Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Kontra Kommando

Resident Evil (Returning to its Roots?)

Recommended Posts

Growing up, Resident Evil was a game that I truly loved. I had played every installment up until Code Veronica on Dreamcast. However, I had noticed that the series had seemed to lose its way; like Kenneth, it became a mere shadow of its former self. Similar to the 1990s Batman movies, the latter installments were just too goofy and flamboyant IMHO.

I had recently read an article where Capcom seeks to target the fans of the earlier installments. Perhaps they may even re-boot the original.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/31/resident-evil-will-return-to-its-roots

Personally, I believe if Capcom is serious about making good on this promise, the well of inspiration they need to draw from is Tom Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990). This movie IS Resident Evil. From the music, to the camera shots, to the set, even the dialogue; this movie was what the original Playstation Resident Evil had emulated. Perhaps they should get Tom Savini on board with production of the game.

http://www.videobash.com/video_show/night-of-the-living-dead-quot-1990-quot-414959

Your thoughts.

Share this post


Link to post
Kontra Kommando said:

Perhaps they may even re-boot the original.

They already did that. Not that this wasn't the definitive Resident Evil game, but now everything has been rebooted we're getting re-reboots?

The most recent Resident Evil game I played was RE5. It was the moment where I completely lost interest in the series, and I don't really care what's happened since then. Frankly, the last good idea Capcom had for a Resident Evil game was RE4 in its conceptual state. Too bad they instead decided to take the series in a totally different direction.

Share this post


Link to post

I would have to say Code Veronica was when I started feel as though the series jumped the shark. I hated the Leo Di Caprio-like character, the brother/sister plot, and the fact that Wesker was still in the game. I liked Wesker in the original, but I hated the fact that he had returned with super-powers. For me, he died back in RE1 in the laboratory. Resident Evil should be like the Friday the 13th series, and just selectivly ignore some it's work as non-canon, kinda like what F13th did with Jason X. Code Veronica wasn't necessarily a bad game, but you could tell that the direction RE was heading in was not good.

Share this post


Link to post

There've been times I wanted to play the early entries in the RE series, but the static and generally awkward camera angles and controls always turned me right off from continuing to play. That, and spending about five deaths worth of figuring out precisely which fraction of a second I'm supposed to press the knife button in to actually make the attack connect with the zombie dog leaping for my jugular. Oh, and limited saves.

I played RE4 and liked it, played parts of RE5 & 6 and very much did not like them.

Share this post


Link to post

I played the original or re2 (I honestly forget which one) for about maybe 10 minutes back in the day when they were massively popular. I loved , and still do, the idea of a survival horror game and pretty much everyone raved about how good the games were at the time so I had to try them out. But I just couldn't get past the control scheme and the fact it took about 10 seconds for your character to slowly turn around. It was just completely unintuitive and clunky.

But honestly, once they took the MGS route of turning the games into literal animes, I'm kind of glad I didn't get sucked in.

Share this post


Link to post

The controls were an issue, but I evenutally got the hang of them. I guess that must have been part of the suspense; just trying to get away from the monsters. Too bad it was kinda inadvertant on the part of the creators. lol

Share this post


Link to post
Quast said:

But honestly, once they took the MGS route of turning the games into literal animes, I'm kind of glad I didn't get sucked in.


This was exactly the issue with the new Resident Evils, it became way too much like an anime. It always had some aspect of it, but it was a lot more subtle in the past. Moreover, it was more like the older, cooler animes, back in the early installments.

Share this post


Link to post
Clonehunter said:

Dino Crisis was better, the first one anyways.

...and Silent Hill 1/2/3 are the best of all of these games - due in no small part to the absence of hammy voice actors and forgettable stories.

Resident Evil gave us far too many memorable video game tropes to just stop celebrating it, though, even if it was surpassed by similar games.

