Well, I don't think anybody on this forum is a big fan of video games, but all the other forums I post on are either dead, or full of fanboys that defend this franchise no matter what, while saying that actual great games like The Last of Us are overrated. Pfft!
Anyway, I got into the series when I was a teenager, probably way back in 1999 or 2000. I loved the shit out of the ones on the PlayStation. When the GameCube came out, I loved the 2002 remake so much that it "replaced" the original 1996 version for me, and the Dreamcast was a pretty underrated console in its time too. The prequel ("0") was kind of boring in some parts, but it was no less scary. At least it looked and played like a real RE game with similar graphics, but the two main characters could be separated with a 'partner zapping system' if you chose to.
Then RE4 came out in 2005 after going through a lot of changes, and it more or less ruined the survival horror genre. It's practially just a shoot and loot game that has a more sci-fi plot than horror. Basically, monsters and people are infected with bizarre parasites and not created via viral exposure, like in the other games. The game has like, only a few puzzles where you align tiles or lights, and all you do is shoot up villagers for hours and hours, then later you have to kill druid monks in a castle and soldiers wearing armour on an island. It's so Hollywood. There's bearly any tension at all. You also purchase ammo and guns from a mysterious merchant, who just appears in random locations somehow. This just spoiled the franchise. It didn't even really have anything to do with what occurred in the other games at all, besides having the main character returning from RE2. Big deal, huh?
All of the games before RE4 focused on the Umbrella Corporation, who were the people that made the T and G viruses in a secret lab. This turned most of the scientists, civilians and nearby animals into monsters. So you mostly had to encounter zombies, dogs, Tyrants and God only knows what else. But RE4 disregarded all of that, and they just say at the beginning in a prologue, that Umbrella went bankrupt, or something to that effect. What the hell? Lazy story creations like that are why this franchise is so lame today.
Technically, they did make these side story games that ended the Umbrella story, but these were nothing on the level of the quality seen in the mainline games. You just shot creatures on the screen with a cursor, or indicator, and your characters couldn't really move around until you killed everything. Then you just got an on-screen prompt to carry on. It was rubbish.
RE5 is a good game if you like to do nothing but waste things with weapons, but only the DLC called Lost in Nightmares was scary. The main game was pretty much just like RE4, but with a co-op mode. It was awful, and the main villain was killed off too. Wesker was about the last thing good about the RE franchise by that point. RE6 was total BS as well. You were not scared once playing that. And how can you be? A second person is with you the entire time, unless you're playing Ada Wong. In which case, you get the useless "Agent" as your back-up partner for the co-op mode, but he won't appear in any of the movie like scenes with her. He just teleports behind Ada, and he can't open storage chests. How lame...
The Revealtions games I'll admit are very decent, but the story has hit a brick wall since Capcom never continues anything in one particular game, since the next game is very much unrelated in terms of the story, and the style of the game overall is also way, way different. RE7: Biohazard was also a crap game because you didn't even see the main character's face at all. He runs around a house like a moron in this area with a swamp, mainly avoiding an annoying old man and his wife, and he shoots these daft looking "Molded" creatures that don't look all that menacing, let alone memorable, especially when compared to the terrific past monsters we got like the Lickers, Nemesis, the Hunters, the dogs, and so on and so forth.
Plus, Chris Redfield (the star of 1, Code: Veronica, Revelations, 5 and 6) shows up at the end of 7: Biohazard, where he is first seen wearing a helmet, and in a sort of, "I smoked half of the tobacco in Cuba" accent, says to this Ethan guy, "I'm Redfield! I'm glad we found you" - and to make the plot twist more laughable, he came in an Umbrella chopper with other men, just that the logo is blue now rather than being red. But, yeah. Other than that, it's the same pattern. When you play the DLC, you learn that this is in fact actually the real Chris Redfield, and that he was convinced to join Umbrella, who are good now. He does not trust them, though. Holy mother of balls. Awesome script there, Capcom!
But... Chris looks like he is 25 again, with blonde hair. He had black hair in all of the other games, Capcom. Plus, it feels like he was recast by an actor too young for the role. In a manner of speaking, he essentially was recast, since Roger Craig Smith or whatever his name is, had portrayed him for nearly a decade before that. Then Capcom released the RE2 remake in early 2019, and it was vastly disappointing. Their new spin off "Project Resistance" looks really silly, and it also has bearly anything to do with the RE lore.
Man, this franchise was great a long ass time ago. Now it's hardly worth supporting anymore. Everything gets milked today, and I'm sick of seeing it unfold.
Too long, didn't read. To cut a long story short, the series is God awful now, and look at Chris in these games. It looks and sounds like they're not even the same person.
And this was from when the games were horrifying, but in a good way.
