By Sam Coles:
Resident Evil VII is out in just under a week and a lot of
people are excited for it myself included, but is it really a fresh take on the
series? No, it’s just riding on the coat tails of what is popular when in the
past Resident Evil use to set the trend where other games would follow suit. I
just want to go over why Resident Evil VII is not an original nor fresh idea,
now before you get on your high horse and start calling me every word under the
sun I’m not saying it’s a going to be a bad game, but it’s just formulaic.
Resident Evil VII was revealed at E3 of 2016 during Sony’s
press conference and people were siting it returning to its survival routes and
yes it is going the survival horror route rather than the bombastic Call of
Duty action present in the last 3 games. However I don’t see this as a bold
move for the series I see as a predictable move and following the trends of
what is popular. Resident Evil VII is a first person survival horror which is a
genre that has been plaguing Steam early access for the past 5-6 years with
youtubers overreacting to the jump scares. Resident Evil VII seems to be more
subtle compared to other games within the genre however it is still predictable
when something is about to pop up and it’s not scary.
Resident Evil whether it is the original trilogy or 4 they
tend to set the trend for gaming in that era they’re within not follow a trend.
Resident Evil 1-3 set the standard of how a fixed camera survival horror should
be done following the footsteps of Alone in the Dark, then Resident Evil 4 set
the standard of how third person action games should be made. Resident Evil VII
just seems to be by the numbers and when they said they were going back to the
routes of the series before they even announced the game back in 2015 I was
expecting something different and not something that I’ve seen for the past 6
years.
Resident Evil was a great survival horror franchise with the
fixed camera angles yeah the tank controls were a bit awkward but that is
completely intentional making you feel completely hopeless as you don’t know
what is coming around the next corner. What would have been a bold movement for
Capcom if they had released a fixed camera survival horror and people say that
there is no interest in that style of game and I would highly disagree. Back in
early 2016 Capcom released the Resident Evil Origins collection on Xbox One and
PS4 with Resident Evil Remake HD and Resident Evil 0, to Capcom’s surprise it
sold really well and for good reason as they’re great games. This should have
shown what people want from Resident Evil a good old fashioned fixed camera
game with current generation visuals.
They seem to be going down the supernatural route when
Resident Evil was presented in a believable manner, not realistic believable
there is a difference. The reason why Resident Evil is believable is because
everything was man made and scientific there were no ghosts or magic etc. like
Silent Hill, but instead everything was created with science whether be a virus
etc. That’s the reason why it was frightening because something like that could
be plausible in real life with a virus
going wrong, sure it wouldn’t turn people into flesh eating zombies, but a
virus spreading like that is scary.
Overall I am glad that they’re returning to survival horror,
but I wished they had returned to the series routes which would have introduced
it to the younger generation; I am looking forward to the game. Let’s see how
that Resident Evil 2 Remake turns out which I’m looking forward to more.
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