Owning only a Sega Saturn must have been rough. Most high profile third party exclusive games were announced for the Sony PlayStation, and Sega struggled to keep up with Nintendo in terms of blockbusters. The system is often considered the worst of its generation, but it’s actually one of my favorites because it has so many unique games that you can’t find anywhere else. While most third party developers abandoned the system early on (it was infamously difficult to program for, and it had the smallest userbase) a few stood by Sega’s planetary console. Capcom was a big one, and I was surprised when they announced a port of the first installment of their new franchise, Resident Evil, for the platform. Not only that but it was to have new features exclusive to this version. I was curious how the Sega Saturn port of one of my favorite games turned out, and after inheriting a friend’s Saturn collection I dove right in.
The original Resident Evil takes place in a mansion on the outskirts of a typical American suburb; the fictional Raccoon City. After reports of cannibals attacking people in the woods a special force from the local police is sent to investigate. S.T.A.R.S. (or Special Tactics and Rescue Service) Bravo Team is dispatched first but soon loses contact. Alpha Team is dispatched after them, but after landing their helicopter the force is attacked by a pack of mutant dogs. Their only chance of escape is in a nearby looming mansion, but what they don’t realize is that this is the source of both the cannibals and the mutated animals thanks to an underground laboratory experimenting with a virus capable of turning people into zombies. From the start you can choose one of two characters to play as (Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield of Alpha Team). Though the story is basically the same for each the scenarios differ in the items you collect, enemies you encounter, and even characters that you meet. They aren’t drastically different from one another, but enough so that it’s worthwhile to finish both. This later became a staple of the franchise.
Resident Evil is a third person action game. As is typical of the era the backgrounds are pre-rendered meaning the camera angles are static and simply shift as you walk to the edge of the viewing area. While many hate the tank controls that are used to fit the shifting view they work pretty well and allow for dramatic angles. The mansion is huge and features many different areas to explore. When you first begin most of the doors are locked, and you must find the appropriate items and keys in order to progress. This means you will be doing a lot of backtracking, but thanks to the in-game map this is a fairly painless process. In addition you will often unlock shortcuts to previous visited areas. After spending enough time in the Spencer Mansion you will start to memorize locations and which doors lead you to where and where item boxes are found. There are several areas of the estate that don’t become available until late in the story.
Combat is a big part of the game. You must first equip a weapon via the menu, and then during gameplay holding down either of the shoulder buttons to draw it and then press the action key to use it. While you do begin with a hand knife (it’s your only weapon that doesn’t use ammunition) this will prove quite useless because it is not only weak but also does not stun enemies. Every other weapon you acquire in this game is a firearm of some kind, and these range from simple hand guns to shotguns, magnums, and even a rocket launcher. These vary in their strength, firing rate, and clip capacity. The ‘survival’ aspect of this game comes from the fact that ammunition is very limited and you will often be in short supply. The enemies don’t take pity when you’re almost out of bullets, and you must plan ahead and sometimes simply run from approaching monsters instead of defeating them.Though your basic enemies are slow and unintelligent zombies others such as hunters and undead dogs are fast and far more lethal. Healing items come in the form of herbs, and these too are limited and often hard to find when you need them. You can only hold a few items at once in your inventory, but you can store those that aren’t necessary at the time in item boxes strewn throughout the mansion. Thankfully these are universal so you don’t have to seek out specific ones.
Capcom didn’t just offer a straight port of the original game thankfully. This was released mere months before the Director’s Cut was, but there are still some notable differences. The three versions feature different camera angles in specific rooms which is a cool little touch. Exclusive to the Saturn version is a battle mode wherein you must traverse specific areas of the mansion with the simple goal of defeating all of the enemies. This even features two monsters not found in the main game. It’s a good little bonus that’s enough to differentiate the Saturn version from the other releases, and it shows that Capcom cared about this port. The only other big difference (aside from aesthetics, but I’ll get to that next) is that this version has an exclusive bonus costume for both Chris and Jill. The differences are pretty decent despite the Saturn edition coming out almost a year later, and even in the face of the closely released Director’s Cut.
While Resident Evil is very good looking by the system’s standards the graphics feel like a bit of a downgrade from the PlayStation version. The character models are more blocky, and animate in a more stiff manner. Chris Redfield almost looks like a football player complete with shoulder pads here. Furthermore the transparencies have obviously been downgraded because the Saturn simply cannot pull off the effect. The door opening sequences suffer from framerate drops (no doubt a problem caused by loading) and these hiccups are pretty obvious. The FMV sequences are more grainy than in the PlayStation version, but this isn’t a big deal because the only significant one is found at the beginning of the game. The soundtrack is thankfully ported from the original game and not the Director’s Cut. This edition has the moody and atmospheric music that is still absolutely timeless. I’m really happy they didn’t mess with it.
Resident Evil on the Sega Saturn is probably not going to be anyone’s first choice for the original game. This port has a few performance issues and the graphics are a noticeable downgrade from the PlayStation version. Furthermore there isn’t as much new stuff within the story as in the Director’s Cut. With that said the additions made here, specifically the battle mode and costumes, are exclusive to this version. This makes it well worth collecting for any fan of the franchise, and for fans of the Sega Saturn in general. This is a worthwhile port, and Capcom did a great job even on the underpowered hardware.
