New in here, but veteran with original Re 1-3.
I wanted to express one way of viewing both of these games after being long time fan of the franchise.
I've played the Original many times through (and still own it, on PS1 and on PC), but it has been some years from the last playtime. I never had played the REmake thou, but I've seen so much of gaming videos of it to make my opinion about it, so I basically know the game as well.
It's endless argumenting between those two, since there is so much different generation players and tastes on people about aspects in video games. Some prefer the modern take of the REmake and some like the 90's odd style of the Original. I right now state, that the Original is the best, I have long list of reasons and good explanation to that, why I have such opinion.
Original Resident Evil from 1996 was crafted by a quite new group of developers, who have worked on ''children's games'' before and the vision of Shinji Mikami was quite something, that was just the perfect ''first title'' for new Playstation-console from Sony. Capcom did a very careful job with the game and had very high level of quality put into it. When it was launched, public and reviewers immediately reacted to it as a instant classic. And it is just that. The game created whole new genre and was produced in a way like no other game before. Mikami's vision paid out extremely well and finally, gaming world got the first game, that was purely designed for adults. Production values were high, all the way from the soundtrack to the technical archievements. It was like a movie you were in, a cheesy, but terrific B-movie, that was treated like A-movie. After 20-years, it still holds up extremely well due the gameplay being very interesting and easy to adapt to for everyone (no arguing about tank-controls, since they're the only way to play this kind of game).
Now, the critisism the Original nowadays gets is purely based on the graphics and the voice acting, that was hilariously bad. Graphics of course get old on every single game (in the end, even the REmake looks in some places pretty old also nowadays), but that shouldn't be the reason to stop playing game. Graphics of course might look smudgy and rough in Original, but you can still recognize stuff, due the decent quality on those pre-rendered backrounds (something, that couldn't be archieved on full 3D-games back in the day). And IMO, gritty graphics on the enemies look a bit more horrific due the fact, that human nature is afraid of things, that it can't recognize properly.
Voice acting in the original was rushed due schedule issues, something, that can occur even nowadays. The voice actors themselves were good, but the lack of proper material and direction of them was non-existent and such, the ending result was a mess of different sentences/words expressed in random ways. But that doesn't matter, since you still in the end get the hang of the story from the notes found all around the game.
Gameplay mechanics were also something new, the whole control scheme was very well thought out, since when there is two different camera angles, when the backround changes, player character has to move into the direction his face is pointing. If the character onscreen would move into the direction you press onscreen, you would in some places spin endlessly back and forth. Inventory system was unique and revolutionary by the time. No longer you could endlessly collect all sort of stuff, but instead, it was limited. That was a total game changer, since no longer you were required to only focus into shooting the enemies, you also needed to think ahead, that what you need on later.
Something people does not look too often is the soundtrack. Mastermind Masami Ueda is one of the composers and has been a long time worker for Capcom. The soundtrack is one of the aspects, that wasn't improved that much in the REmake. And I still think, that Original's version of it is the best soundtrack in any RE-game. Some parts of it consist of course some bad intruments and compositions, reminding japanese action-games instantly, but mostly, it's electronic synth soundtrack, that sounds very much like western horror movie music. On REmake, the soundtrack was made to sound more familiar with added warmth and realism to the intruments. But, in the process, it lost the charm of the Original's version, which was all about bizarre, unnerving sounds and atmosphere. Some pieces of music in the REmake even sounds like they've done lazy work with it, the composition is not as tight on it, than on the Original.
In the end, Mikami and Capcom delivered something, that was not only a very successful video game, that spawned massive franchise. It was also cultural phenomenom, that foreverly changed gaming industry. Games as ''children toys'' were over. Finally adults could have an interactive entertaiment piece, that would suit into their minds as well.
Now, I start to speak about the REmake. Everything is amped up to 11, graphics, sounds, voice acting, narrative, story, locations, enemies and the gameplay. Mikami was directing it, so he made sure, that the product values have to be amped up to 11 as well and that everything has to be polished from the original. They expanded the game world to contain more places and fixed some places to be more ''realistic'', since in the Original, some of them felt rushed (I look at you, shark tank area).
Everything was essentially just polished up to modern standards. New enemies added (Crimson Heads and Lisa), that amped up the challenge and tension more, but that's about it. Graphics was the biggest change overall, both of the games look completely different. But when it comes to the REmake's improved graphics, I think, that they also lost some of the charm and uniqueness of the Original with it. In REmake, the game has very bland palette of colours (modern day standard), that make it look more ''realistic''. But in the process, it also made the game a lot more darker, which in my opinion, is a pretty cheap trick to add more tension and mood of horror. REmake looks very similar all the way through, there is not much of colour changes, whereas in the Original, there was much more variety in terms of colours, that reminded me about Suprisia, Dario Argento's masterpiece movie.
When we come into the public reaction, obviosly everyone was stunned by the graphics, the game looked fantastic for its day (2001) and people was thrilled about the gameplay. But did it have similar impact as the Original ? No.
REmake just did the same tricks as the first one, only being polished to modern day standards. It's not influential, ground breaking or something new to people. It delivered the classic with new paint and engine. Nostalgia piece for modern players. And that's why, it doesn't have same impact on people, that the Original had back in the day.
In short, REmake is made for the younger generation of players, that want to have dark, realistic look and can see immediately, what has happened. Some people like to progress with the game industry and can't go back into pixelated graphics. Gameplay on both is exactly the same.
Vs.
Original is made for the gamers of the 90's and nostalgia players, who let their imagination create the details of the game's world, because the graphics does not allow that. Product of its time, 90's were great times.
My conclusion: Original allows you to paint the rest of the world with your visions, that amps up the tension and thus, it's much more memorable and infulential piece of interactive entertaiment. REmake is fantastic video game, but my vote goes for Original.
