Warning: Major SPOILERS for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, and Netflix’s Resident Evil

Now that the dust has settled around the cold, hard death of Netflix’s Resident Evil live-action TV series, I’ve seen the same sentiment being repeated across forums, Twitter, our own comments, and those of other websites: “Why is this so hard?”. Considering the sea of terrible video game adaptations, it’s certainly not a problem isolated to just our favorite survival horror franchise. From the worst of the worst like Alone in the Dark (2005), to the surprisingly great like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), the quality bar is all over the place but tends to skew towards the lower end. Even at their best (which in my opinion is 2012’s Ace Attorney), fans are often left frustrated at changes to the original story even when it’s a benefit to the switch in mediums. At the end of the day though, does the source material matter that much, really, in a sea of game adaptions that are also just… bad, regardless?

It’s easy enough to cite “betrayal” of the source material as one of gaming on film’s greatest problems. Netflix’s Resident Evil was certainly no stranger to it. Despite promises of being a “sequel to the games” and taking all 8 numbered games (9 actually, which should have been an early warning sign) as canon to its premise, its “accuracy” was laughable at best. From not knowing that the T-Virus outbreak in Raccoon City was very much public, to not even bothering to Google “does the T-Virus have a cure” before making it one of the central plot points in the series, it’s very clear that the showrunner and writers only had a bare minimum knowledge of a handful of Resident Evil specifics. As I said, Netflix’s Resident Evil is pretty easy to tear apart as a fan, and it doesn’t even take a particularly deep knowledge of the series’s history to do so. But let’s face facts: this is not why the show failed.

One of the pivotal problems with the Netflix show was its script. Whether or not its lore was correct, whether or not the writers did their due diligence with researching and correcting every single last fine-tuned detail of game lore, it would have still been a pretty mediocre at best series. From the utterly unlikable protagonist who gets almost everyone she comes in contact with killed through her arrogant stupidity, to inconsistent world-building between what does and does not constitute a post-apocalypse, to its frankly bizarre tonal whiplash between moments of horror and misfire referential humor targeted at presumably a like-minded Gen-Z audience, there was hardly a moment when Netflix’s Resident Evil felt on point in its vision. The one true saving grace, Lance Reddick’s excellent performance/s as Al, Bert, Alby, and of course Albert Wesker, is sadly knee-capped by a storyline that used this revelation as some sort of hook for fans, rather than anything that would be meaningfully satisfying to a non-fan viewer.

Regardless of the fan pushback (disregarding the pathetic racism and bigotry that continues to flood worthwhile discussion), these are problems the show had with casual audiences. Netflix’s Resident Evil garnered a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes not from fans — but from critics. Green ‘splat’ reviews are accompanied by quotes such as “A confusing, YA-Tinged letdown” (Karama Horne, The Wrap), “To be clear, Resident Evil is not a good show by any means” (Melanie McFarland, Salon), and “I have not been more disappointed in a show in a long time” (Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network). Of course, there are almost exactly 50% positive reviews as well, but even those come with quotes like “The show has the ingredients for success but didn’t quite bake it long enough” (Valerie Anne Liston, Autostraddle). The show was middling to bad, regardless of its adherence to the games (although, investment in the games did factor into both some positive and negative reviews).

We need not focus on just Netflix’s take on the series, however. The considerably more faithful Welcome to Raccoon City got even worse reviews, sitting at a 30% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On the fan side of things, players absolutely despised it for the changes it made to characters and motivations (such as Leon being played as a comic relief loser), but that doesn’t change the fact that the film is the most genuine attempt at translating the games to screen we’ve ever gotten. Covering the storylines of Resident Evils 1 and 2 as brief bullet point snippets (S.T.A.R.S. search for Bravo Team in the mansion, Wesker uses it as a cover to steal Umbrella research, Wesker is killed but resurrected by the virus, etc.), and a jaw-dropping level of visual accuracy (I still can’t get over the R.P.D. exterior facade or the Spencer Mansion main hall set), I personally came away mostly satisfied by this altered but none the less earnest attempt at adapting the games. However, their attempts at adhering to the games, for better or worse, isn’t why it failed (no matter how often people like to bring that up). It failed because it was ultimately just not a very good movie.

A messy and rushed story, breakneck and hard-to-follow pacing, Bizzaro-world humor, and pivotal plot points are just left out entirely. In fact, more often than not the attempts to include game content end up backfiring as they lack the proper context to mean anything in a film that doesn’t have time to explain them. A good example is the film’s lone Licker sequence, in which the iconic Resident Evil 2 monster appears in the Racoon City Orphanage to attack Leon and Claire. While I enjoyed the scene (the sequence where we see the swinging lights might actually be one of my favorite Licker moments ever), the Licker showing up for gamer cred interrupts necessary plot development.

If you haven’t seen the film, Leon and Claire are led into the orphanage by police chief Brian Irons, who in the games has deep ties to Umbrella and has helped them get away with their illegal activities in the city for years (and in the remakes, played an active roll in the kidnap and experimentation of children in the orphanage). In the film, Irons is mostly played off as a bullish asshole who clearly has answers, but we never find out more than that. Umbrella opens fire on him at one point, so it would be easy for a casual audience to assume he isn’t actually working for them. Was he investigating them? Had he always known but never followed up on them out of fear of retribution? These questions go unanswered as a moment where Claire finally corners and questions Irons fades off into the background, unheard and unseen, as Leon stops the movie in its tracks for that cool moment with the swinging lights — and then Irons is killed immediately afterward and any possibility of learning more about this objectively essential backstory is lost forever.

Is the problem here that Irons isn’t faithful to his game counterpart? I’d argue no — the problem is that he’s nothing. We’re left to guess and assume who he was and what his motivations were due to a script that didn’t have time or interest in exploring him. It doesn’t matter whether or not he was the “Brian Irons” of the games, because even for a casual audience his character isn’t explained, explored, or even given a chance to be. He’s here because he’s a character from the games that is supposed to be here, which isn’t in the film’s best interest.

Both of these recent swing-and-misses predicated themselves on at least some level of adherence to accuracy, promising either a “faithful adaptation” or a “sequel to the games”. Yet, here we are, with fans of the franchise disappointed with these adaptations for both not going far enough or sticking close enough — and non-fans unengaged and confused. Which of these two parties is more important to cater to at this point? Paul W.S. Anderson’s sextet of films (which made over a billion dollars) would seem to suggest neither and simply aiming for a lowest common denominator popcorn blockbuster audience. Is that really the best we can strive for with Resident Evil, though? I really hope not. Even with his film’s hefty box office take, they still got terrible reviews, and to this day are held up as an easy punching bag for “bad video game movies”. 

Now I’m not saying that a little more accuracy wouldn’t hurt of course, but it’s hardly the main problem here. A film like Jurassic Park (1993) is a good example to bring up when talking about this sort of thing. Despite it’s status as a beloved classic, it’s objectively as far removed from its source material as Welcome to Raccoon City was. Changing around major character motivations and personalities (Grant of the book loves kids, Grant of the film hates them), scrapping iconic moments (such as the river rafting sequence), and introducing plenty of new ideas of its own (the famous climax replacing a much more subdued and tension-heavy moment in some caves). Jurassic Park eschews 99% of the novel’s slow pacing and the more nuanced collapse of the park, and even the characters that survive flip like a light switch from their book counterparts (both Muldoon and Gennaro survive the novel — Malcolm does not). Is this a betrayal of the source material? Or are these changes made to benefit a film that requires a stronger narrative for individual characters as it morphs the hard sci-fi horror of the novel to a more action-heavy adventure story. Considering Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, co-wrote the script, probably not. Jurassic Park currently sits at a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes by the way.

I want a hyper-accurate Resident Evil film, of course I do. I’d hoped the TV series could be that when it was first announced all the way back in 2014, something that could (as many fans have expressed for years) adapt a game per season, and use that time to really dive deep into not just the game lore but flesh out characters and their lives outside of the games. Is that really what these games need to be brought up on their feet with these adaptions, though? I’d say no, at least not in the face of 7 films and one TV show that sucked no matter what they did. A little harder emphasis on accuracy wouldn’t hurt of course (although again, Welcome to Raccoon City tried pretty hard and still wasn’t good enough for most). It’s also easy enough for me to say “just hire better writers”, even the best and most seasoned talents can still churn out crap like the rest of ’em (Jurassic Park‘s 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, sits at a 54%) but it’s striking how low on the totem poll this aspect seems to be for Resident Evil on film. 

To wrap up here, I feel it really must be high time we allow for this kind of discussion to happen. All of these things have had varying degrees of faithfulness and faithlessness to the games, and that absolutely hurts to see as a fan, but none of these adaptions would have been good even if they hadn’t been tied in. Netflix’s Resident Evil would have gone completely under the radar and faded off into the miasma of Netflix’s catalog in just a few weeks if it didn’t have the branding on it. Welcome to Raccoon City probably would’ve been direct to DVD at your local Walmart if it didn’t have the license tied in. The low-hanging fruit of “why was Wesker wearing his RE5 costume in 1998″ and “Leon needs to be cooler he’s not stupid!” needs to stop being the center of attention when we talk about Resident Evil on film.

We need to stop asking “why aren’t they accurate?” and start asking “why aren’t they good at all?”. The problem isn’t accuracy but quality, and Resident Evil on film has been pretty much dogshit.

The post Resident Evil In Live Action’s Problem Isn’t Accuracy, It’s Quality appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Happy un-niversary! As of today, it’s been one year since Resident Evil Village‘s release, and the quiet (and then not so quiet) delay of its pack-in title, Re:Verse. Some of you might not even remember this game, given that Capcom’s barely mentioned it in that time (not since a barely seen tweet about a Capcom calendar in January to the best of my knowledge). Some have even suggested that it’s been quietly canceled (I’ve been assured several times on Twitter that it isn’t nor can it be from a legal standpoint), but suffice it to say that regardless of the game’s status — there’s been nothing to show for it for an entire year as of today. How did we even get here?

Last year during Capcom’s first Resident Evil Showcase livestream, which focused heavily on the (at the time) up and coming Resident Evil Village as well as a few other surprises (such as the reveal of the excellent Resident Evil 4 VR), there was one other title that perhaps didn’t get quite as much positive attention as the others. Resident Evil Re:Verse, a six-player free-for-all shooter, was announced as being a special title designed to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Only featuring characters from the most recent RE Engine titles (RE7, REmake 2, and REmake 3 specifically) and falling into a genre a lot of fans tend to be rather vocally against, Re:Verse was met with what could charitably be called ‘backlash‘. Sure, there were fans that were looking forward to it (I’ve even seen people say it’s why they bought Village), but that didn’t change the overall reception to it, which was exacerbated further when the public beta went live around a month before the game’s intended release.

Clunky, low-budget feeling, and featuring a garish semi cel-shaded filter (or nearly pitch-black visuals if the filter is turned off), Re:Verse was all but dead on arrival for a lot of fans, and the fact that the beta barely functioned from a netcode standpoint didn’t help either. After the beta was extended multiple times in order to figure out whatever its connectivity problem had been, it was finally time for release, packaged with Resident Evil: Village on May 7th, 2021. However (after a quiet update to Re:Verse‘s website), the game’s original release date came… and went. Despite a sticker on Resident Evil Village‘s packaging proudly stating that Re:Verse was included, and the paper slip the download key was printed on not mentioning any change in its release date, the title appeared to have been (very) quietly delayed. The download key does work, of course, allowing you to download the game to your platform of choice, however booting Re:Verse up resulted in nothing more than a start screen and a message about the online service not being active yet.

Now an argument could be made that Village‘s launch was never the intended release date. Pre-release marketing for Re:Verse never explicitly stated that the game would be released the same day as Village, but considering marketing also never said it wouldn’t (and Resident Evil: Resistance releasing the same day as REmake 3) it stands to reason that May 7th was the original release date, and that fans expected it to be so as well.

Following this “hope you didn’t notice” delay, Capcom officially announced that the game would be released in July 2021. Unfortunately, halfway through its release month, the Re:Verse Twitter account announced that the title was being delayed into 2022 in order to deliver a “smooth gameplay experience”. Following this, it’s been nearly a year of total radio silence on the title. The same could be said for Resident Evil Village‘s DLC, which was announced in the same livestream Re:Verse‘s second release window was, of course, but at least that seemed to have only just entered production rather than having already been in development before the base game’s release.

