The De-Evolution of the Resident Evil Series
- Angel Ramon
- Aug 31, 2017
- 6 min read
For those who are 90's babies or even mid-80's babies have probably heard of the Resident Evil gaming franchise. I will be talking about the gaming series, not the movie series. Personally I think the movie series was crap, maybe RE: Apocalypse and Milla Jovovich are the savors of the movie series. Other than those two things, I will stay away from the movie series and concerntrate on the much better gaming series or in my view what used to be a great gaming series. For fans of the Angel's Nightmare Adventure Series, you might have found that it reads similiar to the gaming series even if all you played was the original game for the Playstation One. That was my intention, with many of my own twists, but also to show fans of the classic RE games that the classics are not dead.
So what do I consider to be the classic Resident Evil titles? As a old-fart and long time lover of the series, mine definition of the classsic titles will probably be rather picky and selective. Please feel free to give me your list of what you think is "classic" on the comments below. As you see above these games are what I call the Origin games or the ones that started the series. You can play these games in order and be entralled in a rich, but yet action-packed story. After these three games, Capcom decided to come out with two games. They were Resident Evil: Zero and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. They were both games, but unless you had a GameCube you were only able to play RE: Code Veronica since somehow Nintendo had exclusive rights to RE: Zero and the Resident Evil 1 - Remake.
Anyway all the games I mentioned plus Resident Evil 4 are what I consider to be the Golden Age of the Resident Evil Series. They built the storyline with the classic feel of survivor horror just like the old PC games of the early 90's on DOS. Each of these titles made you feel helpless and gave you the sense that you had to think about what weapon to use and when. Due to the lack of ammo in each of these games, you had to use you intellgence which enriched gameplay. Not to mention the storyline was rich itself, the classic titles focused more on the actual idea of the series which was "Survival" and nothing more. Although you had the Umbrella Corporation and a devilish character known as Wesker to throw in the Conspiracy wrench in there, but it wasn't overdone. So whenever he did show up it was a welcome sight.
To be fair though, Albert Wesker was a villian who was loved by every Resident Evil fan including me. In fact, he was named one of the greatest villians in all of video games. To go back to the gameplay of the classic titles, there was something else I loved. These games had "fixed-angles", which added the scare factor as the player was unable to see everything around them giving them a sense of suspense as they had no idea what was waiting for them around the corner. Plus the use of the ECG where Health was measured from Fine to Danger and only a few hits would kill you was also something I liked. The feeling that you could be in perfect health and one fatal mistake will lead to your demise certaintly uped the challenge.
What the series did right was focus on the story of survivors surviving the creations of the Umbrella Corporation through many urban enviroments. The reason I loved the classic series is because many of them took place in urban everyday areas such as police stations, hospitals, and even a diner. Only RE 1 and RE: Code Veronica had strange settings taking place in Mansions, but Mansions are cool they scare the hell out of me at night, lol. The final reason why the classics were so good was the inventory system, simple 8 box system where you could carry up to 8 items. In some games you could carry an extra 2 items with a side pack. Also you had an item box where you could store items you didn't need. Only classic to break that rule was Resident Evil: Zero which favored a system where you simply left items on the floor and return to get them later. I hated the system and is why I tend to think RE: Zero is the underachiever in the golden age of the series. At least in that game the story was awesome and the gameplay was much better than the game that would proceed Resident Evil 4.
Yup, Resident Evil 5. It's the game I credit for beginning the decline of the series. I hated it so much to the point where I say if you like it you must be one of two things. Either you must be younger than 19 or you must be dellusional. This game took everything I like about the series and burned it! Gone was the fixed angles and survivor horr feel of the series, even RE: 4 felt scarier. Plus the setting was set in Africa? What??? You go from the legendary Raccoon City to Africa? Whoa, that was a turn-off for me, Africa is already going through too much as it is. Now you got a video game showing their suffering as well, nah that was a low blow and a disrespect to actual Africans. Not even Chris Redfield could save this bad title from killing the franchise at that point. To add insult to injury Capcom decided to kill off their best villian, Albert Wesker. The storyline after that became dead and started to have the feeling of an action movie and almost no survivor horror at all. At that point I kind of gave up on the series, gameplay and story wise.
Games such as the poorly made Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (What a POS!), Resident Evil Eevelations 1 and 2 came and went by without my attention as I could have cared less. I was convinced Capcom got greedy and didn't care about the series anymore. That is until I saw this game:
Oh yeah, now we're getting down to the deep bottom of the barrel of Capcom. Oh yeah does it feel good to shit on a real piece of crap. When I saw this game, I saw an opportunity for Capcom to captialize on the many questions fans had about the Umbrella Corporation and give fans an inside look into the company without interference from the good guys. Instead what me and every fan got was a half-assed product that was just shooting the same enemy over and over again with no substance. Ok, I understand the game was aimed at the multiplayer community, but damn it failed at that as well. I had the displeasure of playing this game on steam and sadly Capcom got my $35 as I couldn't get a refund, right now its deleted from my computer and will never be played again! Also, instead of getting a background about Umbrella and more easter eggs, all we get is diaries written by a man named "Abraham Jackson" and the diaries are written so poorly that it looked like Capcom hired an eight year old.
Listen I can keep going, but you get the idea, it sucked major balls! That alone destroyed my confidence in the series and I vowed to never play a new Resident Evil game ever again until they could prove themselves again. I felt betrayed as Umbrella Corps was most likely nothing but a cash-in to cash on the fans hungry to know more about the Umbrella Corporation.
I had low expectations for RE: 7, but to be honest it isn't half bad. It's actually got some good gameplay, but here's the keyword, "Good" not Great. The story was ok, but not ground breaking and the setting just doesn't feel like the classic Resident Evil I grew up with. Do I recommend it, yeah if you're young and know nothing about the actual series. However, if you're like me who writes for a living and love fan fiction, then I can't recommend it to you. I know some people might call me a gaming nazi, but I'm fine with that. I have a right to my opinion, right? However, real Resident Evil fans will agree that the series simply doesn't feel the same anymore. Oh Capcom if only you stood to your original formula... Sad I know...
