Resident Evil 7 Will Return to Survival Horror Roots

[Gitty101]

Yeah, sure Capcom. Whatever you say.

At this point I'm unsure whether Cpacom actually knows who its core fans are. Everything it's done so far illustrates this.

 

[Baresark]

Haha, they made too much content... my god, that is what I said. This game would be awesome if it were only 5 hours long... said no one ever. All the content was the same and you replayed the same stages again and again in each campaign. The fact is, they didn't make too much content, they reused some of the content way too much. I played through every campaign of RE6, and nothing was more annoying than running into the those same missions again and again. Forget the fact that Jake had some of the most interesting stages and simultaneously some of the worst stages, and the whole hand to hand aspect was implemented in the absolutely worst way ever.

 

[Mahorfeus]

I can't say that I have a complete lack of faith in Capcom. Revelations more or less blew RE6 out of the water, while retaining much more of that survival horror feel that RE4 managed to keep.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Resident Evil 6 was a good game gameplay-wise, it contained a satisfying blend of over-the-shoulder shooting combined with some entertaining melee finishers whose take-down animations were varied, contextual and had an appropriate length so as to not break the flow of combat. In addition to the dodging mechanics, it allowed for just as much tactical input and evading maneuvers as Shinji Mikami's Vanquish and the game was at its best when it gave you enough room to flex out your muscles and apply a diverse range of strategies for crowd control regardless of how brain dead most enemies were.

No wonder the most engrossing sections of the campaign were the Mercenaries mode and the excellent sprawling hangar level by the end of Chris' story that I swear must have been designed by a different team. It threw everything at you hoping you had mastered the controls and knew how to make use of the right tactics in order to overcome a challenge, it was at the moment I felt the game was letting go of my hand. It felt like an earned victory.

Resident Evil 6 ? and some people are going to disagree with this statement ? wasn't a bad game, it just had some shitty level design that went for claustrophobic environments as opposed to mini open areas with some mix of exploration and scavenging.

The lack of a cohesive tone didn't bother me so much since RE has turned into a parody of itself when it comes to the story department, I now have stopped caring about how ridiculous it all sounds even by the standards of a B type movie.

That's too bad because the B.O.W. arc is a rather interesting concept, the idea of biological warfare by deploying inhuman beings from the 666th circle of Hell into conflict zones around the world is a nice progression for the series.

Also, bring back the save room themes, those songs were hauntingly beautiful.

That is the thing; RE6, for all its flaws, I can't really hate due to it doing quite a bit well and trying legitimately new things such as the revamped melee system, the quickshot, the transforming enemies, the passive abilities, and havign multiple campaigns that were trying to be very different from each other. If anything, it failed because it was trying to TOO MUCH and became kind of schizophrenic. Level design was definitely a problem as RE4 and beyond have been best with wide open arenas and hordes of enemies to fight.

As for the news, I see "survival horror" mentioned, but here's the tragic thing about the series: it was NEVER horror. The games were NEVER scary. Every single one perhaps STARTED as you carefully managing resources such as ammo, medical supplies, etc, but it was always got to the point where you were shooting things instead of running from them. The series was always one that tried to have its cake and eat it. When they dropped the pretense of horror with RE4 the games were all the better for it.

 

[Scorpid]

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.

I actually agree with this. Let Resident Evil lay fallow for like five years or more while Capcom just looks for a actual direction they want to take this instead of blurting out buzzwords and then make the game Capcom wants anyway.

 

[MrBrightside919]

I feel like the damage has been done...

Revelations (on 3DS) was good, but not in terms of story or characters...and Capcom has squeezed every ounce of juice out of the RE4 style by now so ANOTHER RE4 style game would be pushing it pretty far...

They need to do something new for RE if they want anyone to play it, if you ask me...

But to be honest, have Capcom ever made a RE game with a good story? It really isn´t an essential part of the series.

They've been better than revelation's convoluted mess...

 

[___________________]

The core fanbase? So they're going back to the 1,2,3, Code Veronica, 0 and 1 remake style? Thank fuck for that. 4, 5 and 6 were utter shit and didn't have any of the feel you get from having limited movement from your characters, limited ammo, being overwhelmed by things like hunters in cramped spaces, the dark aesthetics and all the elements that once made this series unique. I mean, you're on a fixed background and you just can't know what's coming when you turn a corner. That kind of shit alone will have you shitting yourself.

The clunky way characters moved was part of it all. Made you fear for your life more. Made it funner.

And newsflash, there were a lot of kids at the time that are part of the core fanbase. We're not kids anymore Capcom. We now have disposable income of our own and we miss the old style. Leave the shooter genre alone. Leave it to proper shooters, that have always been shooters.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

See, whenever some game company says [insert game/franchise here] is going back to its roots, I see it as nothing but a marketing ploy.

The game/franchise doesn't need to go back to its roots, it's the company that needs to go back to it.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I feel like the damage has been done...

Revelations (on 3DS) was good, but not in terms of story or characters...and Capcom has squeezed every ounce of juice out of the RE4 style by now so ANOTHER RE4 style game would be pushing it pretty far...

They need to do something new for RE if they want anyone to play it, if you ask me...

But to be honest, have Capcom ever made a RE game with a good story? It really isn´t an essential part of the series.

They've been better than revelation's convoluted mess...

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.

 

[Trishbot]

Resident Evil returns to survivor horror?

I won't believe it until I see... but I'll be happy if the series goes back to its roots.

 

[RJ 17]

Dear god...they're making ANOTHER ONE?! Seriously, how the hell is this series STILL going? I mean I'm talking from a purely story-line perspective. Didn't the main antagonist of the entire series fall into a frickin' volcano and get blown up by missile launchers while wallowing in the lava? I mean there's stretching a story *cough*Assassin'sCreed*cough* and then there's "We're pulling stuff just right the fuck out of our asses." HOW MANY ZOMBIE-MASS-PRODUCING CORPORATIONS CAN ONE GAME UNIVERSE HAVE?!

"Well last time they were terrorists." Oh go fuck yourself.

 

[immortalfrieza]

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.

 

[The Floating Nose]

Is it the first time that they are saying this ? Cause i feel like they said this for RE 5 and 6 and others.

 

[DjinnFor]

For many, the biggest problem with Resident Evil 6 was that the game moved too far from its survival horror roots, dropping the tense, resource-focused gameplay in favor of run-and-gun action.

Wat. Like Resident Evil 4 and 5 weren't far enough already, right?

Why do people hate on 6 for being the natural extension of 4 and 5 and superior than them to boot? Why didn't they ***** and whine like I did back when 4 came out? Why does 5 get a pass for its dudebro action-hero shit?

6 was fine. Its three campaigns delivered exactly what they were promised to do. It was panned because people were witnessing the growth of the monster they praised and cooed over at its birth.

 

[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.