Resident Evil (1996)

Resident Evil is a 1996 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the PlayStation. It is the first title in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Players control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, members of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S., who must escape a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters.
Conceived by producer Tokuro Fujiwara as a remake of his earlier horror game Sweet Home (1989), the development of Resident Evil was led by Shinji Mikami. It went through several redesigns, first as Super NES game in 1993, then a fully 3D first-person PlayStation game in 1994 and finally a third-person game. Gameplay consists of action, exploration, puzzle solving and inventory management. Resident Evil establishes many conventions seen later in the series, including the control scheme, inventory system, save system, and use of 3D models superimposed over pre-rendered backgrounds.
Resident Evil was praised for its graphics, gameplay, sound, and atmosphere, although it received criticism for its voice acting. It was an international best-seller, and became the best-selling PlayStation game ever at the time. By December 1997, it had sold about 4 million copies worldwide and had grossed more than $200,000,000 (equivalent to $346,000,000 in 2021).
Resident Evil is often cited as one of the most influential and greatest video games. It is credited with defining the survival horror genre and with returning zombies to popular culture, leading to a renewed interest in zombie films by the 2000s. It created a franchise including video games, films, comics, novels, and other merchandise. It has been ported to Sega Saturn, Windows and Nintendo DS. In 2002, a Resident Evil remake was released for the GameCube and ported to other platforms in 2015. A sequel, Resident Evil 2, was released in 1998, and a prequel, Resident Evil Zero, in 2002.
== Gameplay ==
The player's character is a member of a special law enforcement task force who is trapped in a mansion populated by dangerous mutated creatures. The objective of the game is to uncover the mystery of the mansion and ultimately escape alive. The game's graphics consist of real-time 3D polygonal characters and objects, superimposed over pre-rendered backdrops with fixed camera angles. The player controls the character by pushing the D-pad or analog stick left or right to rotate the character and then move the character forward or backwards by pushing the D-pad up or down (tank controls).
Players choose between two characters, Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, each with their own unique differential abilities. Jill has more firepower and possesses a lock-pick that enables her to access areas and items easily, as well as an inventory large enough to hold up to eight items, while Chris has limited firepower but is more durable in terms of taking damage from enemies, and a smaller inventory that can hold only six items.
To fulfill the game's objective, the player uncovers various documents that provide exposition about the game's narrative, as well as clues that help them solve various puzzles within the mansion. Key items are also available that give the player access to other items or new areas. The player can arm their character with weapons to defend themselves from enemies, although the ammunition available for each firearm is limited and the player must learn to conserve the ammunition they have for situations where they will really need it. To restore the character's health, the player uses first-aid sprays or three types of healing herbs that can be mixed together in different combinations for different healing effects. The carrying capacity of the player is limited depending on the character and items that the player does not wish to carry at the moment can be stored into an item box to be retrieved for later use. To save their progress, the player must pick up an ink ribbon and use it on any of the typewriters scattered through key locations in the game. However, the supply of ink ribbons the player can acquire is limited, much like the player's ammunition and healing supplies. Players will encounter and fight various infected creatures such as flesh-eating zombies and zombie dogs, giant spiders, sharks, and other monsters. The player character is assisted by another character (Rebecca Chambers or Barry Burton) throughout the game.
== Plot ==
On July 24, 1998, when a series of bizarre murders occur on the outskirts of the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City, the Raccoon City Police Department's S.T.A.R.S. team are assigned to investigate. After contact with Bravo Team is lost, Alpha Team is sent to investigate their disappearance. Alpha Team locates Bravo Team's crashed helicopter and land at the site, where they are suddenly attacked by a pack of monstrous dogs. After Alpha Team's helicopter pilot, Brad Vickers, panics and takes off alone, the remaining members of the team — Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, and Barry Burton — are forced to seek refuge in a nearby abandoned mansion. Depending on which character the player chooses to assume control of (Chris or Jill), either Barry or Chris are separated from the rest of the team during the chase and do not make it to the mansion. The team decides to investigate the mansion to search for their missing team member.
