We can all agree that the original Playstation is one of the best video game consoles of all time, right? Good.
I happened to be having a conversation with a friend about the console in question, and inevitably, we started talking about our favorite games for it. Amusingly, while we both had a list of favorite games for the console, we couldn't narrow down our favorite overall game on the console. A day later, I still found it curious that I still couldn't come to a conclusion for myself. That's when I got the idea for this.
Basically, I take my 16 favorite PS1 games, set them up in a bracket, tournament style, and take an objective look at each game, and have them face off. The one that ends up winning advances, until a winner is decided. Who doesn't love a good tournament, anyway?
So here's the Tournament Bracket.
http://betterbracketmaker.com/#!/bbe64cfcbca15
And without further ado, let's get started with the first match!
Round 1: Tomb Raider Vs. Resident Evil 2
Tomb Raider is the game that introduced the world to Lara Croft, an adventurous (and somewhat well endowed) treasure hunter. It's considered to have set the standard for 3D action adventure games to come after it, and it's influence can be seen in gaming today, most notably in the Uncharted series by Naughty Dog. It's also influential in that it was one of the first mainstream games to feature a female protagonist, something revolutionary at the time.
Resident Evil 2 is the sequel to Capcom's 1996 hit, Resident Evil. Credited with creating the "Survival Horror" sub genre, Resident Evil sees protagonists faced with a zombie outbreak, usually caused by the mysterious and powerful pharmaceutical company known as Umbrella Corporation. Resident Evil 2 would go on to become one of the most popular entries in the series, being ported to multiple platforms and having it's story adapted in multiple forms of media.
Let's take a look at them, shall we?
Graphics:
It's almost kind of unfair to compare the two in this category. Resident Evil 2 came out a full two years after Tomb Raider, and by that point, most developers had a handle on the hardware, while in '96, developers were only just starting to get their footing. 3D console development was still in it's infancy at that point. That isn't to say Tomb Raider is a particularly awful looking game, but it's visuals haven't aged well at all. Resident Evil 2, on the other hand looks decent these days, and a big part of that is it's use of pre-rendered backgrounds in lieu of polygonal based backgrounds. It still kind of dates the game's visuals a bit, but much less so than Tomb Raider. The character models, while not stellar, and a good bit more detailed than in Tomb Raider as well. Though again, it's almost unfair to compare the two given the amount of time between each other. Resident Evil 2 quite obviously wins here.
Gameplay/Controls
This is where both games kind of get weird, at least as far as controls are concerned. Both Tomb Raider and Resident Evil 2 employ "tank controls", a control method that as the name implies, gives your character the amount of gracefulness comparable to a tank. By that, I mean that the character's movement capabilities are rather limited. No matter what direction you're facing in, Up will always move you forward. Down will always move you backward, etc, etc. It works in both games, as they're obviously designed around their respective controls. I don't think either game's controls are really all that better than one other, to be honest. Lara may be a little stiffer to control, but again, it's intentional, and the game is designed around said stiffness, and quite well, I'd say. I'd call it a tie here.
The gameplay side of things is where things start to differ. Tomb Raider is a game focused on making huge jumps and solving puzzles with some gun play sprinkled in, whereas Resident Evil 2 is focused on puzzle solving, and avoiding and/or engaging zombies and other monsters with various firearms. Again, while I can't make any sort of objective decision over which has the better gameplay, I'd give the slight edge to Resident Evil 2, if only for the slightly deeper mechanics that come with it's gameplay (Limb damage, headshots, etc.)
Replayability
Resident Evil 2 wins hand down here. Once you beat Tomb Raider, you're pretty much done with the game. You have the option to play through the game with infinite ammo afterwards, but that's about it. Resident Evil 2 on the other hand, has loads of extra content. For one, it's a two disc game. Each disc contains a character scenario, and you can tackle them in any order you like. After that, you can unlock a third scenario for the game, and after that, a fourth one, as well as a score attack mini-game as well. A lot of these bonuses come from clearing the game under certain conditions, so you'll be spending a lot of time perfecting your runs through the game to get it's unlockable content. Resident Evil 2 takes this category.
Verdict:
Resident Evil 2 takes it over Tomb Raider. While it's not a bad game, it's still very much a product of it's time, and frankly, Resident Evil 2 just holds up a lot better these days. RE2 advances in the bracket.
Check out the blog later today for round 2!
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