It’s hard to believe a game that started out with as much backlash and seemed so feature-lite as Re:Verse could have been put on hold for so long. I should be clear, I’m actually not against the idea of a versus-focused Resident Evil title. We’ve had multiple over the years, and if anything my biggest complaint has been that I haven’t really found them to be particularly good (aside from Resistance, which I thought was charming as heck at launch). I really do hope that RE:Verse has been delayed so long in order to turn it into something better, something that can really, truly be a celebration of the series up to this point. Adding Rebecca Chambers, for instance, to the playable roster alone would be a huge reason for me to at least make a more concentrated effort to love what was already there. In general, I’m sure many fans would agree that just adding in more characters and costumes would be a lovely way to expand on what we already saw in the beta and marketing. The team could arguably even get away with adding in non-RE Engine characters as the filter would cover up any aging the MT Framework (or older) models have gone through (some modders even managed to pop a few RE1-RE5 models into the Beta and they looked great).

For now, all we can really do is continue to wait. It seems almost a sure thing that Re:Verse will get a final release date sometime in June, along with a release date for Village‘s DLC, but if not…? It’s also worth noting that all of this might be in service of a game that won’t even be around that long, as a block of text on Re:Verse‘s website makes it explicitly clear that the game might not be planned for longevity:

I’ve personally never seen something quite this aggressive before, at least not with an online Resident Evil title. To the best of my knowledge, no online games in this series have ever been discontinued for reasons beyond the console itself ending its online service (such as the PlayStation 2). All of the online games from Xbox 360/PS3 still work online, including things like Operation Raccoon City. Re:Verse being so explicit with this language throws the amount of time it’s taken to get this game out the door feel even more bizarre. Resistance doesn’t have this sort of message on its website, by the way — it only mentions that an internet connection is required to play, which is the standard for this kind of game.

We’ll be right there with a review of Re:Verse whenever it eventually comes out, of course. “A delayed game is eventually good”, as the big M says, and hopefully that holds true here, because it’s been one hell of a delay.

The post It’s Been A Full Year Since Resident Evil Re:Verse Was Delayed appeared first on Rely on Horror.

There was a lot of emphasis put on Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City‘s faithfulness to the games in marketing, which stirred up quite a bit of hype around the film. Sadly, it turned out that’s only sorta-kinda true. While it does follow the general gist of those two stories (hitting bullet points despite completely recontextualizing them) and recreates a few locations, the majority of the story was entirely new and simply danced around moments and characters from the first two Resident Evil games. One source of inspiration that took me by complete surprise, however, was the film pulling ideas from the 1998 novel Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy, by S.D. Perry.

If you’re unfamiliar, the first three games (along with Code: Veronica and Resident Evil Zero) were adapted into a series of novels in the late 90s-early-00s by science fiction author S.D. Perry, and they’re actually pretty great. While not 100% accurate (due to issues I’ll explain in the next paragraph), the books managed to be a really good series of adaptions that fleshed out the characters and world of Resident Evil in a way that simply wasn’t possible in the games at the time. For pre-internet fans these books were like bibles as well, covering files and documents and listing character names and locations found in-game in a handy paperback. If you were creating your own Resident Evil fan fiction (or comics) or were just a lore geek back in the day, you absolutely could not skip these.

Like I said, though — there were a few hitches along the way that caused them to be a bit whacky when it came to consistency (both with the games as well as the novels themselves) as Capcom reportedly provided very little feedback on them, and the author was often forced to simply make things up in order to fill in gaps Capcom hadn’t provided her with. Along with that, a lot of established canon wasn’t set in stone at the time, such as Jill’s military background (replaced with a history as an ex-cat burglar as an explanation for her lock picking skills) or S.T.A.R.S. being a branch of the R.P.D. (the novels follow the 1996 instruction manual’s explanation that they were a government operation simply occupying Raccoon for the sake of the investigation). They can get pretty wild in a few places, but you kinda just have to set aside your knowledge of the modern lore while reading, since the majority of it simply didn’t exist at the time.

But what does all this have to do with WTRC? Well, kinda everything, actually. Major spoilers for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City from here on out.

Early on in the film, S.T.A.R.S. member Albert Wesker finds a mysterious PDA (a sort of pre-smartphone pocket computer from the 90s) in his locker, which contains a series of directions and maps that will help him complete his mission as ordered by The Organization (presumably). Believe it or not, this wasn’t something just made up by writer/director Johannes Roberts, but lifted directly from The Umbrella Conspiracy. In that novel, it’s Jill, rather than Wesker, who receives a PDA (erroneously referred to as a mini-disc reader, even though that type of technology wasn’t capable of what the device is described as performing) while gearing up for the mission in the R.P.D. locker room. Unlike the film, Jill doesn’t simply find it in her personal locker, however, it’s instead handed to her by a novel-exclusive character named Trent.

Jill is instructed to keep the device, and the information on it, hidden from her fellow S.T.A.R.S. members in the novel, while in the film Wesker does so to keep his cover as a double agent intact. In both the novel and the film, Jill and Wesker keep the PDA hidden from view until they need to use it.

Once reaching the mansion, both Jill and Wesker discover directions on how to solve puzzles and escape the mansion, with Jill’s version listing off necessary key items and documents, and Wesker’s giving him instructions on how to play Moonlight Sonata to open the secret passage (something the novel version of Rebecca Chambers intuits on her own while messing around with the piano).

Another important cross-over is the PDA’s use as a map, which is virtually identical between both adaptions. Wesker follows along a strict path (a vague reconstruction of the mansion’s first floor eastern wing, modified to account for the new locations in the film) directing him straight to the library/bar where he finds the piano. Jill doesn’t have as specific a goal and instead uses it as a way to make exploration in the labyrinthine mansion at least a smidge easier. It’s also what helps her know for sure that the mansion is at the center of the cannibal killings, rather than just pure happenstance.

This is more or less where the inspiration from the novel stops, but it’s still very neat to see such a deep cut make it to the silver screen. The other films arguably pulled from the novels as well, with 2012’s Resident Evil: Retribution‘s setting being eerily similar to that of the fourth novel, Resident Evil: Underworld, but it isn’t quite as direct an adaption as this. It’s also worth mentioning that WTRC‘s treatment of the Spencer mansion as having been abandoned since Umbrella founder Spencer’s death is somewhat similar to the novel’s use of the mansion being abandoned after George Trevor’s “disappearance”. In the games, S.T.A.R.S. doesn’t appear to have been familiar with the Spencer mansion at all, so it is a connection between the two adaptions, intentional or not.

While Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City might not be perfect (I did still enjoy it for the most part, though), it’s still very cool to see how deep some of the roots for its inspiration went. As a fan of the S.D. Perry novels and the old school American version of the series (where so much lore was mistranslated and/or completely made up), it’s cool as shit to experience even just one more sliver of that era one last time.

The post Reflecting on Resident Evil: WTRC’s Unexpected Source: The Novel appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Biohazard, localized as Resident Evil for overseas release, has endured throughout the years against changes in the games industry and continues to receive new content. The landmark survival horror series that defined the genre for a generation of fans eventually shifted gears towards a more action-based gameplay style to market itself to American and European audiences. Before that paradigm shift, however, an early series entry accomplished a successful blend of survival horror and action without compromising the gameplay themes that began with the mansion incident in the original Resident Evil (1996). Titled Resident Evil CODE: Veronica, the game kept important story elements and characters while introducing new ones, and brought stylishly high-stakes, over-the-top Hollywood action to consoles.

As Resident Evil’s 25th anniversary continues, it’s with fans new and old in mind that we take a look back at the legacy and influence of the fourth main entry in the series.

CODE: Veronica was released just as the old millennium became the new on February 3, 2000, for the Sega Dreamcast. It’s considered by multiple critics to be one of the greatest Dreamcast entries during the console’s limited run, selling 1.14 million copies worldwide but selling about 450,000 copies in the U.S., its target audience.

A desire to extend the game’s lifespan beyond the Dreamcast led Japanese developer Capcom to release it again a year later. Titled Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X and released for the PS2 in 2001, this enhanced version of the game included additional cutscenes and story elements not found in the Dreamcast version. Including Code Veronica: X, overall sales of the game would total 2.54 million units.

Voice-over talent led by voice director Erik Suzuki helped bring life and personality to the game’s many characters. The cast is led by Leila Johnson as a new villain, Alexia Ashford, and Richard Waugh as Albert Wesker. The protagonists include Michael Filipowich as Chris Redfield along with Alyson Court, reprising her role as Chris’s sister Claire from 1998’s Resident Evil 2. Rounding out the rest of the cast is Peter Oldring as Alexia’s twin brother, Alfred Ashford, Bill Houston as Steve Burnside, and Martin Roach as Rodrigo Raval.

CODE: Veronica’s story is set in December 1998, in the aftermath of Raccoon City’s destruction. The game begins on Rockfort Island, an isolated location in the South Pacific that houses an Umbrella Corporation-funded facility. Former S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team captain Albert Wesker has mysteriously returned from the dead and is now in command of a paramilitary group called the H.C.F. (Hive/Host Capture Force). He believes the body of Alexia Ashford, a former child prodigy of Umbrella rumored to have created the powerful t-Veronica virus, is being kept on the island. Following hot on Wesker’s heels is Chris Redfield, fueled by a powerful grudge against his former leader for Wesker’s betrayal of the S.T.A.R.S. members.

Chris returns for the first time since the events of the original Resident Evil. During repeated encounters with Wesker, He makes a number of choices, includes lunging at the superpowered villain with a metal pipe before being tossed aside like a rag-doll, a moment that’s an apt metaphor for the ongoing struggle between their two diametrically opposed personalities. Thanks to the YouTube channel Resident Evil Database, you can watch one of Chris’s memorable battles with Wesker yourself.

After the events of Resident Evil 2, Claire Redfield’s search for her brother leads her to infiltrate an Umbrella facility in Paris, where she’s subsequently captured by an Umbrella paramilitary soldier named Rodrigo Raval and transported to Rockfort Island. Claire is then imprisoned on Rockfort Island and later released when Rodrigo has a change of heart as a result of Wesker’s H.C.F. attack, which has led to an outbreak of the t-Virus on the island. In a twist of fate, Claire encounters Wesker long before she can reunite with Chris. Her first encounter with her brother’s nemesis (and ongoing series antagonist) is another fan-favorite moment of the game.

Steve Burnside, another new character who serves as a foil to Claire, is introduced as a Rockfort prison inmate with a heavy past. Wielding two gold lugers (which are also keys to the Ashford residence), he assists Claire throughout her journey as they try to escape the island’s horrors together. Claire’s subsequent encounters with the disturbingly theatrical commander of the Rockfort base, Alfred Ashford and his twin sister Alexia, and Claire’s eventual reunion with Chris is a story within a story; two pairs of siblings on opposing sides of morality.

Nearing the climax of the game, Rockfort Island is revealed to be a front to conceal the true location of Alexia Ashford, who’s eventually found in the Antarctic and surprisingly, alive. There, Wesker enters the Antarctic Hall of the facility (with its gothic European architecture) and is met with the sight of the newly risen Alexia, whose t-Veronica virus was his goal. The stand-off between Wesker and Alexia on the staircase landing is the most memorable scene from CODE: Veronica according to numerous fans over the years.

Alexia’s cackle as she mutates into her monstrous form lets players know she’s not to be trifled with. Duking it out with Wesker in classic Resident Evil fashion (as shown in the famous cutscene below), the scene involves Wesker being set aflame, maniacal laughter from both sides, and an astonished Chris as he looks on. Below are both versions of the scene for comparison.

Due to an outdated control scheme and console inaccessibility for newer generations, combined with fan debate on whether the game should be properly remade, CODE: Veronica remains a popular topic among the Resident Evil fan community. Capcom’s decision to skip CODE: Veronica and go straight for a remake of Resident Evil 4 has left fans wanting. So much so that some have taken it upon themselves to do what Capcom won’t, in the form of a fan-developed remake.

Resident Evil CODE: Veronica’s blend of the survival horror and action genres, obtuse, yet beloved puzzles, and the introduction of new lore and canon, makes this entry worthy of the series’ grandiose, operatic legacy. A fitting way to wrap things up would be with Alexia’s recurring theme throughout the game, best heard in Alexia Type 2, from CODE: Veronica’s original soundtrack; the result of a collaboration between Japanese composers Takeshi Miura, Hijiri Anze, and Sanae Kasahara.

With time, maybe Capcom will listen to passionate fans and provide us with an official remake of Resident Evil CODE: Veronica. Until then, the original release will remain beloved in the hearts of Resident Evil and horror fans alike.

The post Resident Evil CODE: Veronica – A Retrospective appeared first on Rely on Horror.

As we sprint to the approaching release date of Resident Evil Village, it seems like a good time to look back over the series’ long 25-year history and write some refresher courses for fans both new and old looking to catch up beforehand. This piece in particular will cover the characters of the Resident Evil universe and summarizing their adventures across the Resident Evil series for the sake of a quick catch-up. You never know what events or details might end up being important to understanding Resident Evil Village, after all. I’ll try to cover every major character here, so buckle up! Let’s start at the beginning, and work our way forward!

