Outgrowing Resident Evil

[TheSelfishGene]

I think I've mostly outgrown it.
I still love the old games, but I really can't get enthused for anything new.
I was in Japan recently, and a lot of merchandise and things for RE6/ORC I just passed over. I didn't bother with the soundtracks or guides. I think I just got the RE6 storyboard book, so I'll never have a reason to play the game again.
FWIW a used copy of ORC in Japan costs about ~$5, but even at that price I didn't get it. I've never played it, and I didn't buy it. I just value my time a lot more these days rather than to be wasting it doing something I know I won't enjoy. In my younger days I would have lapped up anything with Resident Evil written on it.

What little collectable stuff I did find for the earlier games I bought though. That's where my passion will always be.

[Lanzagranadas]

No Jill Sandwich for you?

LOL Give me Jill and the sandwich separately. Oh, those RE1 dialogue lines... I'm glad I barely understood english when I played RE for the first time.

[Scream]

Oh, those RE1 dialogue lines... I'm glad I barely understood english when I played RE for the first time.

RE1 was released in English?

Dose you want to take the shotgun? Yes, I dose!

[Rombie]

The more I think about it the more I can't pin a specific point of my lack of interest only that it slowly declined. I can't blame a specific game, more I would blame a series of games and mediocre spin offs starting from Zero, Dead Aim, the Outbreaks, through the major numbered sequels and the Wii light gun games and HD ports. Aside from RE6 I haven't hated any of them, but they've all generally decreased my interest.

[Graco]

Squandered potential, lack of direction during a crucial point in the series' life, and unimaginative design overall killed my interest for the future of the franchise. I'm here solely because of my love for the older games as I have little faith that it will ever return to its former glory.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

There's also something rather intimate & personal about the first game's characters that hasn't been repeated since. You were part of a team, hunting for your missing comrades whilst your suspicions of a traitor within the group as the game progresses. Every time you came across a member of the Bravo team you had no idea what would happen next.

Since then, it's been rather generic character tropes thrown together for the sake of survival. Even RE2 fails to take advantage of the most important character traits of it's protagonists, that it's Leon's first day as a cop and Claire is looking for her brother. Once the Birkin family & Ada turn up, everything else is irrelevent.

[Spera01]

RE6 is what ultimately did it for me. I had no problems with RE4 because it wasn't attempting to take itself seriously and I actually thought RE5's offered a nice closure to Chris's story... Not to mention I absolutely loved how ridiculous they made Wesker (although I know a lot of people might disagree with me on that). RE6, I'm not sure what I expected but definitely not what we got. The story in that game (and more importantly, Carla) was painful. It came across as borderline fan fiction to me. Not to mention having on top of all that, the gameplay felt (IMO) dumbed down from RE5. Not a fan of the new melee system, each character feels less unique than before and half the enemies were literal bullet sponges that barely flinched. Oh and QTE and gun wielding enemies everywhere!

I suppose if they announce RE7, I'll still be interested in seeing where it goes but I unfortunately don't think that I'll be hyped for it. Hell, it may be one of the first mainline RE games that I wait to hit the bargain bin before I consider picking it up.

[Guest]

I'm not outgrowing RE I'm just not intrigued by the current generation. There's some amazing hardware out there with great potential to create genuine pieces of art, but it's mostly used to create generic crap designed to funnel in money. I'm honestly more satisfied with the XBL Market Place (PS Store equivelant) as its one of the only platforms where console developers still brave making 2D based games. There's a real trend these days to maintain certain formats in order to cut costs, as opposed to using the full potential of the console to create fantastic HD scenery that's like watching a painting in motion. For me I'm still enjoying games of the past, and appreciating them as a lost art and a forgotten format that's still an enjoyable way of telling a story. The closer things get to real life the weaker the fantasy, so many of today's games just don't interest me at all.

[Kegluneq]

Certainly aging has a lot to do with it. I for example am in my 30's now, and have notably started to put away childish things now, things that used to matter to me. While it is part of the natural process of growing up, it's also pretty sad in a way. These things used to give me a lot, after all.

