Taste-Test: Biohazard 0

Rated: M for Mature Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Players: 1 Saving: Unknown

Some of us are a little impatient when it comes to video games we want that are being released in the future. When I played Resident Evil 1 back in May I was hooked beyond belief, I had found a new franchise that I could love. After beating Resident Evil 1 I wanted the prequel to the game as soon as possible. It comes out on October 31st of this year. That is a pretty decent time frame, only a couple of months. Usually I would be waiting a year, two years, or with Rare, five years, to get a sequel/prequel.

Now that I have a modded GameCube I can enjoy all the benefits of the Japanese demo discs. At first I was told that the Biohazard 0 demo disc would be released in the States. I later found out I was told false information and reacted how any gaming nut would, I purchased the Japanese one. When I first started to play the introduction came up and it was all in Japanese. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play it because of the language barrier. It’s exactly like the other Biohazard game for GameCube, the interaction part of the game is not necessary (unlike the Zelda games).

They started me off right in the middle of the action; I had a zombie in front of me which I took care of fairly easily. The next thing I had to do was get used to the control scheme. I used the easy control system when I played Resident Evil 1 (type c). After some fooling around with the controls I got quite used to it, it seemed a lot tighter than Resident Evil 1’s control system.

The buttons were just like the controls for Resident Evil 1 with a few minor adjustments; the X button was used for partner zapping, the Z button let you either team up with your partner or “go at it alone,” and lastly if you were teamed up with your partner you could control your secondary partner with the C-stick. One thing I didn’t like was the fact that you couldn’t control your partner’s weapon. The A.I. did seem to do its job when it most counted though, saving me a few times when a couple of zombies were having a snack on my brains.

Everyone is curious as to how the saving method will work. Will it be like the Resident Evil 1 and the Biohazard 1 system, or will they get an entire new form. Well if you didn’t like the saving style in Resident Evil 1 then it’s just too bad, and if you did, you’re in luck. They wouldn’t let me save my game data in this demo but in one of the “safe rooms,” which you can gather supplies in, was a type writer sitting on a desk. It pretty much looked like you would only go into this room once in the game because after you moved on in the train you wouldn’t need to come back, unless you couldn’t carry all the items. This is how and where you would save though, I for one like the saving method.

Items is next on the list, I will share what items I found or what items I saw but was unable to obtain. They started both Rebecca and Billy off with their own weapon. It appeared as though Billy’s gun was a little but more powerful than Rebecca’s, but that could have been because it just made a louder “popping” noise. The first things I encountered were a few green plants, blue plants and red plants. Next I found the three things needed to piece together the door key; some kind of gold and silver key rings and then an attaché case. I put all the items together and presto, you have your missing key.

Other items they gave me were bullets to fit my handguns, a bunch of shotgun shells, health spray, a conductor’s room key, and of course a beautiful shotgun. The shotgun can only hold two shells at a time (and takes up two spaces in your menu box) but it is twice as powerful as the one in Resident Evil 1. With one shot I decapitated two zombies; they were one behind the other and I aimed up and just shot, the bullet carried through the first one and hit the second one. The last item I was given was a sweet looking eighteen inch knife. I didn’t get to use it however because I had killed every zombie they would allow me too. It did however look a lot more useful than the ones they gave you in Resident Evil 1. It also seemed like it was going to be used a lot more often. Bullets in this game seem few and far, I got to the first “boss” in the game and was completely out of ammo (I had two shots between Billy and Rebecca). That is where the demo ended; they didn’t let me fight the “boss.”

The partner zapping seems like it is going to play the biggest role in the game. Capcom only put one small puzzle in the demo that showed how this was going to work. Rebecca found part of a key that needed to get to Billy on the second floor. However the door was locked, so she used the dumbwaiter to lift the part up to him. Billy was able to put the key together and open the door leading right to Rebecca. I found this to be extremely creative and exciting; working cooperatively with your partner will make the game more challenging and more fun.

From what the demo showed it didn’t seem like this Resident Evil game was going to be primarily solving puzzles, like Resident Evil 1. First off there was not any huge “boss” like creatures in Resident Evil besides Lisa and the Tyrant. Resident Evil 0 and Biohazard 0 have a huge scorpion, a centipede like creature, some other weird and cool things, and of course Lisa. In the forty minute long demo I killed about twenty five zombies. In Resident Evil 1 you don’t kill that many until almost a quarter into the game. What I am saying is Resident Evil 0 and Biohazard 0 seem more about killing than about thinking, which is both good and bad. No doubt this game will kick serious ass when it’s released late October.

Matthew Silver