Our inaugural Unforgettable Gaming Moments piece took us back to the early ‘90s, when pioneering first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D pitted us against a mechanical-augmented Adolf Hitler. In our latest entry, we take a look back at the classic survival horror outing Resident Evil, recalling the moment players come face-to-face with their first walking corpse.
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Capcom’s original Resident Evil is chock full of unforgettable moments, many of which can be attributed to the game’s side-splitting ‘Engrish’ dialogue – “Master of Unlocking,” anyone? Sure, the memory RE’s botched script may forever waft around our thoughts like the malodorous odor of a rotting corpse, but the same could be said for those classic sofa-soiling scares that gave us our earliest jump-out-of-the-seat gaming moments. And while RE has a whole estate full of them, nothing sticks in the mind more than encountering the first zombie—even more so than that classic moment the dog jumped through the window.
The scene is set perfectly as Alpha Team arrives in the mansion hall. Hearing a gunshot, your character (either as a solo Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine accompanied by the bumbling Barry Burton) heads off to the dining room to investigate. The mood is unsettling. The ticking of a nearby grandfather clock acts as your only audio companion, the time piece itself giving off an almost patriarchal glow as you explore the sprawling room. At the far end, you discover a bloodstain on the tiled floor (which Barry hopes isn’t “Chris’s blood!!”) as you make your way into a nearby corridor.
The hallway is deathly quiet, and with all the doors locked, you have but no choice other than to take a peak around a nearby corner. Unfortunately, you’re just in time to witness your mate Kenneth J. Sullivan from Bravo Team get his head munched off by a ravenous zombie, its decomposing features slowly turning to face its next meal (i.e. you). My aging brain is a little fuzzy on the details, though I can still recall Jill being glued to the floor on account of me being paralyzed in awe (and fear, for that matter) before finally regaining my equilibrium and legging it back to Barry, who then proceeded to blow the thing’s head off in a spray of blood and brains. Lovely.
Despite the game’s aesthetics aging like a keg of beer rather than a fine wine, Resident Evil’s introduction to the undead still delivers in equal thrills and chills. The build-up is superb, accentuating the knot of dread in your gut something nasty, while the moment itself is just as defining as it was for me when I first played it on a school evening in September 1997. Back then I was in sheer awe of the visual spectacle in front of me, not to mention the fact a videogame was able to scare the pants off me; these days, I learn to appreciate that rotting chap even more, perhaps more so because I know the direction the series would later take. Plus, Resi 1’s zombies are far and away more deadly than of the lumbering corpses found in later games. Sure, the dogs and hunters may have made me jump out of my skin, but the first zombie instilled a perpetual gut-wrenching fear inside me that would ultimately last the entire game—and even 14 years later, nothing has ever managed to surpass it.
Stay tuned to PSU for more Unforgettable Gaming Moments in the near future.