Resident Evil 7 Will Return to Survival Horror Roots

[MrBaskerville]

Why does there even need to be a Resident Evil 7?
What good will milking an already barren cow do?
Let the property rest. Capcom obviously has no clue what to do with it anyway. It's not like any of the previous games, barring 4, were any good to begin with.

Going farther back, the series has never really been 'horror' to begin with, being scared goes out the window the second you arm the characters with weapons.

I don´t know about that, a game like Silent Hill 2 is pretty damn scary, even though you have an arsenal powerful enough to destroy anything standing in your way.

Exactly. Most of the Silent Hill series proves that survival horror game can allow you to be able to kill everything and it can still be terrifying. It's all about atmosphere, and these days a lot of horror games especially Resident Evil games are terrible at creating a constantly tense and creepy atmosphere, not to mention make you feel like the enemies are a real threat. It may have been the start of the series going down a more actionized path, but RE4 was able to let the player shoot everything dead and still make you feel like you are fighting a pitched battle and could get killed at any moment, and did manage to be creepy at times.

Personally, I never found myself to be scared or even really creeped out much for RE1 through to Code Veronica, more like annoyed because I hated having to run away from enemies all the time so I could save my bullets for things actually worth using them on like bosses. I never really felt threatened by the enemies because of this, they were more like bugs that would bite me every once in a while that I didn't want to waste the effort and resources to squish.

Exactly! (Though i was terrified by RE3, mostly because of Nemesis, he always gets the blood pumping).
I was playing Project Zero 2 last night and i think one of the things that makes that game scary is partly the random encounters. You never really feel safe, not even when exploring familiar territory. The rest is ofcourse the atmosphere and the inventory managment. A game creates a lot more tension when your status and inventory is persostent, when you can't just rely on checkpoints giving you full health like in RE6.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Exactly! (Though i was terrified by RE3, mostly because of Nemesis, he always gets the blood pumping).
I was playing Project Zero 2 last night and i think one of the things that makes that game scary is partly the random encounters. You never really feel safe, not even when exploring familiar territory. The rest is of course the atmosphere and the inventory management. A game creates a lot more tension when your status and inventory is persistent, when you can't just rely on checkpoints giving you full health like in RE6.

I liked Nemesis, he's one of the "things worth using bullets on" because his battles are intense. I fought him whenever I got the chance, regardless of my loadout.

You mean Fatal Frame? That's easily the scariest game series I've ever played, in fact it's the only horror game that really scares me much at all anymore. I agree with everything you said. I think for me there are 5 things in particular that help the atmosphere most:
1. the Japanese themes and architecture create a sense of uneasiness because it's unfamiliar, at least if you're not Japanese, and seeing those things in ruined and dilapidated state only makes it creeper.
2. The fact that you have to stare in first person directly at the enemies in order to fight them means that you see every last scary detail crystal clear.
3. The fact that you play an obviously weak high school girl in most of the games helps at lot, since you're not some unstoppable cop or military trained badass like the RE protagonists have always been, you're just an ordinary kid being attacked relentlessly by ghosts.
4. How slow you move even while "running" and the fact that ghosts can go right through walls to follow you most places means that you can't really run away, so you HAVE to fight most of the time.
5. The creators obviously knew how to create suspense, because while there ARE jump scares, they're usually at long periods of quiet or unsettling sounds and sights.

 

[Skrimmy]

If they incorporated elements (well) from the first two games, I'd buy it with no problem. Scarce ammo and typewriter ribbons would be welcomed as opposed to enemies bleeding extra ammunition. Even if they copied the gameplay and atmosphere from RE4, I'd be a happy camper.

 

[MrBrightside919]

To be honest, i haven´t played that far into Revelation yet, but if it´s more convuluted than Re4-6, then i´m a bit worried and probably not that surprised. It seems like they ramp up the insanity with each new installment.

...prepare to be a bit worried then...

I don't think there was anything wrong with the earlier stories in the series. After the last few games, I kinda miss them...

P.S.- I love you user picture

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Just do what Eidos did with Tomb Raider and reboot the damn franchise. t'll be an easier pill to swallow.

 

[kasperbbs]

I don't think that it's even possible to turn the franchise into survival horror series at this point, unless you drop all of the superhuman characters that can kill giant monsters with ease and bring in some new clueless bastards who have no idea whats going on. Or just make a complete reboot.

 

[go-10]

targeted toward the core fans huh?
I guess that means we'll finally get a game starting Leon and Jill set in an open world type city that's infested with monsters and the undead right?

 

[Baddamobs]

Well...can't say I have too much faith at this point, since we've drifted a little too far. The real problem in my mind is that, RE6 may not have been perfect, but it could have been a good game...but it could never be a Resident Evil game.
Anyway, I'll hold my judgment until it comes out, but I'm not holding my breath...

 

[CoronaryThrombosis]

Others have said this as well, but: Kill the franchise. It's done. There is no way to make the plot of RE "un-ridiculous" and shift the focus back to survival. Even RE4 was shit if you were expecting survival horror. Survival horror requires two elements: The difficulty in the game comes from surviving and the game MUST be frightening. RE2 was the last "scary" RE and from RE4 forward, the difficulty in the game came from having to kill bigger and bigger boss enemies. Every enemy you encounter must be able to kill you in a survival horror game. The ganados in RE4 posed zero threat to Leon.

Capcom should just start an all "new" IP that rips off The Last of Us and ZombiU. RE has become about gun play, explosions, and testosterone and there's no coming back from that.