How does things like this happen? How can beloved gaming franchises like Resident Evil commit Seppuku right before our eyes and no one bat an eyelash? Before you think that this is an article bashing the game for getting wrong what other games in its category has gotten right, it isn't. If anything, it's a wistful remembrance of the game it used to be and a head scratching at why they are trying to do right what many games do wrong; cater to the wrong type of audience.
Let's be clear here: Resident Evil was the first to put the survival horror genre on the map. Been said before, so no need to elaborate. What I do need to elaborate on is how much perfection RE 1, RE 2 and Code Veronica (throw Nemesis in there if you want to, but I think that was really the beginning of this action oriented mess) were and how much they needed to leave that recipe AS IS but didn't.
If I want a Rambo-esque experience, I'll play Call of Duty. If I want a Rambo-esque experience with a sprinkling of zombies, I'll play Left 4 Dead or take it back a notch and go ham on House of the Dead. The fun of the RE series is in the complex puzzles, the Hitchcock-ian pseudo Japanese horror flick frights and the dark, creepy and assuredly off-kilter locations in which the characters found themselves. Not to mention the almost plausible storylines that could fit just as easily as a BP oil spill update on the bottom scrolling marquee of the CNN news channel.
In short--Capcom, you've messed up. Royally, but as long as you're shipping the numbers you are, you won't ever really have to address it. What, pray tell, is the asterisk then? You've effectively sold your soul. Not the kind of sale where you come out with non-nonsensical Director's Cuts or first person shooter shooters on a boat (which you have), but the kind of sale that thumbs-up-the-asses of your core base for the sake of another. You got a taste of top tier mainstream success with RE 4 and shed all remnants of what made you different.
You want to grow and expand your brand. That's code for you're tired of being broke in comparisons to Grand Theft Auto or NBA 2k; we get it. Instead of further distancing a storied gaming experience, take all that knowledge and want to create something new and exciting and put it into a new intellectual property. When is enough success, enough success, to throw those hanging in the fray a bone? A nod to the lengths we go to in order to remain loyal in an industry that has long shunned that trait?
The movies are bad enough without you turning your back on the fans who made you. Come back home, Capcom. Come back home.
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What kind of a story did people expect from RE this many sequels into the franchise?
Same thing has happened to every single game/movie series i've ever enjoyed. If they ever close the series they just add another sequel for the fun of it or squeeze in a prequel (Hello Metal Gear), by which point the story is so aimless it becomes irrelevent.
Personally, I thought RE5 was ace. Stamping on zombies was fun, it had been a while so I lapped it up. Then I find out I can do it on co-op online and get bonus time for melee attacks, i'm hooked. If RE6 is more of the same, i'm in...when its cheaper. :)
More like,
Let's Face It Resident Evil has not been "Resident Evil" since first game.
I agree with Caseh, if you look at the story the direction makes perfect sense.
Can you imagine if RE6 and the sequels before it came out with the same formula as RE1? People would be going ape shit with "same old sh*t". Hell we see it enough with CoD, people yelling and screaming for some kind of change.
Just recently someone posted a return to RE:outbreak and I thought that was a great idea. With the excellent PSN/Live available this game could be done right with current gen consoles.
Capcom should do a break off series like Outbreak again and return it to its roots for people who enjoyed the first 3 games. Playing a regular person against a hord of undead and t-virus monsters.
Do people seriously think that they were just going to leave the series how it was? You people need to wake up. Resident Evil is never going back to the 8bit fixed camera angle that it started as. Resident Evil was a good game back in 1996. Let's imagine Resident evil was never released back when it was and instead was released today. It would be slammed as one of the worst games ever. Clunky controls, bad camera angers, atrocious voice acting, and horrendous graphics (again that is if it was released today). Before you attempt to slam me as a hater honestly judge a game like RE by today's standards. (They did btw, it was called AMY, and even that was better than in every aspect than the original RE). Resident Evil will never go back to that, and lets all be honest, do we really want it to? Ask yourself, when was the last time you played the "legendary" RE, or RE 2, or 3, or Code Veronica?
"What I do need to elaborate on is how much perfection RE 1, RE 2 and Code Veronica (throw Nemesis in there if you want to, but I think that was really the beginning of this action oriented mess) were and how much they needed to leave that recipe AS IS but didn't."
Perfection they might have been when they released but a game like that today would probably hardly score more than a 2. They can not leave the recipe as it because in today's gaming society it would not work.
People do not want a game like that. Of course the elitests claim they do, but if it was released how many would by it. Well judging from the sales of Code Veronica HD (granted it's "HD" was terrible) not many.
Let's be real. It's not going to happen. In the end Capcom is a business. They are going to take the game in a direct that will appeal to the most. They can make a game that appeals to 1% or to 90%. What would you do.
I'm sorry that you don't like it, but if RE 1-3 were so good download them on PSN or Xbox Live. Or emulate them on a computer.
Funny I should read this because in my blog (I wrote 1 hour ago) I mentioned RE to justify my point.