Characters will be listed with major canonical appearances, including Resident Evil games, manga, stage productions, and animated films (not the live-action Resident Evil films). Note: Some of these characters have appeared in games and media not listed, but I’ve excluded non-canon games (Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D) and games where they appear canonically, but are simply retellings of stories they already appeared in. This is also taking into account the main series canon, and not that of the 2019 and 2020 Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes, which are reimaginings, existing in their own canon (as they directly contradict multiple plot points from the other games).

An ex-air force pilot turned police officer, Chris Redfield was a member of Raccoon City’s Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) until the twisted events of July 1998, known as ‘the Mansion Incident’. Along with his team, Chris discovered an insidious experiment to use man-made viruses and genetic manipulation to create biological weapons; the perpetrator of which was a household pharmaceutical giant known as the Umbrella Corporation. Barely escaping with his life and a few other members of S.T.A.R.S., Chris sought to destroy Umbrella and rid the world of the virus once and for all. Along with the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members, Chris helped form an anti-Bio Organic Weapon (B.O.W.) organization that would one day become the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (B.S.A.A.), and eventually helped bring about the end of Umbrella. Over the years, he’d become involved in numerous terrorist plots and globe-threatening events, saving the world countless times over.

Chris’s heart burned with the desire to protect life and see evil defeated, but the hero found himself conflicted when presented with the new Umbrella Corporation — a military unit promising to use Umbrella’s technology to fight back against the horrors the corporation had caused.

A master lockpick and steadfast soldier, Jill Valentine was Chris’s partner during the events of the Mansion Incident. Jill survived, along with Chris and a few others, only to come face-to-face with the horrors again just a few months later when the virus struck Raccoon City, nearly wiping out the populous and seeing hordes of Umbrella’s monsters fill the streets. Umbrella targeted Jill for execution using a new and improved B.O.W. called Nemesis, which very nearly killed her via viral infection, but she ultimately overcame the beast and escaped the city mere moments before a government-launched missile wiped it from the map.

Years later, Jill would help form the B.S.A.A. with Chris, and served with him and others for years until her kidnapping at the hands of former S.T.A.R.S. captain turned terrorist, Albert Wesker. Wesker used trace elements of the virus in her system in order to control her via a mechanical device attached to her body, sending a now brain-washed Jill to carry out dirty work behind the B.S.A.A.’s back.

In a shocking showdown, Chris managed to rescue Jill from Wesker’s clutches, dismantling the brain-washing device, after which Jill returned for evaluation and rehabilitation. While Jill has remained in quarantine for years since, she’s eager to rejoin the fight with her comrades at her side.

A brilliant and cunning man, Albert Wesker was an Umbrella agent who managed to infiltrate and manipulate the Raccoon City police department, to eventually become the captain of S.T.A.R.S. Wesker deliberately lead S.TA.R.S. into the Spencer mansion during the events of the Mansion Incident, seeking to record data on the B.O.W.’s combat with a militarized team, which resulted in the deaths of more than half of the unit. Wesker’s plans extended beyond Umbrella however, and he faked his own death with the help of a specialized viral agent, escaping with new and enhanced abilities that saw him more powerful than any human alive. Wesker manipulated both heroes and villains from behind the scenes, tipping over pawns one at a time in his quest for unlimited power — eventually helping to destroy Umbrella for his own gain, without Chris or Jill’s knowledge.

After years of careful planning and acquisition of a multitude of viruses and Biological agents, Wesker sought to confront the man responsible for it all, the founder of Umbrella Corporation: Oswell Spencer. Wesker’s world crumbled, however, as Spencer explained that all of Wesker’s careful planning and manipulation had, in fact, been programmed into him as part of a plan to force human evolution, revealing that even his birth had been genetically manipulated. Wesker had never truly held any power, only carrying out a carefully considered series of patterns as part of Spencer’s plans. Wesker, in a fit of rage, executed Spencer and chose to carry out a new plan that would see Spencer’s dreams of forced evolution come to fruition.

Wesker would ultimately be destroyed at the hands of Chris and the B.S.A.A., however, his legacy and plans would continue to hold the world in a death-grip for years to come.

An old partner of Chris’ from the air force, Barry Burton is a kind and loving friend, who puts others before himself — to a fault. Manipulated against his will by Wesker to betray his friends during the Mansion Incident, Barry proved himself in the end when he saw through Wesker’s plans and rescued his friends from certain death. Barry left Raccoon City behind in order to care for his family, but returned just in time to rescue Jill before the city was destroyed.

Years later, Barry’s daughter, Moira Burton, went missing. Barry carried out a solo mission in order to rescue her, where he managed to save her along with an orphaned girl named Natalia, whom he adopted.

The youngest member of S.T.A.R.S., Rebecca Chambers is a brilliant chemist who graduated college at the tender age of 18, and became the lone survivor of the first team that was sent in to investigate the Mansion, just before Chris and Jill arrived. Rebecca barely managed to survive one night of terror with the help of wrongly accused criminal Billy Coen, only to be thrust into another harrowing fight for survival once the other members of S.T.A.R.S. arrived. Leaving Raccoon City behind, Rebecca fought against Umbrella in her own way — from the laboratory, seeking ways of curing their viral infections and saving lives.

Rebecca would eventually become tangled up in multiple bioterror attacks afterwards but managed to survive thanks to the help of her old friend Chris Redfield and the B.S.A.A.

A rookie member of the Raccoon Police Department, Leon Kennedy arrived late to his first appointment as a police officer thanks to a nasty hangover. This carelessness saved his life, as he missed the initial wave of infected and monsters that decimated Raccoon City, in the events following the Mansion Incident. However, he was still left to fight his way out of the city once arriving, after meeting a young woman named Claire Redfield. Upon escaping to the city’s police station, Leon encountered a mysterious woman named Ada Wong, who was searching for her boyfriend amongst the chaos. However, Ada was in fact a spy, working for a competitor of Umbrella’s and seeking to acquire a sample of Umbrella’s latest bio-weapon, dubbed the G-Virus. Ada was eventually exposed, but couldn’t find it in her heart to betray Leon, who had placed his trust in her for the entire night. After an encounter with a ferocious B.O.W., Leon was forced to leave her for dead, and he eventually managed to escape the city with the help of Claire.

After surviving certain death, Leon was immediately recruited by the United States government, which forced him to join a special organization working under the direct order of the President. Leon would continue to work with this agency for years to come, becoming involved with multiple bioterror attacks and events. After losing countless teammates and seeing bioterror attacks only grow, Leon began to lose his boyish optimism, becoming increasingly demoralized as his efforts continued to make seemingly little difference.

Sister to Chris, Claire Redfield is a steadfast and brave woman who came to Raccoon City to search for her brother, only to find herself in the midst of the viral outbreak. Claire managed to fight her way through Raccoon City with Leon Kennedy, arriving at the police station where she encountered a young girl named Sherry, who became infected with the sought-after G-Virus. With Leon’s help, Claire managed to cure Sherry, and escaped the city, leaving her in Leon’s care, still searching for her brother. Her quest eventually lead her to Rockfort Island, an Umbrella-operated prison camp, where she met a young man named Steve. Together, they uncovered the horrible underbelly of Umbrella’s operation; a legacy of madness and evil. Steve became infected but managed to overpower the virus’s control, committing suicide rather than harming Claire.

Eventually escaping the island, thanks to her brother Chris (who had been investigating Umbrella off the radar), Claire temporarily left behind a life of monster-fighting and joined up with multiple government and private organizations in order to combat the people responsible for the virus. This didn’t stop Claire from becoming involved again, however, as she was thrust back into the midst of multiple bioterror attacks and events, surviving again and again.

The daughter of one of Umbrella’s top researchers, Sherry Birkin barely survived the Raccoon City outbreak on her own before crossing paths with Leon and Claire. After becoming infected with a new virus developed by her father, Leon and Claire raced to manufacture a cure for her, just barely making it in time and saving her life. After escaping the city, Sherry was left in the care of the United States government — who took advantage of Sherry’s age and exposure to the virus to carry out experiments on her in captivity for over a decade under the guise of “safety”.

Eventually, Sherry was offered the chance for freedom, in exchange for working as a government agent. Sherry joined the Division of Security Operations (D.S.O.), working to combat bio-terror. Eventually crossing paths with the mercenary Jake Muller, the two would work together to take down a new bioweapon and uncover government ties to a new breed of bio-terrorist group.

A mysterious woman with a past shrouded in darkness, Ada Wong worked as a mercenary for a variety of organizations, scheming to breach Umbrella’s security in order to steal viral samples to sell to her employers. On a mission to procure the same virus that infected Sherry, Ada crossed paths with Leon Kennedy, tricking him into believing she was a civilian. Eventually exposed, Ada couldn’t find it within herself to betray Leon after a romance began to bloom between the two, and after a bio-weapon attack was left for dead. Barely making it out of the city alive, she found herself in the employ of Albert Wesker, after he saved her from the city’s destruction in exchange for a sample of the virus.

Over the years, Ada crossed paths with Leon multiple times, as she was hired to acquire a sample of the latest bioweapons, while Leon sought to destroy them. The pair’s star-crossed romance has continued to go unfulfilled as the two continued to sit at opposite ends of the conflict.

A young and determined guerilla fighter turned mercenary, Carlos Oliveira worked for the Umbrella Corporation’s Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.), sent in to “rescue” civilians during the Raccoon City outbreak. Carlos, unaware that his employers were actually at fault for the disaster, was left the lone survivor of his squad after fellow U.B.C.S. mercenary, Nicholai Ginoveaf, carried out orders to betray them in order to record combat data to sell back to the company. Carlos teamed up with one of the last civilians left alive in the city, Jill Valentine, and the two fought their way out of the city and were eventually rescued — escaping moments before its total destruction.

The evil at the heart of it all and the master puppeteer, Oswell Spencer was the co-founder of Umbrella Corporation. Using his family fortune, Spencer worked with his partners James Marcus and Alexander Ashford in order to pursue unlocking the secret to immortality through viral research and genetic experimentation. Eventually betraying all those who helped him, Spencer designated himself to be the ruler of a new race of genetically superior humans that would supplant humanity. Part of this plan was the Wesker program, which saw the birth of Albert Wesker, as well as the T-Virus, which would go on to destroy Raccoon City. Spencer, through the Umbrella Corporation, has been the source of nearly every tragedy in the Resident Evil series, even long after his death.

Chris’ partner during a B.S.A.A.-lead sting-operation in Kijuju, Africa, Sheva Alomar is a skilled and loyal soldier, fighting to the bitter end in order to end the reign of bioterror that took her family from her at a young age. Sheva was an integral part of the rescue of Jill Valentine from Wesker’s clutches, and worked with Chris to put Wesker down for good.

Helena Harper is a CIA operative turned Secret Service agent who, along with her sister, was kidnapped by secret organization working under government official Derek Simmons. With her sister’s life in danger, Helena was forced to use her position to aid in the assassination of the United States President. A bioterror attack occured in the American town of Tall Oaks, and Helena’s path to rescuing her sister was cut off. She joined forces with Leon Kennedy to attempt a rescue her sister, but without telling him everything. Eventually, Helena’s sister was killed when a virus infection took hold of her. Afterward, Helena chose to expose the organization to Leon, and the pair hunted him down and eventually destroyed Simmons in the midst of an outbreak in China.

Jake Muller was a mercenary working for the highest bidder with no regard for the politics of the organizations he worked for. What he lacked in morals, he made up for in skill. Running into Sherry Birkin in the midst of a revolution gone sour in the small Eastern European country of Edonia after a viral outbreak, Jake was hired to return to the US, so his blood, which carried a viral agent, could be used to make a cure. Unbeknownst to him, this was revealed to be due to Jake’s true father being Albert Wesker, whom he had never known. Jake and Sherry fought for survival, eventually escaping and parting ways on good terms — Jake’s stance on the world and what was worth fighting for having changed.

Jumping off the radar, Jake would work in the shadows to help protect bioterror-stricken against the mutated hordes of bioweapons — shirking his previously high bidding price in exchange for food.

A dedicated B.S.A.A. soldier, Piers Nivans worked as Chris’ partner for years, assisting in multiple operations across the globe, eventually giving his life in order to defeat a new form of bioweapon, and save Chris from certain death during the events in Lanshiang, China.

Alex Wesker was the only other survivor of the Wesker Program instated by Oswell E. Spencer, who disappeared after being contacted by her ‘brother’, Albert, in order to carry out experiments without Spencer’s watchful eye. A cunning and startlingly cruel woman, Alex sought to escape her mortality much like Spencer did, but took a very different approach. By transferring her brain pattern into a new host body, Alex hoped to achieve a form of immortality by being reborn in a new body.

