Let's talk Resident Evil and Capcom: Why the hate?

[Azure-Supernova]

Let me get a couple things out of the way first. Yes Resident Evil 5 was nowhere near as good as 4, yes Chris punching a boulder was stupid.

You know, my strongest ties to Capcom are through Resident Evil. It's a franchise I grew up watching my dad and older cousins play, that I eventually went on to play myself and get invested in. It was horror, even when they hit Resident Evil 4 and injected it with Evil Dead and steroids (to this day, Regenerators and Iron Maidens remain... haunting). Hell, I'll be the first to say that Resident Evil 5 was almost doing it right. Real time inventory, weapons with impact and variety and it was the last truly great co-op game I played. Depending on who I played with I had to switch up my tactics and weapon/grenade loadout. I even bought all the DLC and loved them just as much, SS Professional runs with my girlfriend at the time was a nightly event. The Mansion DLC was a step in the right direction.

Then Revelations was a leap in the right direction. It was tense and atmospheric whilst still giving the player mobility and weaponry. It was the perfect balance and when I set my 3DS down at the end, I suddenly started really looking forward to Resident Evil 6. Then I played it and it was schizophrenic. Sure we had mobility, but it also had three different storylines with varying paces and tones. I think Leon's touched on that Revelations feeling once or twice, but something just didn't feel right.

It was never a case of hating Resident Evil 6, or Capcom for making it. It was for taking a step backward from what the fanbase were asking for. Critics liked Revelations, fans liked Revelations and it was just swept aside.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Why the hate you say? Where should I begin?! Ok lets get the obvious one out of the way:

-Capcom doesn't give A SINGLE SH*T about it's fans. Period. They're literally trying super hard to appeal to a new fanbase that just does not exist. They themselves are the reason they'll go bankrupt, yet they still have this "nope, nope, fans fault, not ours! Now buy our re-imaginings w/ DLC you sheep!" attitude. It's like their PR is ran by lemmings.

Now to go through the games:
-Megaman... oh wait no.
-RE6 is just an awful entry in the series. It's a mess of a game, I'm pretty sure tons of people already made my point on why above.
-Breath of Fire... for iOS... that waste of an IP speaks for itself.
-Street Fighter 4 is the only think keeping them alive. Oh, god forbid they make tons of money with a new Power Stone, just milk SF4 till bankruptcy!
-DmC. The new direction, bombed in sales. The new director, is an ass. The new Dante, separated the entire DMC fanbase. The new game, is dumbed down mediocrity.
-Asura's Wrath. Neat concept, poor execution. Lets make it worse by making people pay for our sub par game's finale!

As much as I hate to say it, they deserve to stay in the grave they dug themselves in. Good riddance.

 

[Drizzitdude]

-Asura's Wrath. Neat concept, poor execution. Lets make it worse by making people pay for our sub par game's finale!

That game was just so...ugh, I am not even sure what to say about it. I think it was probably the first game I can reliably say I got through simply by spamming 2 different attacks. It was just so completely weird, every mission was a small section with no exploration. You basically only moved during combat and sometimes you would have a single fight with no apparent plot point and the game would would be like "end of episode x". The one thing I liked was the games default finale, the team up against the final boss was cool and plot was mostly resolved, but apparently in the dlc they decided to basically say screw the happy tones of the original ending.

Not looking to start an argument, just airing my grievances about gameplay.

The lack of a lock-on was one of the killers for me; if there was an enemy I wanted to focus fire on (usually the Witches), it was work to get the game to understand what I want to focus on. Given that enemies would also launch attacks from off-screen was annoying as well, so it made trying to focus on type of enemy down. This was mostly mitigated once I found out the throwing weapon could lock multiple enemies down, letting you do whatever it is you want. The most damning memory of this was in level where you fight enemies in a church (before it split all limbo crazy), two of the enemies were the big bulky armored guys. I'd dodge one and shoot, but Dante would shoot at one all the way on the other side of the room. The camera would also fight me on which one I should concentrate on, the moment I decide to focus the one the camera seems to gravitate towards, it'd start telling me to go for the other one.

