I finally got around this weekend to playing the latest installment in the Resident Evil franchise. Structured much like part 4, Resident Evil 5 takes the series even further into action game territory and away from the original atmospheric, tense, suspenseful and often frightening series that longtime fans came to love.
What makes this installment better than part 4 for me (aside from the fact that our protagonist, super buff Chris Redfield, has definitely been pumping the pixels since his last appearance in one of these games) is that you can play this game isa co-op. I had a friend sitting with me battling the latest form of ‘zombies,’ which are now more the frantic running types made popular by 28 Days Later, rather than the classic flesh eating, meandering variety that originated with Night of the Living Dead. Oh yeah—and these new mutations not only run, they throw axes, hammers and spears, carry shields to protect themselves from your bullets, and even shoot guns and arrows at you. To top it off, they also ride motorcycles.
Yes, this is what Resident Evil has become. Zombies on motorcycles—in the jungles of Africa, no less. Gone are the creaky stairs and doors of desolate mansions, or the far off squawk of diseased crows in a city that has become nothing more than a ghost town riddled with bodies, some dead, some undead. No more feeling of dread when you turn the next corner. Now, you just spend all your time running and shooting. In fact, you barely even pay attention to the files and documents you find along the way that explain the ‘story.’ These ‘zombies’ could be anything—mercenaries, enemy war soldiers, pirates, mobsters—because this is just like every other type of action game.
Like I said, making this game two player did wonders, because it truly is a blast to play—and way easier than trying to take on hoards of zombified African villagers alone. It’s a great action game. But it’s not Resident Evil. Capcom clearly wanted to expand the audience of a series that already had a dedicated following, but by completely changing the genre of game, they’ve isolated their original fans. New fans worship the series now, badmouthing the earlier installments with all the backtracking, puzzles and the ‘clumsy’ controls. Many of us never had a problem with the original controls. And just like any other type of control scheme, if you don’t like it, then don’t play the game. I personally despise first person shooters, but that doesn’t mean I want every first person shooter to be turned into a third person game so I can play it. I just don’t play those games.
This epidemic has pretty much spoiled everything that made survival horror its own unique genre. Dead Rising is a repetitive action game, moving the zombies into a shopping mall in true Dawn of the Dead style. Alone in the Dark: Inferno is a continuous battle against monsters that are big, hard to beat and always surrounding you, and you even have to do tons of driving while getting a beat down by these monsters as they leap on your car roof, because you can’t shoot them off while driving. Silent Hill: Homecoming lacks the terrifying atmosphere that the original series excelled at, instead forcing you to fight numerous creatures—yet still limiting your ammunition like in a traditional horror survival game! And Fatal Frame, while retaining the classic formula, has been bought by Nintendo so it can’t be released multiplatform. The problem? Nintendo has made a Fatal ERROR by NOT allowing the fourth installment to be released in the United States! Pretty despicable way to play the exclusive game.
I’ve still got a couple of newer releases to try—Cursed Mountain, Dead Space, and Escape from Bug Island (no, I’m not kidding). Will they bring me the joys that classic survival horror games did, making me feel like I’m IN a horror movie? I’ll let you know when I get around to playing them. Still haven’t finished Resident Evil 5.