The pivotal point for me was Resident Evil 4. RE4 was the game where the style of the series changed too much, and to a direction that didn't please me at all. That was when the series became too action oriented, and even worse, threw away years worth of established material and plot progress, only to replace it with something that isn't as charming. After that, RE just didn't feel the same anymore. To me, Resident Evil is all about the zombies, the survival situations with limited equipment, and the Umbrella conspiracy. Take those away, and it just doesn't work for me anymore.

I can empathize with what you're saying although I do feel that Resident Evil 4 didn't necessarily need to be the game where the style of the series had been revamped that much just because it changed too much. I look at Devil May Cry and I feel that there's some BioHazard legacy left in it because it had something which had been build up ever since Resident Evil 2 - the bio-organic weapons that were progressively becoming more powerful and that somehow fitted within the realm of sci-fi of the series. Instead of giving menacing monsters that felt real and threatening because they were the next step of evolution, Capcom (or Shinji Mikami) opted for creatures that were too bizarre to feel familiar to old-gamers.

Something that has been lacking ever since Resident Evil 4 would be atmosphere. I don't think that Capcom has been capable of recreating that feel of hopelessness and looseness that was present in the trilogy. It feels like you're just going from one stage to another, scenarios dissembled from each other, without a certain build up like in previous games. The desperation of having to go back to the mansion in Resident Evil 1 and having to face the most deadly enemies of the game, or being thrown in the sewers after successfully navigating the hell that was the RPD station or having Nemesis still chasing you to the Clocktower until you were inevitably forced to face it - even if not necessarily difficult, these narrative elements helped to mess with the player's psyche.

I think most hardcore fans have outgrown Resident Evil, though. It's why people are salivating for Team IGAS' project or Gemini's rebuild of Resident Evil Survivor - there's really not a lot left for the series and old-school fans are becoming more aware of that after they desperately tried to delude themselves into thinking Capcom could deliver only for their expectations only to fail one game after another.

Myself, I've decided outgrow the series. I've pretty much done and watched all I wanted out of it. I still keep some projects in the back of my head and find some reasons to come back but I don't have any hopes when it comes from Capcom itself. When it comes to that, the series is dead.

[RaccoonSurvivor]

5 and 6 ruined the series for me - at least 4 had horror elements in it.
Its like Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, Sonic The Hedgehog - when a series has been running for so long, some changes happen, and some revert back to 'classic' styles.

Maybe they should reboot the series and keep the classic characters (maybe rewrite them a little) as in Chris, Jill, Rebecca, Barry, Claire, Leon, Ada, Wesker.
Sometimes rebooting is the only was to save a dying series.

[Sly]

That doesn't make sense. That's like saying "I'll kill my child and make a new one to save him from dying." You don't save anything by destroying it in the first place.

[Lanzagranadas]

I've just played the new Tomb Raider and I felt like I was playing the "RE4 version of Tomb Raider", result: I said "fuck your reboot Square Enix" and uninstalled the game after 3 hours playing it. Core era's Tomb Raider (at least from I to IV) where amazing platform puzzled adventure games, even Crystal Dynamics did a better job than this new one... just another linear action TPS with nice graphics.

If "Reboot" for modern developers means "turn an old golden franchise into something fashionable crap, then add achievements, multiplayer and DLCs" then it´s better to not reboot RE at all. Current developers don't know how to do a reboot without screwing up everything.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Capcom did all of that with RE5, so how much worse can a reboot be? ;-)

[Lanzagranadas]

Capcom did drastic changes before, in, and after RE5, it was an "evolution" process, not something that happened all of a sudden in a single game.

So, in fact, the reboot treatment was already given to RE several years ago, the only thing that remain unrebooted were the characters and story, so it could be -just a litle- worse: they could reboot the characters/story and create another worse...

[Jimmy_Jazz]

There weren't that many drastic changes outside of the spin-offs and 4, which is the only time the franchise has gone through a revolution and not an evolution.

"turn an old golden franchise into something fashionable crap, then add achievements, multiplayer and DLCs"

Fashionable crap (gunfights, cover mechanics), achievements, multiplayer and DLC were all introduced in RE5.

Also, I know I'm going to sound pedantic but the REMake was definitely a remake and not a reboot because it didn't sweep the currently existing universe aside and could easily be swapped in and the original swapped out without harming continuity.

Any change can be good or bad, depending on how its handled and who is judging it.