Resident Evil HD Remaster releases tomorrow and Capcom was kind enough to provide us with a review code prior to its release. Thus, below you can read our first impressions of this HD remaster of the classic Resident Evil game, that is basically based on the GameCube remake released in 2002.
First things first: the game runs with 60FPS and without performance issues on the PC. There have been reports of various frame drops on current-gen consoles, however on the PC a GTX680 is more than enough for a constant 60fps gameplay experience. After all, Capcom listed some really low PC requirements for this HD remaster.
Resident Evil HD Remaster comes with two control schemes (original and alternative). The original control system is similar to the one found in the Playstation version, meaning that the characters behave like huge tanks. The alternative system is not exactly what we thought. At first, we believed that via this method players would be able to shoot while moving, however that’s not the case. With the alternative control system, the player is moving towards the direction issued by the analogue stick (or accordingly to the keyboard keys he’s pressing). Do note that you will still have to stop, aim and shoot via this alternative mode.
Graphics wise, we hoped for more from this HD remaster (though we kind of knew this was coming the moment we witnessed the first screenshots from it). A lot of backgrounds still look blurry, and while the characters have been slightly enhanced with details, they are not up to what we’d expect from a ‘HD Remaster’. In short, Capcom dropped the ball on this. While this new version looks better than the GC version, it does not justify their 13 years gap.
Resident Evil is still a great – and a tough – game. Forget all the hints that have spoiled current-gen gamers. Forget highlights towards doors or objects via which you can interact. Don’t expect this game to hold your hand and show you exactly how to solve its puzzles. And that’s the beauty of Resident Evil, especially if you haven’t played the original – or the GC remake – recently.
It’s pretty much needless to say that we highly enjoyed Resident Evil HD Remaster. However, there is still a big issue that has not been addressed (and is due to the game’s control and camera viewpoints). There will be a lot of times when you’ll be fighting with the controls as your character will be moving to completely different directions when the camera viewpoints change.
In case you’re not aware of – we doubt it, but still – Resident Evil uses pre-rendered backgrounds. As a result of that, the game uses a variety of fixed camera viewpoints that change as soon as the main character gets closer to the edges of a scene. The big issue here is that some players will get disorientated while transitioning from one scene to another. Not only that, but the control scheme can go crazy during those transitions.
Resident Evil HD Remaster is currently priced at 19,99€ on Steam. So the big question is; does this remaster justify that price? In our opinion, it does (though we believe that a more appropriate price would be around 14,99€). Resident Evil HD Remaster is still fun and challenging. And at the end of the day that’s what really counts. It’s an old school title that was not spoiled by all the current-gen trend that has plagued the industry. And that’s a good thing.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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looks like s**t
“HD Remaster” ……. its f’ing impressive.
I think there’s probably more to this game than just graphics…
so what its called HD REMASTER in the title they should have done a better job. I think dolphin emulator looks better overall than this
I guess, maybe I’m blind but I think it looks fine for a game that came out almost 2 decades ago. Honestly when was the last time we got a really good hd remaster for any game? Halo is the only one I can think of… Plus Japanese devs were never good with pc games.
Better? no but its pretty close, someone please tell me how you turn a 1-2 gb game into a 17gb game.
That i would like to know.
The best re in the series imho. I would love a re2 remake. The price tag… I think 15 buck would fit better on this game
Buy it from greenmangaming for $15.50 using the coupon SAVE23-PEROFF-MOSANT
you can just play it again with gentleman of the row mod.
It does look good, even more compared to the original obviously. 😛 I always liked this RE game, so i won’t mind replaying it with newer gfx/sound effects.
For years now you could pretty much play your own “HD remaster” through the Dolphin emulator by forcing high resolutions and anti aliasing. I would’ve instantly bought this game if it was a true remaster with all new graphics, instead of just upscaling old backgrounds.
the textures on that statue holding the blue gem are utter s**t there are some other mudy parts also. could have done a better job
why are you doing remasters ???? such a waste of time ,how do you think you will get back the profit ?
This is all profit for Capcom, even if they sell it for 5 bucks (and they will soon enough), it’s a port of GameCube version with some slightly enhanced graphics, nothing more.
It doesn’t look ‘HD Remaster’ at all..
I’ve already played the original PC version and gamecube version. I don’t think ill bother with this until the price drops on steam.
Capcom just needs to cut the BS. I mean yeah as a teen when RE came out on PS1 it was amazing. But now I feel like Capcom is just playing out the series way to much. I would like to see them just put time into a new engine and just make RE7 for freaks sake’s. While making RE7 play like RE1/2 just with better camera angles. Heck even if it played like Code Veronica I would be happy.
I still find amazing how many of you complain about this remaster (which, IMHO is the oportunity to play the GC version in PC), but then many of you think the metro last light remaster is a great thing. I can’t understand that.
Well personally, I think the Metro remasters are a bigger scam than this. This is just a port from GC version, they shouldn’t have slapped the ‘OMG SUPER HD REMASTER’ subtitle to it.
LOL, PS4 version drops below 20fps, Saints Row 4 on the PS4 drops into the 30s, Next-gen POWER!
http://i.imgur.com/u0wmF9J.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QUwzGoT.jpg
Both sucks balls but RE performance is simply dev’s fault for running like sht.
kinda makes you reallize how powerfull our pcs were back then they made crap ports from x360/ps3
“HD” my a*s.