Capcom: "there is a possibility" of Resident Evil series reboot

[xfactor]

Resident Evil developer Masachika Kawata, producer of Resident Evil: Revelations talks about the future of the Resident Evil series in this Eurogamer article, where he talks about the suggestion of an open world Resident Evil game. He states that if they were to do that, they will "want to preserve what Resident Evil is and what makes it appealing to fans, while also making it accessible to new players. It would almost entail having a slight reboot to get the series into a place where it would work with open-world gameplay."


Eurogamer

Capcom-unity suggest that we don't read too much into it too.

http://www.twitch.tv/capcomunity/b/362725155

[Wrathborne]

Capcom needs to do this and get it over with. Its just time.

[Zombie]

The series need a reboot or an extreme back to his roots. It will be sad to lose all the characters and mythos but if it's done right, I'm all for it.

[Wrathborne]

Doesn't have to lose the characters or mythos. they still can be used and expanded upon later on.

[AsteroidBlues]

Doesn't have to lose the characters or mythos. they still can be used and expanded upon later on.

^^^

This. Because a Resident Evil Universe without Leon, Claire or HUNK would be a crime against nature.

Giant post below- tl;dr version at bottom

I think an open world Resident Evil could be very intriguing... but only if it's done in a way that manages to hold onto that classic RE feel. Open world environments are fantastic as long as they have plenty of content. There has to be a balance. As the amount of 'open world' increases, the amount of things to do and overall quality of the world diminish rapidly. Such a game is more about "Wow, look at all this world we've given you!" versus offering valuable content.

On the other end of the scale, I've seen some developers go with a very small open world chocked to the gills with "content", but in the end you can't truly enjoy it due to the stifling nature of the limited space. In a way this is the worst end of the scale, because you can see the promise, but there just wasn't enough world to truly enjoy it. One game I could cite as having this problem is my signature's inspiration, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's a fantastic game that could have been so much more entertaining had they just given the player a little more breathing room.

Another thing to address is the control/camera scheme they'll ultimately decide to implement. Odds are they'll be using an 'over the shoulder' camera for such a game, as it lends itself extremely well for sandbox environments and has become an RE staple. (FPS lends itself to open world as well, but an FPS Resident Evil would be abysmal) In truth, despite RE2 being one of my favorites in the series, I've always preferred the RE4 style camera. To me, it made the suspense/panic more tangible because it was like I was actually experiencing it first hand and not observing it from afar a-la RE1-3. As for control scheme, it would take a lot of effort to make the entirety of the world context sensitive in order to implement RE6's cover system. We're probably stuck with melee as a mainstay now, but hopefully it would be nerfed a tad, so it could be made into a 'last resort' weapon.

On the zombie/enemy side of things, there are even more things to consider. There is a significant chance that (depending on the open world size) there will be an increase in enemy count. More enemy count might lead to less creative monsters, but accepting the idea that the main antagonists in the game will be standard zombies, I guess that comes with the territory from the start. One classic RE enemy that would be absolutely stunning in an open world setting would be the Nemesis. Imagine how much more terrifying it would be; instead of the player having a set idea as to where nemmy might appear from (Either door A, or Door B), the player would be in perpetual suspense as they traverse the world.

Where there are enemies, there are sure to be weapons and ammunition. This could be a problem, simply because, you'll more than likely need a lot of them in an open world setting. If there is indeed an increase of enemies, you will need the ammo to fight them. Period. And this could lead to some fans feeling pissed due to the amount of ammo in the game, examples being every game since RE4. Hell, depending on the setting, there may not be ENOUGH weapons and ammo lying about for the sake of realism alone. For example; if they were to set an open world style RE in Raccoon City during the outbreak, you know there would be weapons and ammo in nearly every house. It's the United States Midwest for God's sake. xD If I was playing that game, I would be pissed if all you could find was one shotgun and a handful of shells. As a last word on the weapon paragraph... Sniping a zombie in the head from long range in Resident Evil would be epic.

Last but not least, there are several staples in open world genre that have to be considered. Will there be a day/night cycle? Will there be weather? Will there be NPC's? Will the player have the ability to use transportation? It all adds up to a SHIT-TON of work that has to be done right the first time if they want to preserve the RE essence in this new realm of development.

TL;DR Version:

Open world RE sounds cool, but they could fuck it up tremendously as well. The world space could end up way too big and devoid of creativity and content, or packed with content and creativity with no real space to enjoy it in.

They'll probably go over the shoulder with the camera set-up, it works well with open world games. First person view does as well, but an FPS RE would be horrible IMO. It might be difficult for them to implement RE6's cover scheme, I hope they nerf the combat system as we're probably stuck with it.

More than likely there will be a pant-load of enemies, requiring enemy design creativity to diminish. They'll probably mostly be zombies anyway, so there is no way around it. Nemesis would be an awesome enemy in the open world setting.

With an increase of enemies will come an increase in ammo and weapons. People will probably be pissed about that. There is also a chance that there could be too few weapons and ammo to preserve suspension of disbelief. Sniping a zombie in RE would be awwweesooommee.

