Why I love Resident Evil Remakes

 I was really scared of the originals

Back in 1998, Capcom released Resident Evil 2, the sequel of the iconic survival horror game. After its success,they released the next sequel Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999. These games became the staple of what "survival horror" means. The characters, the puzzles, the monsters and even the cheesy dialogues are loved by the fans.

For each new entry of the franchise, Capcom tried to update the formula. A simple overview of the first three games might show very little changes here and there. The main differences are the new characters (even though Jill Valentine appears on RE1 and RE3), some of the B.O.W.s that you have to face in each game and, of course, the plot; yet the main mechanics remain the same, such as the fixed camera and tank controls. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" they say. 

My first Resident Evil experience

I had Resident Evil 3 for PS1 back when I was just like 4 years old, so I was naturally afraid of this game. I mean, the opening scene made me cry on more than one occassion! It was very scary to watch all the soldiers and policemen try to take on hordes of zombies and fail misserably. 

On one end, I was terrified. I've never felt like that before and I have watched Batman The Animated Series since I was born (which has some very horrific imagery and plots). I used to grab a blanket and cover my face whenever my brother played it. Yet the sound of the zombies moaning and the intense screaming between gunshots crawled into my brain to teach me what horror feels like. I almost pissed my pants a couple of times, but somehow I managed to control my bladder.

On the other end... I felt excited and thrilled. I didn't know what the objective of the game was, nor how could you beat it with very limited resources. I just thought it was something like a survival experience where you have to explore everything without dying... Now that I think about it, the Resident Evil games are all like that. I felt the thrill of succeeding by avoiding zombies and destroying all the B.O.W.s that you face in your way. I didn't know what I needed to do, but I wanted to do it.

There were days when I booted up the game and force myself to watch the entire opening scene without closing my eyes. I would turn on the PS1, let the cutscene play and turn off the console. Then, I'd do it again. Until one day, I stared at the "press start" screen, the one with Nemesis' silouette, and got a mix of both ends: I was afraid, but I also felt brave enough to say "I can take on this guy".

I pressed start and load up my brother's save file because that's all I always watched him do, and I was in a tiny room with calm music. I started walking in circles, pressing all the buttons trying to figure out the controls. Suddenly, I managed to exit the room into a hallway with at least three zombies. Their moanings made my hands sweat. I began pressing different buttons until Jill aimed her pistol towards the closest zombie and shot once. I raised all my finger from the control the instant I heard the gunshot and looked at the screen. The zombie was still coming towards me! I quickly turned off the console, trying to process what I did.

The adrenaline pumped into my ears, deafening the zombie moans. I remember I just sat in my room, staring at the black "Input" screen on my TV, thinking about what just have happened. I repeated the scenery in my mind with the goal of finding a way out of that hallway or a strategy to kill the zombies.

My mind started playing games on me. It build several crazy stories on how I could overcome the challenge, from kinda possible to the most ridiculous one. As the days went by, I had so many stories in my head about that simple hallway that it almost felt like I was creating my very own Resident Evil. Little by little, my fear of even turning on the console dissapeared and I started watching my brother play the game without feeling scared, but thrilled. That was when I learned that the best part about horror itself is when you overcome it. 

As I grew up and became a little bit better at playing videogames, I thought I could finally play the three original Resident Evil games and beat, not only the games, but my fears. Since my brother stopped playing the game, I made my very own save file without the fear of messing up his progress and hoping to destroy everything that was on my way.

I watched the opening scene with excitement. Nemesis really made my palms sweat. The original character model is imposing and scary AF! And the fact that he starts chasing you through the whole city as you try to avoid other B.O.W.s and solve puzzles makes the game a blood-pumping, tears-inducing, high-octane experience. 

Now, some people might not understand why people would do this to themselves. I mean, feeling scared and stressed out because of a product of fiction might not be everyone's cup of tea. I think that when you play videogames like this is not about just feeling those "negative" emotions (I don't think there are negative emotions per sé, yet that's another topic for another day), but overcoming the challenge presented in the game and in your internal struggles.

Farewell to my life.

