Call me late to the party or what have you, but growing up, I was mostly a Nintendo kid with some Sega on the side. Almost every console I owned was a Nintendo console, and while I don’t regret it at all, I do wish I hadn’t missed out on the early PlayStation days. Sure, I got to occasionally play some classic PS games at Sears—Crash Bandicoot being the one I remember the most—but it wasn’t until the release of Final Fantasy 10 on the PS2 that I finally became a part of the PlayStation family. Since then, I have purchased every generation of PlayStation console, especially as its exclusives have become increasingly sought after. Well, despite the fact that I’ve been in on PlayStation since the PS2, that still means I missed out on the platform’s earliest classics, including the original Resident Evil. Now, after playing the Overwhelmingly Positive demo for Phase Zero on Steam, I witnessed firsthand what I missed out on, and I’m seriously impressed by it.
Something else that makes Phase Zero such an interesting case for me personally is that I wasn’t always a fan of horror either. I was one of those teenagers who was scared by the Flood in the original Halo. Of course, I knew I wasn’t alone there, but it nonetheless didn’t take much to give me a fright. Now, though, I love the thrill that horror franchises like Resident Evil give me, especially when they’re coupled with survival elements that keep me on my toes. That’s precisely what SPINA Studio’s Phase Zero brings to the table, with its Steam page even explicitly describing it as featuring “pre-rendered backgrounds, fixed cameras and the DNA of the PSX masterpieces,” blending “nostalgic design with modern quality-of-life improvements, while honoring its iconic roots.”
Phase Zero Perfectly Encapsulates the PS1-Era of Resident Evil
Check Out Phase Zero’s Overwhelmingly Positive Demo on Steam
Phase Zero takes place in 1994 in Flint Peak, a remote harbor town that’s already having a rough time before the player even sets foot in it. A brutal snowstorm is on the way, but that’s the least of the town’s worries, as a mysterious illness has been spreading through the area and turning its residents into some pretty horrifying creatures. Rather than following just one character through the whole ordeal, Phase Zero tells its story across multiple chapters from the perspectives of different survivors, each trying to make it through the night with whatever supplies they can find. Of course, simply surviving isn’t the only thing they’re concerned about, as there’s also the mystery of what’s causing the outbreak in the first place.
The demo for Phase Zero only features one playable protagonist, and I was able to reach the end of the preview in around half an hour. However, even with the demo being such a small slice of what Phase Zero‘s full release will bring when it launches on March 11, 2027, it certainly didn’t feel like a small slice. Rather, not only did I feel like I was able to get a firm grasp on what Phase Zero was trying to do in my short time with the game, I was honestly blown away by the fact that what initially seemed like such an unassuming indie game turned out to offer me an unforgettable, meaty experience right out of the gate. I can confidently say that just 30 minutes with Phase Zero was enough to make me want so much more of this world that SPINA Studio has put together, retro feel and all.
Granted, I did have to change the controls to “modern” pretty much right away, as I just couldn’t get used to the classic control scheme. That essentially meant putting the control stick in charge of all movement, rather than the D-pad, which it defaulted to. The fixed camera, on the other hand, is something that I really appreciated, especially considering Final Fantasy 10 was the first PlayStation game I ever owned, and it also featured a fixed camera. It was just the right amount of nostalgia without making the whole experience too complicated to navigate.
Phase Zero‘s Steam demo currently has an Overwhelmingly Positive rating.
But nostalgic touches aside, the experience that Phase Zero offers is immensely unforgettable. Atmosphere is everything in a survival horror game, and that is one area Phase Zero absolutely excels in. To me, that just proves you don’t need great visuals or high-fidelity audio design to sell immersion and atmosphere. Instead, you can do it through setting and silence—two elements Phase Zero expertly establishes from the get-go.
The demo had its playable protagonist, Guy, waking up in a Flint Peak hospital just as a mysterious outbreak begins turning the town’s residents into zombies. Maybe it’s a bit of a Walking Dead-type setup, but it’s effective at establishing panic and urgency immediately. From there, you’re left to figure things out alongside Guy, who quickly decides the nearby window is his only escape route but has no idea of where to go or what to do next.
Phase Zero’s Resident Evil Inspiration Goes Deeper Than Its Looks
And just as Resident Evil games have always done, Phase Zero sells its tension even further with its survival elements, including limited ammo and health kits, as well as no idea of what to do next. At the same time, the demo is somewhat forgiving if you’ve played these games before and understand that you can’t afford to fire every bullet you’ve got. Some encounters just need to be evaded or escaped once a grapple begins. And speaking of grapples, if a zombie grabs you, you can get out of its hold and kill it in the process, but just like in Resident Evil, it costs you a bit of health to do so.
Exploration in Phase Zero is already proving to be satisfying as well, with the same “find a way forward” loop survival horror games like Resident Evil have always implemented. There’s plenty of lore to be found while exploring, with each note you pick up or picture you look at giving more details about the outbreak, but what’s so satisfying is how the world itself tells the story. Each step forward offers up more details about what went wrong simply because the environment says so, and that’s also where it gets increasingly immersive. And many of those steps forward are initially blocked by a puzzle that needs solving, making progression all the more rewarding when it happens.
I can confidently say that just 30 minutes with Phase Zero was enough to make me want so much more of this world that SPINA Studio has put together, retro feel and all.
But I do need to mention the voice acting, because it’s actually very good. The characters’ lips don’t move, of course, as this is intentionally designed to reflect the PS1 era of character design. However, the voices that come out of these characters are, I’d say, more convincing than some AAA games. I’m not suggesting that voice acting is everything in a game, but when there’s a story being told, bad acting can really pull you out of it. That doesn’t happen in Phase Zero, at least during what I played in the game’s demo.
I think what excites me most about Phase Zero now is getting to see more of Flint Peak and finding out just how far SPINA Studio is willing to take this experience. After all, the demo only gave me a glimpse of the town and its story, and if the rest of the game is anywhere near as immersive as what I played, I can already see myself getting lost in it for hours. I’m especially looking forward to seeing how the mystery unfolds, because even in the short time I spent with the game, I found myself paying attention to just about everything around me, wondering whether the next room or document I came across might have something important to tell me. And I love that. It’s one thing for a survival horror game to make me afraid of what’s around the corner, but it’s another thing entirely to make me genuinely curious about what’s there.
Ultimately, I think Phase Zero has already accomplished exactly what it set out to do, at least as far as I’m concerned. I may not have grown up playing the original Resident Evil games, but I certainly understand their appeal a lot better now, and I love that SPINA Studio is bringing that style of survival horror back for both longtime fans and people like me who missed out on it the first time around. Of course, I’ll have to see how the full game turns out when it launches on March 11, 2027, but for now, I’m just glad I decided to give its demo a shot. Phase Zero wasn’t even on my radar before I played it, and now it’s easily one of the indie games I’m most looking forward to playing next year. And considering it only took about 30 minutes to get me there, I’d say that’s pretty impressive.
Phase Zero launches on Steam on March 11, 2027. A free demo is currently available, and the full game can be wishlisted.
