Reviews
[Review] ‘Resident Evil’ 0, Remake, and 4 Come Home to Nintendo with Underwhelming Switch Ports
The last console of the current generation to get ports of Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 0 happens to be made by the company whose underappreciated Gamecube console gave them their debuts. With all three on Nintendo Switch, these games come full circle from their Gamecube roots, unmistakably home to Resident Evil’s second great run of games. The hook this time being you can play them in portable form.
There’s been plenty written on these games over the years and countless reviews, so we’ll be covering all three in the one review.
We start with the chronological start of the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil 0. Setting up the events of not only the original Resi, but the fate of Albert Wesker as well, this prequel sees S.T.A.R.S. team member Rebecca Chambers stranded on an Umbrella train alongside convicted murderer on the lam Billy Coen. Being an Umbrella train naturally means something horrific isn’t far away, and the pair team up to tackle leech-like parasites carrying the T-Virus, zombies, and a rather large and irate scorpion among other things.
The twist to Resident Evil 0 is that you can ‘zap’ between Billy and Rebecca at any time, sharing inventory when they’re close, sending items across to get around obstacles, and getting each other out of scrapes. It’s the embryonic version of the co-op action found in Resident Evil 5, albeit in single-player form. It’s an interesting change to the formula, but it’s applied in a messy manner. Juggling items between two characters can become a massive pain during sections where they can’t interact close enough to exchange, meaning you’re stuck with whatever is in that characters inventory for a bit.
It fills in some story for the rest of the franchise, and it has that same melodramatic cheese factor as the original games, but it’s clearly the weakest of the bunch we have here. It’s a curio in the more traditional style of Resident Evil, but still a welcome, enjoyable one.
Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest port, as load times are painfully long, and given how many small spaces you’ll move between, it really knocks the pace out of whack. It’s not the only guilty party as far as below-par ports go here.
Next up is Resident Evil Remake, perhaps the greatest ever remake of a game. It respects its origins, but revitalizes them in new and exciting ways. Revisiting the Spencer Mansion is simply wonderful no matter how many times you go through it. The classic haunted house setup, filled with Fulci-esque undead (that now may come back to life again as even more lethal ‘Crimson Heads’) and an assortment of nightmare creatures spills out into a melodramatic conspiracy story that fully indulges in its inherent cheesiness. It’s among the best games in the series, plus the fixed cameras and pre-rendered backgrounds mean the game stands the test of time visually.
The biggest, and most welcome, change to the original story is the introduction of the tortured Lisa Trevor, a tragic, disfigured monster, her howling and moaning echoing off the walls long before you see her. She has a fascinating back story, and it really enriches the overall lore of the Spencer Mansion.
With the more recent version of this port and that of Resident Evil 0, there are alternate control schemes to suit more modern audiences. It’s a little touch, but it opens these games up to a wider audience, even if it can be just as fiddly as the original control setup at times. It’s certainly the more suitable way to play on the Switch in portable mode. The frame rate can be a tad choppy at points, and though it’s rarely a grievous issue, it’s a strange fault to have when this is a port of a remaster of a 17-year-old game that worked perfectly fine before.
To go a little deeper on the Switch versions benefits, it’s amazing how well suited these two games are to the portable mode, it allows for a greater focus on the games themselves and the relatively sedate pace of 0 and Remake make for engrossing experiences to be enjoyed in short bursts or lengthy sessions.
Resident Evil 4 is a different beast. The rebirth of Resident Evil as a more versatile action-orientated survival horror, and the first to abandon the Umbrella plots for a new breed of zombie terror via the Las Plagas virus. If Resident Evil before this game was a European style zombie nightmare, then Resident Evil 4 brings a bit of folk horror to the party. Resident Evil 2 co-protagonist Leon Kennedy returns as a special agent searching for the President’s daughter in rural Spain. Of course, there’s some weird cult shit going on, and you’re quickly determined to be a threat to the village’s operations, evoking the likes of Texas Chainsaw and The Wicker Man.
It’s no secret at this time that Resident Evil 4 is a stone-cold classic. Sure, its controls feel a bit dated in a very different way to Resi 0 and Remake (some modern remapping would have been nice as a side option, and it’s a shame motion controls didn’t return from the Wii version), but its D.N.A. is so entrenched in every third-person shooter that’s come since, that it feels warmly familiar, yet unlike anything else. The siege against the Ganados, the boss fight on the boat, the first dread-inducing rev of a chainsaw, and that knife fight are just some of the memorable highlights of a stellar action horror game.
Compared to the other two games, it doesn’t fit the Switch’s portable mode quite as well, but it’s easily the most stable and polished port of them all. Plus it’s an absolute cracker of a game so that helps.
All three games also come with all the extra content found in other recent ports, but it’s a shame that the technical side doesn’t match even the baseline of them. The Switch versions are not cheap, so to have issues not found in previous ports and charging more for the inconvenience takes the shine off having these games on the Switch in the first place.
It’s cool to have more Resi on the go, but there shouldn’t be with caveats.
