Grave Gamer News & Views — resident evil 5
Resident Evil’s “Action Trilogy” Revisted
A Look Back at the Horror Franchise’s Gun-centric Releases
2016 marks Resident Evil’s 20th Anniversary and publisher Capcom has been celebrating all year long. The company announced a new sequel in Resident Evil VII which vibes as a huge course-correction for the franchise, seeing a return to the original game’s core tenants of environmental exploration, resource management, and hard horror. PS4 owners can download a playable glimpse of the future (which I’ve talked about repeatedly).
Capcom’s also released a new spin-off, Umbrella Corps, a game that proves sometimes a good idea on paper can lead to the virtual equivalent of a burning bag of shit on your doorstep. More successfully, they’ve been mining Resident Evil’s past, re-releasing oldies on current platforms. Resident Evil 0 saw a solid HD re-treatment in the vein of last year’s superb REmake Remaster. Beyond that, Capcom has also spent a string of summer month’s re-releasing uprezzed versions of Resident Evil’s “Action Trilogy” – a trifecta of RE4, 5, and 6.
Though these departures from the franchise’s perceived formula created a rift between old school fans and the new laser-pointed generation, one thing’s inarguable: the Action Trilogy helped push Resident Evil into the mainstream spotlight. Resident Evil 5, for instance, is not merely the top selling game in the series. It’s the best selling game in Capcom’s history. Not Mega Man. Not Street Fighter. Resident Evil 5. And taking second place silver? Resident Evil 6 – a game that some publications can’t write about without preceding it with “the divisive.”
Removed from their hype cycles and marketing blitzes, I re-played each game in the action arc as they’ve been released, beginning with 6 and ending on late August’s RE4. Below, I quickly break down what these game’s were when they launched and how they fare now in order to figure out if these titles really deserve the shit that’s been heaped on them since.
“I didn’t play Resident Evil 5 until a year ago, which was long...
“I didn’t play Resident Evil 5 until a year ago, which was long after it came out. They sent me a copy, but I didn’t open it for a long time. Whether the game was good or bad, I knew that someone other than me had made it, so it would be different to my style. I didn’t like the idea of that.”
Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, in an interview with CVG.
He’s also none too thrilled that recent trailers for RE6 make it out to be more of a “Hollywood action film” than a nerve wracking zombie horror game. Mikami’s allowed to dish out his weight in criticisms, though – that right’s sort of a gimme considering he created the whole damn series.
