Will future Resident Evil tiltes return to survival horror?

[Joehrex]

Hey guys,

Will Capcom return future Resident Evil titles to it's survival horror state? Capcom is releasing Resident Evil HD Remake and Revelations 2 and they are both survival horror. I do like Resident Evil 4, but 5 and 6 are the worst! 5 and 6 kills excitement and brings insults, like blond-haired Jill Valentine acting like an animal when controlled by Wesker, Wesker's premature death in the volcano, Chris Redfield getting upset over "Ada" for killing his men, mocking the horror genre with over-the-top action and westernized. Capcom is losing its balance, but it's re-balancing a little bit. Capcom looked back at what made Resident Evil great and releasing the HD Remastered Resident Evil Remake (from Gamecube) on multi-platforms. Capcom brought back Claire and Barry and survival horror on Revelations 2. I was hoping that Resident Evil 7 would use Panta Rhei engine with a return of single-player survival horror. We want Resident Evil return to survival horror, right? What can Capcom do to return to its glory days since the 90's?

[Ultimacloud123]

The real question is, will people stop spamming the forums with drama provoking topics?

5 and 6 had good gameplay which I'm only being generous however being called a RE game is a mockery. The release of HDmake and Rev2 is only in my opinion a countermeasure last ditch effort to make up their losses from releasing those games plus their other RE related failures. They truly don't give a care in the world about their fan base. If they did all current games would be living up to their predecessors in all their glory.Shinji Makami still cares about true survival horror with his release of The Evil Within. Capcom survival horror games will not be true survival horror until they get their heads out of their rear and off the high horse and start taking in fan feedback.

[Lanzagranadas]

No. They can attempt to but they won't achieve it, Survival horror is a dead genre (actually, it's not even a genre just a mere concept which meaning differ to each person) something that just cannot return these days, not in a true form at least.

Now people might see a game which is at night and has scary jumps and claim "YEAH SURVIVAL HORROR IS BACK", but that's unfortunatelly not true.

[Burt Mustin]

It can't go back, atleast on a triple A level, because the general horror genre is still evolving. Wait until the 'Rift' really get's going. I've heard a few surprising stories from guys who got their hands on Alien:Isolation + Oculus. Effective with room for growth.

[Vixtro]

No. They can attempt to but they won't achieve it, Survival horror is a dead genre (actually, it's not even a genre just a mere concept which meaning differ to each person) something that just cannot return these days, not in a true form at least.

Now people might see a game which is at night and has scary jumps and claim "YEAH SURVIVAL HORROR IS BACK", but that's unfortunatelly not true.

Alien Isolation.

[Wrathborne]

Survival horror could make a return if the games had a story warranting the SH elements we've grown to love. Inventory managing, safe rooms, no co-op partner, limited weapons and supplies as well as creepy atmosphere and a mystery thats actually intriguing and grows on you.

Instead we get quasi action/action shooters with characters put into situations where explosions are everywhere, an evil war lord is in charge of an army of monsters and there is always someone on your team who happens to be a traitor. It all boils down to a conspiracy, on top of a conspiracy on top of a conspiracy.:/

[Rancid Cheese]

The SH genre is seeing a bit of a comeback especially on PC. As for RE getting back to those roots; who knows? Maybe it already is, after all RERev2 is little over a month away...

[Wrathborne]

I wish I had an answer to that question, but Capcom has little to no credibility in their promises, I mean they've classic SH was the focus of RE6 at once point if I recall, they've said lots of silly shit over the years.

I doubt that Rev2 will be what any of us really want or hope it will be, but I don't hope it fails as an RE game either.

[blackpower]

Also I believe we can create horror games using various programs to create a chapter of our fantasy of Resident Evil, Capcom will never do more survival horror titles as before, we have to be us to carry it forward.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

"The release of HDmake and Rev2 is only in my opinion a countermeasure last ditch effort to make up their losses from releasing those games plus their other RE related failures."

Both RE5 & 6 sold very well commercially, although 6 did take a while to get there, as did Revelations. It doesn't make business sense to dig out REMake to plug in financial holes caused by the likes of Outbreak or Operation Raccoon City. Businesses don't look to release projects to plug gaps in previous financial years, but to drive new sales.

