This opinion piece was originally published in February of 2015. It was published before Capcom announced their award-winning remake.
Don’t get me wrong. I liked Resident Evil 4, and I thought that Resident Evil 5 was a pretty enjoyable game.
However, I still can’t accept that these games are a “true” representative of the series that I fell in love with.
Ever since Capcom rebooted the series, I’ve found myself longing for a return to the survival horror aspect.
Fast gameplay.
I’m not a fan of the fast-paced shoot-em-up style of the newer releases.
If I wanted a third-person shooter, I would have purchased one of the hundreds of other games that offer such a play style.
Why do something that is already being done by so many other games? One of the great things about the older Resident Evil games is that they were unique.
The older Resident Evil games were far more immersive.
The older games were much more immersive. It actually felt as though you were exploring a city that had been overcome by zombies.
Buildings felt abandoned and you could hear the sounds of zombies crying out in the distance.
It was an unnerving experience.
In a number of cases, the game would lull you into a false sense of security. For lengthy periods of the game, you were able to explore in peace. Then, BANG!, infected dogs are jumping through the windows.
In the newer games, there is a lack of suspense. It basically feels like I’m in some sort of action movie where I’m just mindlessly blasting my way through hordes of monsters (note how I refuse to use the term “zombies”).
This brings me to my next point.
The slower zombies were better.
I miss the old zombies.
The zombies in the older Resident Evil games were much closer to George A. Romero’s flesh-eating zombies.
They were slow and dumb, but they were unrelenting. If you didn’t take note of your surroundings, they would swarm around you.
You needed to use whatever ammo you had left to put them down with head shots. There was something incredibly creepy about the way that they would just saunter towards you.
The vast majority of the “zombies” in the newer games are basically just monsters. They sprint at you; they’re relatively intelligent; and sometimes they even speak.
Scarce ammo makes it far more unnerving.
On more than one occasion, the older games would leave you in a dangerous position.
You’d be limping around abandoned corridors with little-to-no ammo, desperately hoping to find some supplies.
In the newer games, I never really felt that same level of desperation. I never really felt as though I needed to conserve anything.
The awkward camera angles.
I miss the awkward camera angles, simply because they added to the suspense of the game.
When you were walking up carridors for the first time, there were times when you could hear something but not see it.
To me and many other people, these awkward camera angles were unique because they played on your imagination.
In some cases, it was almost too much to bear. Especially with the creepy ambient soundtrack playing tricks with your mind.
I miss the old Resident Evil puzzles.
I always found the puzzles in the older Resident Evil games to be much more satisfying.
The newer games seem to have dumbed down that experience.
There were times when you’d spend a considerable amount of time trying to unlock a specific door.
As soon as you discovered the key to said door, a mixture of accomplishment and dread would descend over you.
“I’m happy that I get to proceed, but I’m not looking forward to seeing what might lie behind it.”
There were times when you’d breathe a sigh of relief at the sight and sound of an empty room or corridor.
Soundtrack.
I absolutely loved the soundtrack behind the older games.
The ambient sounds of zombies moaning in the distance added to the immersion of the game.
Every now and then, the sound of a door slamming shut would frighten the hell out of you.
Oh, and don’t forget how the sound of the “Typewriter Room” managed to put you at ease.