Alex’s experiment was a success, and unbeknownst to anyone else, her mind had been copied into and replaced that of Natalia Korda, a child survivor of the same incident that saw Moira Burton kidnapped. ‘Natalia’ was adopted by Barry Burton and his family, and is now seemingly waiting for her moment to strike.

Mia Winters worked as a transporter and operative for an underground B.O.W. dealer known as The Connections, until she became wrapped up in an outbreak caused by a sentient B.O.W. called Evelin. Eveline killed Mia’s partner and took control of her mind, secreting her away behind the walls of a secluded mansion in Louisiana, owned by a family known as the Bakers. Eveline would control Mia, and the Bakers, for years.

Ethan Winters, Mia’s husband, seemingly had no knowledge of her criminal occupation and had given her up for dead; that is, until a mysterious message arrived directing him to the Baker mansion in Dulvey, Louisiana four years after Mia’s disappearance. Ethan arrived alone to discover a house of horrors and fought for survival to rescue his wife and escape the estate. Eventually, Ethan managed to defeat Eveline, and the pair of them were rescued by Chris Redfield and the new Umbrella Corporation.

Since then, they’ve seemingly lived an idyllic life, having a child together — Rose Winters, living away from the horrors that they just barely survived. That life is about to be turned upside-down however, and Ethan will soon awaken alone on the outskirts of a dark and mysterious village…

Ethan and Mia’s story, along with that of Chris Redfield, will continue in Resident Evil Village. We have just a few more days until it releases on May 7th across Xbox systems, PlayStation 4/5, PC, and Stadia.

The post Resident Evil Village Character History Refresher Course appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Warning: minor spoilers for the Resident Evil franchise, especially entries 4 +5 + 7 + 8.

Déjà vu: the strange feeling of something familiar yet completely new. An experience of the brain and the eyes battling for memory recollection and affirmation. A peculiar feeling indeed. Upon viewing all of the released content from the Resident Evil showcase this January, I finally had my ah-ha finger-pointing moment and my world has finally righted itself upon a proper axis. Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 are sister games, well at the very least cousins. I’m sure many of you eagle-eyed viewers have spotted many of the parallels.

The locale, atmosphere, boss types, and bare bones of the story are eerily reminiscent to Resident Evil 4. A village where people are infected with a parasite (or virus) are involved or preyed upon by the occult/science. A girl kidnapped by villagers/powerful people because of a vendetta against world/protagonist. Mini-bosses that are controlled by old aristocratic powers. The largest setting of the game is a humongous castle level, etc., etc. The big difference this go-round is the prominent femme antagonists who have set the Internet ablaze. ?

The fourth installment in the Resident Evil series turns 15 years old this year, and, amazingly, so much is being mined from its brilliance all these years later. The cash/nostalgia cow of years past has paid off in innumerable dividends. Many, myself included, consider the entirety of Resident Evil 4 to be a masterpiece, and for good reason. The fourth game forged new ground and was a complete departure in the storyline from the series’ past, but it was accessible via a familiar face in Leon Kennedy. The monster designs and over-the-shoulder perspective were truly…wait, wait…

Okay, before I write a 2,000+ word editorial about the impact of the game upon the entire industry, let me save myself and everyone else the trouble of reading my ‘hot take’ and go read/watch everyone else’s retrospectives.

Please and thank you.

I also posit that the game has ties to the original title, with its labyrinthine mansion, puzzle mechanics, and origins that are far more ancient than meets the eye. To bring things full circle, the Resident Evil: Village–The Maiden demo unveiled that the umbrella symbol and those associated with it are interconnected to hundreds of years of medieval history. Perhaps the initial persons fused with entities like the Las Plagas organisms and procreated naturally to create a lineage of those with powers and ‘supernatural’ abilities. Even though we’ve seen the daughters of Lady Dimitrescu utilize insect capabilities akin to Marguerite Baker, we still don’t know the full lethality of the Lady herself beyond the killer claws.

The genuine question I pose, is it a bad thing that Capcom is repackaging a familiar formula instead of doing something unique by taking the series in a different direction? Or is this a different direction by looping back to the beginning of everything? One of the reasons for Resident Evil 7’s resounding success was its supposedly clean slate, new setting, new characters, and smaller take on the viral infection narrative. If there weren’t tidbits of Umbrella sprinkled around the premises of the bayou, you could almost forget that you were even in a Resident Evil title. Will putting a new coat of paint on an artifact truly bring the dividends that Capcom is looking for? Perhaps, but the game was slated for release regardless of the pandemic and maybe the continued quarantine will help boost global sales.

I understand why the creators of this current title wished to revisit the crown jewel for inspiration. Who wouldn’t? There was so much about it that clearly resonated and still has legions of devotees to this day who purchase every edition that releases for the next generation of console. I was in my first year of high school when it debuted all those years ago, and it’s one of those fond time-capsule memories that’s never waned. If anything, it has only fueled a compulsion to find more horror classics like it and write pieces like these that try to tap into why video game experiences haven’t reached the pinnacle of heights reached almost twenty years ago.

We persons in our 30s and early 40s perhaps are relics of a bygone age of gaming. (We are! And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The youngins need their horror fuel too.) *insert old man yells at cloud meme here*

The only aspects of the game that genuinely have me intrigued are the family of — witches? vampires? — that are seemingly at the center of this story’s mystery. Their designs are stunning, and the giant vampire lady at the center is *chef’s kiss* Magnifique! Beyond them, the game has this Universal Movie monsters vibe going on that I’m really digging. Van Helsing glasses guy, werewolves running around in the forests, and Frankenstein’s monster lumbering around the castle grounds are tried and true ingredients that usually make for familiar and digestible dishes.

Horror is a component of nostalgia, as I alluded to before, and perhaps that’s why my déjà vu alarm bells are ringing. Resident Evil 7 wasn’t immune to my initial scrutiny either. It was a mashup of the found-footage and ‘backwoods’/hilbilly horror genres. To include, its initial demos were eerily similar to the presentation of Silent Hills/P.T. However, upon reflection, the finished product was paying homage to a plethora of influences rather than just creating rough retreads so I have to applaud Capcaom for that at least.

Speaking of the fifth entry, the flowers attached to the lapels and worn as adornment by Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters may have connections to the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ progenitor flowers that are native in-game to West Africa. These flowers were ritualistically eaten, and those that survived its ingestion gained massive strength and heightened intelligence. Fellow writer October Keegan found even more fascinating lore while scouring the demo frame by frame. Stay tuned for that massive analysis soon.

If Capcom can interconnect all the highs and lows of the series via the established mythos and worldbuilding, I would be so impressed and sing this entry’s praises to the end of time. So, tentative kudos if they’re able to accomplish that. My pessimism and anxiety about the latest Resident Evil are ratcheting up, only because I want the series to be the masterpiece that it’s always been aiming for. I wrote a piece (eerily or ironically at the beginning of) last year about becoming a curmudgeon that encapsulates how I’ve aged out of a lot of things due to a myriad of traumatic life experiences, and I suppose I can file this game in the ‘wait to clap’ Rolodex. I don’t do somersaults for every new thing like I used to. Now, it’s more of a tepid tumble. I’ll stay limber and reserve my acrobatics for the finished product.

Come for the horror and stay for the giant women in Resident Evil Village on May 7, 2021, releasing for the PS4, PS5, XBOX One, XBOX Series S|X, and PC.

The post Resident Evil Village: Familiar and Horrifying Formulas appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Come down from the hype of Resident Evil 8: Village yet? No? Good, because I’ve just spent goodness knows how long going over the reveal trailer as well as other footage and screenshots. I’ll be breaking down every single last scrap of this stuff so you don’t have to. There’s a ton of great stuff hidden away in the footage we’ve seen so far, and as usual, some of it lasts for just frames. I’ll also provide my thoughts and personal interpretations for everything seen; feel free to jump into the comments and offer your takes as well! There’s a ton to gossip over and be excited about.

We’ll be bouncing back and forth between information revealed in the original PS5 reveal trailer for Resident Evil 8, and the follow up ‘Special Message’ video from the developers. We’ll start with how the Resident Evil 8 trailer opens, with these ominous words…

The very first thing we see is this line of text. Fans have been going nuts over this and for a good reason. Who’s end exactly? Ethan’s? Chris’? I’m going to go out on a limb here and offer up the possibility that… it’s neither. Who that could be exactly… well, we’ll get there.

Next up, we hear a woman reading a bedtime story, which sounds like some old world spooky “scare your children into being good” shit:

“Long ago, a young girl went with her mother to pick berries for her father, who was hard at work. But the forest greeted them with a dark, cold silence — the bushes empty. Yet, determined to find the berries, the rascal broke free of mother’s grasp and vanished into the trees. Mother’s worried cries faded fast as the girl ran on, over vine, under branch, and into the forest deep.”

This audio is played over footage of a deep, dark wooded area in the snow, along with the interiors of what may be one or more wrecked cottages. It’s haunting stuff, and to top it off, the footage of walking through the forest has a slight VR-ish bob to it, very similar to the original RE7 reveal trailer. Seeing as Sony has yet to talk in-depth about the PS5 version of their proprietary VR headset, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was announced at a later date to be part of the package.

Next, we see a woman with long hair sitting on a couch holding a book, presumably the same one she’s reading this story from. This would appear to be Mia Winters, co-protagonist of Resident Evil 7. Considering that we immediately hear what most likely is RE7 protagonist Ethan’s voice saying, “What is it with you and that creepy story,” this would seem to confirm it as well. I am curious about the “just a local tale” description of the story, which feels like it would indicate that they’re living… pretty much anywhere other than the US. Not to say there isn’t folklore in the states, but nothing that I think anyone would describe as a “local tale.”

Next, we find ourselves taking a peek inside of a closet, at which point a man inside fires a shotgun. It appears that he misses by a country mile, much to Ethan’s benefit. After Ethan makes it clear he’s not here to hurt anyone, the gunman asks frantically, “Who are you, who sent you!?” More is afoot than merely a man protecting his home.

There’s a flash of white, cutting the conversation in half (some cinematic elements have been cut for the sake of this trailer), and the man covers up Ethan’s mouth, shushing him. He looks up, seemingly terrified of something lurking above. The screen flashes again, showing that we’re inside the house we previously saw as audio of Mia was reading the bedtime story, only now it’s daytime. Another note is that the man has what appears to be bone fragments, including a jaw bone, hanging from his neck. Are these simply hunting trophies, or do they hold a greater significance?

As the older man cautiously peaks out the window, we get a clearer angle of that kitchen area, revealing a multitude of things hanging on the wall. My best guess is that they are ram skulls, but shaved down into a particular shape that no longer includes the majority of those animal’s distinguishing characteristics. It’s a bizarre piece of decoration, to say the least.

Ethan gets a peek at one of the “beast-men” that we’ve heard so much about through the window, and we get our first look at Ethan’s handgun. Gun enthusiasts haven’t been able to pinpoint what gun this is meant to be, and it isn’t helped by the inventory (which we’ll get to) labeling it as a LEMI, which isn’t a real gun. Interesting to note that this isn’t the same window the older man looks out of, as we can see a fridge off to the right (not present in the other area of the room).

Anyway, the older man fires off another round from his shotgun (which we can see is most definitely RE7‘s M21 double barrel) before he gets pulled through the roof while trying to reload. And then Ethan gets pulled through the floor. Lots of getting got in Resident Evil 8, it would seem.

We see more imagery of walking through the snowy forest, except this time, we’ve transitioned to daylight. We then get our first look at what I can only describe as “the fetus sigil.” This freaky-looking sigil mirrors RE7‘s bovine and sawblade dreamcatcher thing, although while that seemed like a warning, this feels closer to a coat of arms or rune. The corpse inside of it, if it even is an actual fetus rather than a sculpture, is horribly deformed and sprouting tentacles. The first thing that comes to mind is Lisa Trevor, who also had tentacles that protruded from her back. Then again, it isn’t like she’s the only beast in the franchise to sport flesh whips. As long as we’re on the subject, let’s take another look at this disgusting image, this time clearer, from the Resident Evil 8 Special Message video:

Here we can clearly see this… thing in all of its horrible glory. One aspect of it I’d like to touch on here is the positioning of the wings and the wreath behind it. This might be going out on a limb, but seeing as the imagery shows up elsewhere in the video, this feels highly reminiscent of something we’ve already seen lots of. I have suspicions on this, but I’ll get to them once we see a bit more. Just keep this in mind that there’s a possibility that there may be some connection to RE‘s past.

Next, we see a statue of a woman in what appears to be a courtyard. Holding what looks like a rapier and a shield, she stands as a lone protector of this snowy landscape. The shield’s embossing is difficult to make out, but it won’t be the last time we see this striking imagery, and we’ll be getting a better look at it soon.

