So is resident evil still survival horror? If you think about it, slowly they have been taking away the "horror" aspect of the game (not like there was much of it to begin with).
Resident Evil 1-3: We had the clunky controls that added to the sense of confinement and hindered you if u panicked. They helped set the mood well. We had the creepy zombies. We had the lagre mansion-esque locations.We had the purposely obstructive cameras to help bring the sense of suspense and unknowingness. Extremely slow pace to help build up the atmosphere and suspense. takes place at night.
Resisdent Evil 4: So we got rid of the clunky controls, but atleast these new ones were still a little awkward and stiff to add to the suspense. No more zombies....we just now have sum wierd parasite....lame.... A spanish villag, not bad, and then we enter a castle...nice. Takes place mostly at night. Complete control of the camera so now the game has to rely on cheap "pop-out" scares since we are able to survey an entire area and know wats coming from miles away. Faster pace means that you no longer feel like "a guy stuck in hell" but more like "Batman having a bad day", which is cool too, but its far more frieghtening when your character is helpless. Leon was too "cool" and "badass" once again swerving away from the "oh crap, what am I gonna do" feel to a more "Im badass, and im about to kick sum ass!" feel which i think is wrong for horror games.
Resident Evil 5: Now from what I have seen the majority of the game seems to take place during day time. Sorry to say this, but day time is just lame. Sure you can have "eerie" during day time, but "horror"?...i dont think so. The problem with day time is visibility. You have too much of it! True horror comes from not knowing, but when you can see across the whole level then you basically know what to expect, apart from the cheap popout scares. Silent Hill had some daytime parts but they masterfully did it by adding an element of fog to decrease visibility. Capcom needs to realize that Visibilty kills horror! Then comes the controls....this is becoming more and more like an action game. The player has far too much control over their character and its too smooth. This isnt Gears of War! The point of the game isnt to look badass while killing people! We want SURVIVAL HORROR, not BADASS CHILLING ACTION.
When will they realize that the more helpless your character is, the more the game becomes a "survival" game rather than you basic action game? not to mention, helpless characters in creepy situations = horror. And so far the character design is boring as hell. These "zombies" look about as scary as my next door neighbor :? Maybe its just me but i personally believe that these so called "improvements" are actually turning RE away from the game it was and making it more of a mainstream braindead action game. People complain about the Wii being casual, but in reality all consoles are becoming more casual, the only difference is that Wii is willing to admit it. And dont even get me started on Vehicles in an RE game....Capcom must have lost their damn mind!
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