I'd have to agree to disagree on the gameplay mostly being there; it was there no doubt, but have to disagree with mostly. I preferred the style system, DMC4 was the epitome of fucking awesome with all the shit you could do. While DmC had style and flash, I found myself just repeating the same combos over and over; first to build style, then whatever hit the hardest. With the style system you had a lot more variance and options, in this a lot of the weapons (sans the throwing weapon) just feel like reworked versions of each other; Rebellion was a balanced baseline, Axe/Glove was power over speed, Scythe was speed over power. There was also the bullshit demon/angel enemies that came with them; but those quickly became a non-issue because you can lock the angel type down with the throwing weapon, then work on whatever is around.

With projectiles, the guns serve a very limited purpose as there's very little (if any) way to style with them and they're weak. Even the grenade launcher-esque weapon was underpowered. I tried using them from time to time but found them to be useless. Once I got into the swing of things, I only used the shotgun to deal with those... ... black and yellow glowy bug swarm things that charge at you and explode. Not sure what they're called, but one shotgun blast and they're down. That was my gun use. I'm not asking for another Artemis or Pandora, but seriously... he has guns... give us a reason to use them.

Those are my big 3 gameplay wise; camera, style, and guns. I have other issues, but they don't carry as much weight as these did. However I will leave with what I did like; the Bob Barbas fight and the Night Club level. I didn't like the boss in the nightclub level, but the level itself was really enjoyable.



Captcha didn't like my answer. It asked if I wanted my tablet to be more work friendly, I said no and it said I was wrong. Fuck you Captcha.

I completely agree with pretty much everything you've said here. I wish they had decided to make a legitimate Devil May Cry 5, as I found that 4 was a fantastic entry to the series and my only complaint with it was backtracking was an incredibly lazy way to introduce Dante into the game. They should have focused on giving him his own unique levels and bosses tailored to himself rather than having him finish what Nero started every time. I was really looking forward to seeing the combat and story progress from the point of 4 forward, but with DmC it took a huge detour, it wasn't a bad game by any means; just ot the game the fans wanted.

The Dragon's Dogma is a bald face lie. I have fast traveled in most of my gameplay. I am only halfway with the main story and I have portcrystals all over the god damn place. The point is putting your portcrystals where they belong. Places you know you'll have to visit multiple times. Serens is level 35 and I don't remember him ever walking anywhere once he got a few portcrystals going around the map, I am not even finished with the game since I just finished the Wrym Hunt. There are plenty of portcrystals in the game, and oh my god a game that makes you work for its fast travel instead of giving it to you right away. The only thing I'd like to see in the next game is mounts or carriages, simple as that.

That's what I'm saying! God forbid you have to walk somewhere. It isn't like they give you your first portcrystal and a ton of ferrystones early in the game. The only valid complaint about the lack of fast travel I can understand is that the enemies didn't scale up with your character but I can also sort of understand that type of thing as it gives the player a feeling of progression. You get to a point where you see how fast you could take down what used to be massive threats and really understand the amount on progress you made, but I can also understand that people don't want to have to travel through areas that don't challenge them anymore. So maybe add a toggle in the sequel for enemy scaling?

As for the mount point I would completely agree if they made the world significantly larger. Don't get me wrong, Gransies was a huge place. But from horseback I feel like you would go through it fast enough to think Gran Soren was a skip away from Cassadaris. I also recognize that by not allowing mounts they can focus more on things being the players scale, when you take horses into account you would imagine something such as open fields and long roads being appropriate, while on foot you can add those extra areas such as caves, mountain passes, rivers and plenty of explorable nooks and crannies best fit for the player model. Though I am not saying they shouldn't have both by any means of course, I am just saying I can understand why it wasn't included originally. I would also like to see things like trade caravans, carriages and people towing around monster corpses or materials. I have to say that delivering the Hydra head to the Gran Soren was probably one of the best ways I can think of escort quests being done. Go on a hunt to kill a large monster, and after defeating it load up on trophies to take back to your hub for rewards. Seems like a sound concept and if done with interesting locale and threats to your rewards it could work out.

Yep, obviously he's telling the industry that all he wants is military shooters, regardless of what other games he might like.

I mean, Jesus Christ, just because somebody doesn't like one RPG it doesn't mean that they just want military shooters for the rest of forever.

