Working Title 7.31.08: Working Change - Resident Evil

Posted by Jordan Williams on 07.31.2008

We always hear about developers ruining great games by changing them. Hell, I wrote a whole column about them doing it. But what happens when developers change a game for the BETTER?

Welcome to the #1 Column to still not have any plans at all of seeing The Dark Knight, WORKING TITLE.

Sorry for the lack of column last week, I had to attend an audition for a little independent zombie movie that they are filming. I got the part.

Today is a bit of a short rant week for me because I spent a lengthy amount of time with a friend this past week who is overly critical of video games so it got me thinking a bit, so batten down the hatches.

I just started playing Resident Evil Zero for the first time (gasp) this weekend and I am proud to say that I really like the RE4 style change so much more. I understand that some of the oh-so-whiney ‘hardcore' fans didn't like the change, but I think that it really helped stop the stale bullshit that was going on there.

In fact there are a lot of games that have changed for the better despite what people might say. And there are also some games that should probably go and change before it all ends up in one big ugly stale ball of fail.

What are these games? Well we are going to be going over all of that all month long. I'll be focusing on two games that made a change for the BETTER, and two games that should go ahead and make a change before its too late.

So let's hurry up before you become a Jill Sandwich.

Working Change: Resident Evil

As I said earlier, I do like how RE cleaned itself up at the right time. Resident Evil Zero is a great game and all, but for a game that was ‘next gen' at the time it still had the same pretty bad last gens flaws.



We all know of Resi's infamous control scheme. I personally like to call them forklift controls because that's honest-to-God what they feel like. How this was ever called a great control scheme is more than beyond me. I understand that the original games had a big OHSHITWHATISTHATOHMIGOD" feeling going on, but I don't know how exactly that translated into not being able to fucking run when I tell the controller to RUN. No, I don't mean running while a zombie is gnawing on my face, I mean running down an empty hall without any trouble what so ever and without running into a wall or the camera changing.

…Oh that goddamn camera…

I'll say it this right now and I don't give a fuck how movie-like it is… (Warning for those of you who hate fuckin' profanity)

FUCK. THAT. CAMERA.

Yeah, I said it. Fuck that camera. I hate it so damn much that it makes me want to curb stomp baby kittens. Yes, the term baby kittens might be a little redundant but it accurately conveys my HATE for that camera.

We get it, Resi came out a time where games where getting away from the side scrolling goodness and wanted to become more cinematic, but when I have shit killing me off screen because the camera decided to show the action through a keyhole instead of through the eyes of the character. I don't know about you, but I would be a lot more afraid of something jumping out at me and THEN melting my face off instead of seeing it melt my face off from around the corner.

If I wanted to spend the entire game getting killed off screen I'd play Ninja Gaiden.

Oh yeah, I went there.

So why were so many people down on the overhaul they gave the engine in Resident Evil 4? Well let's point out some of the main complaints I always see.

New Style shifts from Survival Horror to Action Horror
The camera isn't as cinematic as it used to be, which takes you out of the moment
The game is too easy because it gives you more ammo and puts more of an emphasis on gunplay and shooting rather than puzzles and survival

Genre Change
Now these are all sound arguments, but all of them just like the original system have some flaws.

The biggest gripe everyone seems to have is the new style change. Instead of running around like a doof Leon suddenly is armed to the teeth with readily available guns. Well I am not going to disagree here…Leon DID have a lot of guns at his disposal but you have to note that there is a big difference between this resident evil game and other games in the past.

In the other games the zeds were out of their element. For the most part it was always some place that was attacked or some sort of catastrophic thing happened which lead to the original zombie infestation. In Resident Evil 4's case we are in THEIR element, thus where were more zeds to deal with and I don't even think Capcom are big enough dicks to make you wade through so many ganados with the same amount of ammo they used to give you. I think that was the reason for the style changes in the first place, the fact that the enemy had changes. Gone were the days of exploring empty city streets and finding nothing but strewn and damaged corpses and the occasional zombie en route to the next puzzle piece. Now you were in THEIR zone which meant that they roamed freely and YOU were the rarity. You constantly had to watch your back because you knew that the entire time that they outnumbered you, they were always watching you and there was no one that could help you.


Then again, Resi 3 had a BIG ASS FUCKING SPIDER.

In the other games you had the relief of knowing that while you were in the midst of an infestation, you still had a slight upper hand because you knew where to hide, where to go, what to do, etc. This time the tables were turned as you didn't know what the fuck you were doing for once.

If running around in a village of ‘zombies' isn't scary or a game of survival, I don't know WHAT is.

Camera

Now, you already know how I feel about the camera…but incase you forgot…

SERIOUSLY. FUCK. THAT. CAMERA.

