Stolen Pixels #210: The Business Plan

[berto.el.con]

The problem is not umbrella corp, its the fact that they want to give you a sort of "save the world, get the chick." Hero situaton and you cant have that without confronting the big boss (umbrella corp) in some way or form.

To revamp the series id say fuck all your backstory idiots. Just start out with a gass station kid in nowhere texas assaulted by infected zombies in the middle of nowhere land with a dead phone line with limited weaponry, ineffective melee combat and put him in situations where you can abuse a more slow moving zombie horde rather than some sort of "L4d wannabe infected."

No conclution naturally. Might mention umbrella corp in a commercial or something just to remind people that this is resident evil and put in some emotional twists like sacrificing a child to zombies, an infected woman that tries to sleep with you and goes zombie in the middle of the courting process etc. and create some emotional state with a new group of people put into rp situations where in the end it didnt matter and your left alone.

I dunno man, the games are sorta ok but nothing id spend my money on as they are at this moment.

So Zombieland the Game? That actually sounds really good and could still let you "get the chick".

 

[Devin Parker]

If I were to reboot Resident Evil, I'd make Umbrella an innocuous biotech company who accidentally made the zombie virus when they were, let's say, trying to engineer a viral anti-neurodegenerative agent. Instead of curing Parkinson's, they've made a tenacious little bugger that turns people into mindless, cannibalistic berserkers, with an emphasis on tenacious. They thought they destroyed all traces of the thing in testing after the obvious bugs reared their brain-craving heads, but just enough got loose, and now Raccoon City (or wherever) has been bitchslapped by George Romero. So, what does Umbrella do? It admits its mistake and asks for help as it desperately tries to make a cure.

In short, I propose making the virus itself the main antagonist, giving it, endurance that makes a cockroach look like a hothouse orchid and a viable lifespan that makes a sequoia look like a mayfly with rapid aging syndrome, and casting Umbrella as an organization capable of saying mea culpa and who then works to correct its errors. More believable behavior by the corporate guys, an excuse for an IN SPACE spinoff, and better rationale for sequels in general. Thoughts?

What he said. Personally, I think the "Evil Megacorporation" thing was played out a long time ago. Making the Umbrella Corporation a more realistic company who realizes they've made a colossal blunder and are now doing their damnedest to fix things makes the franchise far more interesting to me. RE:Reboot protagonists would be either working alongside Umbrella scientists or ARE Umbrella operatives working with, say, law enforcement and the U.S. Government.

The RE series is known for special agents with guns-a-plenty splatterpunk sort of stuff, as opposed to Silent Hill's "Joe Blow with a 2x4" horror, so I would still include the guns aspect. As Umbrella operatives and government agents, you would be well-armed to face the zombies, especially as events approach apocalyptic levels. I would begin with the Outbreak-style conflicts, as Umbrella-aided CDC agents try to hunt down and isolate the virus carriers; and then, as things spiral out of control, focus more and more on the survival horror aspect, trying to fight the undead while dealing with rioting and the chaos of societal collapse. The horror would derive as much from the conditions of the collapse (as seen in many disaster movies) and the bleak, impending demise of Humanity in the face of ever-growing zombie populations as it would in the horrific nature of the zombie enemies, and the shadowy and chaotic atmosphere of the locations you would be fighting through (hospitals, prisons, industrial hellholes, etc).

In fact, you could vary the types of horror from scene to scene (level to level?). In one location, you could be driving with your team through the heart of downtown while people riot and attempt to flee the city; in another you could be completely alone, creeping through a darkened and shadowy cabin in the mountains during a midnight snowstorm with nothing more than a Zippo lighter for illumination. With government and corporation resources, you can travel all over the world. But the further you go, the more things are falling apart around you, and resources become scarcer - a visceral reminder of how the world is very rapidly on its way to Hell.

Downer ending, anyone?

 

[VondeVon]

What would you do with the Resident Evil story if Capcom asked you to handle the reboot?

Do as DMC. Start with RE2, remake Leon as a teen junkie living on the streets for whom the sudden zombie flood offers an opportunity to turn his life around as he and a Raccoon city cop work together to stay alive and Leon gets a taste for violence. I mean, law enforcement.

Throw in some gratuitous fanservice, eye-candy CGIs and the option of collecting survivors and weeding out the troublesome ones (or the ugly ones, whatever) and you have a game that I would gladly throw $100 at.

*Opens marshmallows*

 

[Biodeamon]

Ha Ha Ha!This made me laugh so hard. This one was Awesome.

I bet the coulor the iWesker would come in would be leather black. Or blood red.

 

[Grograth]

What would you do with the Resident Evil story if Capcom asked you to handle the reboot?

I would start with the plot of the first game then in a sequel say that the virus never died out and was spreading through humans and animals (airborne virus) till it hit urban areas and rapidly spread continent wide and you being on the continent have to kill the zombies and in the first half have no communication with others and have to make a continent wide zombie geniside till their all dead (or redead if want to get technical)

 

[VondeVon]

What would you do with the Resident Evil story if Capcom asked you to handle the reboot?

Zombie outbreak, as you do, but instead of trained professionals you'd play a series of primary school children. Maybe start with the eldest, trying to keep the younger ones alive, but as one is killed you control the next oldest, losing some abilities or skills as you go (but potentially gaining new ones, depending on that kid's background or behaviour as an NPC) until finally you're the youngest - having played the game long enough to be more skilled at surviving but now having the least abilities (too short to make the jumps the eldest could have, not enough strength to operate any weapon but can ball up and hide in small spaces etc).

The goal is to survive and attract outside notice for rescue OR escape yourself, allowing you to choose to play a sort of survival management game OR risk it all and explore the city around you (with different kids knowing their own neighborhoods perhaps, providing you with differently filled-in maps n hiding places/supplies/shortcuts), looking for a way out.

Maybe you can cycle through the kids, or pool knowledge before setting out, and any new knowledge is not known for the next person unless the current kid comes back to report it - and younger kids can't remember as much as older ones so can't bring back as much info. Also might get lost (ie minimap becomes scrambled) if they venture too far.