The end of an era?

I was inspired to do this after some things Azuran wrote in an earlier poll about "the scariest video game eva". Resident evil HAS changed, question I want to ask you all is: Was it for better, or worse?


The previous style of gameplay involved you finding key items to unlock doors, getting rid of whatever was blocking your way like blowing up walls and killing plants by mixing various chemicals, all while trying to evade zombies, crimson heads, lickers and all sorts of creatures with a very limited amount of ammo and health items:




NOW, since resident evil 4, the camera angle is now behind the character, above your right shoulder. Puzzles went from collecting items to "kill everything in the room, get the key from the last guy, wash, rinse, repeat." You can also buy some first aid sprays and weapons from a merchant who, somehow, always seems to know where your going. You can also upgrade your weapons, be it firing speed, reload speed, bullet capacity and power.

Graphics aside, it just depends on the player. Maybe capcom wanted to attract more action fans with the over the shoulder shoot the cocksuckers before they fuck up your day completely type of gameplay. Personally, I'd get fucking bored going around trying to find keys and figuring out puzzles and then figuring out which key goes where. To me, the fact that resident evil 4, with this new gameplay, remained creepy(maybe a bit scary) and stuck to the story where this crazy plaga shit is happening, is better than what was there in resident evil 2. Though resident evil 5 didn't evil feel like previous resident evil games; Not fucking scary at all.

Never played either game (always loved the re2 OST though!), but judging from the videos, I'd rather play RE4 than RE2.
The RE2 vid just made me laugh, and graphics/animations aside, the camera mode looks terrible to play. Limited ammo would be fine by me, but key-hunting? Snooore.
Admittedly though, I'm not a hard-core gamer and horror games have never managed to scare and/or attract me.

very simple they change the game from
Survival horror Limited supplies, less ammo around you had to pick your battles to conserve health and ammo . things seemed more realistic
now its
Action game Ammo in good supply kill whatever gets in your way you are now a super soldier.

I dunno. Apart from the occasional "Oh, fuck, Shotgun Shotgun Blam! Phew fucking hell jumping in through the wall like that" cheap scares, I was never quite marred by Resident Evil. Sure, I found the enemies nasty, and the zombies annoying bullet sponges, but I was never scared. Never nervous when my character limped away from a nearly failed firefight, never scared when the nemesis chased me through the streets, the giant crocodile and the gas canister, etc.

Resident Evil 4, and to a lesser extent 5, did manage to spook me a few times without relying on shockers.

When I played RE one, two, and three, everything was played with the mindset of a strategy game. Line enemies up, use the shotgun, aim for the head. Pistol from long range. Don't run into corners. Two green herbs and you're golden, even in a boss fight.

The enemies never learned from my tactics, and there was always a underwhelming number of foes. One would think that, in a mansion/laboratory/city hit by a zombie plague, there would be more then three or four zeds on screen at once.

With RE4 and 5, however, suddenly there were monsters running for me by the half dozens and dozens. They dodged, or at least tried, and it took more then a shotgun blast to the head to keep a plaga down for good. Especially with the head-eaters those cultist bastards grew in 4.

If you ask me, the change in 4 from the old formula was a good change. The over-the-shoulder perspective put you much farther into the character's shoes. You, not the camera angle, were responsible for each time you got beheaded or clawed to death.

I hated the camera from the first few.

I thought I should post this EPIC youtube video about resident evil 4. It's a real nice video that you should watch if you haven't already. Also shows some more of the gameplay

Personally I like that it has changed. It's an example all long lived series should follow. You offer a continuing plot with evolving gameplay. Nobody wants to play 5 games in a row with the same gameplay, they could just replay the first game over and over. Though RE as a series has always had issues with its mechanics one way or another. In the first 3 it's just that the way you moved your character was very odd and clunky. In 4 and 5 it would be nice if you could run and shoot in a reasonable manner. While I feel 5 was way better than 4 this is only because I'm playing the game with my gf. If I was playing it alone I would probably feel it was the worst game of the entire series because of the stupid AI.

Note: I did not accidentally fail to mention Code Veronica.

Lol, am I the only one who actually liked that one? At the time it came out I remember people were renting it just so they could play the demo of devil may cry. They didn't give a shit about code veronica.

Well the plot was fucked up and I didn't really enjoy the idea of a RE game where the best idea was to knife everything when you could...kinda the opposite of every other RE game.

4 and 5 just doesnt have the claustrophobia that made the games scary. not to say 4 isnt great but 5 isnt a survival horror at all god luigis mansion was scarier

running and shooting isnt really a good idea in real life this isnt halo and im not saying the RE is realistic but fps are a poor way of showing how you would really shoot a gun. look at it this way you have heard of running with scissors