As the team members explore the mansion, they encounter dangerous creatures roaming its halls. The player character eventually learns that a series of illegal experiments were being undertaken by a clandestine research team under the supervision of biomedical company Umbrella Corporation. The creatures roaming the mansion and its surrounding areas are the results of these experiments, which have exposed the mansion's personnel and various animals and insects to a highly contagious and mutagenic biological agent known as the T-virus. The player character may also encounter several members of Bravo Team, including Enrico Marini, who reveals that one of Alpha Team's members is a traitor before being shot and killed by an unseen assailant.
Eventually, the player character discovers a secret underground laboratory containing Umbrella's experiments. In the lab, the player encounters Wesker, who reveals that he is a double agent working for Umbrella, and plans to use the Tyrant, a giant humanoid supersoldier, to kill the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members. However, in the ensuing confrontation, Wesker is supposedly killed, and the player character defeats the Tyrant. After activating the lab's self-destruct system, the player character reaches the heliport and manages to contact Brad for extraction, at which point the player may be confronted by Tyrant one last time.
The game features multiple endings depending on the player's actions at key points over the course of the game. The best ending sees that the player character saves their partner (Rebecca Chambers for Chris's campaign, and Barry for Jill's campaign) as well as a team member imprisoned in the lab (Jill for Chris's campaign, and vice versa). If at least the partner survives, the Tyrant is defeated and the mansion destroyed, otherwise the mansion remains intact and the Tyrant remains loose in the forest if the partner or team member is left to permanently die.
== Development ==
=== Design ===
Resident Evil was created by a team of staff members who would later become part of Capcom Production Studio 4. The inspiration for Resident Evil was the earlier Capcom horror game Sweet Home (1989). Shinji Mikami was commissioned to make a game set in a haunted mansion like Sweet Home, and early on, the game was intended to be a remake of Sweet Home. The project was proposed by Sweet Home creator Tokuro Fujiwara, who was Mikami's mentor and served as the game's producer. Fujiwara said the "basic premise was that I’d be able to do the things that I wasn’t able to include" in Sweet Home, "mainly on the graphics front", and that he was "confident that horror games could become a genre in themselves." He entrusted Mikami, who was initially reluctant because he hated "being scared", with the project, because he "understood what’s frightening." Since Capcom no longer had the rights to the Sweet Home license, they had to invent a new universe, but the game still adopted many elements from Sweet Home.
Resident Evil was based on Sweet Home's gameplay system, adopting many elements from the game, including the limited item inventory management, the mansion setting, the puzzles, the emphasis on survival, the door loading screen, the use of scattered notes and diary entries as storytelling mechanics, multiple endings depending on how many characters survive, backtracking to previous locations in order to solve puzzles later on, the use of death animations, individual character items such as a lockpick or lighter, restoring health through items scattered across the mansion, the intricate layout of the mansion, and the brutally horrific imagery.
Part of the inspiration for limited ammunition came from the MSX port of the game Alcazar: The Forgotten Fortress, according to scenario writer Kenichi Iwao. The idea of having limited ammunition was inspired by the limited amount of supplies in the game's randomized dungeons. Iwao wanted to take more elements from the game, such as adding more ways to attack zombies with items such as mines and traps, but was unable to due to schedule constraints.
=== Production ===
Production began in 1993, and the game took three years to develop. During the first six months of development, Mikami worked on the game alone, creating concept sketches, designing characters, and writing over 40 pages of script. The project was originally planned for the Super NES, before moving development to the PlayStation in 1994. Koji Oda was working on the Super NES version, after having worked on Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1991). Oda revealed that the setting was originally more of a hellish place, before being changed to a more realistic setting.
