User blog comment:Dr Mutran/Mass Effect 3 in VGA 2012/@comment-4220180-20121116022423/@comment-4237253-20121116232505

Well, here's my take on Resident Evil. There's certainly a demand for the old school survival horror style of the early Resident Evil games, and I'm fairly certain they would turn a profit if they hearkened back to the original game. Or, at the very least, released REmake on the PS3.... :)

However, I understand the direction they took their series in back when they released Resident Evil 4 It was a perfect blend of action and horror, with a perfect control scheme. The incredible sales and accolades are proof of this. It's influence across genres is palpable. Surprisingly, Capcom has been trying to move away from the RE4 formula. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm just surprised. It's the exact opposite of what Call of Duty has been doing. It is however, no better. It could be worse, in fact. Call of Duty has been stagnating, and that can certainly be bad for the industry, but at least they consistently release a product that appeals to their target market. Capcom is trying to please everyone by throwing a **** ton of **** against the wall, and not much is sticking.

My breakdown of the last few numbered entries:

Resident Evil 4: Their magnum opus. The best entry in the series thus far, and it likely will remain so for a long time. A great blend of tense survival horror with fun, addicting action-oriented gameplay, complemented with set pieces.

Resident Evil 5: RE5 obviously tries to mimic RE4's success in many areas, but doesn't surpass the original moments. The inclusion of co-op ultimately threw away a lot of the fear, though there were certainly some good moments. In many ways, I'd liken it to the Resistance series, which is a great shooter with some horror moments and scary baddies, but has very few "scary" scenes. However, it's still a blast to play. The over the shoulder shooting mechanic has been improved, and remains largely intact. I don't even mind that you can't run and gun.

Resident Evil 6... doesn't do either. It's not all that scary, and the controls are very wonky and hinky and weird. Resident Evil 5 wasn't scary, but it was still fun to shoot zombies! Resident Evil 6 failed to entertain me, and I can see why so many others can say the same.

The sad part about this whole rant? Capcom is the scared one here. They're too afraid of innovation or taking risks that they'll ruin their franchise instead of evolving it. After so many past successes, a numbered Resident Evil game is guaranteed to move copies. You practically can't fail! It has such a reputation that it's following alone will get it sold, even if it sucks. However, once you start releasing a slew of bad games... you lose that. I hope Resident Evil doesn't. I hope Capcom learns from their mistakes here, I don't want to see this franchise die.