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    Resident Evil

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    Capcom's Resident Evil (or Biohazard in Japan) series continues to draw in players with its stories of hideous mutations and the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Inc. It is Capcom's best-selling franchise in terms of software sales.

    What Happened To Resident Evil :'(

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    Trains

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    #1  Edited By Trains

    I remember back when I was younger actually being afraid to play these games because the atmosphere was so damn good.

    When I saw that zombie turn around for the first time, I knew that video games could be something special.

    The first time I entered the police station in resident evil 2 and heard this theme http://youtu.be/nadyBSZh0Bc and I was in awe by how such a simple composition could bring out such fear.

    And then the first time I entered a save room in resident evil 2 and this theme began to play http://youtu.be/53aDI5K49F4 I got the sense of safety and hopelessness mixed together but knew it wouldn't last as I would have to leave sooner or later.

    When I saw the nemesis for the first time and he slaughtered Brad in such a gruesome way, I began to fear for my own safety and tried to avoid the same fate.

    Then I heard this theme when I first entered a save room in resident evil 3 http://youtu.be/8tMIOyDI_BY and knew that the nemesis had my scent and would stop at nothing to kill me.

    I never felt such fear in a game as when I heard those dreaded words, STARS MUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

    Then once I defeated the nemesis with the rail cannon and escaped raccoon city in that helicopter leaving it behind to be nuked I felt that I had conquered my fear and had the most satisfying sense of accomplishment a game has ever given me even to this day.

    Then the credits rolled and this song began to play http://youtu.be/murC8Br4Nfo and it's still the most beautiful song I have ever heard in a video game and it was like a permanent goodbye to the classic resident evil games.

    Now capcom went from being in my opinion the king game developers to the industries biggest bunch of cash whoring scumbags, it's sad to know that the resident evil I once knew and loved is now some generic action shooter that sells only on its name.

    I just hope that next gen a new franchise will rise from the ground and take the survival horror crown which in my opinion is just sitting in the corner of the field waiting to be grabbed by anyone.

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    blueduck

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    #2  Edited By blueduck

    What's sad is that RE4 was a great game that didn't need the RE name slapped onto it. Capcom could have had another great franchise to go along with RE but instead combined them. 

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    MoseSSesoM

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    #3  Edited By MoseSSesoM

    Resident Evil should have ended after 3.

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    #4  Edited By Trains

    @blueduck: I completely agree resident evil 4 was a great game in it's own right but it wasn't resident evil to me.

    Also sorry about the broken links, you can copy and paste them into google if you want :)

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    Sackmanjones

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    #5  Edited By Sackmanjones

    It adapted. Your right it's not scary anymore, but I think both RE 4 AND 5 are excellent games. I know people don't like it but at least there are franchises that are willing to change and try different stuff. When I start to miss my old RE I just pull out my GameCube and play some REmake and RE zero

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    #6  Edited By Trains

    @Sackmanjones: Don't get me wrong I don't think 4 and 5 are bad games, well at least not 4 lol but resident evil IS horror, you can't just take out the core element of what made something what it is, what made people actually buy it in the first place and say it has adapted.

    It's a shame Shinji Mikami left capcom, he is one of the true geniuses in the gaming industry. Even if he did assist in making that crappy game shadows of the damned, but he is working on a new game as of now and I can't wait to hear more about it in the future. I'm just going to hold onto the hope of him bringing back survival horror because capcom said recently 'the survival horror market isn't very big' which shows that they couldn't give a shit about resident evils true fans any more.

    I hope people enjoy resident evil 6 though for what it is, but personally I'm going to pass.

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    Karl_Boss

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    #7  Edited By Karl_Boss

    It needs some trains.