Several of the Resident Evil mansion's pre-rendered backdrops were inspired by The Overlook Hotel, the setting for the 1980 horror film, The Shining. Mikami also cited the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead as a negative inspiration for the game. The game was initially conceived as a fully 3D first-person update of Sweet Home (influenced by the game's first-person battles), with action and shooting mechanics. A first-person prototype was produced, and initially featured a supernatural, psychological Japanese horror style similar to Sweet Home, before opting for an American zombie horror style influenced by George Romero films. During production, Mikami discovered Alone in the Dark (1992), which influenced him to adopt a cinematic fixed-view camera system. Mikami said that, if it wasn't for Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil would have had a first-person view instead. Mikami was initially reluctant to adopt Alone in the Dark's fixed-view camera system, saying it "had an effect on immersion, making the player feel a bit more detached", but eventually adopted it because the use of pre-rendered backdrops allowed a higher level of detail than his fully 3D first-person view prototype, which "didn't get along so well with the original PlayStation's specs." A concept art claimed to be of the original first-person prototype has been available since the 1990s, showing more similarity to Doom rather than Alone in the Dark. A first-person perspective was not used again for the mainline Resident Evil series until Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017).
A later prototype featured cooperative gameplay, but this feature was eventually removed, as Mikami said it "technically...wasn't good enough." Early footage of this co-op prototype was revealed in 1995. At this stage of development, a local co-op mode was present, along with different outfits. A later demo made for the 1995 V Jump Festival presentation in Japan featured real-time weapon changes, with the co-op mode removed and rudimentary character models and textures. An early 1996 preview in Maximum Console magazine featured a graveyard and a slightly different version of the final boss. The graveyard, which was removed from the final game, eventually made it into the 2002 remake. Also featured in the game until late in development were guest houses and a tower, which were replaced by the guard house and the lab respectively. Another feature that was removed from the final game was the real-time weapon changing, from the earlier 1995 V-Jump demo.
Capcom did not use any motion capture in the game, despite having their own motion capture studio; instead, the animators referred to books and videos to study how people, spiders, and other animals encountered in the game move.
In pre-production, other characters were conceived. Dewey, an African-American man, was intended to perform a comic relief role, while Gelzer, a big cyborg, was a typical "strongman" character. Both were later replaced, by Rebecca and Barry, respectively.
Almost all development was done on Silicon Graphics hardware using the software program Softimage. The PlayStation was chosen as the lead platform because the development team felt it was the most appropriate for the game in terms of things such as the amount of polygons. The development team had upwards of 80 people towards the end of the game's development. According to Akio Sakai, head of Capcom's consumer software division, Capcom were hesitant to port Resident Evil to the Saturn because the hardware was not as ideally suited to the game as the PlayStation, ensuring the port would take a long time. A Saturn version was finally unveiled at the April 1997 Tokyo Game Show, at which Capcom also showed a demo for the sequel on PlayStation.
The live action full-motion video sequences were filmed in Japan with a cast of American actors. All Japanese releases contain English voice acting with Japanese captions and text. However, Japanese voice performances were also recorded but were left unused, as Mikami found the quality of the performances inadequate. However, lead programmer Yasuhiro Anpo later said that, due to all of the development staff being Japanese, they were unaware of the "poor localization" that apparently "hindered the realism and immersion of the title" for the international release, which was one of the reasons for the re-dub in the 2002 remake. The original Japanese PlayStation version also features a vocal ending theme, "Yume de Owarasenai...", performed by Japanese rock artist Fumitaka Fuchigami, that is not in any other versions of the game.
Fujiwara said the game was originally targeted towards a core audience and he only expected it to sell around 200,000 copies, before the game went on to sell millions. Mikami said he was "a little worried about how well a horror game would really sell." Anpo said that Capcom did not expect the game to be successful.
=== English localization ===
Bio Hazard was renamed for the North America and Europe markets after Chris Kramer, Director of Communications at Capcom, pointed out that it would be impossible to trademark the name in the United States. Among others, the 1992 video game Bio-Hazard Battle and the New York alternative metal band Biohazard were already using the name. Capcom therefore ran an internal company contest to find a new name. The name Resident Evil was settled upon since the game takes place in a mansion. Kramer thought the name "was super-cheesy; [I] can't remember what I felt was a better alternative, probably something stupid about zombies – but the rest of the marketing crew loved it and were ultimately able to convince Capcom Japan and Mikami-san that the name fit." The cover artwork for the American and European release was done by artist Bill Sienkiewicz.