Resident Evil 0 Score:
Resident Evil Remake Score:
Resident Evil 4 Score:
Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4 review codes provided by the publisher,
Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4 are out now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
It’s a big world out there, and that alone can make it seem pretty scary for some people. The uncertainty, the unknown, the unfamiliar – while there are those among us who crave exploration, they’re seemingly outnumbered by those who prefer to close their doors, their borders, and their hearts to whomever – and whatever – sits on the other side. The temptation will be strong to label The Outer Threat as a Temu Disclosure Day, but open your heart to it (and accept its budgetary limitations), and you’ll be rewarded with an engaging, hopeful genre tale.
Daniel (Mark O’Brien) is an astrophysicist living on a remote farm with Michelle (Constance Wu) and their two children (Callista Crowe, Isaac Smelcer-Zhang). He retreats every day to an underground bunker where he monitors and searches the universe for signs of extraterrestrial life, and one morning he finds just that – clear evidence of an advanced civilization that’s successfully found a way to harvest the power of their solar system’s sun. He’s understandably ecstatic and in a hurry to tell the world, but Michelle, a retired scientist who’s nearly given up on humanity as a whole and chooses to focus solely on her family, is adamant that he keep quiet.
He goes against her wishes, obviously, and sends an email filled with data attachments to his boss at NORAD. The result is almost immediate as electrical power, internet connections, and cell service all shut off in and around their small nearby town. Soon small drones are buzzing their farm and peeping in their windows, MQ-9 Reapers are bombing their bunker, and unmarked cars are following their every move.
Writer/director William Woods makes his directorial debut with The Outer Threat, and while his ambitions dwarf his resources, the end result is a compelling family adventure that argues for opening our metaphorical doors to the unknown. A strong cast, that also includes a supporting turn from the always welcome William Fichtner, helps carry the downtime between suspense sequences and minor set pieces. It’s an undeniably small film, but its ideas and conversations are exponentially bigger.
Michelle’s beef with humankind stems from both the personal and the general state of the world at large. Her father (Oscar Hsu) is also a scientist, and like Daniel, he risked valuing his work over his family to the point that Michelle no longer speaks with him. Her bigger issue is knowing that our species is a poor steward of both this planet and each other, and when Daniel accuses her of having little faith in humanity, she replies only “not without reason.”
One of The Outer Threat’s most interesting sequences will feel like a disjointed detour to some, but it actually encapsulates one of the film’s central themes in one simple exchange. The family is on the road and heading to Michelle’s father’s place – she’s not thrilled, but his past work with the government might come in handy – when they decide to stop for food. They reach a tiny town that looks deceptively abandoned and are welcomed into a diner by the owner, Sam (Fichtner), and his young granddaughter.
He’s initially cautious and explains that soldiers had passed through, telling everyone to remain indoors, but he proceeds to feed the family in need while explaining that he’s hoping to scrounge up some fuel to reconnect with the rest of his family. Sam also shares with Michelle that he hesitated to open his door to them simply because they were different. He was fearful, and now he’s ashamed and worried that maybe he’s not the man he thought he was. “What really scares me,” he adds, “was the thought that maybe, just maybe, we’re all rotten.”
She listens. She leaves. And she never tells him about the numerous extra canisters of gas they have in the back of their pickup truck.
It’s a striking character beat as our protagonist, even halfway through the film, remains steadfast in her disconnect from others. She’s far from the only one in need of change, though, as it was Daniel’s hubris and ego that led to this situation in the first place. “Our kids should be home safe,” she tells him at one point, “but you just had to let the world know how smart you are.” Woods and his cast mine drama from this brilliant but misaligned couple, and both Wu and O’Brien are convincing in their motivations and emotions.
Somewhat less convincing are the film’s occasional swings at big visual effects. Drones and weather balloons in the sky are passable, but explosions, vast encampments, and more land with an iffy digital thud. None of them are deal breakers, though, both because they’re used sparingly and because the characters and their dilemma take center stage.
Woods, whose best and brightest accomplishment remains serving as a producer on the criminally underseen 2020 film, The Kid Detective, arguably bites off a bit more than he can chew with The Outer Threat. His big ideas on both story and humankind are inevitably under-explored in a film of this size, and you’ll be left wishing he had a bigger budget behind him. Audiences are bound to expect something more from the film’s third act, especially, so set your expectations accordingly going in that this is more a film about human connection and ideals than it is a tale of alien invasion.
There are moments here of genuine suspense and thrills, but the film’s power rests in those human beats. From Sam revealing he was concealing a gun while making them pancakes, to Michelle’s father pushing aside huge news of world-altering significance so he can instead spend time with grandchildren he’s only just met, to feuding kids combining their skills for an act of bravery, this is a movie about people who can be so much more than we believe ourselves capable of being.
“For thousands of years human beings have been the dominant species on this planet,” says a character at a certain point, “but that’s no longer the case.” The trailer teases this line, and while you can’t fault the marketing department, it might feel like a bit of a bait and switch by the time the end credits roll. You can choose to be underwhelmed, but here’s hoping you open the door to the film’s hopefulness instead.
The Outer Threat is now available on VOD and Digital.
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