OK, it's about time I made a REAL God damn topic on this forum, and a God damn topic you will be presented with.
k:
When it comes to Biohazard, I need to spread my tiny self-righteous wings...err...flippers. Something I haven't done in months. But believe me, I'm bored out of my mind as I write this.
OK....
I've always had a thing for horror...Is it the anticipation of entering a new area and not knowing what's on the other side? Is it the characters struggle to escape, while trying to maintain whatever sanity they have left? Or is it the good ol' marketing grip these games have on fans and retailists everywhere?
Actually, if I had to comment, I'd say it's a variety of all those keypoints.
Now onto the good and bad points:
Remember watching Dawn of the Dead as a kid? Dreading the sound of zombies clawing and hacking away at the last safe spot there is in this world? Ever wonder if they could do a game like that, where YOU were the last (or one of the last) people alive, armed with next to nothing and a whole undead army on your behind?
Well, someone did...And his name is Shinji Mikami. In 1996, he created Resident Evil, the granddaddy of survival horror. And as the PlayStation was relatively new back then, it couldn't have come at a better time.
Resident Evil stunned gamers everywhere, with its B-movie feel and classic camera angles. And don't forget...the windows in the hallway. Never had a game been so immensely scary and compelling. All the interesting notes and clues the players obtained only further helped to develop the series' trademark of suspense.
Then Capcom did the inevitable: They made a sequel!! And guess what it was called? Yup. Resident Evil 2.
Resident Evil 2 is arguably easier to complete than the first game, but has more modes, two characters (while RE1 had 2 characters, the stories weren't much different) and RE2 debuted the auto aim feature, which was brutally absent from the original.
Next up comes Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, released less than a year after RE2. Rumour has it that Capcom had already began work on Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the original RE3.
RE3: Nemesis was a bigger improvement over RE2, introducing the dodge technique, and the side step, as well as the handiest ammo tool known to man. This tool allowed you to customise your own ammo to even the score against the Nemesis. The titular character is like this huge repulsive zombie (who weights as much as a tank) yet is very agile and persistant. He even carries a rocket launcher from time to time, making certain encounters more threatening...And he wants all the S.T.A.R.S. members dead, and that happens to be YOU!!
Then the Dreamcast arrived, and I couldn't afford one at first. So I had to wait a long time to get one cheaper. Well, CVX was later released on the PS2. Not a lot of difference except it had more Wesker scenes and Steve had brighter hair.
About CVX: I hear a lot of fans whining about this game and it's so unfair. CVX has the best story out of all the others...Sure Steve was a bit annoying, but I didn't find him that irritating...If anything, he was a big help to Claire until her brother rescued her at the Antartic base.
Besides, what's scarier than being trapped on a prison island with a torture chamber, a transvestite and no rescue team in sight?
Now here comes the remake...One of the best remakes in history. Introduced a new enemy in Lisa Trevor and the defense items. Personally, they're a blessing. Remember RE1 in the PSOne days? A zombie grabs you and you cannot do crap about it? Well, not here.
The remake was followed by the prequel, RE Zero. Very similar to the remake in terms of graphics, I felt it did nothing for the story. As a RE game, it makes a worthy stand alone title. But ultimately, it falls short of being a classic.
Next up, the Gun Survivor titles. One of them was loosely based on Code Veronica, while the original Gun Survivor title was about a man with amnesia. The first two games had restrictive controls, bad aiming and terrible voice acting. Something that plagued all the main games as well.
To improvise, Capcom made Resident Evil: Dead Aim, a side story about a few characters attempts to put an end to Umbrella. As unlucky as one can be, you play a couple of government agents aboard a cruiseliner. As usual, a viral outbreak has occured and you gotta apprehend the man responsible. Unfortunately, the man soon becomes a woman, complete with boobs and lightning bolts. And so marks the weirdest RE boss character yet in Morpheus D. Duvall...
For some reason, Dawn of the Dead was resurrected as a remake and Capcom decided to pay tribute by creating the 'Outbreak' series. In my opinion, Capcom only got them half right and paying £40 for a half arsed sequel in Outbreak File #2 was like paying a fine for dropping litter...
After years of waiting for RE4, it finally came out in March of 2005 in the UK...A supposed sequel, RE4 turned out to be better (or worse) than the others with better controls, camera angles, weapons and a story straight out of a James Bond flick. However, it disappointed some loyal fans (myself included) by doing away with Umbrella and giving us a game with little to no scare factor.
Realistically, the plot of RE4 isn't as screwed up as it seems. For Umbrella are run by the government and all it takes is them to pull the plug. Any remaining criminals are caught and apprehended indefinitely. Why would they send humans to finish them off anyway? Anybody smart would have nothing to do with Umbrella or the zombies, etc. So RE4 just speeded things up and killed off Umbrella in one FMV.
So RE4 featured new enemies and a new threat with Las Plagas. Some say this is more science-fiction than horror, although some scenes are especially gruesome, like decapitation at the merciless hands of the chainsaw villagers. They had strange names, but I cannot remember what they were.
RE5 is still miles away. Looks like they're pulling an RE4 by making us wait, and the lack of news is starting to affect the die-hard RE community, who are now turning to Silent Hill instead.
Discuss.