's face it, the media has taught us that there is no other kind) at the rare times when a grotesque genetic mutant isn't gnawing at your ankles.

The Hunters, the lack of equipment at the beginning and the sheer rate at which the health of your character can plummet adds up to a solid challenge, making arguably the toughest Resident Evil game a nightmare for first-time players and perhaps a bit of a pickle for seasoned veterans. Even if you've completed the game multiple times, a slight slip of the finger could trigger the words ''GAME OVER'' in bold red lettering within seconds, accompanied by an image of Chris Redfield's headless torso looking very annoyed indeed, or a face so bloody Jill Valentine doesn't have time to complain about the state of Bob the Zombie's breath as she's already dead.

The choice of character affects the difficulty of the game hugely, as well. On your first time through you're advised to play as Jill: she has 8 item slots in which to carry whatever you've collected, Chris has a mere 6. It does make an unbelievable difference and will determine how many trips you'll make to the Magic Box. The Magic Box is a RE trademark; you dump anything in there you don't need, and whichever Box you want it from, anywhere in the mansion, it will be there. To make a rather poor example, you can be in a medical room on the first floor of the mansion, get rid of a then-useless key in the Magic Box then find yourself underground a few hours later and grab that very key from a completely different Magic Box. It's ingenious stuff.

Other factors include the available arsenal (Jill has it better than Chris, although Chris operates quicker and sharper with weaponry), vitality (Jill's a female, which in the common gaming world must make her not as resilient as the rough kind you wouldn't want to meet in a back alley. Therefore, the soft, smooth Jill may go down for good after two or three zombie bites while Chris can easily take double that before biting the dust), outside help (Barry assists Jill at every corner, not forgetting to take every possible opportunity to stare at her body in awe, while Chris's confused teenage medic friend Rebecca Chambers is slightly more useless) and starting weapon (the ill-equipped Chris starts off with a pathetic army knife but Jill has a Beretta pistol. We know what your game is, Burton. Put the opposition at a disadvantage so he'll get slaughtered and then take the grand prize for yourself, ooh boy).

An issue which puts people off this series is the controls. Don't be babies. They may take a while to gets used to - the directions move your character based on the direction in which they're looking - but a few minutes and any semi-intelligent being will crack it.

Any game made in the PlayStation's early days was never going to look perfect graphically. But if you pretend to be our good friend, the insane, bespectacled old professor, and conjure up a time machine, be sure to go back to the mid-nineties. You've arrived?

The backgrounds and locations in Resident Evil look stunning, eh? As an innocent boy all those years ago (I seem to remember being in single figures then, although I can't be sure), I felt intimidated more when I was in the large, glaring mansion hall than when a disgustingly unhygienic zombie was staring down a terrified Jill. Likewise, the effect created by the more narrow halls, with a lack of light or crimson hand prints covering the walls (looks like Rebecca was a little careless with her lipstick again) is quite eerie indeed. Another of my favourite chilling areas is a crow-infested balcony. You can see acres of forest sweeping the land, and wish the undeniably thick Chris would exercise his lack of common sense and leap over the rail to glory (and, quite possibly, a nasty bump on the chin).

The fault with the graphics is the characters. When Chris flexes his muscles, you can see gaps on his chest and bits of the sweaty, probably repulsive vest he wears over his shirt (if I was Wesker I'd fire the fellow for stinking out the S.T.A.R.S office, causing a mass suffocation and coffee spillage) disappear into thin air and only return when he starts to walk away, only this time you see a pixilated mess of a left leg. One also cannot expect Metal Gear Solid 2-esque shadows, but a circular shape at the foot of everyone's body could be improved upon!

Much has been made of the voice acting in Resident Evil. The acting has gotten progressively less irritating throughout the series (with the notable and deeply disturbing exception of Survivor), but here it's God-awful. There's a reason behind that, though: it's generally accepted that whoever belched out the hilarious Barry lines and worked through Wesker's scenes with nothing but an intention to be A Bit Sinister was told to do it that way. Yes, the ''Semi-Homage/Semi-Send-Up Of B-Movies Theory'' (as I like to call it) sounds just about right. You'll notice that in the closing credits every actor is referred to by one Christian name. I remember saying on a message board once that if I were that bad an actor, I'd seriously consider using some sort of a pseudonym, which is not particularly witty and borders on stating the obvious.

The music and SFX are top-notch in every way. Capcom have often enjoyed sadistically manipulating us throughout the series with the use of sound, and Resident Evil shows you the origins, with a heart attack-inducing scene involving a pair of dogs smashing through windows. That was far from condemning the sound though; rather complimenting it. Anything else that's commonplace in the world of RE, such as shotgun blasts, handgun pops and magnum bullets shooting through the air are handled very well, and, as in any game that involves death, us, the players, like to hear spine-tingling sounds from the good and the bad; Jill's screams, Chris's yells, the cry of the Hunters and the growl of the dogs are memorable, but the classic sound of groaning, pitiful zombies scurrying about really is top of the shop.

The music itself is excellent. The main instrumental theme for the mansion haunts you as you open every door, but it may suddenly change to a quick tune, which signifies that something big is about to happen or just has. When the mansion becomes a Hunter Fest later on, the music in the mansion has the same base structure as it did before, but there is more emphasis on the strings, it seems, so a small change makes a piece we've heard a thousand time before seem like a totally new experience. This alternately beautiful and terrifying approach makes the music in Resident Evil one of its strongest points.

The replayability of Resident Evil is fairly high, with both of the missions to play (I beat Jill's in a few days with only a few Game Overs, while Chris's is definitely a toughie in comparison and takes much longer for me) and a Special Key to unlock for both S.T.A.R.S members, you have to ''Close The Case Completely'' to get it (I'll leave that one up to you); this sparkly thing gives you a change of clothes in the mansion wardrobe. For players that can finish either mission in less than three hours, there will be a rocket launcher with infinite ammo waiting in their inventory next time round. The 'launcher wipes almost anything off the map in a single shot. However, it kills the challenge and is a slight cheat, too, so use it for fun games only.

Apart from that, there are the various ''Challenge'' games fans have thought up over the years: completing Jill's mission within 90 minutes, beating the game with a knife only, etc. Try them.

In conclusion, I should tell you this legendary survival horror game is going to be a bargain if found, and should be well worth your money. The £5.99 I paid for mine used is well under $10 US, and I have gotten hours of entertainment out of it. If and when you do make a purchase, I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as I have enjoyed writing about it. Well, maybe not. You'd have a dull time-filler on your hands.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/03