Anyway, I got into the series when I was a teenager, probably way back in 1999 or 2000. I loved the shit out of the ones on the PlayStation. When the GameCube came out, I loved the 2002 remake so much that it "replaced" the original 1996 version for me, and the Dreamcast was a pretty underrated console in its time too. The prequel ("0") was kind of boring in some parts, but it was no less scary. At least it looked and played like a real RE game with similar graphics, but the two main characters could be separated with a 'partner zapping system' if you chose to.
Then RE4 came out in 2005 after going through a lot of changes, and it more or less ruined the survival horror genre. It's practially just a shoot and loot game that has a more sci-fi plot than horror. Basically, monsters and people are infected with bizarre parasites and not created via viral exposure, like in the other games. The game has like, only a few puzzles where you align tiles or lights, and all you do is shoot up villagers for hours and hours, then later you have to kill druid monks in a castle and soldiers wearing armour on an island. It's so Hollywood. There's bearly any tension at all. You also purchase ammo and guns from a mysterious merchant, who just appears in random locations somehow. This just spoiled the franchise. It didn't even really have anything to do with what occurred in the other games at all, besides having the main character returning from RE2. Big deal, huh?
All of the games before RE4 focused on the Umbrella Corporation, who were the people that made the T and G viruses in a secret lab. This turned most of the scientists, civilians and nearby animals into monsters. So you mostly had to encounter zombies, dogs, Tyrants and God only knows what else. But RE4 disregarded all of that, and they just say at the beginning in a prologue, that Umbrella went bankrupt, or something to that effect. What the hell? Lazy story creations like that are why this franchise is so lame today.
Technically, they did make these side story games that ended the Umbrella story, but these were nothing on the level of the quality seen in the mainline games. You just shot creatures on the screen with a cursor, or indicator, and your characters couldn't really move around until you killed everything. Then you just got an on-screen prompt to carry on. It was rubbish.
RE5 is a good game if you like to do nothing but waste things with weapons, but only the DLC called Lost in Nightmares was scary. The main game was pretty much just like RE4, but with a co-op mode. It was awful, and the main villain was killed off too. Wesker was about the last thing good about the RE franchise by that point. RE6 was total BS as well. You were not scared once playing that. And how can you be? A second person is with you the entire time, unless you're playing Ada Wong. In which case, you get the useless "Agent" as your back-up partner for the co-op mode, but he won't appear in any of the movie like scenes with her. He just teleports behind Ada, and he can't open storage chests. How lame...
The Revealtions games I'll admit are very decent, but the story has hit a brick wall since Capcom never continues anything in one particular game, since the next game is very much unrelated in terms of the story, and the style of the game overall is also way, way different. RE7: Biohazard was also a crap game because you didn't even see the main character's face at all. He runs around a house like a moron in this area with a swamp, mainly avoiding an annoying old man and his wife, and he shoots these daft looking "Molded" creatures that don't look all that menacing, let alone memorable, especially when compared to the terrific past monsters we got like the Lickers, Nemesis, the Hunters, the dogs, and so on and so forth.
Plus, Chris Redfield (the star of 1, Code: Veronica, Revelations, 5 and 6) shows up at the end of 7: Biohazard, where he is first seen wearing a helmet, and in a sort of, "I smoked half of the tobacco in Cuba" accent, says to this Ethan guy, "I'm Redfield! I'm glad we found you" - and to make the plot twist more laughable, he came in an Umbrella chopper with other men, just that the logo is blue now rather than being red. But, yeah. Other than that, it's the same pattern. When you play the DLC, you learn that this is in fact actually the real Chris Redfield, and that he was convinced to join Umbrella, who are good now. He does not trust them, though. Holy mother of balls. Awesome script there, Capcom!
But... Chris looks like he is 25 again, with blonde hair. He had black hair in all of the other games, Capcom. Plus, it feels like he was recast by an actor too young for the role. In a manner of speaking, he essentially was recast, since Roger Craig Smith or whatever his name is, had portrayed him for nearly a decade before that. Then Capcom released the RE2 remake in early 2019, and it was vastly disappointing. Their new spin off "Project Resistance" looks really silly, and it also has bearly anything to do with the RE lore.
Man, this franchise was great a long ass time ago. Now it's hardly worth supporting anymore. Everything gets milked today, and I'm sick of seeing it unfold.
Too long, didn't read. To cut a long story short, the series is God awful now, and look at Chris in these games. It looks and sounds like they're not even the same person.
And this was from when the games were horrifying, but in a good way.
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When the first RE came out, I was 3 years old you see. Though the remaster versions are out, so I may give it a try now. I started playing the RE franchise since the number 4. and I though RE 4 was the best one. After RE 4 every subsequent one got worse and worse and I kept playing them all nonetheless because I loved that franchise so much. I even loved the movies so much I ended up watching each one at least 20 times ( specially the first and the second one). But I'm sure you are right about the first REs being the best ones and everything starting to fall apart since RE 4. If you love the suspense in video games, have you tried alan wake? I think this is the best horror video game out there. Though it has become a bit old by now.