The original PlayStation version of Resident Evil went through several considerable changes between its original Japanese release and its international counterparts. The North American and European versions of the intro were heavily cut from the one featured in the Japanese releases. Shots of mangled corpses, a "Cerberus" zombie dog being shot, Joseph's death, and Kenneth's severed head were edited out, as well as scenes featuring the character Chris Redfield smoking a cigarette. Despite these tweaks, the game was ultimately released on the PlayStation as one of the first games to receive the Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
In the game itself, the auto-aiming function was disabled and the numbers of ink ribbons found by the player were reduced. Capcom also planned to eliminate the interconnected nature of item boxes, meaning that items could only be retrieved from the locations where they were originally stored. This change made it in preview copies of the US version, but was removed from the retail release. This particular game mechanic would resurface in the GameCube remake as part of an unlockable difficulty setting. Shinji Mikami noted that they made the American version harder at the request of the American staff so that the game could be rented and not be completed in a few days. Mikami said that this version proved fairly difficult for Capcom staff, who had to play very carefully to complete it.
== Releases ==
After its initial release for the PlayStation in March 1996, Resident Evil was reissued and ported to other systems, many gaining new features in the process.
=== Microsoft Windows ===
The Microsoft Windows version, released in December 1996, featured the uncensored footage from the Japanese version, and the opening intro is in full color rather than black and white. It is the only version of Resident Evil that has all of the uncensored FMVs, which includes the uncensored introduction, Kenneth's death scene in its entirety, and ending. Support for 3D accelerator cards were added, allowing for much sharper graphics. Two new unlockable weapons were added, a MAC-10 for Jill and an FN Minimi for Chris. New unlockable outfits for Chris and Jill were added as well. It also skips the door animations.
=== Director's Cut ===
An updated version, Resident Evil: Director's Cut, was released for PlayStation in September 1997. Director's Cut was produced to compensate for the highly publicized delay of the sequel, Resident Evil 2, and was originally bundled with a playable pre-release demo of that game. The Japanese version of the demo disc also included a pre-release demo of Rockman Neo, later retitled Rockman DASH (Mega Man Legends outside Japan), and a trailer for the newly released Breath of Fire III.
The main addition to Director's Cut is an "arranged" version of the game that changes the location of nearly every vital item in the mansion, as well as the enemy placement. The main characters, as well as Rebecca, are given a new wardrobe and the player's handgun is replaced by an improved model where any shot fired has a random chance of decapitating a zombie, killing it instantly. The original version of the game is included as well, along with a new "beginner" mode where the enemies are easier to kill and the amount of ammunition that can be found by the player is doubled. Additionally, the auto-aim function was restored in all modes, though it is not noted in the in-game controls.
The North American and European releases of the Director's Cut were marketed as featuring the original, uncensored footage from the Japanese releases. However, the full motion video (FMV) sequences were still censored, and Capcom claimed the omission was the result of a localization mistake made by the developers. The game's localization was handled by Capcom Japan instead of Capcom USA, and when submitted to Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), it was rejected because of one line of copyright text. Rather than remove the individual line, Capcom Japan decided to save time and simply swap in the cinematics from the U.S. release of the original Resident Evil. SCEA then approved the game and manufactured a full production run without Capcom USA having any idea that the uncensored scenes had been cut. Three days after the game's release, the uncensored intro was offered as a free download from their website. The French and German PAL versions of Director's Cut do feature the uncensored intro FMV in color, though they lacked the uncensored Kenneth death scene.
Director's Cut was included in the lineup for the PlayStation Classic, which was released on December 3, 2018. It was made available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on June 13, 2022.
=== Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. ===
A third version for the PlayStation, Resident Evil: Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver., co-produced by Keiji Inafune, was released in August 1998. It features support for the DualShock controller's analog controls and vibration functions, as well as a new symphonic soundtrack, replacing the original soundtrack by Makoto Tomozawa, Koichi Hiroki, and Masami Ueda. The symphonic music was credited to composer Mamoru Samuragochi, although he admitted in 2014 that he directed his orchestrator Takashi Niigaki to ghostwrite the new soundtrack. The Japanese Dual Shock Ver. came packaged with a bonus disc that contained downloadable save data, footage of the unused Japanese dubbed versions of the live-action cutscenes, along with brief gameplay footage of the canceled original version of Resident Evil 2.
The soundtrack was generally deemed inferior to the original, with the ambient theme for the mansion's basement considered to be one of the worst video game compositions of all time.
In 1998, Capcom USA released the game for $19.99 under Greatest Hits.
In North America, Resident Evil: Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. was later released as a downloadable game available from the PlayStation Network, although the game is advertised with the original Director's Cut box art. In Japan and Europe, the original Director's Cut was instead made available from the PlayStation Network.
=== Sega Saturn ===
The Sega Saturn version, released in July 1997, added an unlockable battle mode in which the player must traverse through a series of rooms from the main game and eliminate all enemies within them with the weapons selected by the player. It features two exclusive enemies not in the main game: a zombie version of Wesker and a gold-colored Tyrant. The player's performance in the battle mode is graded at the end. The game's backgrounds were touched up to include more detail in this version. The Japanese version is the most gore-laden of all the platforms; after decapitating a crawling zombie with a kick, the head remains on the floor, and Plant 42 can cut the character before the game over screen. The Saturn version also features exclusive enemy monsters, such as a re-skinned breed of Hunters known as Ticks and a second Tyrant prior to the game's final battle in Chris's game. Exclusive outfits for Jill and Chris were added as well.
This version was published in Europe by Sega instead of Capcom's usual European publisher, Virgin.
=== Game Boy Color version ===
A Game Boy Color version of the game, developed by the Software House HotGen, was supposed to be released in late 1999 or early 2000, until Capcom decided to cancel this project citing that the port was poor quality due to the Game Boy's limited hardware. This version contains every room, cutscene, and almost all the items that were present in the original PlayStation version.
In January 2012, an anonymous individual claimed to have an EPROM cartridge of the GBC version and requested $2,000 before he was willing to leak the playable ROM. The goal was met in February and the ROM files containing an unfinished build of the game were subsequently leaked.
=== Deadly Silence ===
A Nintendo DS port, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, was released in Japan as Biohazard: Deadly Silence, and was made to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the series. Deadly Silence includes a "Classic Mode", the original game with minimal enhancements and touch-screen support, and a "Rebirth Mode", containing a greater number of enemies and a series of new puzzles that make use of the platform's capabilities. The characters models are remade with better textures and different clothing, and enemies have higher quality of detail. Although the graphical changes are difficult to notice on the DS' dual screen, they are easier to notice on an HD emulator. Exclusive new outfits for Jill, Chris and Rebecca were added as well.
The game makes use of the dual screen display with the top screen used to display the map, along with the player's remaining ammunition and health (determined by the color of the background); while the bottom screen displays the main action, and can be switched to show the player's inventory. The DS version also includes updated play mechanics: the 180-degree turn introduced in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, along with the knife button and tactical reload from Resident Evil 4. The updated controls are applicable to both Classic and Rebirth modes. Just like the PC version, the door animations can be skipped as well as the cut scenes. The live-action footage was still censored, even in the game's Japanese release; however, the scene showing Kenneth's severed head was kept.
In "Rebirth", new puzzles are added that use the system's touch-screen. "Knife Battle" sequences, viewed from a first-person perspective, are also added, in which the player must fend off incoming enemies by swinging the knife via the stylus. One particular puzzle requires the player to resuscitate an injured comrade by blowing into the built-in microphone. The player can also shake off enemies by using the touch screen, performing a melee attack.
The game also includes wireless LAN support for up to four players with two different multiplayer game modes. The first is a cooperative mode in which each player must help each other solve puzzles and escape the mansion together. The other is a competitive mode in which the objective is to get the highest score out of all the players by destroying the most monsters, with the tougher monsters being worth more points. There are three playable multiplayer stages and nine playable characters.