What is Resident Evil again?

[Xeogred]

Dead space is how modern resident evil games should be IMO. Thats survival horror done right.

Dead Space 1, anyway.

Ditto. The controls were evolved and a bit more fluid and yeah, it felt like the next best thing after RE4 to me in terms of stuff like this.

RE6 looks so bad it's hilarious. Talk about convoluted. Not touching it, can't wait for them to ruin Leon and Ada now. Imagine the main MGS line without Kojima... losing Mikami after RE4 obviously did something and from now on, I'm done with the series.

This is how it goes, the original games had awful stories themselves, hilarious dubs, and weren't really that scary. But they atmosphere, they had heart, and they had charm. B-Grade level 80's/90's action movie like fun. They were great games and good times. I love the originals, and REmake is probably one of the best remakes out there next to Metroid Zero Mission or something.

RE4 I completely love as well. It's different, but still had all that charm the original had. Leon's epic one liners, hilarious government conspiracies and experiments gone wrong. It was a fun game, lengthy, etc. And the last in the series with good music.

Suddenly, Michael Bay took over. RE5 had no variety with its environments at all, gave zombies guns, had the lamest inventory system after RE4's awesome briefcase setup, was half as long, and Capcom thinks all games have to have forced co-op nowadays or you get stuck with the worst AI in the world. RE6 looks no different whatsoever, a rotting series that has completely lost itself and is suddenly trying way too hard, with the Michael Bay polish nobody wants.

It'll sell, and I'll hate them for it. Capcom are dead to me. Somebody burn its body so it stays dead.

[brunoafh]

On Resident Evil 4, no. It's not comparable to the original trilogy nor CV. Is it a bad game? No, not at all. Is it Resident Evil? Nope, not one bit.

QTEs, zero/stupidly linear puzzles, ammo and health everywhere, merchants, constant action sequences, no exploration elements, it's not Resident Evil. It's a straight up arcade shooter through and through, and the beginning of the decay of the franchise's roots. There were no horror elements, I felt like a laughably invincible tank the entire game. It's no different than RE 5 and beyond, same action heavy elements and the removal of horror elements. Yeah RE 5 was more heavy on action than 4, but it all started with 4 and has been downhill since.

Again, it's not a bad game, but it was the beginning of the end of the franchise for sure and removed everything that made the games so unique and great.

[harper]

Leon's epic one liners

Salazar: I've sent my right hand to dispose of you.

Leon: Your right hand comes off?

Good stuff.

[Menegrothx]

QTEs, zero/stupidly linear puzzles, ammo and health everywhere, merchants, constant action sequences, no exploration elements, it's not Resident Evil. It's a straight up arcade shooter through and through, and the beginning of the decay of the franchise's roots. There were no horror elements

How the hell isn't running around as unarmed Ashley not a horror element? Or pushing those heavy garbage cans in a panic while the indestructible Iron Maidens were chasing you? If getting chased by an enemy which you can not harm/ultimately kill (while also having to open doors/push trash cans) doesn't count as a horror element, then I guess Resident Evil 3 (Nemesis) and Amnesia&Penumbra games don't have horror elements either.

How is pressing X once to open a door to escape from Nemesis in Re3 more intense than having to waggle your wii mote in order to open a door to escape? Amnesia and Penumbra do the same thing, escaping from monsters feels more intense when you have to manually open doors and move objects yourself. You just cant get to a safe zone simply by pressing a button like you did in early RE games. If your hands start to shake and you screw up, the monster will catch you and kill you. Sure blame the QTEs, anything that wasn't in the originals must be heresy.

I felt like a laughably invincible tank the entire game. It's no different than RE 5 and beyond, same action heavy elements and the removal of horror elements. Yeah RE 5 was more heavy on action than 4, but it all started with 4 and has been downhill since.

So soundtrack and aesthetics aren't a part of horror ambiance?
Resident Evil 4 has horror music 1 2
Resident Evil 5 has Crash Bandicoot music

Resident Evil 4 looks like a horror game, atleast in some parts. Doesn't it make any difference to you whether a horror game is set in a dark, decayed inbred Romanian (I know they're Spanish) village, or in bright and shiny shanty town/African Savanna/oil refinery/Indiana Jones temple? Resident Evil 5 just looks to clean, bright and polished, it doesn't look like a horror game.

Resident Evil 4 does not have as much horror elements as 1-3 and it does have a lot of action elements but if you cant see the distinction between 4 and 5, you must blind. Re 1-3 is Horror, Re 4 is horror/action and Re5 is just action.