In the next shot, we see the fetus sigil again, and this time painted across the floor. A couple of interesting points here, first and foremost, the runes detailed around its edges. I’m fairly certain these aren’t from any real culture or language, and most likely are meant just to be spooky and cult-like. More important than that, however, is its positioning. It appears to have been kept under a rug, and in some sort of scuffle, the rug was moved aside, revealing this hiding beneath. Based on the basket and old-world vibe from the clutter, could it be possible that this is still the interior of the house from before? Taking that into account and noting that the runes separate this from the other, physical version of this image, could it be possible that this is meant to ward off, rather than invite like the other one? That’s just a game theory, but the vibe feels very telling. There may be two forces at work in Resident Evil 8‘s village.

Now we get our first real look at the castle, and more notably its front gate and surrounding graveyard. I don’t have much to say about this just yet, but take note of the gate, with the orange glow of the flames. We’ll have a better look in just a moment. The snow-obscured castle itself appears massive, composed of multiple spires and towers.

Now we get a closer look at that front gate. We once again see the shield maiden from the courtyard statue, embossed on the gate to the castle entrance. We also get a clearer look at her shield, which sports a ram (tieing back into the weird shaved down skulls). Facing off against her is some sort of winged demon, possibly chowing down on something — or someone. Missing here, of course, are both character’s faces. Obviously, we’ll need some puzzle pieces to gain entry to this mysterious castle. To either side of the doors, carvings depict what may be the souls of the damned. To the left, bodies skewered on pikes (similar to the imagery seen in depictions of Vlad the Impaler’s particular proclivity), and further to the right, we see people falling towards the grasping hands of those already below. Up above the door, there appear to be people setting the pikes up, eager to catch falling victims.

It’s a morbid glyph, and I’m curious to know the history behind all of this imagery. One last note, although this is going out on a limb, is that the imagery behind the shield maiden and the demon could be interpreted as feathers. It could easily just be a background to make the negative space not look empty though.

Here we have a woman cradling a baby. Some minor details like the pillow bare a vague similarity to the rings around the painted version of the fetus sigil (that’s most likely total coincidence though); the wooden train set on the couch beside them seems like it would indicate the presence of a much older child, or maybe they’re just super prepared for a few years from now. It is worth pointing out that the latticing on the window is the same as inside the house we saw the older man in, and the walls look similar as well. This is most likely just a result of all the houses in the village having similar architecture.

The next shot shows a pair of villagers reaping a field of wheat with scythes. The woman here looks to be the same one that was holding the baby, but she may be simply an NPC model we’ll see lots of, or all of the women in the village wear more or less the same outfit. The man we’ll be seeing more of elsewhere as well. In the field, we also get a glimpse of an odd, ward-looking installation, and off in the distance, we see what might be a chapel complete with a bell tower.

The man shows up again here at the gates of a very large home. Not quite a mansion, but more substantial than the average hut we see elsewhere. Considering that these people seem to lead a normal life in this village, despite there being plenty of evidence that they’re fully aware of what’s going on around them, could this be some sort of stronghold? There are a few red stains here and there on the wood, and some of the spikes are discolored. It could just be rust and water damage to the wood but…

The next shot gives us a farther away look at this same building, positioning it elsewhere in the wheatfield (possibly meaning that the chapel from before is behind us here). There’s a traditional-looking scarecrow surrounded by more of those disturbing crosses. The crosses have both a ram-like set of horns atop as well as a collection of teeth, claws, and spikes dangling from them. Some may be just icicles, although they seem to be blowing with the wind, so maybe not.

Next, we see a close-up shot back at the gate of the large house, of the man closing it in our face, and then a shot of a dark-haired older woman in a puritanical get-up. There isn’t much to say about either of these shots, so moving on from that, we get our first look at who may be the woman described in the demo leaks that Ethan escapes with. Again, not much to say, but it’s a clear shot of someone who seems like they might be a main character rather than just another generic NPC. This also looks vaguely cutscene-esque, as in not from Ethan’s perspective but rather a cinematic camera, which would be (mostly, there are a few cinematic cutscenes) a change from RE7.

Afterward, we see the same man from before gazing out over a flock of ravens or crows going nuts, a shot of him aiming his shotgun (again, more cinematic looking than the other POV shots), flashing between different angles before he fires, and then finally another interesting image worth talking about appears. Yet again, we see the same painted version of the fetus sigil – this time painted on the wall of what might be a basement. This image is just all over the place in this village.

One thing worth noting is the stark difference between the sigil itself, which is finely detailed and sharp (especially the runes), and the rather haphazard “wings” crossing the edges to mirror the wings on the physical sigil. Is it possible that these streaks were added after the fact, to corrupt a marking that was already there by a different person, or are they simply more frantically painted than the rest?

Next, we see the man from before as well as the woman in the old world clothes standing by a window, the man grimacing in pain. Looking back over the Resident Evil 8 leaks, he very well could be the guy who loses it and begins butchering people on the inside of the house before torching it. But after this, we get our first real treat: a definitive connection to classic Resident Evil lore.

Yep, that sure is the Umbrella Corporation logo. Surrounding it are four new sigils (which I’m willing to bet are puzzle pieces that must be set in place here), showing a mermaid, a horse (with horseshoe), a sun/moon glyph, and finally… something we can’t quite make out.

A popular theory is that these sigils represent the three houses of the founders of Umbrella Corporation — James Marcus, Alexander Ashford, and Oswell E. Spencer, along with a fourth, unknown founder. As exciting as that possibility is, I’m not willing to bet on it just yet. Spencer’s family coat of arms is rather ornate, but the out of focus symbol also appears to have a sword or another long object running through it. The focus of this image may simply be the Umbrella logo itself, and the surrounding metal plates are simply puzzle pieces that represent something else entirely. I can absolutely see some placard or inset describing how you must bring together “the spirit of the equine, the duality of the stars, the maiden of the waters,” etc. That said, don’t write off the idea of Resident Evil 8 being tied to Spencer just yet.

After a quick shot of walking through more snowy woods, we get a look at the woman from before again, along with a new male character (dripping blood no less) dragging her away from something. She looks slightly… jankier(?) than the previous shot of her, and some fans have speculated this may be footage from an older build of the game (similar to REmake 2‘s reveal trailer). No biggie, games take time to craft and seeing how this game’s release is still ways off, some aspects here might not be 100% yet.

We see the same older gentleman again, surrounded by the murder of crows/unkindness of ravens, then the grotesque, torn apart corpse of a horse. The woman in the puritan clothes with her hands on her head, seemingly in pain follows, and then finally another shot worth dissecting. The same man with the M21 from before is holding the woman we’ve seen over and over again at gunpoint. Based on the coloration and architecture, I’m willing to bet this is the main entrance to the house he was shutting us out of before. Paranoia and fear are rooted deeply in this village. Mainly it does seem like this woman will be our companion for some length of time, certainly more than a random NPC, and perhaps a straight up partner for most of Resident Evil 8.

A shot of a Black Phillip looking goat goes by, and then we get treated to a very spooky looking witch-y woman. She is most likely the stalker mentioned in leaks, who melts into bugs upon being attacked. She seems to be carrying a staff made out of deer horns, and just maybe a few human skulls by the looks of it. Spooky spooky! Take note of this character, because we won’t be seeing her again — and that in and of itself is interesting. Who knows what role she could hold in Resident Evil 8, especially since she isn’t the last ‘witch’ we’ll be seeing in this trailer.

Next, we have a shot of a hallway on fire (based on leaks this very well could be the house Ethan and the unnamed woman hide out in), followed by a shot of an irate looking woman on the phone. In fact, this woman, the phone, and indeed the entire room appear to be victorian in design, lavish in gold plating and old-world stylings. The ornate nature of everything would seem to indicate that this is inside of the castle — or rather looking into it. Ethan is seated outside of a window, spying on this lady as she chews someone out. On the walls, we can spot a few portraits as well as a door across the way with what looks like a coat of arms embedded into it. This one still doesn’t look like the out of focus symbol from the Umbrella image but does vaguely resemble the scrapped Spencer coat of arms from the “Stylish” version of Resident Evil 4 that eventually became Devil May Cry. It could be entirely unrelated of course, and the actual Spencer Family Emblem (seen in the original Resident Evil remake) doesn’t resemble it much beyond the Umbrella logo still being a part of the design.

After that is a shot is of a pretty nightmarish scene; a woman pretty much exploding, or at the very least spewing, a massive swarm of insects. To her right is another woman in a long black dress (the bug lady appears to be wearing the same), and they’re standing in the main hall of what looks very much like a Spencer Mansion type location. Keep this location in mind, as we’ll be coming back to this for a theory later down the road.

And here we see them all: the main posse of bad witches. Headed up by the victorian lady from before, a group of women in black dresses with hoods tower over the player character. This scene appeared to be in what looks to be a master bedroom of some kind, just as lavish as the rest of these mansion castle locations. I am very curious about the color grading here, as it looks unlike anything else in the trailer. A hazy sepia coloration exists in just one scene, and nowhere else in the trailer. Is Ethan being affected by some external force? In RE7, our vision turns hazy and colors drain out into a greyscale pallet. Something similar may be happening here in Resident Evil 8 as well. In fact, there is only one spot of true color — a bright red arm of the chandelier’s decoration. Most likely blood, but who knows. It stands out from the rest here. It should be said that this could just be candle-light or perhaps ambiance from a lit fireplace, but the coloring feels a bit too overwhelming for that.

Now it’s worth noting that fans have some theories regarding this coven, but I’m not really on board with them:

Noting facial similarities and picking through their neck jewelry, fans have theorized that these three women are, in fact, Claire Redfield, Moira Burton, and Natalia Korda. Ehhhh I think that’s a leap too far. I’ll admit that the witch to the left of the screen does resemble Claire’s REmake 2 look, but only vaguely. Considering we can see that one character from a previous game has undergone a complete redesign (yet again), I honestly wouldn’t put it past Capcom to just re-use Claire’s face model (Jordan McEwen) because they liked working with her, or it was easier to pull from their existing models and tweak it a bit and hope nobody notices because she’s in shadow. We’ll see though — considering the point of this trailer is to show literal conspiracies in action, it’s worth mentioning regardless of how far of a stretch I personally think it to be.

All that said, there’s also another theory making the rounds that the woman in white we keep seeing is actually Natalia, or if you recall Revelations 2 well enough, Alex Wesker. At the finale of Revelations 2, we discover that Alex had copied her mind into Natalia’s and appears to be slowly corrupting and overwriting her personality with her own. Given the massive gap in time between Revelations 2 (ending in 2013) and Resident Evil 8 (presumably set in the release year of 2021), Natalia/Alex would be in her early 20s now, already an adult. This woman in white appears much older than that, but who knows what effects the virus-infused mind transfer could have on the body. Given rumors that this game was originally intended to be the third chapter of the Revelations spin-off series, the thought isn’t totally out there. Bringing the two (thus far completely unrelated) storylines of those titles and the mainline entries would also be very rewarding for long-time fans in my opinion as well.

Cutting back and forth between this scene of the women looking down on you, we’re introduced to a new section of this castle; to be perfectly honest this feels like something straight out of the original Spencer mansion in Raccoon City. Ornate and beautiful, with warm tones and a delightful amount of detail beyond anything RE Engine has done in the Resident Evil games thus far, I’m immediately hooked. The candle holders above the far door especially remind me of REmake 1, which only fuels my fire for what we may see here. I’m becoming increasingly of the opinion that this castle may in fact be a Spencer estate — perhaps even the original one.

Oswell Spencer had luxurious mansions built for himself all across the world, presumably so that he’d always have a little piece of home wherever he went. From Raccoon City to Antarctica, to Europe in RE5, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that this could be another of his leftover homesteads. The absolutely insane scale of it on top of that possibility is why I’m also considering the ideat that this could be the original Spencer mansion, the one all of the others were modeled after.

Given the age of its exterior, it’s possible that this building dates back long, long before the birth of ol’ Oswell himself, and is a Spencer family heirloom (if an entire castle can be called that). Another reason I think this could very well be the case is that it fits in with part of Resident Evil 4‘s original concept. Remember when I mentioned the Spencer Family Crest from the “Stylish” RE4? Most versions of RE4 before the final released version (together make up the conglomerate called RE3.5 by fans) saw Leon infiltrating a castle owned by Oswell Spencer in order to bring the fight to him. As rumors have pegged this title as drawing inspiration from those scrapped versions of RE4, is it possible that the original Spencer Castle concept has been brought back, albeit with Spencer himself long gone? Keep this in mind.

Now we have our first look at one of the “beast-men,” as rumors have called them, lasting for just a few frames. Still, this short glimpse hides a few interesting tidbits. Firstly, this monster appears to be wielding something. A mallet? An Ax? It’s hard to say, but it for sure is being held in their hand and drops away as the beast looks up. We can also see more of them popping up onto the building behind.

