In life, there are people and/or things that you yourself may really like but are generally looked down upon by the majority of others. Think of Ed from Shaun of the Dead. Shaun has to constantly defend his best pal to others throughout the film, and Ed doesn’t exactly make it easy either. This is week’s Retro Respawn has this dynamic. It is a game I really enjoy that I constantly have to defend, and like Ed, it doesn’t make it easy for me when people point out the game’s (many) flaws. So please, grab a drink and read on whilst I (attempt to) defend Resident Evil Survivor.
Development and History
Capcom’s Resident Evil had ruled the late 90s with the original Resident Evil trilogy. The next “mainline” game, Code: Veronica, was announced in 1998 for the Sega Dreamcast. With the PlayStation 2 release not far away, it made no sense for Capcom to work on a mainline Resident Evil game for the PS1. The hype around the franchise was still at fever pitch after the release of Resident Evil 3, so it did make sense to release a Resident Evil game. Enter: Resident Evil Survivor.
Tose Software were brought in to develop the game, and with their recent history with light gun games (the studio developed Point Blank 1&2) the idea was to create a light gun title set in the Resident Evil franchise. To keep costs low, and to save time to get Resident Evil Survivor released sooner rather than later, various assets from Resident Evil 2 were just copied into the game. Zombies, zombie dogs, T-00 (Mr. X), lickers, and others. Prior to release, Capcom removed all light gun support for Resident Evil Survivor in the United States due to the Columbine Massacre, which occurred in April 1999. Light gun support remained for the Japanese and PAL releases. The story was also outsourced by Capcom, with Flagship penning the plot.
Story
Taking place after the destruction of Racoon City, a helicopter crashes on the outskirts of another Umbrella-controlled town (albeit, much smaller than Racoon City) on Sheena Island. You play as the pilot who escapes from the crash, but would you believe you’ve lost your memory? Not long after dusting yourself off, you come face to face with some zombies due to a T-virus outbreak on the island. Needing to escape the island, you learn you are, in fact, the person responsible for the outbreak on the island, Vincent Goldman.
During Vincent’s adventure on Sheena Island, you’ll find two children whose parents work for Umbrella. Knowing they all need to escape and desperate to redeem himself, Vincent goes to rescue one of the children who runs away. There is more to the story, but I don’t want to spoil it. Spoil a 26-year-old game, I hear you groan? Well, in my experience when talking to people about Resident Evil Survivor, the vast majority of those people have never played it. They attribute the overall bad opinion of the game as to why they have avoided it. My hope, after reading this piece, is that you, dear reader, will go try the game for yourself, so yes, I don’t want to spoil the story for you.
Gameplay
Resident Evil Survivor is a first-person (sort of) shooter. It was designed to work with a light gun, but it can also be played with a controller. Tank controls return, and with, you know, playing from a first-person perspective, it does take a little while to get used to. Shooting works the same way (controller-wise, anyway) as the previous games. You will have to press “R1” to “bring” your gun up and then press “X” to fire. You do not see your gun on-screen, but you do see crosshairs appear on the screen, which you aim with. This shooting mechanic, and the fact you get infinite ammo for your pistol, moves Resident Evil Survivor away from the survival horror aspect of the franchise.
Other aspects from previous Resident Evil games missing in Survivor are puzzles, save rooms and inventory management. The only “puzzles” you’ll face are “finding a key for a door”, and the keys are usually in the next room. Saving is only an option when you die, and you’ll keep your items but go back to the beginning of the game, which I know sounds awful, but trust me, it’s not the massive deal it seems to be. Whilst traversing Sheena Island, you will be given choices on where to go, which does affect the plot.
In Defence of…
Okay. Now I get to try and sell Resident Evil Survivor to you. It is by no means a perfect game. The flaws are numerous (not a great start), and comparing it to what came before, it’s almost laughable. But this is something you shouldn’t do. Comparing this to the original Resident Evil games is a bit like comparing a Rustlers burger to a burger made by Gordon Ramsey. Resident Evil Survivor is enjoyable as long as you just take it for what it is.
This might be nostalgia bias coming in, but experiencing Resident Evil from a first-person perspective for the first time was mind-blowing. Obviously, that isn’t the case now with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Village, and Requiem, but in 2000, it was huge.
Survivor can be “completed” in just over an hour, which is why the “starting over from the beginning after dying” mechanic isn’t that big of a deal. The extremely short length of the campaign is due to the branching paths. Taking a different path each time will introduce you to different enemies, additional weapons, and it can affect the game’s ending. Survivor was never made to be a game where you spend 10-plus hours doing one playthrough. It encourages you to play it again. Last week we discussed in our Retro Respawn feature on Turning Point: Fall of Liberty that going back and playing older games that were criticised for their short length at the time can be a positive experience now. Got a spare hour? You could plug away at that game you have already sunk 100 hours into, or you can boot up Survivor and shoot zombies.
Survivor’s plot is one aspect of Resident Evil that Survivor does utilise, and it is a real highlight. The overall story (remember, no spoilers here) is entertaining, but much like all the other Resident Evil games, it is the files that really add to the story. We all know Umbrella is bad, but you learn from reading these files that they are really, really bad. The voice acting is hilariously bad, but it adds to the charm, and come on, be honest, was the voice acting in any early Resident Evil game actually good? It is that level of bad that it becomes entertaining; see any Steven Seagal movie.
One aspect that Survivor absolutely nails is the atmosphere. It may not be a true “horror” game, but Survivor has a fair few creepy moments. The first time you see “Mr. X”, you load into an area, and he appears at the end of a street, walking slowly towards you. It truly will make you nervous, and speaking of, you hear the lickers before you see them, which again, will raise the old heart rate.
The gameplay itself is enjoyable, but remember, it is designed to really only be played for an hour at a time. I enjoy Tetris, but I wouldn’t play it for hours on end. Survivor in short bursts is a blast. Shooting zombies in the head had never felt better until the release of Resident Evil 4. Yes, I know they aren’t zombies, but you get my point. You will also come up against two great, brand new enemy types in Survivor, a “Hypnos Tyrant” and the “UT Troopers”, which are up there as my favourite enemies in the franchise because of how utterly bonkers they are. They are a soldiers from Umbrella’s private armed forces that look a bit like apes, do random forward rolls, and dissolve when they die. Pure Resident Evil nonsense, and I absolutely love it.
The Bad
There are obviously many, many (many) issues with Resident Evil Survivor. It is something you can tell was rushed out to release (the literal copy and pasting of assets) to try and get some extra revenue in from the last days of the PS1. It is about as challenging as clicking your fingers and takes just as long to complete. It looks a bit odd as those copied and pasted assets were never meant to be seen from a first-person perspective, and the music is jarring more than memorable. I think I have done a fair job throughout this piece to show that Resident Evil Survivor is by no means perfect, so I don’t really want to dwell too much on all the negatives here.
Worth the Modern Price?
In short, no. Resident Evil Survivor is between £40 to £50 on eBay. As much as I enjoy this game, there is no way I could recommend spending that much money to get it. If you can find it in a charity/thrift store for under £10, then I 100% recommend it. If you already own it, and it’s been thrown into a cupboard or drawer, spend the time (which I imagine will be longer than playing it) to find it. I’ll leave you with this: Resident Evil Survivor is crap, but it is enjoyable crap, like a hot dog.
