The Resident Evil Retrospective Part 2-Evolution of Evil

The road to the next mainline Resident Evil game was a long and arduous one.  Several different versions reached various states of development before either being scrapped, picked apart piece by piece, or being remade into entirely new franchise…yeah some might forget that Devil May Cry started life as a build for a Resident Evil sequel.  Low and behold, three years after Resident Evil Zero dropped on the family friendly Nintendo Gamecube, the next chapter of the horror franchise would arrive and wouldn’t just herald a new direction for the series but the gaming landscape as a whole. 
 
Resident Evil 4 finally arrived in 2005.  Set six years after the events of Resident Evil 2 & 3, Resident Evil 4 found Leon S. Kennedy, now working for the Secret Service, dispatched to Europe to track down the Presidents abducted daughter, Ashley Graham.  Along they way, Leon discovers those who took Ashley are trying to resurrect a familiar evil in a dangerous new form and he even crosses paths with the gorgeous Ada Wong once again.  Capcom took all the criticisms from their last couple of game and gave the fans exactly what they asked for: innovation.  RE4 did away with fixed camera angles, moved gameplay to an over the shoulder third person perspective, improved the combat and controls and overall managed to take the franchise in a more action oriented direction but without sacrificing the horror element.  The end result is a perfectly balanced game that many cite as one of the greatest games ever made and the best entry in the entire Resident Evil franchise.  But even Capcom couldn’t’ve guessed how wildly successful Resident Evil 4 would be, financially or more importantly, critically.  It was a pique point…which made what came next inevitable. 

With the runaway success of Resident Evil 4, expectations were through the roof for whatever had to follow it.  Well it took four long years but the answer came in the form of Resident Evil 5.  Chris Redfield returned as the leading man, heading to Africa as part of the newly established Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).  His mission: to apprehend an arms dealer selling bio weapons in a war torn nation.  Aiding Chris would be newcomer Sheva Alomar, which left questions in the air as to the absence…and apparent fate of Jill Valentine.  There was a lot of hype and pressure behind Resident Evil 5 and despite its best attempts, it didn’t fully deliver.  While the game was praised for its visuals and the introduction of Sheva, the games story received a lot of negative feedback with many believing the game was more action oriented and strayed too far from Resident Evil’s horror/survival routes.  There was also a lot of backlash against how Jill Valentine and Albert Wesker’s roles were handled.  Plus there were the sillier moments like that now infamous scene of Chris using his ridiculously ripped arms to punch a freaking bolder in a volcano.  The game was still a financial hit but Capcom took critiques to heart again, offering fans sort of an apology with the much more balanced Resident Evil: Revelations.  Taking place between Resident Evil 4 & 5, Revelations saw Chris and Jill on separate missions before reteaming later on and the game led directly into the events of Resident Evil 5.  Revelations was far better received than 5 but it would only be a short lived victory…because Resident Evil was about to hit a low no one expected.

Released a few months after Revelations in 2012, Resident Evil 6 seemed poised to be the biggest game yet in the franchise.  Glimpses of viral outbreaks all over the world and the return of many series favorites in the same game promised a unique and amazing experience…how wrong everyone was.  The game was split between four separate yet connected storylines revolving around Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Ada Wong, and newcomer Jake Muller, the son of Albert Wesker.  Except for Ada, every character had a partner for a continued Co-Op experience that began in Resident Evil 5.  The most notable of these secondary characters was Sherry Birkin, now grown up and a member of the BSAA, who assisted Jake in his story and eventually crossed paths with both Leon and Chris at various points.  But as much fun as it was to see all of these characters reunite (and in the case of Leon and Chris, share the screen for the first time together), Resident Evil 6 was the most bombastic and action focused Resident Evil by far…and it suffered greatly for it.  Many reviews put it akin to a generic run and gun shooter with not a lot of memorable moments outside of the needlessly complex story, boring and sometimes way too long set pieces and just a sense of dullness.  For fans, this was the farthest from being stuck in the Spencer Mansion with minimal supplies and ammo as you could get and Resident Evil 6 is still considered the all time franchise low point to this day. 

The failure of Resident Evil 6 left many wondering if Resident Evil had really hit its pique with RE4 and wondered if the franchise could find renewed life.  Even a sequel to Revelations, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 in 2015, failed to generate more than a “meh” reaction despite having Claire Redfield and Barry Burton return, as well as the first appearance of Barry’s daughter, Moira Burton.  Something needed to change with Resident Evil and it needed to happen soon before it became as decrepit and lifeless as the Zombies that infested Raccoon City.  Turns out what was needed was a bold new direction…and maybe a look back at the past in a brand new light.  But that’s a story for Next Friday as Evil is Reborn in the next chapter of the Resident Evil Retrospective, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.