The point I was making was using military shooters as an extreme example. Not meant to be taken literally. What I was trying to say is that if we don't at the very least acknowledge the things a game does right and attempt to work past the issues it has then there will never be any sound progression. The most repeated issues Dragon's Dogma had were extremely minor and had no effect on your ability to progress but those were the issues th at made people act as if it was a piece of garbage and it irritates the hell out of me.

 

[sky14kemea]

I love all things Resident Evil, I even like the movies that have almost nothing to do with the games.

But I agree with Casual Shinji that RE6 was just really bad. Don't get me wrong, the graphics were great and I liked having 3 different routes, but the game was so beefed up with high graphics and quick time events that I could barely play it on my crappy laptop. I ended up just watching someone else play through it on youtube, just so I could enjoy the story.

I think they need to back away from using Chris Redfield and the whole military angle, to be honest.

 

[Norithics]

RE6 was completely fine. In fact, I liked the act of playing it more than all of the other titles, and I'm a fan of the entire series (even really shitty ones like Zero). Honestly, if you want tank controls and fixed cameras, be my guest, but don't try to act like Resident Evil 4 was Horror somehow. In fact, don't pretend like the original series was any scarier than later titles. It was goofy, campy, stupid schlock on purpose from the very beginning and the only way you could see it differently is through massive nostalgia goggles. The only thing that changed was how much easier the characters became to control. Which, by the way, makes perfect canonical sense! You'd get better at fighting zombies three times in.

 

[Drizzitdude]

RE6 was completely fine. In fact, I liked the act of playing it more than all of the other titles, and I'm a fan of the entire series (even really shitty ones like Zero). Honestly, if you want tank controls and fixed cameras, be my guest, but don't try to act like Resident Evil 4 was Horror somehow. In fact, don't pretend like the original series was any scarier than later titles. It was goofy, campy, stupid schlock on purpose from the very beginning and the only way you could see it differently is through massive nostalgia goggles. The only thing that changed was how much easier the characters became to control. Which, by the way, makes perfect canonical sense! You'd get better at fighting zombies three times in.

Completely agree with you when it comes to the nostalgia goggles. Some people act like RE4 was some kind of intense horror game and was completely serious the entire time. One of the villains is literally an evil dwarf. No joke, he is an evil cackling dwarf hell bent on being an asshole, and even has a random cult chilling in his house. Now don't get me wrong here, RE4 had a great atmosphere, but that doesn't make it the pinnacle of horror. I think another thing people have to remember is the reason the original resident evil games were so scary was because of how bad the controls were. You were not scared just because of the zombies, you were scared because they were going to kill you and posed major threat due to the fact you were very limited in how you could approach them.

So of course there is going to be some loss of a horror element when you give the character better controls, but the solution to that is to either A: add bigger threats, or B: Make the lesser threats more numerous so they become a bigger threat. As the games get more up to date we are able to fit a ton of more enemies on screen at once (looking at you dead rising 3), and I have to say that when I was low on ammo with nothing but a pistol and two bars of health in the subway level of Leons campaign, I did genuinely panic at some points. It had a great atmosphere, good lighting and the seeing the shadows of the zombies running down the tunnels that were cast by a passing subway was really an "oh shit" moment. In fact the entire first level of Leons campaign was excellent, and the problem a lot of people had with the game was it wasn't more of that experience. (Whispering while nudging capcom " Hint, make a real survival horror set in a city again")

I think they need to back away from using Chris Redfield and the whole military angle, to be honest.

While I can agree with this when it comes to the whole of Resident Evil I have to say I thought Chris' campaign was extremely well done on its own. He made some serious growth and development throughout it and was significantly changed by the events that occurred (Leon didn't progress at all in comparison). He has had to deal with his fears of losing his friends and loved ones time and time again throughout the series, so it only makes sense he would be extremely protective of his team and those he feels responsible for. While it may not have made for a great horror element, his story to avenge his fallen friends seemed like an great choice for him and fits naturally with his character. As a separate story it works even with the military over-top scenes, but I think the thing that leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths about it is Resident Evil is a title commonly affiliated with survival horror.