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    deactivated-5ba16609964d9

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    Resident Evil 4 struck a fine balance of action, horror, and classic RE campiness.  
    When you first enter the small village and all the villagers overwhelm you so you're backed into a corner and then that guy with the potato sack and chainsaw emerges is pretty fucking intense.  I would dare say it is up there with the first time you meet the undead dogs in RE1, the Tyrant in RE2 in Game B, or when you realize Nemesis can chase you from room to room and has a fucking Rocket Launcher.   
    You can't  tell me you weren't shocked the first time a head shot made a tentacle appear where a dude's head use to be?  
    Yes you didn't move like a tank and could aim shots but these were reasonable changes to make for any game that started on the original PS1.
     
    RE 5 is where it went wrong.  No scares when you are forced to babysit  a co-op A.I. partner  or play with friends online who don't want to sit through the cut scenes because they have already seen them.  Not to mention they have access to weapons that make the enemies trivial at best.  Also Chris Redfield fucking punches a boulder to death.  
     
    RE4 is still the best in the series while RE5 is where the series got off track for me.

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    SSValis

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    #9  Edited By SSValis

    @blueduck said:

    What's sad is that RE4 was a great game that didn't need the RE name slapped onto it. Capcom could have had another great franchise to go along with RE but instead combined them.

    good point, that's interesting

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    #10  Edited By Trains

    @bartok: You nailed it!

    Resident evil 4 deserved the GOTY award it got from the VGA's.

    But I just miss the classic resident evils where my nostalgia lies.

    The flickering lights, the creaky floorboards, the loud footsteps that echo through the hallway, the zombies moaning, the religious music that captures hopelessness and hope at the same time!

    But you are right about 5 I didn't like that game at all, coop killed any atmosphere it could have had.

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    Baillie

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    #11  Edited By Baillie

    @bartok: You're complaining about RE5 because your friends are annoying to play with? I played RE5 with my friend, start to finish, multiple times. One of the best gaming experiences I've had, and probably the best co-op I've ever played.

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    MikkaQ

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    #12  Edited By MikkaQ

    Capcom realized they'd make way more money by focusing on the action elements. I'm pretty sure they out and said something along those lines but I can't remember where. Basically they said the market moved on, which is true. I don't think a traditional survival horror game would be very successful.

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    #13  Edited By Trains

    @Baillie: Even so that is completely besides the point.

    Resident evil should never have had coop to begin with, it was only added to casualise the game and open it up to a new audiences which like blueduck said they should have just named it something else.

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    deactivated-5ba16609964d9

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    @Trains: I would say what about the part where you enter the castle in 4 but to be honest the last half of RE 4 turns kinda goofy when you run into the albino Napoleon chap.   Now that I think about the second half of RE 4 is really fun but pretty light on atmosphere and scares.  They even use the laser grid from the first Resident Evil movie as a QTE.
    @Baillie: Even under the perfect circumstances it plays like a shitty Gears of War clone.  I am glad you liked it but it was just not for me.
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    #15  Edited By Trains

    @MikkaQ: How wrong you are, do you know that resident evil 2 is the biggest selling resident evil on a single platform, with over 5 million sales on the ps1 alone.

    If the game industry were to develop a true survival horror game today people would be all over it, word would spread about this scary game around work and schools that everyone would be daring each other to play. It would sell like hotcakes if it were a true horror game. Developers just don't realise this.

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    IIGrayFoxII

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    #16  Edited By IIGrayFoxII

    I think video games have changed and Resident Evil adapted to be a still relevant, successful JAPANESE franchise. Horror games in general are non existent in the big box releases. We all have that warm fuzzy feeling of past games that reinvented our past time, but Resident Evil has made some very ground breaking changes that have kept it a top franchise today. Be happy for that.

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    MikkaQ

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    #17  Edited By MikkaQ

    @Trains said:

    @MikkaQ: How wrong you are, do you know that resident evil 2 is the biggest selling resident evil on a single platform, with over 5 million sales on the ps1 alone.

    If the game industry were to develop a true survival horror game today people would be all over it, word would spread about this scary game around work and schools that everyone would be daring each other to play. It would sell like hotcakes if it were a true horror game. Developers just don't realise this.

