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Classic Game Design: Resident Evil

One of the greatest games to have ever been produced is, without doubt, the original Resident Evil, it pioneered the survival horror genre and became a must have hit on the PS1. The series may have strayed far away from these humble beginnings but there are a lot of lessons that modern game developers could learn from taking a step back and reanalyzing it, or rather the remake that was released on the GameCube. The remake is the version of the game that has been modernized with HD textures for current generation consoles and for good reason, it has aged fantastically well.

Whilst the visuals may have received a few upgrades the core mechanics at the heart of the game remain the same, the central plot is unchanged and even the sometimes shaky dialogue is all still there, for better or for worse. This article will try to look at 3 of the great design decisions they made to really help amplify this game into a true horror experience and how game designers could learn from these features.

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