 

[stroopwafel]

The reason Capcom is doing so poorly is the same reason Squeenix and(to a lesser extent thanks to Kojima) Konami have gone down the drain: a complete lack of new and fresh ideas. Capcom in particular used to be legendary with groundbreaking titles like Megaman, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Street Fighter 2, Demon's Crest, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry etc. all genre-defing games that pushed the videogame medium itself into new and exciting directions. All they do now is regurgitate the same old shit over and over, like Resident Evil 6 its an unimaginative, unfocused, uncreative mess of a game. The way they desperately tried to shoehorn Call of Duty elements into a Resident Evil title in order to cater to that audience and ramp up sales is pathetic. A disgrace that in my opinion put the final nail in the coffin of that fucking company.

Capcom started going downhill really fast when Shinji Mikami left having little to no talent to fill his shoes. Jun Takeuchi for example, the guy who directed Resident Evil 5(he also created that abomination Lost Planet), didn't even like horror. Now you can say Resident Evil 4 wasn't 'horror' in the strictest sense but the dreadful atmosphere(chainsaw guy in creepy village anyone?) mixed with the claustrophobic gameplay of actually being the only one between the president's daughter and an entire zoo of highly imaginative monsters was freakin fantastic.

Now take Resident Evil 5. None of the atmosphere, none of the suspense, forced co-op with a protagonist that looked like he was on a non-stop diet of steroids. It was complete garbage. That it had any gameplay value was solely thanks to Resident Evil 4 b/c they basically copy-pasted that game and butchered it.

I'm not even mentioning their business practices like on-disc DLC and such. But it is further proof their current management has no affinity for videogames whatsoever and are only concerned about squeezing as many pennies out of their fossile IPs as possible. Capcom has no more talent, no more ideas and to top it off almost no money left. The Capcom of old was legendary, but now its not even a shadow of its former self anymore.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think they need to back away from using Chris Redfield and the whole military angle, to be honest.

It's been said by many others already, but BRING BACK CLAIRE REDFIELD!

Some people act like RE4 was some kind of intense horror game and was completely serious the entire time. One of the villains is literally an evil dwarf. No joke, he is an evil cackling dwarf hell bent on being an asshole, and even has a random cult chilling in his house. Now don't get me wrong here, RE4 had a great atmosphere, but that doesn't make it the pinnacle of horror.

Whoever said that though?! I can assure you that most if not all RE4 fans love the game because it has fun with itself while still keeping a very gooey, creepy atmosphere. Something the following games got rid of completely what with the focus on war and drama.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Some people act like RE4 was some kind of intense horror game and was completely serious the entire time.

Or they post their reasons for finding RE5 to be disappointing and you just ignore them in favor of strawmen. It's not like you made this thread for opinions of people who didn't like the game eh?

Don't get me wrong, the graphics were great and I liked having 3 different routes, but the game was so beefed up with high graphics and quick time events that I could barely play it on my crappy laptop.

Do you know what the sad thing is? On the PS3, the Graphics are FAR worse than 5.

 

[Drizzitdude]

Some people act like RE4 was some kind of intense horror game and was completely serious the entire time. One of the villains is literally an evil dwarf. No joke, he is an evil cackling dwarf hell bent on being an asshole, and even has a random cult chilling in his house. Now don't get me wrong here, RE4 had a great atmosphere, but that doesn't make it the pinnacle of horror.

Whoever said that though?! I can assure you that most if not all RE4 fans love the game because it has fun with itself while still keeping a very gooey, creepy atmosphere. Something the following games got rid of completely what with the focus on war and drama.

Some people act like RE4 was some kind of intense horror game and was completely serious the entire time.

Or they post their reasons for finding RE5 to be disappointing and you just ignore them in favor of strawmen.

Settle down guys, I wasn't pointing a finger at anyone in particular in regards to the statements of peoples obsession of RE4. In general, this is the game that is by far the most popular and looked back on of all recent titles, yet it isn't like it is dramatically different than the others in terms of gameplay. RE4 has a ton of fans. I am most definitely one of them, but thinking back on it the game wasn't the crazy big deal a lot of Resident Evil fans make it out to be. The game was great to be sure, I acknowledged the atmosphere was fantastic (dat creepy fog) but the game itself had more than its fair share of silly or over the top action moments, just as its successors had their fair share of creepy moments (Woman being dragged off and infected in the start of RE5, butcher rooms, executioner, dealing with the Ustanak, the previously stated example in the subway to name a few) and while I can say I wish the game had focused more on the creepy moments like previous games it was by no means a bad game simply for switching the primary focus.

