The release of Resident Evil 6 is now mere days away – fans of the franchise, your lengthy wait is nearly over. We've been doing our part to help you pass the time over the course of the past few months, too, as back in April we kicked off an ambitious project to replay every previous game in the core RE series. Taking each game one at a time, in storyline order, we've examined how Resident Evil has evolved over time, which games hold up better than others and how each one is having an influence over the design of RE6.
It took a while. But we managed to finish the endeavor just days ago, and now we're collecting every installment in the "Revisiting Resident Evil" series of articles here, in one last wrap-up piece. If you missed any of these seven articles before, now's your chance to get caught up – or, if you didn't miss any of them before, here's your chance to look back on some of the earlier ones now that the context of the later ones is available too.
Hopefully this will be one last little piece of help, to assist you in pushing through these final few days before 6 is in your grasp at last.
When we began our project to replay all the old Resident Evils, we made the decision not to proceed in chronological order of release – but rather in storyline order, which meant the 2002 GameCube prequel Resident Evil Zero was first on our list. We jumped back onto its zombie-filled train, re-examined how its approach to play control didn't quite meet expectations, looked back on the teamwork dynamic between little Rebecca Chambers and escaped felon Billy Coen and considered some of the enhancements made in areas like item management. You can read all about it in the full feature, Resident Evil Zero Revisited.
Next up was the series' original installment – or, rather, its 2002 GameCube remake. We decided to focus on Capcom's upgraded, enhanced version of the 1996 PlayStation series starter instead of the PSX game itself, in part because looking back on this excellent remake helps to give needed contrast when discussing some of the company's more recent, rushed, sloppy and altogether unimpressive ports in this same series. Read about it all in detail in the full article, Revisiting the Resident Evil Remake.
After tackling Zero in April and the REmake in May, Resident Evil 2 was up next in July. (What about June? E3 was in June. Give us a pass.) Our re-evaluation of the franchise's second installment made the connection between its depiction of urban zombie anarchy and the extreme modern popularity of all kinds of similar depictions of urban zombie anarchy across films, TV shows, comics and other games, giving Capcom some credit for helping to spur on the zombiepocalypse trend. We also looked back on the debuts of Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, two protagonists whose adventures in 2 were only the beginning of years of battling these brain-hungry baddies. Check it out in Revisiting Resident Evil 2.
In August, the series' most intimidating, aggressive and severely frightening enemy took center stage once more as we leapt back into Resident Evil 3 to re-battle the Nemesis. The way Capcom handled such a singularly powerful foe was first and foremost in our retrospective, while we also took time to reflect on the origins of the series' Mercenaries modes and Jill Valentine's impractical fashion sense. It's all in Revisiting Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
The series took a break from using numerals in its name when it left the PlayStation behind and jumped to Sega's Dreamcast for one game, the oddly subtitled and difficult to punctuate Resident Evil – CODE: Veronica. Claire Redfield's continuing journey to track down her missing brother Chris are considered part of the RE core storyline, though, so it made the cut for our feature series, numeral or not. You can read all about its unique release timing relative to Resident Evil 3 and lament the fact that it hasn't aged all that well in our feature, Revisiting Resident Evil Code: Veronica. (See, it's even punctuated differently right there. Don't even get me started on the "X.")
With time running out before Resident Evil 6's early October release date, we entered the month of September with three games left to tackle. No worries, though, as Code: Veronica was quickly addressed and the next game in the line, Resident Evil 4, is just pure joy to go back to again and again anyway. This game – recognized by many as one of the best video games ever made even beyond the RE series or the survival horror genre – offered tons of topics to talk about. Its difficult development history. Its promise of Nintendo exclusivity that was later broken, and broken, and broken again. Its emphasis on action that upset a portion of the established fanbase so much that they disowned the title entirely. Tons of topics! So go read about them all in detail, courtesy of Revisiting Resident Evil 4.
Lastly, with only a week remaining before RE6 hit the streets, we came in just under the wire and finished our RE replay project on time just earlier this week. Our retrospective on Resident Evil 5 addressed the game's significant debate about racism in video games, the series' further shift toward fast action and the increased emphasis on teamwork between two characters with the addition of two-player simultaneous co-op through the main campaign. Give it a look in Revisiting Resident Evil 5.
So, all up to speed now? We hope so, and it's been our privilege to walk back through the entirety of Resident Evil's core storyline installments throughout these past six months. All that's left now is for you to get ready for Resident Evil 6 itself, and we invite you to do that through our most recent, hands-on preview of the game, or our collection of trailers and video previews, or any of the many, many articles we've dedicated to the new sequel over the past few years. All that remains after that is our official review, and you can expect to see that soon. So stay tuned!
And thanks for reading!
Lucas M. Thomas has probably played way too much Resident Evil this year. You can follow him on Twitter.
Source : ign[dot]com
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