With the release date of Resident Evil 5 rapidly approaching, I have become almost incapable of concentration, often finding my thoughts wandering away from important tasks (for example: not stabbing myself with that needle covered with Salmonella serotype B, while inoculating it onto various medias) and instead speculating wildly about what glorious treasures RE 5 might hold in store. Normally such speculations would then immediately be shared and extensively discussed but my generally antisocial nature and the significant distance separating me from my normal group made it rather difficult to find others to do this with.
It should not be hard to imagine my joy when I happened upon a conversation between a group of acquaintances about how much they couldn’t wait to get their hands on RE 5. Naturally I joined right in on this discussion, inquiring if they had seen the most recent trailer. Upon hearing that they had, we launched into an in-depth dialogue about the trailer, and intermittently, the demo. Our dissection complete, the speculation began with the most important questions being addressed first, namely who was Wesker exposing at the very end of the most recent trailer. It was at this point that one of the members of this discussion weighed in with their opinion stating that they thought it was “either Ashley or Ada.” While Ada seemed like an interesting (though unlikely considering Chris has no real history with her and Wesker seemed to think that Chris would know who it was) choice, I was stunned that someone would say Ashley, as she was probably the very last person I would have chosen. Brushing off the comment as one might brush off the stray flakes of various organic acids, which is to say with great personal discomfort, I suggested that it may have been either Jill Valentine or Claire.
And then it happened. A bomb went off, sending red hot fragments of ignorance tearing through everything I held near and dear to my heart.
“Who are they?”
The words sounded innocuous enough, and the look of unmitigated horror they produced on my face must have come as quite a shock to those poor souls, but it simply could not be concealed.
My mind was abuzz with a flurry of anguished thought, how the fuck could they be excited about RE and not know who Jill and Claire are… and then it hit me. This blasphemy was made possible by Resident Evil 4.
Before I launch into an exploration of the above idea, it should be stated that I am a huge fan of RE 4. The game was an excellent entry in the series that both single handedly saved a stagnating franchise and showed the potential of the now common over the shoulder viewpoint. That does not, however, change the fact it is responsible for this atrocity.
When RE 4 removed both the archaic controls and fixed camera angles of its predecessors, it resolved one of the major issues that had kept it from being enjoyed by a larger audience. Where the controls of previous RE titles had slow, often clumsy, and frequently frustrating, the controls of RE 4 were smooth, responsive and actually enjoyable. While in previous RE titles you enjoyed the rewards reaped from playing, in RE 4 you could actually enjoy the act of playing the game.
This new control scheme obviously demanded a new game. With complete control of the character (mainly the ability to aim at whatever you damn well please and to do so both quickly and accurately) the slow, stumbling zombies simply wouldn’t be a threat. It would be easy to pick those fuckers off before they got within 20ft. So the hallmark enemies of the series were left by the way side and a completely new set of enemies would have to be implemented, ones that reflected the new controls.
Eventually RE 4 emerged, and what we were presented with was a superb action title. Unfortunately the slick new controls and fast new enemies came with a price. The characteristic atmosphere of the RE series was lost. Leon S. Kennedy was not wandering through a mansion low on bullets, running in fear from enemies and trying desperately to survive. Leon S. Kennedy was a badass motherfucker with an arsenal large enough to make a small third world dictatorship blush, slaughtering more enemies in a single 15 minute encounter than a player would in an entire play through of, say, RE 1. The feeling of helplessness, the desperation of just trying to survive was gone.
All these things were forgivable in my eyes, however. RE 4 was so damn good at being an action game I forgave it for not being scary. RE 4’s major sin, in my biased fan boy eyes, was its complete lack of connection to the previous titles.
The presence of Leon and Ada does not count, I mean sure, there are characters in RE 4 that are called Leon and Ada, sharing those names with beloved characters in RE 2, but they could have been completely original characters and it wouldn’t have changed a god damn thing. Generic government agent man goes to save the president’s daughter and meets up with a crazy pseudo-Asian bitch that works for a shadowy corporation. Their connections to previous titles are extraneous name dropping used to tenuously tie the game to the rest of the series.
What I mean is that RE 4 was almost completely devoid of any canonical RE material whatsoever. It gives no context to the adventures of Leon and the activities of Ada, so all those new players sucked in by the new controls and slick gameplay are left unaware of the significance of the character’s relationships and actions. This potentially robs them of what little impact the admittedly cheesy story might have.
While this lack of background could be easily ameliorated by a trip to the omniscient Wikipedia, simply reading about the events is a poor substitute for actually experiencing them, and I would say that those who played the titles will have a more substantial investment to the characters and events than those who merely read the highlights on the internet.
The final sin RE 4 commits is being too damn awesome. Players that loved it will go off and play previous titles only find the archaic controls and slow, plodding (though very atmospheric) gameplay. By revolutionizing the controls and creating the fast, slick gameplay, RE 4 basically broke the older titles for those who had not already developed a special love for them. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard statements like this “I loved RE 4 and tried to play the others but I just couldn’t get used to the controls”.
In summary, RE 4 commits two major sins, it contains no canonical content, being a game that might as well exist in a vacuum, and its shiny new controls basically render the games that could provide that content unplayable to the new players that actually need it.
I obviously am aware that these statements are not wholly accurate or applicable and I am sure that many RE 4 fans managed to both play and enjoy previous RE titles. This article will most likely be dismissed as the xenophobic rantings of a fan boy against his beloved series’ new fans, but I feel that some of my worries are applicable to the future. RE 5 seems to be a game that is going to be chock full of returning characters from the canon, and I while I know that each time long time fans see Wesker, hear about Umbrella, hear about Jill, they will be giddy. But what of the new fans who do not have the necessary background to understand what they are seeing? Will the impact of scenes involving long time characters be lost? Will opinions about the game itself see a division between long time fans and the RE 4 crowd? It will certainly be interesting to find out.
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