A Princess Worth Saving: Resident Evil

[SavingPrincess]

"We also recorded Japanese voices (for the game), not just English ones. They were discarded because they were really lame."

[sub]... and you thought the quotes in the game were brilliant. [/sub]

"Survival Horror" was a truly niche genre at one point. Retroactively describing titles such as Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark, the genre really didn't get some tank treads (heh) under it until Resident Evil (a.k.a. Biohazard) landed on the Sony PlayStation nearly fifteen years ago. Taking the inspiration from Sweet Home of a "horror game that takes place in a mansion," director Shinji Mikami became known for making one of the first "scary" games to ever become popular around the world and the series has gone on to make millions and millions yadda yadda yadda etc. etc.

Okay. Let's talk for a second. Resident Evil has just seen its special edition of its fifth game in the series (spin-off's, remakes not withstanding)... this is hardly a "Princess Worth Saving..." right? Sure, fair enough. The series is hugely popular and critically acclaimed and all that. There's one thing it isn't however anymore:
[HEADING=2]

SCARY!​

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Do you know when it stopped being scary? When the plot-twist about where the zombies were coming from got revealed. Thankfully the incredibly smart marketing department at the American branch of CAPCOM decided to change the name of the game from Biohazard to Resident Evil or else the games biggest spoiler would have been given away in the title! Seriously; the most intriguing thing about playing through the game the first time was figuring out WHY these people were eating each other. Was it some sort of demonic curse because the mansion was on some sort of Native American burial ground or did the owner of the house's music collection consist entirely of Menudo and Abba records and everyone that was staying there slowly went insane? It was the mystery that made it special. Even the (US) title, Resident Evil, implied that the "resident" of the house was "evil" itself... it wasn't until you were far into the game that you learned anything of the "T-Virus" and the Umbrella corporation.

So what's the answer? They've already remade the first game in the series in quite a fantastic way on the Nintendo GameCube (which ranks at the top of my "Best Remakes Ever" list). The current plotline has become something akin to a grotesque offshoot of a Tom Clancy-esque world-wide conspiracy of irreversible ramifications. So what now? Where does the series go from here? No where, that's where. It needs to die.

Then it needs to be born again in the exact same way, but; the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team need to head back into the mansion, Chris or Jill need to go upstairs, and when that first zombie turns its head over its shoulder to notice your presence, it needs to be for a completely different reason. That zombie then needs to run at you angrily, as in you just interrupted its dinner. You need to be underpowered; your bullets need to be completely ineffective... you need to use some kind of gameplay mechanic to wrestle the zombie away and you need to run. Maybe it's an enhanced quick-time-event control mechanism (a la Heavy Rain) that you need to perform to escape harm at the hands of the rabid zombie, or maybe motion control of some type. Maybe punching and kicking your way out of the situation through controls with the Natal or bashing and pushing yourself out of harms way with the WiiMote or Sony Move. Beyond that, everything needs to change.

The game needs to instill fear in the player. Not fear that you're going to run out of ammo, but fear that your ammo seems to be completely ineffective. Who says even traditional game mechanics need to apply? Give a player a gun to start with, give them a few 24 round clips to start with, just like any good Special Forces team... but have that weapon be completely useless and let them run down to their last bullet to figure that out. Instill a sense of realism in the player of what it would actually be like to have those resources available to them, be able to use them, but have them be completely worthless (how many bullets/clips would YOU personally unload into an oncoming zombie before you just stop firing because it's just not effective?). Have them learn on their own that a butcher knife from the kitchen drawer or a fire-poker in the living room of the mansion are far more effective weapons against the zombies than their sidearm. Have them find medical supplies in the bathroom where they would be kept, or in an actual First-Aid kit in the nightstand next to the bed in a bedroom. Have them find real supplies like bandages, alcohol, peroxide or iodine; then have them realize that any cuts or bites left by the zombies react negatively to one of those substances... then give them the option to keep using it and hurting themselves. Break all the rules! Have the player find a shotgun in the hall closet, but keep the shells locked in a safe that they'll never find the combination or key for (something not even the Master of Unlocking can crack), just like if they were actually IN someone's mansion! Let them carry the shotgun with them for a while until they realize it's completely useless, unless the player happens to flip it around and use it as a club... give them that option too. Locked door in the house? Forget finding keys with weird shapes on them; make the player find something to bash the door down with if it's too heavy to kick down on their own. No Sub-Machine Guns... no Rocket Launchers... but let the player figure out that the chemicals in a nearby fire-extinguisher are actually corrosive and harmful to the zombies, so that becomes a useful weapon... then when it runs out, they can swing it around to fight off the baddies.

