Resident Evil can learn from hit movie 'Paranormal Activity'

( 2 Votes )

After having a bit of downtime this weekend, I decided to catch up on some classic titles like the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil and it got me thinking half way through. Where have all the scares, screams, and squeamish moments gone in the Resident Evil franchise?

Now, I did enjoy both Resident Evil 4 and 5 a lot since they are the only major games in the franchise I’ve been able to beat but the two sequels have been lacking one important feature. The scare factor. Instead of the survival-horror genre it was built upon, they feel more like “me too!” action-games now with all the gun toting not-zombies, plentiful ammo, and the new cumbersome Gears of War style cover system. Again, they were both good games but they lacked that certain nostalgia feeling of what made Resident Evil so great. And no, Jill starring in RE5 doesn’t count.

Even though I couldn’t complete Resident Evil through Code: Veronica (but that’s going to change!), I still appreciated the franchise’s unique gameplay and what it brought to the table. And that was zombies, cheap scares, what the #$@% was that, and run-for-your-life moments-because-he-just-got-back-up!

All this brings me to the new hit indie movie, Paranormal Activity. It manages to keep things simple and still scare the pants off of people with something like a simple door creaking back and forth. Remember the creepy door opening sequences of the Resident Evil titles before the fourth? Bring em’ back but with a creative twist! The things that scare someone the most are what they can’t see or comprehend.

The Trailer for ‘Paranormal Activity’.

And that’s the main focus of the movie. What really happens when you’re asleep and temporarily unknown to everything that’s going on around you? There’s a lot that can be learned from an $11,000 movie that’s instilled more scares in people and soiled more underpants than the latest Jason reboot or the hundredth Saw sequel and just goes to show you don’t need an immensely huge budget with a tacky director to be successful.

Those who followed the Resident Evil 4 up from its announcement trailer to its final release may remember the drastic differences the gameplay went through in development. But the design that stood out the most was its psychological color changing, did-that-doll-just-come alive beta trailer. And it looked awesome. The gameplay was classic Resident Evil complete with narrow mansion corridors, tank controllers with a strong focus on horror, paranormal events, and psychological tricks like inanimate objects would suddenly coming alive, screen color inexplicably changing, and shooting through ghosts.

Beta footage of Resident Evil 4 when the focus was still about scaring the shit out of people.

So what happened? The game was simply too scary and different for its own good. Resident Evil is known for zombies infected with viruses and having “real” unexplainable paranormal events would have been too much of a departure from the gameplay and story. Many of the beta’s elements still made it over such as the struggling with enemies, but it was also the last innovative and truly scary Resident Evil design model.

Capcom has gained a lot of fans with the new direction for Resident Evil and they have also lost a lot trust among their more hardcore fanbase as well for supposedly ‘dumbing down the experience’ with more user friendly controls and open environment set ups. But the fact is, not many people including myself liked the now horribly outdated tank controls and the new control scheme has opened up the doors for fans previously put off by them.

If you want to up scare factor, don’t handicap the controls by making them frustratingly ancient and annoying. Make him sprain his ankle or break his leg half way through the game, just leave the tank controls out. So basically, that’s problem one solved. Now it’s all about the direction of the series, and remembering your roots while taking the franchise into the next-gen. Games don’t need to go back to their original formats to appease their roots. I’m looking at you Sonic! Rather, fans of the franchise since the PSX days want to remember the horror and thrills that made Resident Evil what it was. Better yet, remake the Resident Evil 4 beta that gamers were first stunned by.

Just without the tank controls.

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