    Actually 4 is the best selling one at 7 million units. Counting on a single platform doesn't mean anything, a company wants to sell a large quantity on as many platforms as possible, ideally. And they did that pretty well.

    Also dude, no. There's no way a traditional survival horror game would sell more than a million units. You overestimate the amount of people who care, you're not getting the COD crowd with a game like that. Capcom plays in a completely different league these days in terms of sales and financials. They're a bigger company with bigger priorities.

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    #18  Edited By Trains

    @IIGrayFoxII: What has the new resident evil games done that was ground breaking lol?

    Resident evil 4 invented the over the soldier view but that was it, 5 scrapped all the true horror elements for generic action set pieces and coop.

    They are not following their fans only the money and the call of duty audience which they even admitted to.

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    deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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    The reason Resident Evil was popular wasn't because it was so scary, it's because it had production value that nothing else came close to. I know it's hard to look at those blocky sprites, blurry rendered rooms and anything that comes out of Barry's mouth and think it was a production masterpiece, but that's truly what set it apart. No one had ever seen anything that looked as good as Resident Evil, and then the sequel took that even further.

    Resident Evil wasn't the Amnesia of its time, it was the Uncharted. Resident Evil sold 2.5 million copies, System Shock sold 170,000 copies. One has goofy dialogue and giant animals, the other can legitimately give a person a nervous breakdown. It wasn't horror that made the series successful, it was polish.

    And Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games ever made. It's up there with Ocarina of Time and Asteroids and Super Metroid.

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    InternetCrab

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    #20  Edited By InternetCrab

    Yeah, Resident Evil got pretty lame after the third one. I enjoyed the fourth one a bit, but after that it just went into hauling in cash, not caring for the fans of Capcom whatsoever. I have never been the biggest fan of Capcom, but have played more than a little bit of their games.

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    SethPhotopoulos

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    #21  Edited By SethPhotopoulos

    The only Resident Evils I like are 4 and 5. I never got into the older ones because it felt so archaic, zombies also really don't scare me. I'm ready for RE 6 cause it seems really fucking crazy and awesome.

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    BulletproofMonk

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    #22  Edited By BulletproofMonk

    Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games ever made and 5 is pretty fucking awesome too. I couldn't care less that the series has abandoned its horror roots, because the games are fun as hell to play. 

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    #23  Edited By Trains

    @MikkaQ: I beg to differ. There are plenty of people that don't like call of duty or shooters in general, there are plenty of people that would love a true horror game like the classic resident evil games. And resident evil 4 only sold that much because it was the first resident evil after 3, a lot of people weren't expecting such a change. This reflected on resident evil 5's sales when they dropped by 2 million.

    There is really no way to prove how well that a new traditional horror game would do until it happens but I know for a fact that if they did it right, it would sell millions.

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    IIGrayFoxII

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    #24  Edited By IIGrayFoxII
    @Trains: Just to clarify I do mean main Resident Evil titles, the ones with numbers associated with them. Yes I am refering to the over the shoulder view that other franchises have taken. It was a gameplay change that Resident Evil did right. Also Capcom is a business, they have always been in it for money, even the Resident Evil titles you love. Also next time do not dismiss every other part of my argument and focus on one issue. Resident Evil adapted and is still because of it. Name one other successful horror franchise from that era that is successful nowadays.
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    BraveToaster

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    #25  Edited By BraveToaster

    I like where Resident Evil has headed. If I want to be scared, I'll go play Amnesia.

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    #26  Edited By Trains

    @IIGrayFoxII: Yeah I didn't really dismiss all your other points I just explained them already in this thread, the warm and fuzzy feeling, the nostalgia is what everyone has for the first games they truly love playing. And resident evil has adapted but it didn't have to scrap the horror, you know the reason it actually became successful enough to adapt in the first place.

    I don't mean to sound like an ass but I'm just trying to argue my point, which a lot of people agree with.

