Death of survival horror as Resident Evil shifting towards action – Video Games Update
Gamers are disappointed by the demo of Resident Evil 6 on Xbox Live because of the regenerating health system in the demo. This is because of the growing trend of games tilting towards the action genre as every developer is trying to get a piece of the Call
of Duty sales.
Resident Evil by Capcom, used to be a survival horror series but that changed with Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo GameCube. Because of the critical acclaim and the extremely positive reviews, the game was ported to the Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Wii.
The game also got high definition ports for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 later on.
Resident Evil 4 departed from the series trademark fixed camera angles for every scene and opted for over the shoulder third person action. Resident Evil 4, despite being a third person shooter, maintained its creepy atmosphere but that changed with the
release of the next installment in the series, Resident Evil 5.
Hardcore fans of the series were really disappointed with Resident Evil 5 as the game, featuring the same mechanics from Resident Evil 4, felt more like an over the top action game rather than survival horror. The game received positive reviews from gamers
and critics since it was a solid action title but fans of the survival horror genre were left wanting more.
Resident Evil 4 and 5, despite their flaws did feature a health system where you had to buy and search for ‘herbs’ and ‘health sprays’ in order to heal your character. The health system at least lead to some intense game-play moments which forced players
to conserve the ‘herbs’ and ‘health sprays’ for later use.
Now after trying out the demo for Resident Evil 6 on the Xbox 360, fans around the world have been dismayed that Capcom has altered the health system to feature regenerating health. This was the last straw as now the Resident Evil franchise has become an
action zombie shooter as opposed to a survival horror game with zombies.
It seems that Capcom is being inspired by the Resident Evil movies, which were summer action blockbusters and had nothing to do with survival horror. Capcom needs to learn that what works for a movie tie-in might not work for the game itself, but as long
as it generates revenue like Call of Duty, Capcom will be pleased.
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