Share this post


Link to post

I will always have a place in my heart for the original Resident Evil. I thought Resident Evil 2 was just as good as the original as well. Resident Evil as a game series is sorta like the Aliens movie series. The first two were amazing, and the reset of series were sub-par compared to them. Despite the subsequent aliens movies, the original two helped define Sci-fi, similar to how RE helped define Survival-horror.

Share this post


Link to post

I don't want the franchise to return to its roots. The scariest things about Resident Evils 1-3 were the controls and voice acting.

Share this post


Link to post

The Resident Evil games were alright, but I always favored Alone in the Dark (more intelligent, foreboding design). RE1 and the sequels didn't scare me the same way that game did. Silent Hill and it's sequel was far superior to Resident Evil and reminded me a lot of AiTD. The reboot of the first game was pretty good but that's about all I care to remember about the RE series.

Share this post


Link to post
DoomUK said:

...and Silent Hill 1/2/3 are the best of all of these games - due in no small part to the absence of hammy voice actors and forgettable stories.


I've always really wanted to get to Silent Hill, but still have yet to find a good PSX copy. I've come across more strat guides for the first game though more than I care to remember.

Share this post


Link to post

I recently bought for PSN the original RE1. I don't like it. I kinda realize its a point and click game and the controls are terrible. You can't switch weapons or have a heal button.

Share this post


Link to post

The first RE game I ever got a hold of was RERC because I never had an RE game before and because I couldn't decide on anything to buy around then, I don't know if I should try out any of the older said to be better RE games.

Share this post


Link to post
Avoozl said:

The first RE game I ever got a hold of was RERC because I never had an RE game before and because I couldn't decide on anything to buy around then, I don't know if I should try out any of the older said to be better RE games.

If you've only played RERC, you haven't really played a RE game at all. Comparing them is almost like saying Doom RPG is representative of Doom.

Personally, I'd suggest you start with the Gamecube remake. Though you clearly need a Gamecube for that. Good luck getting GC emulators to work, unless you have a pretty monstrous PC.

Share this post


Link to post

Not really played Resident Evil games much.

I remember playing the original one at a friends house on the PlayStation.

That was pretty intense, but all the new ones seem to have taken different direction.

They always seem to have a pretty hot looking chick that kicks ass though :)

Share this post


Link to post

Is it even possible to hook up older systems like the Gamecube or Nintendo 64 to a modern LCD widescreen TV? Do you have to select a 4:3 screen ratio in the TV options or something (I imagine it would have black bars on the left and right side of the screen to have 4:3 on a 16:9 display)?

I thought Resident Evil one and two were really scary, they scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. The music is exceptional and grim. And they're hard as fuck, too. I think the old resident evil games are the only things ever that actually made believable, scary zombies. Everything else is just stupid running zombies and campy, shit movies that treat zombies like some kind of pop phenomenon instead of making them genuinely terrifying like in Resident Evil. The zombie vocal noises in Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 are very believable and unnerving. The same can't be said about the voice acting, though.

Is it even possible to beat these games without a walkthrough\strategy guide?

I thought Resident Evil 4 was pretty awesome and played through all of it, though it's hardly anything like the classic Resident Evil games.

Share this post


Link to post
Chu said:

Alone in the Dark

Yep.


First time I saw Resident Evil being played, I thought it was a complete ripoff of AITD. From the general gameplay down to minute detail of the interface; it's a console port of AITD with better graphics and a different storyline, as well as console port changes like save spots.

Alone in the Dark is better. It's innovatinger, it's computerer, it's Lovecrafter.

Share this post


Link to post
DoomUK said:

If you've only played RERC, you haven't really played a RE game at all. Comparing them is almost like saying Doom RPG is representative of Doom.

Personally, I'd suggest you start with the Gamecube remake. Though you clearly need a Gamecube for that. Good luck getting GC emulators to work, unless you have a pretty monstrous PC.

Well I wasn't compairing them but I was arknowedging the fact that the earlier games were the betters, I do happen to have a gamecube and wii so I would be able to play that game if I can get a hold of it.