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    SethPhotopoulos

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    #27  Edited By SethPhotopoulos

    @Trains said:

    @IIGrayFoxII: Yeah I didn't really dismiss all your other points I just explained them already in this thread, the warm and fuzzy feeling, the nostalgia is what everyone has for the first games they truly love playing. And resident evil has adapted but it didn't have to scrap the horror, you know the reason it actually became successful enough to adapt in the first place.

    I don't mean to sound like an ass but I'm just trying to argue my point, which a lot of people agree with.

    Capcom is saying, as well as the people that came out of the RE6 event, that RE6 is inserting more horror elements.

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    WarlordPayne

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    #28  Edited By WarlordPayne

    Capcom made five Resident Evil games that were all essentially the same, they needed to change things up. While I agree that RE5 went a little overboard with the action, people who are complaining that RE4 wasn't a real Resident Evil are delusional. You still control like a tank, but you can aim your gun at what you want to hit rather just having Straight, Too High, and Too Low. You still start out with low ammo so each encounter is potentially a problem where you need to conserve bullets, then partway in you have so much ammo you just gun everything down. You still explore and backtrack through an area for a while then eventually move on to a new area where you do it all over again.

    I suppose there are fewer cheap jump scares in RE4 but I found most encounters, especially the boss fights, to be far more terrifying than anything in early Resident Evils outside of the big guy in RE2B and the Nemesis.

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    #29  Edited By Trains

    @BraveToaster: I played amnesia and I couldn't finish it, I never once jumped or felt any sense of fear.

    If anything I was bored out of my mind, it lacked in atmosphere for me.

    It was just dark and had the sound of wind blowing the whole game and the odd monster that just swipes you.

    All horror games MUST HAVE one key element, the reason resident evil did so well.

    Music that captures fear, hopelessness and a slight sense of hope in some places.

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    ahgunsillyo

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    #30  Edited By ahgunsillyo

    I didn't play through the first three Resident Evil games and don't usually play many horror games, but when I played through Resident Evil 4 for the first time, I thought certain parts of it were pretty scary. I think Resident Evil 4 and 5 are both really fantastic games, and I even rather enjoyed Revelations on the 3DS.

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    #31  Edited By Trains

    @ahgunsillyo: You missed out an EPIC trilogy! :)

    It's a pity they can't make hd remakes of first gen games but they put resident evil 2 and 3 on ps store.

    In my opinion they are the best 2 games of all time!

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    breadfan

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    #32  Edited By breadfan

    Resident Evil 5 was fucking dope, yo. 

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    Hizang

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    #33  Edited By Hizang

    Resident Evil didn't get good untill Resident Evil 4...FACT!

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    Grillbar

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    #34  Edited By Grillbar

    resident evil had the same problem that every game of that genre had and has. action sells more

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    doobie

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    #35  Edited By doobie

    i recently went back and played RE 1 and 2 and man have they aged badly. not so much the graphics but the control were awful. and the only really scary bit was the dog jumping out the glass.

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    #36  Edited By turbo_toaster

    Atmosphere took a back seat to outlandishly fantastical things like Wesker being immortal or some such bullshit, and whatever Resident Evil 4 was supposed to be with that retarded Napoleon character and ridiculous cult motif. Maybe it's more my kid self talking but the original notion of a biochem weapon corporation conducting horrendous experiments right under society's nose was far, far more plausible, interesting and horrifying. People say, "RE has always been stupid." Well of course it has some shitty, B movie parts but a mature adult should be able to roll past the minor quirks and see the good stuff.

    Their main focus since the third one is squeezing whatever Grade F meat they can get from Wesker's bloated corpse. Since the Epilogues from Resident Evil 2 and 3, I assume fans of the series expected to storm Umbrella headquarters by now and get some answers. None of the story from the first three games amounted to anything and that's my biggest gripe. Shame really, I loved that series to death at one time.

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    #37  Edited By Trains

    @doobie: The controls were awful yes but everything else more than make up for them!

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