In this same shot, we can also get a look at the beast person’s chest, where they appear to have breasts. It’s hard to tell exactly, but note the outfit — the puffed out shoulders look somewhat similar to that of the woman in the puritan clothes I noted earlier (although the turned up sleeves here are different than what any of the villagers are wearing). It’s possible that these beast creatures include both sexes (thanks to Suzi for pointing this out to me, check out her analysis!)

Here we have what is most likely a boss-monster, wielding a massive hammer (more like a tenderizer) that leaps off of the roof of the building we saw burning before. This may be the back end of the building Ethan and the woman found refuge inside of, considering how things lined up in the leaked demo. We also see a man stuck on a spike in our lower right corner, as well as more of the beast people popping up across the roof. It’s looking likely that they’re going to be the standard enemy for Resident Evil 8.

Next, we see a shot of what is most likely the main entrance hall to the Winters home, with a man ominously standing in the doorway and a vehicle parked outside. There isn’t much to say here, beyond the man is Chris Redfield, who we see later in the trailer, based on his outfit and the lack of a Balaklava (we’ll get to that).

Next, another shot of the as-of-yet unnamed woman, and then finally one of the game’s biggest mysteries — a man who I’ve been calling the Hunter (basically because he looks like VanHelsing). I made a comparison between the Hunter and the most recent iteration of Carlos Olivera over on Twitter, due to his skin tone and some of his facial features — but if I want to be totally fair here (especially after throwing out the Claire/Moira/Natalia theory), he probably isn’t.

Others have postulated that this may in fact be Daniel Fabron, fan-favorite Mastermind from Resident Evil: Resistance. While I’d love to see that character appear in another game, pretty much the only similarity here is his shades. Nope, if I want to be fair to even my own eager to theorize self — I’m betting that this is an entirely new, original character. Another running fan theory is that he’s this game’s incarnation of the beloved Merchant from RE4. Not literally him, but taking his place as the new weapons dealer for Resident Evil 8.

Part of why the merchant theory exists is because Resident Evil 8 will in fact bring back a monetary system, the first of the mainline games to do so since RE5 (discounting using points to purchase things, even if it worked the same way). This was noted by fans when watching the Special Message video, where we got a quick look at the in-game inventory. We can see in the upper right corner of our first look at the inventory, a coin object followed by “100 lei”. Lei, or leu, is the standard currency of Romania, which gives us a general idea of the village’s location.

In fact, I think it’s possible that even the Winters homestead is in Romania, considering Mia’s ‘local tale’ line. This backwater village must be incredibly out of the way from the modern-day society of Romania (spoilers: it ain’t Dracula over there anymore), in a similar way to RE4‘s Los Pueblos (if you can even call it that, it’s never had an official name), RE5‘s Kijuju Autonomous Zone, and RE6‘s Edonia (located in Vague, Europe). A completely fictitious, nigh fantasy location set in a real-world country or area.

As long as we’re here — as per the leaks, it does appear to be something along the lines of RE4‘s ‘attache case’ design, although the developers oddly say that fans of the most recent games will recognize it. Now, if we actually think about it — yeah, despite being the ‘blocks’ design of the original trilogy games, RE7, REmake 2, and REmake 3 all use RE4‘s inventory — it’s just in a strip, rather than a rectangle. Items can be moved freely around, stacked, and even combined in ways that are more or less like RE4‘s design. The only missing feature is the ability to rotate items, but that isn’t really necessary with the way it works now (although items placed on the quick inventory tabs in RE7 will rotate on their own). It’s also possible that this inventory can be expanded, given the large amount of space to either side of the useable inventory area. You can also spot a ‘First Aid Med’ from RE7, which replaces the traditional G+R herb mix/First Aid Spray the series has used in most of their games. It’s likely that the lengthy animation for dousing wounds in ‘goop juice’ will return as well.

We also see a new health display, which appears to be ditching the vague ECG design that Resident Evil had fallen back to as of late for a much more traditional health bar. A bit of a shame in my opinion, as the ECG design is so classic, and not having a full grasp of how much health you have is part of the horror. It does look (albeit very hard to tell because it’s so blurry) like the heartbeat image of the ECG might still be present, but it’s just an overlay onto the bar. If the game truly is a little more action-focused, it might be for the best. I get the sense that it’ll be animated, with bubbles moving through the tube and the heartbeat overlayed on top of that. It is worth remembering, however, that this could all change by release. Games play around with menu elements a ton before release, testing out different designs to see what works, and sometimes the difference is jarring (such as with RE4)

Another thing to point out here is that the pistol is upgradable, as indicated by two empty diodes located along the bottom of the pistol’s inventory icon. Are they indicators of the more robust add-ons from REmake 2 and 3 (tactical sights, extended magazines, etc) or simply stat boosters akin to RE4 and 5‘s design (think level one, level two, etc.). This leans in even further to the merchant theory. We can also see that the quick inventory also returns for Resident Evil 8, with D-Pad directions assigned to the pistol and knife.

Moving on, we see another shot from inside the Winters home, of two men in Balaklava storming in. Again, not much to say here, beyond Chris isn’t alone when he attacks Ethan and Mia. Next, a shot of these same men approaching Chirs in the doorway from before, where we can see the back of his head. After that, the continuation of the shot of the Coven in the bedroom from before, this time the head Witch kneels over and sucks from Ethan’s wrist. Are these Witches in fact… vampires? Not literally, but in some way, whatever the latest virus is has caused them to require blood? Or maybe she’s just creepy and weird for the sake of it. The sepia filter is also still here, which could mean this is still part of a hallucination, and Ethan’s mind is leaping to things he’s already afraid of. Also worth mentioning is that this is the same hand Ethan had sliced off and sewn back in RE7. He was infected in RE7, after all, so it could be possible he’s still got some shit coursing through his veins, and they find that extra delicious?

As long as we’re here, we also finally have a clear shot at this mystery emblem — her necklace — with an open flower with crossed swords behind it. The open flower petals do resemble the Umbrella logo once again, however, this is a modification of the insignia we previously saw on this woman’s door. That version bore no such blossom, meaning that this may be a branch off of whatever that original symbol means, or even a modification to it. It also sort of resembles a ram’s head once again, but that’s a stretch. Either way, this image appears to be important to whatever is going on in Resident Evil 8.

Finally, a full look at the landscape of Resident Evil 8‘s village and the castle that overlooks it. This may not be the whole village, because despite how many roofs we can see, it looks tiny in comparison to the castle. We can even pick out quite a few landmarks here — the belltower from before can be seen just below the castle, and we can just make out the front gate to the castle thanks to the little orange pinpricks of the torchlight. The castle, on the other hand, looks absolutely massive, sprawling across the mountaintop. We’re gonna have a lot to explore here, by the looks of it.

And thus the Resident Evil 8 logo is revealed with a delightful and shocking twist (for everyone who wasn’t in on the rumors). Another tremendous trailer from Capcom. But wait, there’s more…

Finally, the Chris shot. Everyone’s talking about this, what it could mean, why Chris is turning Mia into spaghetti sauce, etc. Lots of fans have noted that he sounds very similar to REmake 3‘s voice actor for Carlos, Jeff Schine, which wouldn’t be a first for the series (Roger Craig Smith has voiced three separate characters for the series, including Chris). It does seem a shame that the voice of RE7‘s Chris (David Vaughn) was left in the dust. I thought he did an excellent job. Chris has been redesigned once again, this time to match up with RE6‘s version of the character (albeit much older, which makes sense). Dressed for the cold (to match his now cold demeanor), Chris apologizes to Ethan (who recognizes him instantly, which confirms that is this supposed to be the same Chris despite the face change still) before turning Mia into swiss cheese.

A lot of theories have flown around as to what the hell is happening here; seeing the original male lead of the series take such a dark turn and obliterate Ethan’s wife (as well as presumably being the reason Ethan winds up in the village) is quite shocking. There’s a bunch of different options to chose from, so I’ll lay out all the most reasonable theories and my thoughts on each:

Chris is being mind-controlled which has precedent in the series thanks to Las Plagas (which was recently unearthed in lore) as well as E-Mold, which influences you into doing the source’s bidding “willingly.” The last time we saw Chris, he’d been assigned to help Blue Umbrella in capturing Lucas Baker and the information he had on The Connections (an as of yet unexplained organization that was funding research into the E-Type fungus mutagen). There’s a very, very high chance that Blue Umbrella (shown to be a PMC started in 2007 to combat and “make amends for” the original Umbrella’s wrongdoings) is in actuality Umbrella Corps. The Umbrella Corps (referred to by some fans as ‘Red Umbrella’) are PMC that uses Blue Umbrella tech and equipment to infiltrate viral hot zones to collect data and samples and are headed up by a mysterious leader who was present for the events of RE4. This organization (which has access to Las Plagas and the E-Mold if they really are Blue Umbrella) may have used Chris to carry out dirty work once infecting him, using his face and reputation to gain access to things they wouldn’t otherwise.

Chris is a clone, or a genetically engineered doppelganger, which again has precedence in this series. Carla Radames was a researcher for Neo-Umbrella (a presumably dissolved organization that is unrelated to either the original or Blue Umbrella), who was infected with the C-Virus and reborn as a doppelganger of Ada Wong. Using this technology in order to masquerade as RE heroes, shifting the blame to those characters if exposed, doesn’t sound like a half-bad use of it (especially when that’s literally what Carla does in RE6, causing the BSAA to chase the real Ada like a bunch of played fiddles). This could also be a reason why Chris isn’t voiced by any of his previous actors since he’s not the same person — but then again, Carla and Ada were both voiced by Courtenay Taylor in RE6.

This is a hallucination. This is possible, but if I’m going to stick with the idea that we’ve already seen hallucinations — the sepia haze isn’t here. I think this really is happening, and Mia does have more holes than a golf course in her.

Chris is none of these things, and what he’s doing is actually for the greater good. This one feels… actually the most likely to me. Maybe not for the greater good necessarily, though. It’s possible that he’s carrying out these deeds because he has no other choice. Dozens, maybe thousands of lives are on the line — or perhaps even just one, in particular, his sister. It’s impossible to know (although there is the vaguely Claire look-alike from before…) at the moment, but considering that it looks like Chris might be the central focus of the box art, this story may be very personal for him. A story where he’s simply under mind control or has been replaced by a look-alike wouldn’t carry the same impact with fans. Following up on old fan theories about Not A Hero, it sounds like something Capcom might actually be interested in doing. Seeing this character torn apart emotionally as he’s forced to carry out things inherently against his nature sounds like exactly the creative thread writers would want to explore in order to keep these characters feeling alive.

Chris hasn’t actually killed Mia. It’s also worth mentioning that… we have no conclusive evidence that Ethan and Mia have been cured of their E-Mold infection. Despite being “cured” during the events of RE7, both Mia and Zoe suffer the effects of the E-Mold long afterward. Even with Evelyne, the source of the mold, dead — there seems to be no undoing the infection. Molded still roam the underground, and all of Lucas Baker’s powers remain intact. There’s every chance that both Ethan and Mia are still infected, and nothing can be done about it. Chris might be counting on this fact, as Mia could presumably regenerate no matter how many bullets she takes. Chris unloads half a damn clip into her, which is way over overkill for a normal person. Perhaps he’s making a big show of it for the other men with him, hoping that she can recuperate and come after Ethan eventually?

Which theory has the best chance of being real regardless? Most likely — none of them. Resident Evil, time and time again, has completely subverted expectations, and fan theories constantly end up being wrong. Anything from chasing after the non-existent ‘Redfield’ in RE7 to reading too much into a nothing character appearing in RE5‘s marketing, we’ve all been wrong a ton of times. Hell, there’s even things like that time the reveal trailer for Resident Evil: Revelations literally had nothing to do with the final game. Not saying it will be that drastic, but it’s way more likely that we’ll be dead wrong with every theory.

So now that that’s all out of the way, let me get to the crux of what I’ve been building up to this entire time, the seed that I think has been planted here in this trailer for Resident Evil 8. The aforementioned Umbrella logo, as well as the fetus sigil. Fans have noticed that the fetus sigil bears a striking resemblance to the Umbrella logo, with the wings and wreath forming the red and white diamonds of the classic emblem. I’m going to add another layer to my “Spencer Castle” theory — this is more than just the birthplace of the mad monarch but in fact the birthplace of what would later become Umbrella itself.

The Umbrella insignia has already been featured in the Spencer family emblem for years, meaning that it pre-dates the company itself. What if the Umbrella logo is much, much more than the logo for some pharmaceutical company, but in fact an incredibly old, possibly even religious symbol from the old world, from Spencer’s lineage? In fact, the redesigned Blue/Red Umbrella logo from Umbrella Corps and RE7 bears an even closer resemblance to the fetus sigil’s spread out design.

