Resident Evil. The game series that gave birth to "Survival Horror." The game series that made zombies cool. The game series that made stars out of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. It can be argued that the Resident Evil series has lost its way since the start of the PS2 days. But the PSone games? Capcom certainly knew how to make them back in the 90's, and Resident Evil from 1996 is yet another PSone classic.The story takes place in the future time of July 1998...the future time from 1996's POV that is. A special task force from the Raccoon City Police Department known as STARS Alpha Team is searching for their missing fellow STARS members from the Bravo Team in the forests northwest of Raccoon City. Both teams are investigating some weird murder cases that are taking place in the forests, with victims apparently being eaten. When the Alpha Team land they are attacked by flesh-eating dogs and are forced to run away and hide in a nearby mansion. But this is only the beginning of their worse nightmare.Before you start the game you have a choice of two characters to play with. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, which is basically an Easy and Hard mode. Jill's game is easier. She has eight inventory slots, access to a lockpick, later access to a bazooka and can do certain tasks that Chris can't. Chris's game is harder. He only has six inventory slots, more enemies to kill and er...can't play music. He can however run faster than Jill and take more damage before he pops his clogs.When you start the game the first thing you'll notice is the voice acting (yes, you'll notice it even before the graphics). Whatever negative words you can think of it describes the quality of the acting perfectly. It stinks. The lines sound like cheap plugs for commercial products that nobody cares about; and what were Capcom thinking with the live-action segments? The actors look like they'd just got back from a Halloween party. It's just lame. Fortunately the rest of the game is outstanding.Despite the terrible acting the storyline is still well presented and keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Comrades are being attacked by flesh-eating zombies, huge snakes and other frightening monsters. Other comrades are just disappearing. It's up to you to find out exactly what's going on in this mansion.What you have to do is enter different rooms, solve puzzles, and find items in one place and use them in another, all the while killing anything that gets in your way. You start out with just a knife with Chris and a baretta handgun with Jill, but as you progress you'll find stronger weapons, such as shotguns and magnums. You'll also find documents throughout the game that you can read. Some of them will give subtle teasers as to what's gonna happen next, whilst some will give you clues as to how to solve certain puzzles.At fourteen years old the graphics do show their age. 3D characters animated in front of pre-rendered backgrounds seemed so amazing at the time, but much less so now. Even so, it's still impressive to a certain extent. The zombies look really creepy even in PSone graphics, and they do cause your heart to race when they grab you and start chewing on your neck. It's even worse when you walk by a seemingly dead zombie lying on the ground, and then all of a sudden they spring up and grab your ankle. When you shoot the monsters, and blood starts spraying out of their bodies, you quickly realize this game is NOT for the squeamish.The music is very chilling, as you would expect from a horror game, and it still stands up well today. When you enter most of the rooms the string instruments kick in and play a slow eery tune which makes you feel uncomfortable, especially if you're playing this game for the very first time, as you'll have no idea if the room is safe or filled with zombies. In one instance you're slowly walking down a corridor and that music starts to play. But there doesn't seem to be anything around. Looks like you're safe. Then...SMASH!!! The window shatters and a zombie dog comes charging at you! Frightening or what?!Resident Evil is a classic that must appear in any PSone collector's collection. The gameplay is top draw; the enemies and music are scary; and Chris' voice, though terrible, is still funny. He's a tough guy, and you need to be too if you wanna complete this game.