Do you know what the sad thing is? On the PS3, the Graphics are FAR worse than 5.

You are telling me the ps3 users didn't get to appreciate Leon's hair flowing through the breeze as he curb stomped zombies? That is simply awful.

 

[go-10]

Resident Evil itself I have 2 problems:
1. Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City
2. Resident Evil 6

at the same time there's also Resident Evil Revelations so I'm skeptical about Resident Evil 7. If they let me play as Jill ad Leon I'll buy that game day 1, if it's Chris again I'll wait for reviews. My problem with the series is that I think it's time it got a reboot. Give us a new story starting with a newly graduated from Raccoon City Police Academy Jill and Leaon as their first day on the job turns into a fight for survival. Along the way they face Umbrella, rescue/join Claire, and run into STAR's member Chris who's there with his team as well as facing the opposition of Carlos team


as for problem with Capcom in general, is their shift to mobile. Breath of Fire 6, Mega Man X, Onimusha, etc. They have all these great series and their turning them into mobile games chasing that $1 ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) which in the end are just crappy games that ruin the series. They also just flat out ignore: Rival Schools, Darkstalkers, Mega Man, Power Stone, Dino Crisis, etc. If it wasn't for Street Fighter or Monster Hunter I wouldn't buy any Capcom games.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think Resident Evil 4 was trying to be as scary as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I would never hold up the camp factor against them. In fact, I celebrate it!


My only problem with Capcom, if I want to look for one, starts when they began to take themselves seriously. Resident Evil always had a ridiculous story and I think the only time that it clicked perfectly was with RE4, when they abandoned all pretense of seriousness. Games like RE1 or RE2 were fun and engaging to play and packed with quite a few genuine jump scares. The music also did wonders there. But let's face it, the plot could never resist intelligent thought. RE4 came along, shoved Umbrella aside and cranked the silliness to eleven.

Then RE5 came along with an impoverished attempt at a character arc about Chris regaining his faith in his work and a misguided critique against racial colonialiasm by being as racist and as colonial as the game could get. The game was shorter and didn't do anything new save for a co-op AI that nobody asked for or wanted (though to its credit it offers some very fun offline co-op). Above all, it took itself a bit too seriously for its own good. It should've been more like Indiana Jones and less like Black Hawk Down for it to work, maybe.

When it was RE6's turn... well, I haven't played the game. I did the demo and watched some gameplay... I can tell you the controls are borked and the animation is wobbly, and the political grimdark is laughabale in the worst possible sense. So I would be annoyed at Capcom for ruining their perfect chance to indulge into self-parody and explore new boundaries, opting instead to go back to its imbecile "serious" roots with none of the scares or laughs. Just a mediocre shooter.

 

[Drizzitdude]

When it was RE6's turn... well, I haven't played the game. I did the demo and watched some gameplay... I can tell you the controls are borked and the animation is wobbly

Both of those have been brought up a couple of times now. What about the controls has people weirded out by it? It is pretty much the exact same as RE5 but with the exception of dodging and quickshotting, and what about the animations seems weird to people exactly? I haven't really noticed any problems so feel free to educate me on this one.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

My problem with the series is that I think it's time it got a reboot. Give us a new story...

You know, there's something in this. I think Capcom missed the boat by not rebooting Outbreak. With how much fun Left 4 Dead is in co-op and how popular the Resident Evil franchise is, Outbreak just makes sense. Class based co-op with civilians as player characters to boot. Give it Revelations/RE6's control scheme and Left 4 Dead's enemy numbers and it's a recipe for success.

 

[Strain42]

So there is something that has been bothering me for a long time, why is it everybody seems to hate Capcom so much?

I hate Capcom because they did not localize Ace Attorney Investigations 2 and then only gave us a digital copy of Dual Destinies, and then refused to localize one of the DLC missions on the ground that it was "Too Japanese." which is not only stupid, but fairly racist. This also sets up a great deal of worry that we won't be getting The Great Ace Attorney on those same grounds since that game takes place in Meiji Era Japan.

