A Resident Evil thr-NO WAIT COME BACK! I have questions!

[theswordsmn]

Let me start by saying: I'm a huuuuuuge RE fan. If you were to glance around my room right now, you would see around 8 different things with the Umbrella logo. I've been a fan since the very first game paralyzed me with fear using nothing more than a soundtrack, the sound of a ticking clock and the way my partner told me to look around for clues while he starred at a red stain on the floor. I own just about every game in the series, so of course I have the means to compare each one, new gameplay vs old gameplay and how it's better or worse and-blah, blah, blah...But! That's what everyone is doing right now, and I'm trying to avoid that.



So here is my main point for the thread: several years ago, I was reading a copy of Game Informer that had a full page dedicated to Resident Evil 6, but what they showed, were pictures that had the EXACT same look as Resident Evil 1. Not even the REmake, the original Director's Cut. In the article it said that Capcom has decided to junk the new controls of 4/5 and go back to making the fixed camera games that required so much strategy, puzzle solving and "cajones" to keep moving through a game where that "tck-tck-slk" sound you couldn't see was either the sound of the mechanical devices, or the horrible way you meet your gruesome demise and start back 2 hours earlier because you thought "Nah, no need to use an ink ribbon here. I'm sure there will be a save point just around the corner." They were even going to not spend much time on the graphics to dedicate the money into making the game 3x longer than any other game on the market. I was amp'd for this, reading every word like it was the second coming of Jesus-but he decided to come on a Monday so you could still have a full weekend. I was heartbroken to immediately read the tiny text at the bottom of the page saying "April fools".



So I bring all this up because I have been thinking about this a lot lately. How hard would it be to make games like they were back then? I'm not talking new fancy games, I'm talking bad graphics, simple level designs, and classic style. Would studios be able to make those with such ease now? I know that there are so many other factors that are still required like testing, voice/sound effects, but it seems like it would be a good idea to at least try once. With so many RE fans screaming "give us back our game series" I wonder what it would take for Capcom to make the big cinematic games that they are now, but every now and then toss a small bone to classic fans with small games that use the classic style. They could just release small ones every now and again on the digital market place for like $15 bucks instead of $60. If nothing else, it would stop fans from freaking and saying "Oh God, hope is lost for this ever to go back to the old days!"



So I want to hear from everyone: people who know the industry: how hard would this be? Classic fans: would you be okay with what Capcom is doing now, if you got access to classic styles of games in small bites?



Edit: Yeah sorry, it wasn't a chunk of paragraph when I hit post. I would love to do a Kickstarter for a similar game. When you think about it, it can be kind of funny. Fans of the original want to sussed from the new direction that Capcom is taking in order to create a more nostalgic game. If we called it the same name, Capcom would have a fit, so we need to name this new game. I'm thinking the United States of Zombie Evil.

 

[Darmy647]

I like the RE dedication you've shown here. I personally, think that if we as classic fans are that upset or will be shafted continuously in the future, think a kickstarter is a start. Just to see if the classic lovers can put up or shut up. Of course we will have to come up with another name for the game so no copyright infringement occurs, but if someone was that dedicated to bringing it back? I have 100 dollars ready right here for you. Here's to hoping, classic fans. A fools dream most would say. But as what I've seen with wasteland 2 and project eternity? I say a real goal.

 

[Rawne1980]

I'm a fan of the series up until 3.

I loved 1 and 2 and even enjoyed Nemesis. Hated it since then.

I would love to see a return to "those times". Fixed camera, can't see off screen danger. Having to think about what you are doing. Atmosphere. Lack of ammo. Lack of guns. The can, however, change the voice acting .... Resi 1 had god awful voice acting.

If someone wanted to make a game along those lines in kickstarter then i'd happily throw money at it.

I'd throw the money at it i'm saving by not buying any more Resi Evil or Silent Hill games.

 

[Bertylicious]

Holy giant block of text, Batman!

OT: I guess you'd need people who really cared about the concept whilst having the creative oomph to pull it off, even for a lo-fi version. It looks like those people in the RE franchise have been pecked to death by crows though.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, an industry tends to move forward. So to stay stuck in the past just for nostalgia sake seems like a bad idea.

Fans will always cry out for the old ways, but it's up to talented people, which are sometimes developers, to show them new and exciting ways of entertainment.

And an RE game doesn't need to have fixed camera and the inability to manually aim in order to create an atmospheric, slow and methodical survival game. *points to Resident Evil 4*

 

[Zhukov]

And an RE game doesn't need to have fixed camera and the inability to manually aim in order to create an atmospheric, slow and methodical survival game. *points to Resident Evil 4*

But was RE4 really that?