Farewell to my home.

When I started playing the game, I faced a challenge I didn't process back when I saw those zombies in the hallway: the tank controls. I had a hard time trying just to get from the very first explosion to the door where Jill gets ambushed by a lot of zombies. I used to play other types of 3D videogames, like Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong 64, where if you turn the joystick to the right, your character would go to the right of the screen regardless of the direction he's facing. In the three original Resident Evil games, "tank controls" means that your character will always turn to his/her right when you go right on the joystick; which means that if the character is facing you (as in facing the screen) and you turn the joystick to the right, your character will go to the left of the screen because that's his/her right... yes, it's exactly as confusing as it sounds.

Somehow, I'm still alive...

By sheer miracle, I managed to get to Mr. Dario, followed by way too much time "exploring" the warehouse, trying to figure things out. When I finally found the key to get out the back, I started running, just following the very claustrophobic alleys of Raccoon City. This is the part when you begin facing zombies... and all of them took a bite of me! 

My fear and stress levels went through the roof. I tried to aim and shoot all of them but I felt like I wasn't shooting anything. I remember trying to go around them, yet the controls kept messing with my head. So, as I tried to turn to one side, Jill walked to the other side and got bitten by those awful creatures. Needles to say, I just gave up on beating any Resident Evil game.

Changing the formula

I couldn't wrap my head around the tank controls. To this day, I haven't been able to wrap my head around the tank controls. I know they are a staple to the franchise and part of the whole challenge of these games, but it messes up with my mind to the point that I'm unable to fully enjoy the game. So imagine my happiness when I read on a Nintendo magazine about the new camera and controls for Resident Evil 4.

Launching on January 2005 for Nintendo GameCube (and subsequently on every videogame platform known to man), Resident Evil 4 put the camera over Leon Kennedy's (RE2's co-protagonist) shoulder, making him waaaaaay easier to control and, specially, to aim. On the 3 original games, your character would aim at whatever was closest to them. In RE 4, you could aim your weapon at whatever you wanted, the only challenge there is Leon's steadiness and gun's recoil. You could headshot everything and anything with enough practice.

When we got it for GCN, I watched my brother play the whole game. Whenever he was stuck on a boss or a puzzle, he would ask a friend of his to give him the answer or a strategy to overcome every challenge. We also had a lot of videogame magazines with everything you needed to beat the game. It was fun to tell my brother what to do every now and then. I watched him beat the game several times, until I felt competent enough to take on this game.

RE4 quickly became my favorite game of the franchise. The weapon upgrade system, action focused plot, predictable AI and the very discreet dynamic difficulty turned it into a game a noob like me could master.

I've beated RE4 hundreds of times... and I'm not exaggerating! I've played this game on GCN, Wii and PS3... and I'm thinking of buying it for PC. I think that the best version of the game is the Wii version. Aiming with the Wii Remote feels very natural, so as shaking the control to swing Leon's knife. I unlocked almost all of the extra content and weapons, I'm missing the handcannon but that's because of the stage 4 in the Mercenaries minigame. I managed to get 5 stars with every character on every stage, except stage 4. This is a rather confusing arena that resembles a small dockyard with warehouses, where a 10-ft-tall-double-chainsaw-wielding-man chases you while making crazy noises.

Even when a lot of hardcore fans said that RE4 wasn't as scary as its prequels, there are a lot of moments when you have to face a lot of horrible B.O.W.s, such as the Regenerator, that really send chills down your spine. It's a great fun game and the fact that I've beaten it a lot of times puts it on my top 5 favorite games of all times.

Resident Evil 5 had a heavier focus on action and shooting monsters in the face. The horror factor was losing its ground in this franchise and the real challenge was to aim straight and kill everything you face through your journey. I had my fair share of fun with this game, but there was no real "Resident Evil" characteristics in RE5.

Resident Evil 6 is the one that many fans considers the last nail on the Resident Evil franchise coffin. It's a fun, action-packed, kill-or-be-killed game, but it's NOT a Resident Evil game. You have to play 3 different campaigns, using the main characters of the franchise, that constitutes a whole convoluted plot. The only campaign that really uses zombies and similar B.O.W.s is Leon's, yet in the rest of them, you fight crazy mutated terrorist in a Call of Duty style gameplay. It really doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game.

