There's something evil about Resident Evil. Is it just the title or, is it because your character is trapped in a gloomy mansion full of zombies and other nightmarish creatures who want to devour you ? Who knows. What one knows for sure is that Resident Evil is a great terrifying game, very well conducted and highly satisfying graphically.

First, let's shoot dead the Group of Eternal Complaning People who says Resident Evil is just a remake, that the controls suck and nyahnyahnyah, "I made complaints my religion"... Resident Evil for GameCube is not just a remake, it's a huge rebuild of a 32 bits master-piece. The story is basically the same, so are the main events and incidents, and the so-often criticized interface, but all the rest is different. The makers teared off the flesh of the past game, poured its blood and, left with the skeleton, started to sew a whole new body on it: stronger, bigger and scarier. If, like me, you used to love the very first Resident Evil and played it a lot, you will love the new version too. It's the same game but not the same adventure: all the enigma are different, most of the locations have been restructured, many objects have been moved, plenty of new things (items, monsters, weapons...) have been added. Someone who knows the original game well wel'll be permanently surprised while amazed by the graphics. Prepare to tremble with the secret of the cabin in the woods and to wet your pants in the Aqua Ring.

What an atmosphere indeed ! not only thanks to the complex architecture, the magnificent backgrounds or the photo-realistic characters. Animation, sound and music also have an important part. The backgrounds are not just some still protographs, they are alive: whether it is lightnings, insects crawling, the rustle of the branches of a tree or a blinking lamp, the mansion and its surroundings quiver like a gieant breathing monster. You can hear too his murmur everywhere: wind, cracks, foot steps, buzzing, moans, screams ! On top of that, there is the music. Rare, violent, sudden, it burst out from the darkness and attacks you. You, Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, you, the player, lost deep inside the lair of evil for a long and difficult adventure. If you choose to, you can decide to soothe your torments by playing it easy, but if you don't, if you go for the real nightmare, be prepared for more madness and numerous surprises to reward your courage. And what about the controls ? Does it make you shiver ? Don't be afraid, it's not so difficult, and after a little while, it'll be alright (use the control A). Should I tell you also about the monsters ? Maybe not, it might scare you to death... no, please ! please, don't ! Don't look at the pictures ! Oh, too late, I had warned you. Monsters in Resident Evil are terrible. Fear the fury of the Crimson Zombi, fear the cohorts of living dead, men or animals, fear the horror within !

Resident Evil is that scary and that good. Sure, there are some drawbacks, you read about them all the time, but honestly, what can they do against pure evil ? Not much and they do not spoil the joy of playing and getting scared. However, RE relies much on its remarkable atmosphere, it's not Braindead or another fast-pace horror movie made into a video game. You have to like it this way; each encounter with a monster is as much pleasure or even more than fighting him, and so are all the wanderings and the silences before. When you play Resident Evil, you're not just playing an action/adventure game, you're playing at frightening yourself. Then it's up to you to see if you like it or not, remember though, the biggest mistake you could make is not to believe evil is good...