Hell, I have trouble taking 1-3 seriously as survival, horror or any combination of the two. But RE4 was a corny, gleeful, spaniard-blasting romp through the daisy patch.

That's not to say it wasn't fun. It was. But I don't see what separates it from the newer games in terms of tone.

 

[teebeeohh]

oh god i love your idea, with all the retro craze in the last few years why not make something that is not a 8-bit platformer.

 

[Nami nom noms]

And an RE game doesn't need to have fixed camera and the inability to manually aim in order to create an atmospheric, slow and methodical survival game. *points to Resident Evil 4*

But was RE4 really that?

Hell, I have trouble taking 1-3 seriously as survival, horror or any combination of the two. But RE4 was a corny, gleeful spaniard-blasting romp through the daisy patch.

That's not to say it wasn't fun. It was. But I don't see what separates it from the newer games in terms of tone.

A million times this.

I'm a huge RE fan myself, and I love the modern games. RE4 was a much needed shot in the arm for a series that had stagnated. If you still prefer those games, well I think they pretty much catered for you already with the six games they released prior (not counting remixes). RE4 is widely held to be the best in the series, and it is not in the slightest bit scary, or anything like the older games the vocal minority seem to love so much.

RE6 is the 5th game to be released in this new style, and unlike the older versions, I've still yet to get bored with them. I honestly believe this is a case of nostalgia colouring peoples viewpoints.

 

[Terramax]

My opinion, it's got nothing to do with the gameplay or change to action. Lets face it, the Resident Evil stories are just plain silly. I know they always were even with the first few, but gaming has grown up now, and we expect more now.

I think the series went downhill once fans (and Capcom) started to take it all seriously. The first and second games felt like they were telling a parody with a straight face, but after the third, and then Code Veronica, it suddenly hit me 'Oh Hell! People are actually taking these stories seriously!' But you can't. Because it's all dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

This is not stated in a condescending way. One of my favourite franchises are the Tenchu and Shinobido series. But their stories are, for the majority, laughably terrible. So much so that Shinobido pretty much ridicules its own stupidity from time to time.

I say the answer is that another video game company make a new franchise in a similar vein to the original REs, as well as games like Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare. Start anew.

 

[___________________]

Well, they did say they'd remake Resident Evil 2 if the fans kept asking for it. Those weren't the exact words but who's keeping track anyway? Man, can you imagine that game with the graphic quality of today's systems? And I think that they should at least do something in the likes of "Resident Evil 6 is an action game so Resident Evil 7 will be a survival horror game, then Resident evil 8 will be action, then 9 will be survival horror" and so on. That would please both fans of action and survival horror alike and sell well too. I mean, on one hand you have the action game buyers, plus the ones that buy anything that has the name Resident Evil stuck to it and on the other you have the survival horror fans, plus the ones that buy anything that has the name Resident Evil stuck to it. And the developers themselves would deal with more variety when creating games so they wouldn't ONLY create either action or survival horror ones. You can't appeal to everyone with one single game concept.

 

[Frontastic]

Well the reason 5 was such a mess from a story point of view (not to mention all those files which did the most bizarre world building. Wesker Children? Seriously what?) was that is was supposed to be the last one. I never saw the article you were talking about but that sounds in line with what I heard.

The problem of course is that 5 made a lot more money than anyone really expected. I know a lot of people who played 5 and enjoyed it who had never played a RE game before. So naturally Capcom shouted "screw that old fashioned reboot, we're not a niche, we're mainstream now! Make more!" So what will it take for them to go back to the old fashioned ways? 6 especially but every weird action-Resi (looking at you Raccoon City) to flop and for Capcom to be reminded of why they got to the point where they could mainstream in the first place.

 

[DrunkenMonkey]

Posted it somewhere else a while back, i'll post it again. if you want an example on how classic resident evil would look if they gave it a face lift, play the re5 mansion scenario with fixed camera angles. That is what the classics would look like in this day and age. The problem is Resident evil was not scary in the psychological get in your head scary. It was only scary because when the series was still in the 1,2,3s I was under 14 and still just a kid who didn't know any better. Scary and tense is what its supposed to be, but its not for the average young adult. So to answer, yes I'd buy it for the sake of nostalgia, and only if it's cheap.