After the backlash on this last entry, Capcom focused on bringing the franchise to its horror origins again. Resident Evil 7 surprised everyone by putting a new protagonist, Ethan Winters, in a claustrophobic location, full of mutated people and strange puzzles that the player have to solve in order to find Ethan's wife and escaped. Adapting to the new videogame age, RE7 uses a First Person perspective, and ditched the heavy action-focus gameplay, giving the franchise the revitalization it needed.

I bought RE7 for my PC a long time ago... but I haven't even gotten past the dinner scene. It's scary, weird and awesome! It's definitely the new life Resident Evil needed. Yet it wasn't all that brought RE back to life.

Back to the RPD

In January 2019, Capcom launched Resident Evil 2 Remake, which is pretty much a totally new game based on RE2's plot. Back in 2002, Capcom launched a remake of the original Residen Evil, which included new enemies, story plots and a few different mechanics, yet it feels almost like the original with the tank controls and fixed camera. In the case of RE2 Remake, the game feels brand new.

For starters, the camera and controls are similar to those in RE4, but the atmosphere and plot are back to its horror origins, making this game a unique experience. There's no upgrade system for the weapons, but you can find different parts to make them stronger. The puzzles aren't very hard to solve, but they're not as mindless as those in RE5 and RE6. The zombies and B.O.W.s are horrific and are always in your way, forcing you to take a decision: fight or flight. But because of the limited ammo, supplies and inventory space, flight is always a good option. This is pretty much what made the original games an amazing challenge for all gamers.

It's awesome to explore a very claustrophobic place, full of secret exits, closed doors and monsters. And, of course, the best addition they made to this remake was the unstoppable and unkillable B.O.W. that follows you through the whole Raccoon Police Department: Mr. X. This pale giant is the main point that makes this remake a stress-inducing experience that actually makes you feel ultra powerful once you've mastered the game!

Apparently, in the original RE2, Mr. X appeared on very specific points during the story, but if you didn't pay attention, it might seem like Mr. X is chasing you through the whole RPD. In the remake, the monster actually chases you through the RPD as you try to open new doors, find key items and escape. It's amazing how well designed this whole chase is. 

During the first part of the remake, you get familiar with the layout of the RPD as you search for statues' medalions to open the secret exit. During this part, you'll feel cramped because of the tight corridors, the barricades that forces you to take the long way around and the zombies that are always in your way. Always! You can avoid them by running past them or even shooting them in the leg so they get distracted and you can slip by easily.

After you finish the first Birkin fight, you get to the parking garage. In Claire's story, you'll be ambushed by Chief Irons, who takes Sherry and leaves you trapped in the RPD. In Leon's story, you'll be saved by Ada Wong, who also wants to get out of the RPD. The next objective is to find a couple of semiconductors to bypass a gate that will give you the parking lot key card. Claire finds it at Chief Iron's office, while Leon gets it from Ben's corpse in the jail cells. The first semiconductor is free for each one of our heroes, but to get the next one, you'll need to go to the Clock Tower, but getting there is not an easy task.

The game will force you to go to the back of the RPD and put out the fire on the East wing caused by the chopper that crashed earlier in the game. Once you've turned the water valves on, it's time to meet Mr. X. He will move the crashed chopper to the side and begin his hunt for you.

You can lose him by dodging him and running away. You can shoot him with everything you got, yet it's useless since doing so will only knock him down for a few seconds. Running and hiding is your only option. To get to the Clock Tower, you'll have to solve a few puzzles that will take you through the whole RPD again, but now, there's a Jolly Giant hunting you down, so you have to be quick. 

Mr. X's footsteps are heavy and loud enough to let you know that he's close by. He can be in a floor above you or he can be just around the corner. This is why RE2 Remake is so great! There's an unstoppable force that's always lurking in the shadows. Following you. Watching you. Ready to strike you down when you least expect it. 