They'll have to consider things like how to use NPCs, Will there be a day/night cycle, will there be weather, will there be transportation, etc. It all adds up to a lot of work to implement all the while preserving the RE feel.

[Pikminister]

Kawata is saying that if they were to make an open world type RE game, they would most likely have to hit the reboot button. Otherwise, no dice.

He also said that they're keeping a close eye on how Revelations does on consoles. Because that's were they actually want to go with the series.

That's basically it... with almost no spin.

[Spera01]

Honestly? I think an open-world RE game could have the potential to be amazing. Have it be similar to outbreak but have the whole Raccoon City to explore at once. Borrow elements from games like Silent Hill Downpour, allowing you to enter random buildings. Let there be different enemies in different parts of the city and different puzzles and it could be just great. They probably would never do it though.

I'm for a reboot. While I don't necessarily want to see the story dropped, after RE6, I just find myself not caring that much anymore. Hell, I'm at the point where I support Wesker coming back by any means (as long as he's voiced by DC Douglas of course ).

I hope Revelations sells well. It's nice to see that they're FINALLY realizing that all the explosions and guns blazing isn't really what people want. It'll be interesting to see what happens after Revelations is released.

[aris13]

Newsbot on suicide watch.

[Dracarys]

IGN mention it too.

“I think that it’s important for us to have users’ needs in mind when making the games," Kawata told IGN. "At the same time I think a lot of what people want now is to have Chris and Jill in a game, or they want it to look like Resident Evil used to look like. That’s what makes the game work for them. We should be able to start from scratch and reboot it. It would still be Resident Evil. We wouldn’t lose the essential nature of what makes it a good game just by changing the characters.”

More through the link.

[Member_of_STARS]

Rolling my eyes and laughing my ass off. This is absurd.

[Pikminister]

Doesn't have to lose the characters or mythos. they still can be used and expanded upon later on.

They could do that. But if the characters and convoluted plotlines were to change (or not), that would still be irrelevant to them having the capacity of going back to the series roots.

Because they already have gone back to the same characters, plots, etc. and the true roots of the series have gone missing every time.

And the reason for that, is due to the fact that Survival-Horror is something that is found in the actual gameplay. It is there were the player is forced to administrate resources (ammo, health items, etc.) and deal with the great odds of reaching a particular goal.

So the story and characters are just something to make the ride interesting. But the ride itself is propelled by the gameplay.

And so far, the gameplay from the console versions of RE have been lacking in terms of being close to the series roots. Despite having the same characters and plotlines.

So the characters and story could be kept or thrown away. Either way, their focus should be in the gameplay. Making it about Survival again. That's where most of the fear came from anyway. Not from Wesker's monologues or most of the stuff/fluff related to the story.

[Bianca]

This. Because a Resident Evil Universe without Leon, Claire or HUNK would be a crime against nature.

a Resident Evil Universe without Leon, Claire or HUNK would be a crime against nature.

without Leon, Claire or HUNK

HUNK

HUNK

...Please tell me you're joking.

HUNK is not as vital to the series as people desperately want to believe; he, like all the characters in the series, is attached to major aspects of the story, but he holds no core value to the storyline. He could never show up again and it wouldn't mean shit.

[AsteroidBlues]

...Please tell me you're joking.

HUNK is not as vital to the series as people desperately want to believe; he, like all the characters in the series, is attached to major aspects of the story, but he holds no core value to the storyline. He could never show up again and it wouldn't mean shit.

A) That quote block of incredulity was really pointless, we could have done without it.

B) Despite your confidence in knowing why I like the character, it couldn't be more misguided. Yes, he could never show up in another game again and it would have literally no effect in the story... but that has no bearing on my affinity for him as a character. With your logic, most of the characters in the RE universe could be discarded, despite the fact that they are devices that are used to bring life to the story. They're called supporting characters for a reason, they support the story.

[Bianca]

A) That quote block of incredulity was really pointless, we could have done without it.

of incredulity was really pointless, we could have done without it.

we could have done without it.

without it.

Oh, okay. Sorry about that.

B) Despite your confidence in knowing why I like the character, it couldn't be more misguided. Yes, he could never show up in another game again and it would have literally no effect in the story... but that has no bearing on my affinity for him as a character. With your logic, most of the characters in the RE universe could be discarded, despite the fact that they are devices that are used to bring life to the story. They're called supporting characters for a reason, they support the story.

Direct me to the part where I said I knew anything about why you liked the character, because I'm not recalling that part of my post. I was merely pointing out that this fandom seems to have a major boner for this character. Yeah, I get the appeal, because he is an enigma, but it's the absurdity of naming HUNK alongside Leon and Claire that had me literally laugh out loud--especially after years and years of scratching my head, trying to figure out why this fandom sends out the HUNK boner brigade every time his name is mentioned.

[aris13]

Greatest use of quote-reply I've seen in a while. Bravo.