Quick Jump Daily Digest
Thank you for your interest in the Quick Jump Daily Digest. Get notified of all new content on QJ in our free Daily Digest. To subscribe, enter your email address below and click the subscribe button.
PoV: It's about time Resident Evil became an actual survival horror series again |
Listed in: Wii, PS3, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PC Gaming, iPhone, Nintendo 3DS Tags: Capcom, resident evil, resident evil: revelations
Back in the days of the original PlayStation, Capcom's Resident Evil was one of the first few games to be classified under the "survival horror" umbrella along with Konami's Silent Hill series. The premise was simple. You were thrust into a situation that was clearly more than you bargained for, and if you didn't use your brain you'd end up serving it to a zombie for dessert.
As the years passed, however, it seemed the definition of survival horror started changing, especially in the Resident Evil series. The horror part gradually took a back seat to the survival part, until Resident Evil 4 pretty much left it in the dust. Even the survival part of the equation got hit. How can you really worry about surviving when you give a killing machine like Leon Kennedy enough ammo to turn an entire city into a ghost town?
Now we're stuck with Resident Evil games that are more action-oriented than their predecessors. That's not to say that they're bad (quite fun in a very visceral sense, actually), but they are as far away from the genre as the Spencer Mansion is from 4222 Clinton Way. Those who want to return even so slightly to the series' roots have one option other than replaying the old games, though: Resident Evil: Revelations is said to be a deliberate throwback to the series' horror beginnings.
I say it's about time. The more action-oriented Resident Evil games with their open environments and characters bristling with firepower are fun enough on their own but they're not survival horror games. It's selfish, maybe, but I want to again feel like the kid who got scared out of his mind because a zombie dog suddenly crashed through a window. I hope Revelations does the job it's setting out to do, and if you're a fan of real survival horror games then you should too.
Care to share your opinions, thoughts, or most scary Resident Evil experiences? Hit us up with a comment. You can also continue the discussion on the QJ.NET forums.
| 100% of voters think this story ROCKS! |
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comments
Go get a blog or something..
Reply
Reply
You're an idiot.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
But I thought 4 was the most fun RE in many years.
But that was probably because it imitated a bunch of other great games.
(That IS a legitimate design method.)
IMO ff4 was better than almost all of them behind it.
But I agree, it was also a departure from the theme in the first place.
The need to combine the refined pace of new games, (we cant be bothered to verify that we've picked something up 4 times any more), with creeping again.
IE: not artificially slow via obtuse mechanics, but creeping as far as the story development.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Do you even know what survival horror is? It's a subgenre of the horror genre where the very gameplay itself is focused on antagonizing the player. From faulty controls to limited view of the area. Any game that's survival horror knows to take control away from the player as much as possible. You can say early Resident Evil games had tank controls but listen up, you horse's ass - that's what makes Resident Evil survival horror in the first place. It was one way of taking away from the player's control.
Granted, a survival horror game can be in third person but there has to be something there other than just attatching the label of a popular survival horror game on it and calling it survival horror. Then again, you counld be in a human-versus-human vietnam warzone and have a proud example of survival horror - but only if done right.
Giving the player ammunition for killing enemies only encourages the player to kill even more. It empowers the player, and encourages killing. Does that seriously sound like survival horror to you? It doesn't to me.
If you want a proper survival horror game, you want to and I stress it again - take away as much control from the player as possible and feed it to the situation. You can offer a limited view of the area, decrease the availability of useful supplies, make foes seem to attack from out of nowhere, isolate the player from friendly contacts, and anything else that makes the player feel insignificant.
Visit Capcom Unity for more information. They'll fill you in.
Reply