The point is, make it feel like you're actually surviving horror, using your instincts and not pre-planned nonsensical game mechanics. Make the game an actual detective story, like it was set up to be. Silent Hill did a fun job to a certain extent of letting the way you played through the game dictate the origin of the chaos (aliens anyone?), I don't see why a similar setup in that mansion isn't possible. A game like Heavy Rain showed us that "losing" doesn't have to end the game, it can merely shift the story. Maneuver one of the S.T.A.R.S. members into a room with no escape? Radio for help and let one of the other members come to your rescue, or, by doing that, inadvertently lead them to their death providing a distraction that allows your character to escape. There are so many amazing possibilities in just the game's setup alone. Give players the option to get the hell out of dodge right away and leave the mansion as soon as they encounter their first horror, then let them deal with the horrors of the forest around them, then make it so they realize that maybe it IS safer in the mansion. Also, no good Special Forces team would split up, so don't force them if they aren't forced to by game events.

The idea of playing as a Special Tactics And Recon Squad member is great, as it means your character should be above average physical and mental condition, but that doesn't negate the fact that they feel fear. Let the player feel that. Convey to them that even though they're battle hardened soldiers/officers, that what they are involved in truly scares them. Bring the survival AND the horror back to Survival Horror. It can be done, it can be done well, and it should be. The setup is sound, and one of the best in video game history. Let's give Resident Evil to a new generation, and like she did to us nearly fifteen years ago, let this Princess scare the sh*t out of them.

 

[GDW]

Hmmm... interesting, in premise, but leaving so much dependant on how one plays the game provides whole new problems in how little you can actually accomplish in this ambition. It's always going to lack immersion when players have save-points and such, and, forging a story that forces the player to move it forward is just sloppy. Without set pieces there's nothing to really strive towards, and the story itself would flounder from how little information a person would get in that situation.

Withour immersion or a good story to force someone forward, there's nothing to TRULY be scared of, in my opinion.

 

[SavingPrincess]

Hmmm... interesting, in premise, but leaving so much dependant on how one plays the game provides whole new problems in how little you can actually accomplish in this ambition. It's always going to lack immersion when players have save-points and such, and, forging a story that forces the player to move it forward is just sloppy. Without set pieces there's nothing to really strive towards, and the story itself would flounder from how little information a person would get in that situation.

Withour immersion or a good story to force someone forward, there's nothing to TRULY be scared of, in my opinion.

Story would certainly play a central part in it, as you're there for a reason... to find out why Alpha team has gone missing and ceased communication. Set pieces can be there, but exploration, isolation, desolation, and hopelessness need to play a factor, while the game gives you just enough hope to keep moving forward. Basically it needs to feel as though you are there... what would you do? You know... assuming you were a highly trained Special Forces recon officer. Immersion is exactly the goal, but that isn't going to fly with heart shaped keys, green and red herbs, and magical storage boxes anymore... we've moved past that.

 

[Huxleykrcc]

I've never cared for Resident Evil. To me, I've never cared for the characters, it focuses largely on the story, which is shoddy none-the-less, and the combat never really worked.

I haven't played Resident Evil 4, though, so I may be missing out a bit. (Though I despise RE5)

And I don't think it counts as Survival horror. It's more of an action game with horror-themed enemies. To me, it's about as much of a horror game as Infection in Halo.

Dude. Play RE4. The writing is horrible, but it's in an endearingly hilarious way and the gameplay is great. It was never about any of that stuff anyway.

Methinks you'll like it. Can't promise it, but really, it's worth a shot.

 

[GDW]

Story would certainly play a central part in it, as you're there for a reason... to find out why Alpha team has gone missing and ceased communication. Set pieces can be there, but exploration, isolation, desolation, and hopelessness need to play a factor, while the game gives you just enough hope to keep moving forward. Basically it needs to feel as though you are there... what would you do? You know... assuming you were a highly trained Special Forces recon officer. Immersion is exactly the goal, but that isn't going to fly with heart shaped keys, green and red herbs, and magical storage boxes anymore... we've moved past that.

You see, that's the biggest problem with it all. A trap-filed mansion with zombies every which way just creates the plot, sure, but even in finding out what happened to Alpha and, possibly, the mysteries of the undead, you've also got a whole elague of story that "RE" simply expositions at the player. With all the realism you're suggesting it would be very hard to find random letters, diaries and logs from people who wer there just sitting about.
It'd be hard to discover set pieces, as well, when you have so much freedom to "Heavy Rain" the story with the different characters, certain things would just be very hard to put into a long, linear story. The less you can explain, the less immersive it'll be and the more annoying it will become, as well as the fact that (mostly) no one playing will BE the highly trained opperatives in the mansion and will hardly be thinking like one. I just don't think games have a good feeling of immersion in this day and age, but leaving everything vague and murky will just be boring for most and certainly wouldn't drive me to anything spectacular.
In my opinion, "Heavy Rain" inly works so well because it's hardly a video-game, it is noting BUT set-pieces, and it certainly doesn't make you look for them. I just can't imagine "RE" taking such an in-depth route and still being truly fun.