Capcom were quite open about taking RE6 in a direction to appeal to a wider audience. However, since then, we've seen a resurgence in both horror titles and survival games on PC and they've also made a return to AAA console gaming in the form of Alien: Isolation and The Last Of Us.

Since the Residen Evil series is at a creative fork right now, it makes sense for Capcom to bide their time and test the waters by updating and re-releasing the REMake across all modern platforms and keep the Rev spin-off series going whilst they plan what to do next. They don't want to alienate new fans of the series or lose those that have stuck around for the past 18 years.

[Lanzagranadas]

Or they're already creating another action shooter called RE7 right now, while in the meantime they give us a "back to roots promise" in the shape of a game that has unfairly became, and treated as, a low-budget spin off series in an attempt to pacify fans' complaints.

In all honestly, I bet they already have a team working on RE7 and not just peacefully waiting to see how performs RE Remake and RER2 sales.

RE6 didn't fail to meet its expectations because of being an action game, or not being a good RE, it was for being a badly developed action game, 4 and 5 were also action shooters which both fucked on survival roots in every single way but they sold well and had mostly good critics and scores so everyone at Capcom was happy with them.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

RE6 didn't meet the expectations because of being an action game, or not being a good RE, it was for being a badly developed action game

RE6 didn't meet critical expectations but still went on to became the second biggest selling Resident Evil title of all time and the third biggest selling Capcom product of all time

http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html

This does create a dilemma for Capcom. Also, as mentioned earlier the resurgence of survival and horror titles have the ability to lure away the Resident Evil fanbase in the long run. Capcom's next step could define the series for a generation.

Whilst Capcom's goal is ultimately to make money, it's not a single entity and also houses lots of dev teams. This is a publisher that held off on releasing a SF4 for years after spending so much time creating iterations on and spin offs from the earlier titles in the series. At the same time, this company now is keen on getting SF5 out of the door for the next gen pretty quick.

If the series is really going to go down one of two routes, it's pretty simple to guess which direction it goes, even if the reasons you choose are different from Capcom's motivations. Don't confuse your ideas with Capcom's motivations, which are behind alot of hidden doors.

[Rombie]

Both RE5 & 6 sold very well commercially, although 6 did take a while to get there, as did Revelations.

RE6 didn't meet critical expectations but still went on to became the second biggest selling Resident Evil title of all time and the third biggest selling Capcom product of all time

http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html

This does create a dilemma for Capcom. Also, as mentioned earlier the resurgence of survival and horror titles have the ability to lure away the Resident Evil fanbase in the long run. Capcom's next step could define the series for a generation.

In the case of RE6... you can't go by pure numbers... you have to have context. Yes, on numbers it looks great that it sold so well but then you're not taking into account the fact it was reported to be (though unconfirmed but likely) Capcom's most expensive title ever on the development side and they had to reduce sales targets, not once - but twice, in order for it to meet it's current level of "success" - on those ground RE6 wasn't much of a sales success either the because the company probably was lucky to possibly scratch back its development costs on something that if developed better should have easily reached it's original sales goals of over 8 million units.

The critical comment and fan reaction has a lot to do with it, and you can certainly understand the trepidation in the idea of what will define the next decade of the franchise right now just as RE4 did a decade ago.

The franchise has been in a state of flux for a decade now and will continue to do so. RE5 was in the case of hindsight a successful follow up that no one was sure would happen... but it's been unsurprising that the company has time and time again revisited old titles (be it the Wii shooters or the various HD ports of titles including RE4, Rev, and the Wii shooters) and used games like Rev and Rev2 as testing grounds, simply because no one is confident about any direction to take.

[Lanzagranadas]

Sales success is a balance between your goal and the actual results. RE6 sold 5 million but they were aiming above 7, Capcom put more than 600 employees on what it was going to be its most ambitious and expensive project but the game sold less than its predecessor and received the worst critics so far in the entire main series history.

Operation Raccoon City sold just 2 million, but it was a commercial success, because it was just funny multiplayer crap made by a third party small studio and I bet their budget was rather small, so that's what actually made it a success with much less copies sold than RE6.

[biohazard_star]

I would love for them to revisit the hybrid TPS/fixed camera gameplay seen in the hookman version of 3.5. With the hardware we have this gen, I wonder if they would be able to pull off near-photorealistic environments, if they kept the scale of the environments small enough. PT/Silent Hills was able to do that very well.