Now that that is out of the way, I will actually say that the Resident Evil 4(and soon to be 5) camera isn't that great either. The over-the-shoulder view is nice and all, but I don't think it lends itself well for most of the game outside of having the feeling that you are constantly surrounded and something can jump directly into your field of view at any moment. The new camera doesn't allow for one of the few things that the old RE camera did right; show off the game's wonderful scenery and surroundings. Although I did hate the sudden changing camera angles, I DID like some of the angles they used. By locking the camera behind Leon most of the time you never really got to see most of the great scenery in the game (despite the fact that it didn't have much to offer…)

Difficulty

Even though I touched on it a bit earlier, difficulty was another big problem people had. The game's style really didn't feature the mind breaking puzzles that the old game had, and most of them were optional and only led to more weapons to use or an easier route. This is a point I can actually sort of defend, but not. I do think that something was a bit lost when they took out a lot of the puzzles…but in the same vein a lot of the puzzles didn't make much sense. There should never be a reason why I should have to go find a diamond in the hubcap of a steering wheel in a park that must be turned counter clockwise three times so the fountain in the courtyard can turn on which would fill the pond with water which will turn the gears under the fountain opening the steel grating on the front door which gives you access to the front door however you must climb a ladder and use the box of matches you found earlier to light a tree on fire which will cause the bats to fly out of it and lead you to a cave where you will have to fight a giant zombie bat in order to obtain the key to said front door.

Keep in mind during all this time you did have a gun and you could've just shot the goddamn thing. And no, that is (thankfully) not an example of some of the older puzzles, but it does show just how nonsensical they can be sometimes. I love a good puzzle, but I love them even more when they tend to make sense with the context of what is going on. It's a wonder people were every able to get around seeing as they kept losing such important items in random places.

As for the actual ACTION difficulty, I don't think that has changed too much. Leon can take a few more hits and the items slots are bigger, but just as I said earlier this time you are in a whole different ballgame. I actually think the difficulty between the two styles is actually the same. In the old Resident Evil the few zombies you'd encounter were VERY strong and could kill you in a matter of minutes if you didn't react fast enough. In the new Resident evil games you can die in the same way with all of the mob tactics and swarming…and let's not forget Doc Salvador.



All in all while it may sound like I am harping hard on the old Resident Evil games, I really do enjoy them, it's just that every once in awhile a game does need to undergo a change in order to stay relevant and fun. Mario, Final Fantasy, Castlevania and even

This was just and a series I thought of doing because you constantly hear so much about games that change for the worst that you never hear about games that change for the better. Hopefully next week I'll be able to highlight a game that NEEDS to change.

Working Feedback

Like I said, last week I was unable to put up a column…but HOLY FUCK the week before was a DOOZY in terms of Feedback. Not only did it contain an EPIC flamewar which I always love to see, it was the most comments Working Title has EVER gotten, knocking out the 27 emails I got two years ago for calling Final Fantasy 7 overrated. Not much of it was really directed at me, but I will throw out some very general responses to the feedback as a whole.

Yes, I do think Microsoft did indeed win E3 in terms of games, what they can do BEYOND this year is a bit of a mystery to me, but all of the stuff they showcased are things that will be seen this year or sometime soon. When I decided that Microsoft won I wasn't going off the third party titles but rather exclusives and exclusives they will receive first. I did mention that Sony could've easily won, but a big thing that decides my gaming is what I can play right now and what I can play in the future and oddly both of the ‘major' consoles have the same problem. Microsoft wants to wow us with what's around the corner and Sony hopes we will stick around so they can wow us in the future. I still give the win to Microsoft only because in an industry as fickle as video games it matters more what we can hold in our hands and play rather than what we can hope to play next year.

Oh? I didn't mention Nintendo…well, Nintendo didn't Nintendo either. Man, not only am I putting in big pictures to pad the short column, I'm also calling Ninja Gaiden 2 not so great AND taking a dig at Nintendo. I'm coming HARD with the cheapness this week!

Working Question
So, during Comic-Con we were all treated to a trailer of the newest video game movie, Resident Evil: Degeneration. It's following in the footsteps of Street Fighter and Final Fantasy in the form of instead of trying to go the live action route, they just develop and in-house animated movie instead.



Looks pretty nice, dosen't it?

Do you think this is something that should be done more? Do you think that video game movies should be made with CGI instead of actors so they can stick closer to the material?

My answer is that I think that it's something that should be done more often. So far doing movies this way has had a pretty damned good track record. Who else should be getting this treatment?

Oh and one more thing…answering my question from two weeks ago about the best game at E3, I'm going to have to giver that to Mirror's Edge. I want to play that game so bad it HURTS.

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams…and Soul Calibur IV is pretty decent so far, Astaroth wasn't nerfed so it's ALL good.


Best character ever. No, I don't care if you disagree.