 

[Delock]

One of the things I've actually been thinking about for a horror game is almost starting it out as an action game. You start out with your team, and you all have a good amount of ammo. Early enemies go down easily, and you are actually pretty confident about your success, so you have no problem splitting the team in two. Then you find out that you're not finding a lot of ammo to share between the group, and your enemies are slowly getting harder, some even invincible, you know, like a difficulty curve should work, rather than in most horror games where it seems to actually be harder in the beginning but you collect enough ammo and health later on so the end is pitiful. In addition, rather than be betrayed in cutscene, you get betrayed in game, that is if you didn't notice the suspious behavior and "accuse" them.

I feel like this could work much well if they were to ever decide to remake Resident Evil from the ground up.

Also, I feel it should be mentioned, but playing the game now, I don't really feel frightened at all, however, the books of the series are still frightening (a friend of mine was reading one in class when lightning struck and nearly jumped out of his seat).

 

[UnusualStranger]

Someone else seems to have noticed this! Nice.

Anyway, I think everyone has begun to confuse the word "Scary" with the word "surprise". People laugh and say I was "scared" when they jump out of a closet and scream at me. No, no I wasn't. I was "surprised" it happened, not scared.

While I do appreciate the new moves that RE has made with RE4 and 5, I would like to see it return to a bit more of a scary jump. Scary as in you said. Where my ammo is either sparse, or not terribly effective. You should have to fear for you life in the game again. To have to worry when you see a group of zombies running around.

But then again, I am no expert on Scary. I just think that RE has branched out some, which is good. However, if they want to keep the "Survival/horror" title, they need to actually make survival a challenge, and actually make things happen that are actually scary, and not just surprising.

 

[Cilliandrew]

I never got "Resident Evil". (And I was a big fan of the original ALONE IN THE DARK!) Also a big SILENT HILL fan.

I remember my buddy and I rented it WAY back in the day on the original PS1 from the videostore..

Brought it home.

Played it for about 20 minutes.

Returned to the videostore demanding they let us rent another game (Which they did.)

I will never understand how it became the gaming classic that it did. It was terrible!

That being said, all the talk about "Resident Evil 4" finally convinced me to pick it up when it was released on the PS2.

Again, i just never could get into it. It's the kind of game that, on paper, i SHOULD like, but i just can't get into them.

Always a glutton for punishment I just recently picked up RE5, as well. Will give it a legit shot, but man.. I don't know.

 

[toadking07]

Bravo! Encore! All that other stuff that means well done! Now let's make this game! doesn't matter if it's Resident Evil or not, this I the way a game needs to be made! It takes a special kind of balance, but this is on the right track!

 

[Friktion012]

No offense, but the way you describe the game will cost a lot of money, cater to a tiny audience, and cause the studio to go bankrupt almost instantly.

You forgot that one thing all average gamers have in common is that they are average. I can promise that if you made a mechanic where bullets were useless on a zombie and you had to run to escape, at least 50% of the players would sit there and fire away until they die. The common player is just too plain stupid to understand basic concepts of "trial and error".

The original RE game was extremely hard. Mechanics such as severely limited inventory, deadheads, and the like made it as much a mental battle as a physical. That is why these elements were removed. Now playing RE5 online, I get partnered up with a guy who has 6 guns, 2 vests, and a stun baton. Unfortunately he also has no healing herbs and no ammo.

 

[SavingPrincess]

No offense, but the way you describe the game will cost a lot of money, cater to a tiny audience, and cause the studio to go bankrupt almost instantly.

I think that the same thing was said about Heavy Rain.

The game I'm talking about is what survival horror should be. With games like Heavy Rain blurring the lines between game-playing and decision-making, I'm pretty sure the "average" is changing. I'm certain that if a game player is unloading clip after clip into the first zombie and it's still advancing toward them, they'll learn soon enough. Plus, the game design, even taking cues from Heavy Rain can possibly introduce some Deus Ex Machina type of event for that encounter that can teach the player that such methods are ineffective. It can be done, and if the current million-selling run of Heavy Rain can teach us anything, it's that people are willing to try new things.