[noiseredux]

I loved RE4 as a horror fan because when I finally got to play it I realized I was pretty much just playing a video game version of the film Dagon. If y'all don't know, that was one of many adaptations of HP Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." There is so much in RE4 that seems to tip its hat to not just the story or Lovecraft mythos, but specifically Stuart Gordon's vision from that film. Seeing as how Dagon is my favorite Lovecraft adaptation of all time, I pretty much adore that game -- and put it on the same level as RE1 although they are very different in execution.

I encourage all RE4 fans to watch Dagon. It may be streaming on Netflix now.

[brunoafh]

Well I guess technically anything that has monsters of some kind can be considered having horror elements. But by "no horror elements" I was referring to lack of suspense/tension. I always had an abundance of ammo and healing supplies (pretty sure you could buy healing supplies too) and the inventory was gigantic, and could be upgraded to the point where you could walk around with enough firepower to start a war. The only stuff I remember getting killed by were QTEs and the chainsaw guys.

Anyway, there's no need to be so rabid, I was just stating the fact that it's an action game and completely different than the previous games. Which is fine, I just prefer the original formula when it comes to RE.

+1 for the Crash Bandicoot thing.

[Luke]

I think the simple answer to the original question is that Resident Evil is a video game. Hold on, I'm not being facetious. Video games evolve. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Whether I play Madden '93 or Madden Madden '12, I know I am playing a football game. Not the same case with Resident Evil. Sure, it goes all over the map from horror survival, to horror action, to simply action, from overhead cam, to over the shoulder cam, etc. Lots of changes.

But games should evolve (whoa whoa whoa, Ms.Pac-Man I'm not talking about you) as new ideas fuel mistakes to learn from and improvements to keep. Some game series only seem to get better and better by shaking things up (Zelda) others not so much. Resident Evil is a franchise and I don't think there is any doubt that the RE games will keep changing throughout the years.

[MrPopo]

Well I guess technically anything that has monsters of some kind can be considered having horror elements. But by "no horror elements" I was referring to lack of suspense/tension. I always had an abundance of ammo and healing supplies (pretty sure you could buy healing supplies too) and the inventory was gigantic, and could be upgraded to the point where you could walk around with enough firepower to start a war. The only stuff I remember getting killed by were QTEs and the chainsaw guys.

You seem to be focusing on the survival part of the two-part genre "survival horror". I think something can be horror without being survival, and similarly can be survival without being horror.

[Menegrothx]

Well I guess technically anything that has monsters of some kind can be considered having horror elements. But by "no horror elements" I was referring to lack of suspense/tension. I always had an abundance of ammo and healing supplies (pretty sure you could buy healing supplies too) and the inventory was gigantic, and could be upgraded to the point where you could walk around with enough firepower to start a war. The only stuff I remember getting killed by were QTEs and the chainsaw guys.

You can build suspense/tension with out being low on ammo. It's just one part of the whole horror experience.

I'll admit that I've never played the originals on hard, but every time I played those games, I always had an overabundance of ammo for all of my weapons and healing items by the end of the game. I couldn't use up all the bazooka ammo (acid rounds, fire rounds, explosive rounds) even if I tried. It's the same thing in RPGs, I save up potions and other items for the final battle throughout the whole game and in the end I end up noticing that I never needed them in the first place.

Atleast on easy&normal you should have enough ammo to kill all enemies in RE 1-3. In a way I like the fact that you have to optimize you're routes in Re1 and think of which hall way has zombies you have to avoid, where are the items you need in order to advance etc while minimizing your ammo, health item and ink ribbon usage. But in practice it usually means that you explore all the rooms, check out all the items etc, then reset the game and do the optimal route when you already know what to do. By then you already know where zombies will ambush you and when it's ok to kill a zombie and when it's just a waste of ammo.

[alexjames01]

I just logged about 6 hours into the full release yesterday and while it is definitely more of an action title (following the same route as 5), I really have to say it is much improved from RE5. It does have a charm to it that was missing from the last title.

There are some parts of the game that will make you jump (did that zombie just lunge at me all the way from across the room?) and there is much more emphasis on conserving ammo. Other than that, it is still a big step in the opposite direction from the classic titles.

Current big release games are pretty much required to focus on multiplayer or co-op and resident evil has only followed suit. The current mass share of gamers are not the same generation that remember resident evil 1, or the original playstation for that matter. They are growing up with xbox live, psn, steam etc. and they are used to a different experience than most of us here I would say.

Capcom is going to get their money from the release, and good reviews are already pouring in (famitsu gave it a 39 out of 40). So i don't really see them taking the series back to its roots as much as I'd love to see that.

The game is actually pretty enjoyable and if you don't mind going co-op, it's even more fun. It shares little with the pre-re5 releases, but it feels more like a resident evil title than the last, and thats good enough for me at least.