That is why I am not a fan of Capcom. Now let me go over the two most common rebuttals I receive when I say that reason

1) "You should be happy you got it at all"

Yes, I am happy. I'm quite happy, but it's a different type of happy. When someone like Atlus brings over a game I want, it usually feels like it's coming from a friend who knew I would like it, and wanted to share it with me. With Capcom, it feels like they're begrudgingly doing us a favor, and only doing a half-assed job. Like when you ask a friend to help you move but they'll only do it for Pizza and Beer and spend most of the move eating pizza and drinking beer.

2) "Capcom puts out games of a much higher quality."

Again, I can agree with this. Capcom is busy with street fighter, and resident evil, and lotsa other stuff. I am not going to pretend that these things don't exist. That would be childish. Here's the thing though...I don't care about their other stuff. Honestly, if you looked at my games library, you'd probably think that I'm boycotting Capcom except for the Ace Attorney series, but I'm not doing any sort of boycott...they just aren't releasing anything I'd want to play.

The reason we didn't get AAI2 and why DD only got a digital copy is because Capcom doesn't seem to care about something that isn't going to sell over a million units. As far as I know (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this) none of the Ace Attorney games have lost Capcom money. They've all sold pretty well and have been well received by fans and critics. But that didn't matter to Capcom because "We aren't gonna make a flobbity jillion dollars on it."

So...yes. That's why I personally hate Capcom.

I actually didn't even read past what I quoted, so maybe this topic is a VERY different discussion, but that is my answer to that question. I hate Capcom because of how they treat the Ace Attorney franchise, which is my second favorite video game franchise ever.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

My problem with the series is that I think it's time it got a reboot. Give us a new story...

You know, there's something in this. I think Capcom missed the boat by not rebooting Outbreak. With how much fun Left 4 Dead is in co-op and how popular the Resident Evil franchise is, Outbreak just makes sense. Class based co-op with civilians as player characters to boot. Give it Revelations/RE6's control scheme and Left 4 Dead's enemy numbers and it's a recipe for success.

I like the idea of an Outbreak reboot, but it's not the same thing as left 4 dead. The Outbreak files were still firmly rooted in survival horror. Most Co-Op games we have today are shooters. The Outbreak files were more like puzzle games with zombies. Oh boy the idea of a new Outbreak game is a fun one. You could mix in some rougelike elements with randomized levels, so you don't have to include that silly no talking restriction.

Though I think the way to get me excited about a resident evil game would be the return of non-combat items. You know the ammo press, or the backpack, or that herb kit. It would send a single that the game wasn't all about shooting monsters in the face. (Think about it, before resident evil 4, you use to have all kinds of non weapon items, but they have been phased out as the game became more combat focused.)

 

[Azure-Supernova]

You know, there's something in this. I think Capcom missed the boat by not rebooting Outbreak. With how much fun Left 4 Dead is in co-op and how popular the Resident Evil franchise is, Outbreak just makes sense. Class based co-op with civilians as player characters to boot. Give it Revelations/RE6's control scheme and Left 4 Dead's enemy numbers and it's a recipe for success.

I like the idea of an Outbreak reboot, but it's not the same thing as left 4 dead. The Outbreak files were still firmly rooted in survival horror. Most Co-Op games we have today are shooters. The Outbreak files were more like puzzle games with zombies. Oh boy the idea of a new Outbreak game is a fun one. You could mix in some rougelike elements with randomized levels, so you don't have to include that silly no talking restriction.

Well I used Left 4 Dead as an example because it's just the most fun I've had with a co-op game before. But how I envisioned it was pretty much classic Resident Evil + Revelations control scheme. When I said Left 4 Dead's numbers, I meant it. I always felt Raccoon City was a little... empty, especially places that should be full like hospitals and police stations.

Though I think the way to get me excited about a resident evil game would be the return of non-combat items. You know the ammo press, or the backpack, or that herb kit. It would send a single that the game wasn't all about shooting monsters in the face. (Think about it, before resident evil 4, you use to have all kinds of non weapon items, but they have been phased out as the game became more combat focused.)

This is kind of what I wanted when I was talking about a class system. Varying classes having extra tools for utility as well as straight up offence. Either way I think the veer away from highly trained, anti-B.O.W. operatives is the way forward for Resident Evil.