Could it be possible that Umbrella was more than one rich old asshole convincing his other rich asshole buddies into helping him find the secret to eternal life and forcing human evolution…? Is it possible that Umbrella’s weird reverence for death was more than just a spooky aesthetic? Could Umbrella be rooted in a cult is what I’m asking. An ancient cult, that worshipped some hitherto unknown concept of what Spencer sought to achieve. Could his partners, James and Alexander, have belonged to this cult? To this ideology? I gotta say, it makes way more sense than Umbrella just being a front for what basically amounted to Dr. Eric Vornoff’s plan from Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster.

Things like this are nothing new for the franchise, from things like the old-world Illuminati type organization The Family (not Jack Baker’s ‘the family’ from RE7) to the ancient Los Illuminados cult. Shady organizations with deep histories rooted in religious fanaticism and/or goals of world domination. Secret players having secret meetings with secret rituals and practices. It isn’t outside the realm of possibility that Resident Evil 8 would want to dive even further down this rabbit hole.

Umbrella has always been evil, even deliberately cruel to a fault. Torture chambers, elaborate monoliths built to celebrate and honor death, and even literature (bearing the symbol of a ram’s head I might add) throughout the world that seems comically satanic. There’s even a massive catacomb built around someone who’s life was taken in the pursuit of Spencer’s goals. I think not only was Umbrella a secret cult, but that it always has been — and Resident Evil 8 will finally reveal the truth to us, and possibly even close the book on Spencer’s goals as we move into a new version of the Umbrella lineage unrelated to his master plans.

I think Resident Evil 8 may be telling us the end of Spencer’s story, the end of his legacy, long after he’s already been put in the cold, cold ground.

That about wraps it up for what I was able to glean from the Resident Evil 8 trailer and special video we’ve been shown thus far. There’s more to come, so I’m sure I’ll have 7,000 words + to say about that too, but for now, that’s it. Please let me know your thoughts, as there are tons of possible talking points packed into just these two videos. We can’t wait for more information on Resident Evil 8: Village, and will let you know as soon as there’s more to talk about!

The post Resident Evil 8: Village Trailer Breakdown and Analysis appeared first on Rely on Horror.

The Resident Evil movies are bad. They’re schlocky action blockbusters at their best (Apocalypse, Afterlife), and incoherent gibberings of a disinterested director at their worst (Retribution, Final Chapter). These films prominently feature inconsistent lore, absolute shite interpretations of major characters, and a general “I skimmed Wikipedia” vibe from writer/director Paul WS Anderson. Despite all of this, the RE movies have one major advantage over their competition that makes them (in one very specific respect) some of the best video game movies around. Whoever was in charge of designs, from creatures to costumes, gave a shit.

Video game movies (and up until the MCU for the most part, comic book movies) have always had a certain level of obvious contempt for their source material. Even one of the best adaptations in the genre, Silent Hill, felt the need to change the look of a few things. The further we get away from that level of giving a shit though, the worse it gets; there’s the malformed Mad Max interpretation of the Super Mario Bros. movie, the almost complete disposal of anything recognizable in DOOM, or Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li‘s “what if — hear me out — we just put all these fun, colorful characters in street clothes” stupidity. In a visual medium like video games, where character designs are often the selling point on the front of the box, film adaptations should at least try in that regard. As a recent example, we have the abjectly horrifying Sonic design, ditching over 25 years of character design (yes he’s had minor redesigns but nothing that just threw everything out the window) in favor of what looks like a focus-tested nightmare.

The RE movies, however, despite their generally terrible scripts and lack of attention to the characters themselves, did a fantastic job recreating the look of things. Creatures like Nemesis, the Lickers, RE5‘s Executioner, and the Las Plagas Majini (even though Paul WS Anderson didn’t bother to double check the difference between those and regular zombies), all were pixel perfect. The effort goes, shockingly, above and beyond in some cases; Nemesis especially, with a beautifully detailed suit designed by Kropserkel Prop Culture, stands out as one of the most incredible game-to-film transitions ever. Just look at him.

Even beyond the creature design, attention was given to character costumes rarely afforded to film adaptations. Not every character was given the same treatment (although they would often have story explanations for being out of costume — Chris was in prison, Carlos’ look was redesigned to fit more closely with the USS soldiers), but by and large, it’s AAA cosplay levels of dedication. Wesker’s RE4 and RE5 looks are game accurate. Barry Burton, while sans S.T.A.R.S. logo due to the team being recontextualized for the films, is also damn near identical. That made-up S.T.A.R.S. member for Apocalypse wore a pretty accurate version of Chris’ REmake look. Both of Jill’s costumes, her RE3 (sans sweater around her waist) and RE5 ‘brainwashed’ costumes are both great. Ada’s RE4 look, while no less ridiculous in the film setting as it was in rural Spanish tick-above-Amish village, is likewise incredible.

Even sets, while rarely emulating locations from the games, did what they could to reference their source material. There’s no way a movie that spends about 2 minutes total in the RPD building is going to try and build that ornate main hall, but giving just that much of a shit to at least have the iconic logo above the entrance (even if it’s only on screen for like 12 frames) was a nice and not required touch. Putting the Horror in Raccoon! More Victims Dead headline from the original RE1 opening was charming as hell in my opinion, and finishing the first film in Raccoon City with S.T.A.R.S. squad cars actually made me crazy hype when I first saw it (I was like 12). Hell, there are even multiple scenes from the games that are straight up recreated, even if the story around them isn’t, and they’re almost worth watching just for that; the RE5/Afterlife Wesker fight, for example, is almost move for move the same fight, even though the context is shockingly stupid.

The RE movies aren’t good, there’s no disputing that. But in a world that’s still giving us the likes of a human-faced Sonic the Hedgehog, we can at least try to appreciate that Anderson and co didn’t disregard some of the most iconic designs in horror game history.

The post ReHorror: The Resident Evil Movies Got at Least One Thing Right appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Capcom’s dedication towards course-correcting Resident Evil has been a delight to behold for the last few years. There was the Herculean remaster of Resident Evil Zero (which made the game look almost new), the triumphant return to form with Resident Evil 7, and now the simply incredible Resident Evil 2 Remake, which I consider to be a masterpiece tier game, it’s hard to find much negative to say right now. Capcom’s desire for better reviews over better sales sets my heart aflutter, as well. It all makes the future very bright indeed as a fan of this franchise

While Capcom’s focus will undoubtedly be Resident Evil 2 Remake for the next several months (with DLC already on the way), the gears are already turning on the next generation of Resident Evil games. With rumors of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox ‘Scarlett’ on the horizon, poised to be revealed sooner rather than later, the future of RE is probably already preparing for the leap to next-gen (especially as the new in-house RE Engine is looking better and better with each game). What could that mean for us as fans? What could those games be?

I’ve collected every rumor, every tidbit, and every piece of speculation I can find and will give each a thorough rundown. Some are almost guaranteed, while others sound like fan-bait pipe dreams, but who knows. We’re entering a new era of CapGod status, and the sky may very well be the limit.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Remake

Capcom has been coy as to how likely this project is, with teasing little comments tantalizing fans hopes and dreams; They’re acting as if it’s not in some level of production already. Capcom has been very upfront with how well they expect REmake 2 to sell, and the massive praise and high ship count (3 million units at the time of this writing) is backing that up nicely. REmake 3 is just as easy a shoo-in for massive success as REmake 2 is looking, given its legacy and standing with fans. Even more so, leaker DuskGolem (who’s had a pretty good track record of accurately leaking stuff) has talked about REmake 3 already being in production. While the original RE3 never achieved the “this changed horror gaming forever” status that its predecessor did, the lasting impact on not just RE fans but gamers as a whole is massive. The title creature, Nemesis, is known to practically everyone, and Jill’s blue tube top and black miniskirt combo are possibly as iconic as the classic teal tank top and tan short shorts of Lara Croft.

While a remake would undoubtedly be put through the same level of redesign and overhaul as RE2, Nemesis’ presence alone would make for instant nostalgia. Capcom has tried over and over again to recapture that horrifying magic, with varying degrees of success – from the dull Ustanak in RE6 to the awesome but short-lived Jack Baker in RE7, right down to just dropping Nemesis into games for a boss fight or two a la Operation Raccoon City. All of that pales in comparison to the original experience. The idea of Nemmy being brought to life with modern game technology – not just graphics, but AI and scripting as well – is terrifying to picture.

The original Nemesis was heavily scripted for most of RE3, and while his appearances could be terrifying on the first few playthroughs, you’d eventually start to memorize the instances where he shows up. Jack Baker’s unpredictable (albeit small) tour around the Baker Mansion in RE7 gives me tingles for what could be done now. A more open Raccoon City with a more unpredictable Nemesis stalking its streets (perhaps with some minor stealth mechanics) could make for some heart-racing scenarios. Turning Nemesis from an occasional jump scare and boss fight to a true cat-and-mouse game of survival sounds amazing. We’ve already gotten a tease as to how a remade Nemesis could work, thanks to the new and improved Mr. X. Even in lore, The T-103 Tyrant model (Mr. X’s official name) was a precursor to Nemesis in design and function. While Mr. X keeps at a slow but steady pace and can only really follow one directive, Nemesis can not only run but also strategize and execute surprise attacks. His ability to use weapons, which made him wholly unique in the Resident Evil universe up until RE4, adds another spin on this challenge. An advanced, “remade” version of those ideas is terrifying to contemplate considering Mr. X’s total overhaul.

We haven’t even touched on changes that could be made to the story, as REmake 2 deviates from the plot of the original game significantly more than the original REmake before it, and REmake 3 would certainly follow suit. It is hard to say exactly what story changes would be made, but fleshing out the other surviving UBCS mercenaries and adding more survivors like Dario Rosso to really sell the tragedy of the city would be a good start. Focusing heavily on Jill and how the Raccoon City outbreak effects her would also be a great way to improve her as a character overall. While Leon and Claire had no real attachments to Racoon and didn’t know their way around, Jill lived there (possibly for years, as S.T.A.R.S. was founded in 1996) and would feel the full impact of watching the city die around her. She might even recognize some of the zombies you face. We’ve already seen Leon and Claire react to the world around them, cussing, commenting on their situation, and muttering as they traverse the ruins. Imagine Jill actively recognizing her fellow officers during her short stint in the RPD building, and being forced to put them down.

As for how soon we’ll be getting our hands on REmake 3, it’s highly unlikely that REmake 3 isn’t already in some level of production at Capcom (there’s arguably even some hints towards it in REmake 2). How long ago they started changes how long we have left to wait. It is worth remembering that, as REmake 2 released near that game’s 21st anniversary, next January is RE3s. Could make for a great double punch, especially considering that REmake 3 very well could be made with many of the same assets and programming/design used in REmake 2. On top of which, getting it out before the next console generation is a great opportunity to have versions of all eight numbered Resident Evil games available on Xbox One and PS4. That could even make for a pretty badass box set, given the RE0, REmake, and 4-6 remasters all got physical releases. We sort of got that last generation with the PS3 Resident Evil 6 Anthology Edition, which included digital copies of RE1-5 as well as the disk for RE6 (although the Xbox version got shafted since there are no versions of RE1-3 there).

Either way, I’d say there’s a 99.99% chance that REmake 3 is happening, and happening soon. Capcom has already been clear that it hinges on fan demand, but… come on. The demand has done been here.

Resident Evil 8

This isn’t a case of whether or not it’ll happen – it’s happening, regardless of rumors or speculation – but more a matter of what it could be. RE7 producer Jun Takeuchi teased that RE8 would be very different in the final “making of” video that they released for RE7, stating:

Plans for the next title are already in motion and, when you see that game, you may find that it is very different from Resident Evil 7 in some ways, while still retaining that core survival horror concept of people overcoming the odds. Resident Evil will always retain that essence.

This has lead to some pretty wild speculation from fans. Conjecture went even crazier when Resident Evil series creator, Shinji Mikami, stated that he could be interested in directing the game if Capcom offered. Odds are he was a little late on the sentiment, coming months after Takeuchi had already talked about RE8‘s production, but that doesn’t mean that he might not end up involved with it (or another RE project) in the future somehow. Regardless, the rumor mill doth churn, and there are already “leaks” regarding what the game could be. One of the most prevalent right now comes from the Twitter account Evil VR, but a source we trust says that they’re blowing smoke (and has been from the day they started tweeting).

For the moment, there’s simply no way of knowing what RE8 could be about. Each RE game has been a completely unpredictable surprise in terms of its story. Hell, even when we did get first looks at new numbered RE entries, most or even all of the fans’ predictions/observations turned out to be wrong. Remember when people thought Sherry Birkin was in RE5? Or that when we really did get Sherry Birkin in RE6, people thought it was Ashley Grahm for a bit? Or how about when Resident Evil: Revelations just straight up put out a trailer that had nothing whatsoever to do with the actual game that came out? Point being that even if we think we have a handle on what RE8 could be going for, it’ll be really hard to tell even when we get official information regarding it. We can kick around possibilities, though. For instance, who would we be playing as?

