Is It Time To Headshot Resident Evil?

It Doesn’t Even Feel Like Resident Evil Anymore

Remember Spencer Mansion? Beautiful.

Remember the gothic majesty of the RCPD police station? It’s a disorientating maze, but it’s stunning.

Remember.. the.. tanker in Resident Evil 5? There were some trip mines, a couple of packing containers? It was alright.

Raccoon City felt like a real place. A place I didn’t necessarily want to live in on account of all of the ravenous zombies, but a real city all the same. After we left Raccoon City and the surrounding areas it all started to fall a little flat. I’d spent several games getting to grips with evil megacorp Umbrella’s master plan and players entirely bought in. The games were blessed with a strong artistic vision that tied it all together: The Mansion and the Police Station from the first two games were so strong they just revisited them in Resident Evil 3 and Code Veronica X.

But then they left those familiar surroundings, and you don’t even really fight zombies anymore. The parasite infected enemies you fight from Resident Evil 4 have some similarities, but who are we kidding? Where are the Lickers, the gigantic snakes? These aren’t the bioweapons I grew up with.

The most unforgivable change is the tone. We’re not playing a survival horror game anymore, but an action shooter. Over the shoulder blasting and upgradable weapons is the order of the day - it’s long stopped being the slightly campy horror game we all loved and enjoyed. I’m neither horrified nor trying to survive in an open environment but instead blasting my way through hordes of enemies in a mission based narrative.

Resident Evil has lost its way as it's tried to change with the times.



It’s time to stop playing with our affections, time to stop trading off of our nostalgia for the series, time to let the franchise go. This is agonising because Resident Evil Revelations 2 is actually a great game, but the franchise has already been sullied, and survival horror has moved on. Alone in the Dark has suffered a similar fate, and the wheels have just come off of the Silent Hill series, too. People don’t want to find sheet music to play music to get a key to unlock a statue to get into the garden anymore.

Capcom, it’s time to accept the franchise is done and pat yourself on the back over a job well done. It’s served us well, but it’s time to lay the series to rest. I actually think this could be a good thing. A focus on new ideas could give us a great new franchise, look how well Devil May Cry did when it was spun out.

It’s okay Resi. We’ll always have Spencer Mansion. You tried to move with the times, but it's okay. Franchises die, and great new franchises take their place. As times goes on, we want different things from our games. Maybe it's not you, it's us.