I have a confession to make: I never thought that Resident Evil was going to be as big as it was. My first experience with it was my friend telling me how difficult it was. Some thing about a zombie in a mansion and how you shot it three times, ran out of ammo, and then the zombie got back up and killed you. My friend told me not to waste my time. He did recommend another game. It was called Parasite Eve.
Brought to the gaming world by part of the company that would eventually become Square Enix, Eve told the story of a cop by the name of Aya Brea and the worst week of her life. She attends a play in which everyone suddenly bursts into flames, expect Aya and actress named Melissa Pierce. Pierce is not exactly human and Aya will have to find a way to stop her and the monsters that have suddenly taken up shop in New York.
The game was a strange mixture of action, survival horror and RPG elements. When not fighting an enemy, Aya was able to explore pretty much where ever she wanted. When battle started, it was a turn based system, however Aya could move to avoid attacks. The plot was a little confusing, something about how certain mitochondrion was a jump in evolution or something like that. The monsters were awesome, evolutionary theory gone horribly wrong.
Being a fan of RPG, I knew that the turn based system was one I was familiar with, but the changes were still a wonder to behold. This seemed like a true open world, where the player could go anywhere. The setting of Manhattan was also cool, as this was not some made up location, but a real city. The game was also so big, it needed multiple CD’s to run. It did create quite a stir when it was released, but the two games that followed could never really capture what made the first one so special. My friend was right to suggest it, but boy was he wrong about Resident Evil. That series had staying power
