trivard676
So far, there’s a lot of skepticism surrounding Resident Evil 6. Survival horror traditionalists are quick to point out that the trailer highlights some of the game’s heavier action sequences. Proclaiming loudly that the series has gone straight to hell, being CoD-ified. Capcom feeds this frenzy by openly admitting that they wish their games could attract the CoD audience, giving the impression that they’re actually trying to win that audience. While I’m generally not the optimistic type (a lot of my articles are filled with a heavy dose of sarcasm and pessimism), I can definitely see a silver lining in Resident Evil 6.
Expanding an audience runs the risk of pissing off some of your current fans. Obviously, not everyone can be pleased with the same things. Traditionalists balk at the game’s heavy emphasis on action having had seen one trailer. We can make some educated guesses on what the game will involve, but Capcom could just as well pull the rug right out from under us.
There are a lot of things that make Resident Evil great – we each have our own individual reasons for being fans. Admittedly, if it were up to us we’d probably change a few things about the series, but be honest, we say that about everything.
“If I was in that city, with those zombies, it wouldn’t have gone down like it did…”
The simple thing is, the series needs to evolve to stay relevant. There’s only so long that revisiting the same old stomping grounds will keep the series profitable – and above all else, the series needs to stay profitable for Capcom to continue it. This much is obvious – they don’t make the games for the fans, they make the games for the money. It’s like the tried but true Square Enix repeatedly stating they will not make a remake to Final Fantasy 7. It’s not profitable for them because a) not everyone that liked Final Fantasy 7 in the first place would buy a remake, b) the style of gameplay that Final Fantasy 7 uses is so dated no current gamer who has never played the game would play it for more than five minutes, and not to mention that c) sometimes fans can just be whiny shits that will complain over any concession you make, regardless of how small.
To keep it simple – if there’s not enough money in the series, or Capcom sees that the series could be making more money than it is but their hands are tied because ‘changing it would ruin the series,’ Resident Evil will just end. To say the least, they wouldn’t waste their time and capital on a series that wasn’t making them as much money as it could. Personally, I’d rather see an evolved Resident Evil than a non-existent one, wouldn’t you?
Also available for Xbox 360 and PC!
It was pretty shocking to everyone that Resident Evil 5 was the series’ biggest seller. That tells you something about the gaming community and the survival horror genre. The survival horror genre isn’t dead – look at Dead Space and Dead Space 2. A new IP breaking onto the scene that some might say gave Resident Evil a good run for its money. But people still went for RE5. What moved those units? It could have been some built-up hype coming off the heels of Resident Evil 4 – or it could have been that people really liked the game a lot more than they lead on.
Let’s not forget that much like RE4, RE5 went through a host of changes before it was released. That, if anything shows that the devs aren’t completely oblivious to what fans want out of the game. RE6, from the trailer that we’ve seen, seems to want to take some of the intensity of RE5 with some of the atmosphere of RE4. Taking the best of RE4 and throwing in what it wants for the future of the series.
Will this mix-up work? It’s hard to say at this point. For this series it’s a risky change – but it’s not the first time the series has come up against change. Resident Evil handles change very well, might I add.
So everyone knows the story of Resident Evil 4 – in pre-production stages it was canned several times until the team felt that the game was ‘done.’ A lot of fans might have seen teaser trailers or (at the time) read about it in magazines and thought to themselves “That’s not Resident Evil.”
Changing up the formula on such an established series, with such dedicated fans was…risky, to say the least. After all, the whole thing could have blown up in their face and fans would have alienated the series. But what was the alternative? What would have happened had the series not changed at all? If they had gone with one of the original concepts?
Looks good, but what it really needs is a girl with
an annoying voice to catch that hook in the back for you”
Resident Evil 4 would have still been released, and many people would have bought it and loved it, but would it have been as monumental? RE4 wouldn’t have been such a shining example of a series reinventing itself for old and new audiences alike. Shaping itself to keep up with the ever-changing gaming landscape, but keeping its core intact.
Things might look a little disappointing now, but we’ve seen three and a half minutes of a trailer. With Resident Evil 4, the series took a risk to appeal to a wider audience, and it gave us a game people still call a masterpiece.
Who’s really to say that Resident Evil 6 won’t follow suit?