Share this post


Link to post
Reaper978 said:

Is it even possible to beat these games without a walkthrough\strategy guide?


I remember my first play through of the original, and it certainly was like nothing I had played before. There was so much trial and error, and searching around; it was a challenge. I really learned what Survival-Horror meant when I had squandered a lot of my ammo, and did not have enough to defeat the tyrant at the very end. I was reduced to trying to kill him with a knife, which didn't work at all for me. After that, I had started all over again, and was more careful to ration my bullets and rounds.

Those were the days, I used to play RE and Road Rash all the time.

Share this post


Link to post

I first played RE2, then RE3 and none of the rest. Then I watch the RE movies and I'm pretty fucking confused. Now that I bought RE1 on PSN I FINALLY know who Wessger is. Finally. I had no fucking clue who this dude was in the movies. I know I saw him as a villain in one of the other games.

Share this post


Link to post
geo said:

I first played RE2, then RE3 and none of the rest. Then I watch the RE movies and I'm pretty fucking confused. Now that I bought RE1 on PSN I FINALLY know who Wessger is. Finally. I had no fucking clue who this dude was in the movies. I know I saw him as a villain in one of the other games.


I read a long time ago in some random video game magazine that they were supposed to have George Romero direct the Resident Evil movie. However, they fired him because they didn't like the direction he was taking it. Whoever made that call should win the Darwin Award.

Share this post


Link to post

RE movies are more about style, color and action than horror. Its cool they got into cloning though. Now I can give a fuck less when someone dies.

If the first film was to be based around a mansion... what does George Romero know about filming a zombie movie in a house?

Since I'm playing RE1.... painfully playing it on PSN, it makes me think if there was a RE movie based around the first game in a mansion it would end up being more like the movie version of Clue. Crazy characters locked in a mansion.

How the fuck is the voice acting so bad? Why does no one care about the situation they're in with their monotone voice? You mind if I sit here and practice piano??? If you're going out there take me with you. Oh wait I need to do something in here first you go on ahead without me. WHAT? Who talks like that? Why not say I have some stuff in here and I'll catch up with you later.

Why is there no item bind to button feature? Why does it take 5 bullets to drop a zombie? Am I not a trained police officer that has spent years at target practice? I know its a game and you want challenge for horror, but can't normal people get stranded in the building when their news helicopter crashes covering the zombie violence???

Why can't I shoot and back up? Why can't I seem to back up quickly? I know I sure can run backward quickly? It makes me feel like this is an RPG because you're so stiff and slow and it really gives the zombies a chance at you. Maybe PS1 limitations are to blame, but I know the WWF Smackdown games gave you a lot of movement. The dogs sure can run fast. Maybe it would have been logical to say you injured your knee in the helicopter crash and that's why you move zombie stiff.

Why don't you start off with a gun? You lost it in the crash? Don't cops have backups especially STARS or SWAT teams?

Why plants and why not med kits? Again is this an RPG? Is Japanese science really just plants? I thought that was the Chinese.

At the end it would be cool if its revealed you're not a cop, but rather some mental patient that escaped and broke into a mansion past the guard dogs. You only think you're seeing zombies when its really just the staff.

It is an example of gaming masochism.

Share this post


Link to post
geo said:

How the fuck is the voice acting so bad?

I guess Capcom didn't realise what a commercial success it would be, so they hired the cheapest Anglophonic voice actors they could find to translate the dialogue of this obscure Japanese survival horror with unfathomably weird puzzles.

IIRC, RE2 had slightly better voice acting. But I might be misremembering things.

Share this post


Link to post

But its as if they're talking and their voices show no emotion, they're just monotone. No emotion, no fear, no charm. But whatever. I'm not even sure these were voice actors.... or humans. I think someone just perfected a synthesized voice and had it read material.

Weird puzzles.... point and click adventure.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×