STACK #242 December 2024

GAMING FEATURE

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Going for Gold

The new Gold edition of Resident Evil 7 Biohazard includes the full game, volumes one and two of the Banned Footage DLC, the

End of Zoe epilogue episode, and the free Not a Hero DLC.

21st century 2002 was big, with prequel game Resident Evil Zero released , and a movie finally hitting the world’s screens, starring Milla Jovovich as new character Alice. Critics didn’t like it, but fans sure did, with it grossing over US$100 million, and spawning six sequels and counting. That’s on top of five CGI movies. Eager to harness the online capabilities of the PlayStation 2, 2003 saw Capcom release the first multiplayer RE in Outbreak . It was so successful that it spawned an add-on the following year, before Resident Evil 4 ‘s arrival on GameCube in 2005. Let’s waggle! Like most developers, Capcom couldn’t resist the Wii’s pull, and rail shooter The Umbrella Chronicles had us waggling in 2007. It would be two years until the next main handheld, core series fans were rewarded in 2012 with Resident Evil 6 , again initially on PS3 and Xbox One. It took 600-plus people to make it, yet it received mixed reviews as it was more shooter than survival horror. Those who missed the series’ scarier roots were thrown a bone in 2015, with the episodic Resident Evil Revelations 2 . Seventh heaven It would be 2017 when RE returned with a major new release, with survival horror at the fore in first-person experience Resident Evil 7 Biohazard – or Biohazard 7: Resident Evil in Japan. 2021 then saw the arrival of Resident Evil Village , with RE7 ’s Ethan returning as protagonist. It saw him whisked away to a strange European village in order to rescue his daughter, but naturally – or supernaturally – it wasn’t an easy task… game, Resident Evil 5 , landed, this time debuting on PS3 and Xbox 360. A wobble After a dalliance with Nintendo’s 3DS

PS5 Resident Evil fans are in for a treat this month with new physical releases of the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 , plus a Gold edition of Resident Evil 7 Biohazard from Capcom’s long running and super-popular series.To celebrate, we take a quick look back at 28 years of Resident Evil. Words Amy Flower

Beginnings The gestation of the first Resident Evil – or Biohazard in its native Japan – dates back to 1989, and the game Sweet Home . Released for Nintendo’s Family Computer (aka the NES), and never westernised, it was created by Capcom’s Tokuro Fujiwara and based on a horror film. Arguably the first survival horror game was born. In 1993, Fujiwara tasked his crew with creating a new game, incorporating elements from Sweet Home . Come 1996, the initial Resident Evil was unleashed, first on PlayStation, and subsequently on SEGA’s Saturn. Its tale of a group of mid-western Americans battling evil pharmaceutical giant the Umbrella Corporation resonated, and a sequel was quickly locked into development. A sequel January of 1998 gave us Resident Evil 2 , again on PlayStation, with other formats following as the game’s reputation grew. Set just two months after the original outing’s events, players were tasked with getting protagonists Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy the heck out of Raccoon City, as a pharmaceutically fuelled zombie outbreak overran the place. Movie moves Meanwhile, a year earlier, prescient German company Constantin Films purchased the movie rights to Resident Evil . Horror maestro George A. Romero was brought in to both direct and write a script, but sadly this never eventuated. Third time’s a charmer Just a year after the second game’s arrival, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was unleashed, again initially on PlayStation. It was set alongside

events of RE2 , focusing on Jill Valentine and the titular Nemesis – a creature that relentlessly pursues Valentine throughout the game, much like the Terminator in the movie T2: Judgment Day .

• Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Gold are out this month on PS5

A growing family From here, the Resident Evil family tree branches out, with several spinoffs and the numerical sequence becoming clouded – for example, recent release Village may be codenamed with an eight, yet it’s considered to be the 12th main series entry. The spinoffs included everything from action oriented Game Boy Colour outing Resident Evil Gaiden to light gun shooters such as Resident Evil Survivor and Resident Evil Survivor 2 - Code: Veronica , the latter of which hit both PS2 and the arcades. Its name came from a main series game that was initially a Dreamcast exclusive.

Remaking two legends Much work went into making the PS5 remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 special. It involved porting them to Capcom’s RE Engine, which allowed the visuals to be brought bang up to date, including ray tracing, plus the addition of immersive 3D audio, and support for the DualSense controller’s features.

52 DECEMBER 2024

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