What’s your favorite Resident Evil game? Also what are some of the things you don’t like about RE7?
This will be a boring answer because it’s the most common one, but it’s Resident Evil 4. But I can’t help it! 4 was action horror done right (something 5 and especially 6 failed to understand) and RE4 Leon is peak Leon.
Sigh…as for 7 there are a loooooot of things I don’t like about it. I don’t want to get into them all. But for one thing I hate the setting, I hate how it feels like RE in name only, I hate the enemies (seriously we went from zombies to FUNGUS MONSTERS ARE YOU KIDDING?!), I hate how it feels like a rip off of Silent Hill instead of being you know-RESIDENT EVIL, the characters are mostly bland-especially Ethan. They don’t feel that interesting to me, they don’t grab at me, and the first person thing is really annoying also because it takes me out ironically more than pull me in. In the old games we had fixed camera angles, from 4-6 and Revelations we had over the shoulder…so not only cutscenes, but in gameplay I felt like I really got to know the characters. Some games work in first person perspective, and yes I’m aware the creators originally wanted the first game to be first person but I don’t care what was originally considered, this is the 7th game. It’s supposed to be a continuing story. Yet we have nothing but new characters and a complete plot that feels so disconnected to the whole universe and they lazily connect things through “oh look at this easter egg here” or just slapping “Redfield” at the end. ALSO THAT GUY LOOKS NOTHING LIKE CHRIS! Oh and seriously, Chris is with Umbrella? Are you kidding me?! I don’t care if the DLC explains it finally among other things in the story, IT’S BAD STORY TELLING WHEN YOU ARE PURPOSEFULLY LEAVING CONTENT OUT OF THE STORY JUST TO HAVE IT IN SOME AFTERTHOUGHT EXTRA! ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS!
Basically to make a long story short, it felt like another run of the mill horror game that at times felt like a Silent Hill rip off when it wasn’t being so generic that was lazily tied in to Resident Evil to desperately claim it’s not a Resident Evil game in name only (when it is), the main characters are boring, the setting is boring, the monsters aren’t even zombies or more highly evolved versions of the zombie virus stuff like in 4 and 5 (I may not like 5 but at least it was trying to be consistent and instead of ripping off silent hill they were instead being a resident evil 4 rip off…BUT HEY AT LEAST IT’S STILL RESIDENT EVIL THEN IRONICALLY).
Is 7 better than 6? Oh without question it is, in every shape and form. Better boss fights, better mechanics, not a mind-numblingly dumb plot, the heroes are for the most part consistent in characterization, and it’s actually horror and not just an action movie with zombies…(however it’s not really hard to be better than Resident Evil 6 so that’s not exactly setting the bar high)
But here’s the thing…as bad as 6 is, as far as 6 strayed from the feel of Resident Evil…6 at least was 1) TRIED to tie things into the overarching continuity (again it tried, it still sucked but it didn’t lazily slap in easter eggs and references and go SEE PROOF THIS IS IN THE RE UNIVERSE GAAAAIZ), 2) at least had returning characters a long with new ones, 3) Chris looked like Chris even if he was OOC for half his campaign, 4) HAD ZOMBIES NOT FREAKING MOLD AND FUNGUS, 5) as dumb as the characters acted half the time AT LEAST THE MAIN HEROES HAVE PERSONALITY AND AREN’T BLAND AND FORGETTABLE, 6) As bad and terrible as 6 is and make no mistake it’s bad and terrible…7 to me is mostly forgettable. 6 while awful and irks me to no end, IT’S MEMORABLE! Even the things I hate about 6 I can at least remember every DUMB STUPID THING! I was so bored with 7 that I actually FORGOT some of it’s plot holes that normally would piss me off to high heaven normally with other games. I saw a video that was explaining some of it’s plot holes then I suddenly remembered the dumb and was like “OH YEAH THAT IS STUPID WTF?!” But it’s just so dang forgettable!
And it wasn’t even that scary to me either, it felt so generic scary like every other horror game I’ve ever seen in modern years. It’s so jarring to me because I recently have been playing Resident Evil Revelations, and like….everyone praised that game when it came out but NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT ANYMORE! Everyone goes all “Oh! 7 brought it back to it’s roots finally! We finally have a game for the first time bringing us back to the survival horror roots!” UM?!?!?! DID WE COLLECTIVELY GET AMNESIA AND IGNORE REVELATIONS 1 & 2?!?!?!?! Okay I hated Revelations 2 but that’s not the point, the point is we have 2 games! 2 freaking games that brought us back to the survival horror roots of the older games that did it BEFORE 7! Stop pretending 7 did it first because it didn’t!
Also Resident Evil Revelations is quite honestly a perfect game imho! I mean we have returning characters and new characters, we have a new setting (like seriously being trapped on a cruiseline with new types of zombies in the middle of the ocean is TERRIFYING) that is unique to the series but tries to tie into the overarching continuity. We have the over the shoulder camera angle from the newer games but the haunting and unnerving tone of what could pop at you around the corner and the overall scary feelings from the older games! It honestly felt like a perfect marrying of what I love from Resident Evil 4 (and the few good things about 5) along with the things I love from the older games.
It’s perfectly fine if people disagree with everything I’m saying but I freaking love Revelations and ignoring it in favor of acting like 7 is what brought us back to our roots first is a crime AND I WILL NOT HAVE THIS
