In a new developer diary posted on the official Resident Evil YouTube channel (make sure you turn on subtitles!), director Koji Oda says that the goal with the original GameCube game was simply “to make a numbered RE game of the highest quality.” As it was released before the series received a gameplay overhaul with Resident Evil 4, a major development goal was to create a realistic atmosphere, rather than one of all-out action.
“We wanted to render more detail than the standard definition at the time (512 × 448) would normally allow,” says original design director Hiroshi Kasajima. As such, the team opted to keep fixed camera angles, as opposed to the player-controlled camera that more recent Resident Evil games have used.
The original Resident Evil 0 featured “background videos” in place of traditional environments, and while some of these are still included in the remake, a few bits have made the jump to 3D. Fire, for example, has been turned into a 3D effect, and you can now see “every individual raindrop,” according to remake design director Chieko Kusumoto.
Perhaps the most exciting change, however, is the ability to play as villain Albert Wesker. It’s not as simple as a skin swap — “Wesker Mode” allows you to use a special dash move, and he’s even been given the ability to attack “without consuming ammo,” based on information the developer learned in a Resident Evil novel.
Resident Evil 0 will arrive digitally to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on January 19, or you can pick it up as part of the Resident Evil Origins Collection, which also includes Resident Evil HD Remaster, for current-gen systems.
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