Grave Gamer News & Views — survival horror

This is Not a Test – Capcom is Officially Remaking Resident Evil 2!

They’re doing it. They’re actually doing it.

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, longtime producer on the franchise, announced today via the official Res’ Evil Youtube Channel that Capcom has approved his pitch for a remake of 1998′s Resident Evil 2.

Despite Hirabayashi’s excitement (which quickly degraded into a not so sly Shia LaBoof meme), the...

Capcom Wants to Know What You Want From a Resident Evil 2 Remake [UPDATED]

Great goddamn G-Virus, people. It’s happened. Capcom is seriously considering a remake of one of the most beloved survival horror games of all time. Trouble is, they really don’t know how to go about reviving the 17 year-old classic. So they’re asking us.

Here’s what the Capcom’s R&D Team posted on the official RE Facebook today:

First off, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to all Resident Evil fans, for your passion, enthusiasm and continued support for the Resident Evil brand.

Enthusiasm for a Resident Evil 2 Remake is something we’ve been hearing from you over the years, and has drawn some recent attention in the media. [That bit’s probably in reference to this fan remake made using Unreal 4.]

However, as the team owns the RE brand, we’re not certain how we feel about this approach, and would like to ask your honest and frank opinion about the “Resident Evil 2 Remake” and what the brand identity is supposed to be about?

I can understand why Capcom is fractured on what direction the remake should take. Since 2005, the definition of a successful Resident Evil game has moved away from straight-laced survival horror and into more… shoot-stuff-in-the-face territory.

But the storied response to the post shows fans’ tastes are craving a return to old school horror. Over 10,000 comments later and the consensus is somewhere along the lines of a faithful remake – harnessing next-gen graphics, of course – that hedges close to the route 2002′s Resident Evil Remake took. Basically, a gorgeous retread that infuses just enough new to scare us all over again.

Resident Evil 2 is my favorite game of all time, bar none. I’m all in for a faithful remake rather than a shooter-y reboot, but I don’t necessarily want a prettied up version of a game from 1998. Despite its numbered title, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was intended as a spin-off to supplement RE2. I’d go fucking wild if Capcom stitched together both narratives into one giant Raccoon City Saga, especially if the story is tweaked to help the games flow into one meaningful arc.

Or, as I’ve pitched time and again, have the brilliant Scenario System – which sees you play through one set of events that affects your second playthrough – converted into a quasi co-op mode that has players tackling their stories simultaneously, sometimes overlapping to face certain challenges. Now that’s reaching for the S.T.A.R.S. (it’s okay, I vomited in my own mouth for you to pay for that pun).

Whatever it may become, I’m there, and it already sounds like a bunch of you will be right there alongside me. FFVII be damned. This is most exciting remake I can imagine.

UPDATE

This comes way of Mr. Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, longtime producer on the Resident Evil series:

Hello RE fans! This is H again!

Right after the RE HD Remaster project was finished, I actually started putting together my ideas for this “RE2 Project”. So, I just brushed it up and went to see my boss to present the basic concept of the project already…

Yeaaaah. I think this dream’s coming true, folks… My emotions can only be described as somewhere between “raging joy” and “screaming boner.”

Resident Evil 0 Returns to Consoles in Early 2016

Following the surprise success of Resident Evil HD Remaster, Capcom has announced it’s going to keep the remaster gravy train, er, full of warm gravy? All right, that got away from me – Capcom announced yesterday that horror-laden prequel Resident Evil 0 is next up on the remaster docket and that’s just gravy (shit! What is wrong with me?).

First released on the little-loved little love machine, the Nintendo Gamecube, in 2002, RE0 follows the ill-begotton journey of S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team’s 19-year-old medic Rebecca Chambers. The prequel details Rebecca’s worst night ever (before her other worst night ever in the Spencer Estate) as she partners up with a stoic convict named Billy Cohen and unravels a mystery surrounding the very origins of the Umbrella Corporation itself. What it doesn’t unravel is why Becca wouldn’t fucking mention any of these events to her comrades the next day in Resident Evil, but whatever – that’s video games.

Staff members that worked on the game thirteen years ago are back to oversee the remastering – including original director Koji Oda. Here’s a fun video of him having a green herb throttled his way by producer Tsukasa Takenaka. It’s fantastically awkward, and much bowing ensues.

Though it beautifully evolves the high fidelity graphics first found in REmake, RE0 doesn’t rank high on my list of survival horror favorites. A hastily utilized character “zapping” system and obtuse inventory mechanics that made it too easy to lose integral items throughout the stages (sometimes for-fucking-ever – lookin’ at you, train sequence) turned this horror romp more grueling than gruesome.

Despite its flaws (no item boxes?! I don’t care if they’re physics bending magic, I love them!), Zero still earned the respect of Resident Evil fans and will likely satiate gamers looking for more survival horror than boulder-uppercutting horror.

Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster is set for a *long breath* PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC release in early 2016 *exhale*.

survival-horror-2002:

Shinji Mikami: the Godfather of Horror Games

Praise be to the All-Father.

“Revelations 2 is a solid chunk of morbid tone, creeping disasters, and fraught action. Unlike its big budget brothers, it treats players to a scaled back, almost intimate jaunt through the dark that ends up being one of the better detours Resident Evil has taken in the last five years.“