Well, they did say they'd remake Resident Evil 2 if the fans kept asking for it. Those weren't the exact words but who's keeping track anyway? Man, can you imagine that game with the graphic quality of today's systems? And I think that they should at least do something in the likes of "Resident Evil 6 is an action game so Resident Evil 7 will be a survival horror game, then Resident evil 8 will be action, then 9 will be survival horror" and so on. That would please both fans of action and survival horror alike and sell well too. I mean, on one hand you have the action game buyers, plus the ones that buy anything that has the name Resident Evil stuck to it and on the other you have the survival horror fans, plus the ones that buy anything that has the name Resident Evil stuck to it. And the developers themselves would deal with more variety when creating games so they wouldn't ONLY create either action or survival horror ones. You can't appeal to everyone with one single game concept.

No they said they would remake RE2 if fans asked for it more. Which means if they have to ask that, then no they haven't been keeping track at all, or the wrong fans are asking for it. Point being every single original fan in the last gen was begging for a remake of RE2 and RE3, and nothing happened, this generation also.

 

[Vivi22]

And an RE game doesn't need to have fixed camera and the inability to manually aim in order to create an atmospheric, slow and methodical survival game. *points to Resident Evil 4*

What? RE4 was many things, but methodical and slow? Not really. It was more of a game that couldn't decide if it wanted to be straight action or survival horror so it settled for some strange middle ground where you moved like it was a survival horror but aimed and fought like it was an action game.

 

[xomocekc]

There's some really weird RE4 revisionism going on in this thread. No, RE4 was not confused. No it wasn't a run and gun game (because you could not move while aiming, for one thing).

It's very much a slow and methodical game. I guess it might confuse people to use those adjectives to describe an action game, but it becomes clear when you compare its action game contemporaries. Compared to the FPS games where it only matters to quickly headshot or the 3rd person action games that were mostly built on a dodge and shoot with autolock engaged or dial-a-combo if they were melee oriented, RE4 is slow and deliberate because there's no real dodging mechanism and you had to actually aim yourself and not just do headshots.

When you have an shooting action game where you have to really consider your position, where moving and aiming are separate actions that exclude one another, enemies telegraph their attacks so you can counter by shooting, it's very much a stop and go deliberate experience.

RE4 is the opposite of fluid and fast.

In that way, RE6 is nothing like either RE5 or RE4.

 

[Manji187]

I'd definitely play RE2 and 3 if they were remade like the first one.

But after 3 the already (somewhat) convoluted story went into overdrive and now it's beyond saving. It can only get worse.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Well the reason 5 was such a mess from a story point of view (not to mention all those files which did the most bizarre world building. Wesker Children? Seriously what?) was that is was supposed to be the last one. I never saw the article you were talking about but that sounds in line with what I heard.

The problem of course is that 5 made a lot more money than anyone really expected. I know a lot of people who played 5 and enjoyed it who had never played a RE game before. So naturally Capcom shouted "screw that old fashioned reboot, we're not a niche, we're mainstream now! Make more!" So what will it take for them to go back to the old fashioned ways? 6 especially but every weird action-Resi (looking at you Raccoon City) to flop and for Capcom to be reminded of why they got to the point where they could mainstream in the first place.

Operation Raccoon City gets too much shit for what it was, honestly. From the very beginning of it's development, Slant Six said that they were making an action game focusing on a squad of Umbrella Security Service. Then people raged against the game for being an action game where the protagonists were good at fighting. I thought ORC was a pretty decent game, too. The main problems I had with it were that human enemies reacted to gunfire about as much as the zombies did and everything had ridiculous amounts of health (Yes, I even thought the cover system was good to decent. Shocking, I know)

 

[Frontastic]

Operation Raccoon City gets too much shit for what it was, honestly. From the very beginning of it's development, Slant Six said that they were making an action game focusing on a squad of Umbrella Security Service. Then people raged against the game for being an action game where the protagonists were good at fighting. I thought ORC was a pretty decent game, too. The main problems I had with it were that human enemies reacted to gunfire about as much as the zombies did and everything had ridiculous amounts of health (Yes, I even thought the cover system was good to decent. Shocking, I know)

I haven't played it myself honestly. But I do want to. I have no problem with that kind of game in and of itself (like that awesome arcade Tomb Raider game or the the new Silent Hill) when they're just trying to do something different for the hell of it. That's fine, the problem with Resi is that it's all going that way. The survival horror is gone, they're all action games. Fun little one off asides are grand and can be great (see Tomb Raider) but I don't want the whole franchise to become that. Similarly the newly announced ACIII DLC. Sounds great, can't wait. But I don't want the whole future series to be historical 'what-ifs?'. If we want the old Resi back they have to let them see the new Resi's fail. Raccoon City gets a pass, but 6 is sounding unacceptable.