 

[al4674]

I'm also of the minority opinion that the old formula of RE was superb and peaked with RE3/REmake. RE4, while a fun game, had incredibly detrimental effects to the series - from the complete abandonment of survival horror to forced co-op. From this point on, my relationship with Capcom cooled. With RE6 they didn't even pretend that they were sticking to survival horror. So yeah, in all honesty, I've come to dislike Capcom precisely because I feel they've betrayed the series.

I guess they're really confused with the series and they don't want to take any risks whatsoever. I never really understood the backlash to controls of the older RE, because the controls are EXACTLY THE SAME. The difference is that now the camera follows you around. In fact, I'd argue that the over-the-shoulder view is even more tankish in its controls precisely because you're literally like a turret that needs to rotate around its axis just to see what's going on.

The survival horror element is also gone. People who call RE4 survival horror are deluded - how can any game, that gives you a resource incentive to kill every enemy that gets in your way, be a survival horror? In the previous games, killing monsters was only a waste, you got nothing from it. You carefully had to pick and choose, where to waste ammo and where you could out-maneuver your enemies. While with reasonable management you shouldn't have ammunition problems, it's evident that you can't approach the game like a ''KILL ALL MONSTERS 4000'' shooter. In the new formula, killing enemies gives you everything - grenades, bullets, health, points etc. You're worse off if you don't kill everything that gets in your way. It's a bread and butter shooter, where you are actively rewarded for killing your enemies in the most efficient way. I don't even need to talk about co-op.

I don't feel the series has evolved naturally, because the new games are nothing like the old ones. A natural evolution would have been the REmake and RE0, though that game also had its problems. The change was quick and fast and was based on the assumption that opening up the game to a wider playerbase wouldn't alienate the core fans. The assumption was wrong and the over-the-shoulder approach has saturated itself faster than the original formula.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

My problem with the series is that I think it's time it got a reboot. Give us a new story...

You know, there's something in this. I think Capcom missed the boat by not rebooting Outbreak. With how much fun Left 4 Dead is in co-op and how popular the Resident Evil franchise is, Outbreak just makes sense. Class based co-op with civilians as player characters to boot. Give it Revelations/RE6's control scheme and Left 4 Dead's enemy numbers and it's a recipe for success.

Outbreak was an amazing spin off series, even though I never got to play it online it was a nice new experience, working with other AI players as we ventured through the known areas of both Raccoon City and the Arklay area.

I loved them both because being a bunch of civilians in a nightmare that came out of nowhere and having to work together, survive with what you can find, create makeshift weapons out of the few mats that lay around and medicine to slow down the viral gauge from reaching 100% (which I thought was a bit stupid because it forced a time constraint that not many love).

I for one would really love capcom to reboot the series and possibly use Outbreak as a means to restart since now we have a better mutiplayer scene and could do with a more advanced version of co-operation.

I'd also love to go back to Raccoon city, if the game reboot is some entirely new place, new characters and everything then I'd probably drop the franchise like a hat.

 

[stroopwafel]

I don't feel the series has evolved naturally, because the new games are nothing like the old ones. A natural evolution would have been the REmake and RE0, though that game also had its problems. The change was quick and fast and was based on the assumption that opening up the game to a wider playerbase wouldn't alienate the core fans. The assumption was wrong and the over-the-shoulder approach has saturated itself faster than the original formula.

Resident Evil changed b/c the old formula(atleast at the time) was getting stale. You had Resident Evil, then RE2, 3, Code Veronica, Resident Evil Remake, RE0. All these games played more or less the same, so they shook things up with Resident Evil 4. It was a completely different game that not only revolutionized third person shooters but also had a signature style and atmosphere that's barely been matched to this day. Not the awkward puzzles, tedious inventory management, cringeworthy dialogue or B-movie cheese has been the series appeal for me, but rather that haunting atmosphere and never really quite knowing what was around the next corner is what did it for me. And RE4 reveled in this, and was a lot more fun to play as well.

I'd say it was very much a natural evolution of the series, but the thing is Capcom completely misunderstood what made RE4 so good in the first place. That's why we have such garbage sequels to the game.