Mr. X is what really makes RE2 remake so amazing to play! Specially if you play it with headphones. You can actually hear his footsteps all around you, making the horror experience a memorable one. And you're aiming to get S+ rank, you'll need to develop some hardcore skills that you can only get by playing this game a lot of times.

If you haven't noticed already, RE2 remake is my favorite game of the series.

Back to Raccoon City

In March 2020, Capcom released Resident Evil 3 Remake, a game everyone was expecting after the tremendous success of RE2 Remake. Everyone was excited to be hunted by the most popular monster in the series: Nemesis. That's why the fact that they failed to make it as iconic as Mr. X was made me utterly sad.

RE3 REmake REuses a lot of assets from the previous REmake, but it fails to capture the enclosed atmosphere, sense of exploration and stress-inducing moments that made RE2 remake so awesome.

At the beginning of RE2, you need to cross a small part of Raccoon City in order to get to the RPD. In RE3, you explore the whole city... or at least that's what the original game made you feel. In the remake, it feels like you only get to explore a couple of streets and alleyways. The game feels pretty straightforward because it's impossible to get lost and you can find your next objective very easy. In RE2, I got lost several times, even after I beated the game previously. RE3 pushes you towards the direction you have to go, with little to no real exploration to do in your way to the next objective.

You can explore the main area of the game during the first minutes of your gameplay. There are just a few areas locked at the beginning but you can get back to them even before Nemesis begins hunting you; unlike RE2, where you were forced to meet Mr. X in order to make the plot move forward. 

When Nemesis finally appears in the game, after you've turned the Power Station on, it's a very different experience than Mr. X. Nemesis breakes through a wall as you come out of the station and immediately launches at you. Mr. X walks, while Nemesis jumps all around to get you. You can run, but he will too. Some of his attacks are hard to dodge and will get you even if you're far away from him. Nemesis is scary, but only while he chases you through the first part of the city. After that, he's just... there.

There are some chases that he kinda creeps you out and jumpscares you, but nothing as stressful as Mr. X's chase. There are also some cutscenes where Nemesis is shooting at you with his bazooka or his flamethrower, but these are just "running sequences", meaning... you just have to run in a straight line and that's it.

The boss fights in RE2 are awesome, scary and a great challenge to master. You also need to optimize them in order to get S+ rank and enjoy the perks of infinite ammo weapons. I can barely remember RE3 boss fights. One of the is against Nemesis with a flamethrower, next one is against Mutated Nemesis outside the Clock Tower... and I think there's just the last one with the Railgun and that's it. I'm not even sure.

RE3 remake is a fun game, but it did the same mistakes RE5 and RE6 did: focusing on action. I never felt like my ammo and resources were running low, nor that I had very little inventory space, nor anything that added to the overall challenge in RE2.

To get the infinite weapons on RE2, you needed to beat the game on S+ rank on normal and hardcore difficulty. In RE3, there's an in-game store where you can exchange you EXP points for goodies. You get points by completing challenges in the story, but those challenges are very easy to complete by just playing the game a lot of times. You don't even need to get B rank in order to acquire a lot of points. I've finished RE3 like 4 times now and I already have a lot of infinite guns that will allow me to get S rank (there's no S+ in RE3) very easily.

RE3 loses all the real challenge that RE2 had and provides you with some awesome weapons that turn the game into a "Meh" experience. There are some horrific moments, like facing the Hunters at the hospital, but they are not enough to really make RE3 a full survival horror game.

The Future of the Franchise

Capcom has done a lot of trial-and-error products with the Resident Evil franchise, not only videogames. Even through their failures, there's a spark of fun there that made the franchise transcend time and become an icon of zombie horror experiences.

The latest game was Resident Evil Village, the eighth game in the mainline story, which stars Ethan Winters again in, what people have said, another action-packed sequel. Looks like it still has the horror factor there, but there's a heavier emphasis on shooting monsters in the face. I just hope Capcom realize that the real fun part of the game is overcoming the stress-inducing situations, such as managing limited resources and running away from invincible entities, just to finish them at the end of the game with a rocket launcher.