Remember back in the late 90’s when a little game called Resident Evil was released on the Playstation? It was full of terrible voice acting, stupid sound effects and a really cheesy vibe in general but it had great gameplay and was genuinely creepy for it’s time. It was one of the first games to ever be known as a Survival Horror and it cemented itself as a classic for the rest of time.
Then we were graced the greatly improved and superior Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis which took the horror to a whole new level, introduced brand new characters that still tied in with the series’ canon.
Then came Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube a few years ago. From the view point of a hardcore fan, this is when something was completely off. Sure it brought back greatly known characters like Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong but without them, would you really look at RE4 and think to yourself “yeah that’s Resident Evil I can tell right away!” No you wouldn’t.
Now while Resident Evil 4 did completely change the series forever, it was still creepy and kept with the dark, secluded and desperate struggles that the series is known for. Now fast forward to the current consoles with the release of Resident Evil 5. It’s at this point where I ask myself where Capcom went wrong.
Even back in the old school days with such “awesome” games as Resident Evil: Survivor and Resident Evil: Dead Aim it was still better. At least those still felt like Resident Evil. If I had to compare Resident Evil 5 to anything I’d say it’s starting to feel like like Gears of War more than anything else.
Let us list off the things that made the original series so memorable and great. All of the older games had memorable and interesting characters which did make comebacks in the newer games but in Resident Evil 5, Jill Valentine was pushed back to becoming a supporting character and only was in a few scenes. Seriously? Sure, Jill is finally going to return to the front seat in the upcoming RE5 DLC but why on earth did it have to come to that?
My biggest concern is where are the zombies? I understand that in order to make the series evolve into an action game you need faster enemies but why even make it action? Resident Evil has always been about the fear and solitude you feel, deciding whether or not you want to use your ammo on a zombie or run past and save it. In Resident Evil 5 you find ammo every time an enemy dies so there is really no shortage.
The only Resident Evil games of the new generation that still feel like a Resident Evil game are the two Wii titles Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles. This generation of gamers will know the series because of RE4 and RE5 and it’s a shame because they will never really see what made the series so great in the first place. With the recent announcement of a PSP entry in the series the only thing I can ask for is that Capcom goes back to the series’ roots.
Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3 are available on the PSN for both the PS3 and PSP for only $5.99 so I implore fans to go buy them if you haven’t already. If you were introduced to the series because of RE4 or RE5 then at least give these classics a shot, they deserve that much. Maybe Capcom will realize that the old school style of RE is still very popular and very much alive.
A lot of good points, they killed the franchise when they decided to move away from the game’s roots and basically make it a Shooter.
The worst part were the controls! terrible!
I tried playing the old resident evil games after playing resi 4 and I just couldn’t get into them. It’s just that half the game mechanics are outdated.
The frustrating controls really put me off 0 and 1. I wanted to carry on but it was just not worth it in my eyes.
Maybe it’s because you played these games earlier at times when controls weren’t top notch but thinking back to the earlier days there are a vast number of games with much better controls at that time.
Don’t hate me for bashing the earlier versions of the game but I think Resi 4 was amazing especially the wii version and that comes down to the fact that the controls were superb. Maybe if they remade the older games with better controls I’d get them (again since i bought 0,1,2 and 3 on my gamecube thinking I’d play them all. How wrong I was.)