I doubt that we’ll be hearing from Ethan again (perhaps ever) but that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t be getting another entirely new character. I somehow doubt that, though. While RE7 focused its core game on being an entry point for new players (disentangling itself from most of what complicated RE lore) it seems like it would be a prime chance to have a classic hero head up RE8. Of course, Chris Redfield’s appearance in RE7‘s Not A Hero DLC showcased how overpowered a series veteran would be in this more scaled-back horror focused take on the series, so who would fit that bill? Being able to both be a returning character while also not an overpowered super soldier fresh off of RE6‘s explosive adventures?

There are a couple of options, but the one that stands out to me as a perfect choice is Jill Valentine, who has been MIA canonically since the 2009 events of Resident Evil 5. Jill was forced into mind-controlled servitude by series villain Albert Wesker for three years and finally rescued by Chris and Sheva in Africa. Jill has since been in a kind of mental and physical rehab by the BSAA, at least through 2012, as revealed by correspondence between her and Barry Burton in Revelations 2. An emotionally strained and out-of-practice Jill sounds like a prime candidate for the more grounded horror RE is doing these days, especially if there’s any chance of playing around with hallucinations like RE7 did. Visions of the horrible deeds Wesker forced her to commit while under his control, or even of previous RE tales (Nemesis anyone?) could make for some masterful psychological horror. It’d be a great way to work as a story (the fresh out of rehab Jill) and also create a nostalgia trip of horror, similar to the hallucinations and Ishimura section in Dead Space 2.

This is all, of course, my own hopes and hypotheses on what I’d want. Who knows? Resident Evil 8 is most likely about four years away (based on the gap between numbered releases since RE4), and almost guaranteed to be a next-gen exclusive title. Of course, Capcom was building a whole new engine for RE7, designing the game to play in VR, and so on. On top of that, REmake 2 did release only two years after RE7 despite beginning production long after RE7 did. Maybe the gap will be shorter now that RE Engine is off the ground, not to mention that VR probably won’t factor into RE8. VR has been dropping off slowly but steadily and Sony’s wishy-washy commitment to PSVR indicates that the PS5 most likely won’t have a similar headset. Capcom’s own neglect for not releasing VR support for the PC version of RE7 long after the PlayStation exclusivity timed out feels telling as well. A lack of VR makes me wonder if sticking with first-person would be necessary. When RE7 released, it seemed to be a sure thing that we were entering a new era of first-person games, just as RE4 had ushered in the over-the-shoulder era, but perhaps not. It’s honestly so early that there’s just no way of knowing one way or another.

Resident Evil 8 is for sure happening, and as long as Capcom as a company remains solvent, Resident Evil 9, 10, 11, and so forth are all happening, as well. It’s only a matter of time before we have more concrete information as to what kind of game RE8 will be, and when we’ll be seeing it. Don’t expect it soon, or even this gen, though.

The Unannounced Project

On the opposite side of the fence, is a game that has no details of any kind and we have no way of knowing what it is or when it could be seen. A few months after Resident Evil 7 released, Revelations 2 director Yasuhiro Anpo teased a game we have yet to hear more about. When discussing how RE7’s success had made it “easier to develop/iterate on other elements of Resident Evil,“ RE7‘s director mentioned that Anpo was working on something else, and Anpo stated:

“I can’t announce anything yet, but as of now, I’ve been developing a certain product, please look forward to it”

That’s literally all we know at the moment. There are of course a million and one things it could be, but let’s try to talk about only the most likely things. First off, Resident Evil: Revelations 3 seems like a sure bet, considering it’s the same director. The Revelations sub-series has been successful and arguably one of the guiding forces for helping RE get back on track (despite how… RE6-ish Revelations 1 is in places), it seems like a no-brainer that Capcom would want to continue that success. In general, there’s a ton of things a Revelations 3 could focus on to “reveal” as so much of RE‘s story is still left with no answers at all. To name just a few:

• What is Red Umbrella’s connection with the refounded Umbrella Co., if any – and what is their ultimate goal?
• Who is Red Umbrella’s mysterious leader? He’s a purportedly terrifying man who was present for the events of RE4, sounds exactly like Albert Wesker, and is willing to kill to keep his identity a secret
• Who are The Connections, the mysterious organization who created Eveline and worked with Wesker’s HCF unit at some point in the past?
• Alex Wesker, who (unbeknownst to the main cast) transferred her consciousness into Terragresia survivor Natalia Korda, and currently living with Barry Burton and his family as an adopted daughter
• What’s up with Jake Wesker? Fightin’ monsters in the desert in exchange for Apples? We just gonna forget about him because his game was dumb?

That’s just the major stuff, not even delving into things we’ll probably never have answers for, like whether Nicholi survived RE3 or not, or if Wesker ever made good on his promise to resurrect Steve Burnside. Of course, there’s a chance of a Revelations 3 ignoring all these possibilities and just making something up as the first Revelations did. Even that is assuming that this project is another Revelations game, as well. There’s a strong chance it could also be something entirely different, and maybe not even a Resident Evil game. While Anpo did mention his project while otherwise discussing Resident Evil, RE7 producer Jun Takeuchi recently talked about an unannounced project that will “make fans think wow, they’re working on that!?” DuskGolem (the leaker we mentioned when talking about REmake 3) says that whatever that is, it is not a Resident Evil title. Are the two projects independent of each other, or are they the same game and the fact we heard about it from two different sources is what’s confusing us? Only time will tell.

Suffice it to say, there will of course always be more Resident Evil on the horizon, but what this mystery project actually is probably won’t be known for a little while. I totally believe, however, that we’ll be hearing about it sooner rather than later and that the game will be in the same stop-gap period between numbered titles as games like Revelations and Chronicles were. Here’s hoping it remains horror, as I’m always down for more of that, but I also won’t condemn a spin-off RE title from trying to do something else (I’ve also always wanted a RE RTS game, as wild as that sounds).

Remasters and Remakes

Feh, just remake ’em all. In all seriousness though, Capcom has had a great deal of success with their remastered games on this gen, and given comments from the company there are no plans of stopping. Just this generation alone we’ve seen remasters/ports of Resident Evil 0, REmake, 4, 5, 6, Revelations 1, Dead Rising 1, 2, and OTR, Killer 7, Okami, multiple Street Fighters, every DMC game, and Onimusha HD, as well as the Ace Attorney 1-3 remasters still inbound. That’s a lot of remasters and ports. Nothing new to Capcom really, but it shows a commitment to even trying to give weirder games a shot, like Killer 7 although they did not publish that remaster themselves.

While games like RE3 seem obvious to me, there’s been a vocal outcry from fans for a Code: Veronica remake as well. I’d personally love to see another shot at it, despite it being one of my least favorite classic style games (although it is often a fan favorite). The Darkside Chronicles retelling was superb and gave previously… awful characters like Alfred Ashford and Steve Burnside a chance to not be… awful. It was als0 really highlighted the madness at the heart of Umbrella in a way none of the other games have. Fans seem to be pretty meh on the 2011 remaster of CVX (while it did add in a fantastic new dynamic lighting engine, the colors ended up muted and most textures were still very rough looking), which may be why that version has yet to be brought back, even to PC.  If the RE2 and 3 remakes really soar, it could be a great way to close out that “trilogy” so to speak, with a full remake of what is arguably the linchpin that holds RE1-3 and RE4-6 together. Following up on REmake 2 could also be a great call, giving the new version of Claire more room to breathe rather than being a one and done deal before we move back to the modern, grumpy Claire from Revelations 2 and probably whatever she appears in next.

Another fan favorite that players have been begging for a new lease on life in HD is Outbreak and its sequel. The two Outbreak games are, plain and simple, masterpieces that were way, way ahead of their time. They have sadly suffered from being abandoned on PS2 without access to the very necessary online features, however. While fans have patched together a way to play online with fan-made servers, it’s a difficult and complicated process that only nets you a handful of other players. An HD remaster of even just Outbreak 1 with the online features reintegrated would be a gift from the heavens. The games still look great if I’m being honest, and an HD polish that smoothed out the edges (literally) would be all it needed to bring them back on their feet visually. Of course, modern online gaming makes some features redundant (most notably the rather robust communication system in lieu of having chat headsets) and certain aspects like saving might have to be retooled, but even just releasing it as is with the online features would be amazing. If you’ve only played the Outbreak games in single player, you haven’t really played the Outbreak games at their best.

There’s also the Nintendo Switch in the middle of all of this, which will undoubtedly become a portable Resident Evil machine by the time its life cycle is over. With both Revelations games already on the system and the Origins Collection and RE4 HD coming soon, it’s safe to say that more will be on the way after that. The Switch sadly just doesn’t have the power to run games like REmake 2, and probably any other major releases in RE‘s future (it does have a Japan-exclusive cloud version of RE7, but that is not running on the system natively). We can probably look forward to Resident Evil 5 and 6 popping over onto the system though, and if they eventually remaster Outbreak 1 and 2, probably those as well.

Of course, there are lots of other oddball RE games, but I doubt many are on any shortlists for remastering/remaking. The awful Survivor and even worse Dead Aim (with its uncomfortable transphobia) come to mind, and there’s no point in revisiting Gaiden as the grand majority of its ideas (Leon becoming infected, Barry rescuing and adopting a young girl who might be infected, RE on a boat) have all been recycled into better games. I could see the two Chronicles games getting a second wind, perhaps on Switch with the gyro controls (fans have suggested PSVR, but trust me — those games would not hold up in VR). Operation Raccoon City actually sold pretty damn well despite terrible reviews, so maybe? It would need some serious work though, it looked bad even by last-gen standards. Capcom also made an off-hand comment on how remaking RE1 again wouldn’t be crazy, but uh… I dunno man. Talk about thankless. I could go for a new Mercenaries standalone game, though. The only real issue the 3DS game had was content. Release a new mega collection of all the Mercenaries modes and characters blended into one megapack, and I think people would be down for that.

Something worth considering, outside of HD remasters of games that would actually benefit from “HDing,” is the recent “retro” craze. Plug and play consoles like the NES and SNES mini, as well as the PlayStation Mini (despite how crash and burn that was thanks to serious miscalculations of what people actually wanted), have shown a real frothing desire to have some of our favorite classics back, in a nostalgic way. I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question for Capcom to delve into something similar. We’ve already seen multiple classic games get re-released in collections, Mega Man Collection, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, as well as the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle. Not much remastering really, just the games running and looking as best they can as they were. Resident Evil could very easily receive such a treatment, as with the many multiple versions of the original PS1 RE trilogy (RE 96, DC, RE Saturn, RE2, RE2 N64, etc) that all had their own unique content or changes, there are lots to fill up a collection. Pack in model viewers, making of content, art gallery, whatever they can – and a retro Resident Evil Classics Collection could potentially sell millions of copies.

Beyond The Games

While there’s a ton to speculate on and hope for from games, RE is, of course, an extremely multi-media brand. Books, comics, movies, toys, and even multiple live stage shows, there are tons more probably coming in the future. We already know of a film reboot in the works of course, and apparently a Netflix series, but I can almost guarantee that the gap between RE7 and 8 will also see another animated feature from Capcom. The three we’ve gotten (Degeneration, Damnation, and Vendetta) have been a… rollercoaster of quality, but they’ve all done pretty well.

The manga, on the other hand, has been of top quality, with The Marhawa Desire releasing just before RE6 (although not until long after in the states) and the still as-of-yet officially translated follow up Heavenly Island were tremendous. The fantastic artwork and storytelling by Naoki Serizawa made me instantly nostalgic for the classic zombie-infested days of RE (if you haven’t read them yet, I highly recommend you do so). Here’s hoping a third series is in the works, although RE has had comics and manga literally since the day the first game came out (with a pre-order bonus comic) so there’s more coming one way or another.

More stage shows will probably be coming, as Capcom has fully committed to the idea (a new and rather great looking Ace Attorney show begins soon – although even that isn’t the first for that series either), and weird things like the RE VR music video probably aren’t exhausted either. Capcom seems willing to cross over just about anything with Monster Hunter World as well, so don’t be surprised to see RE heroes showing up to join the hunt. We recently got RE costumes added into Street Fighter 5, and there are rumors of another Marvel vs. Capcom game (or a massive update to MvCI) that could potentially add more RE characters in as well (MvC2 Jill and UMvC3 Wesker are two of the best fighters in the entire series – and we already know how I feel about newcomers from RE joining the fight).

The sky is the limit outside of the actual RE games for more content, and my (Resident Evil 20th Anniversary – yes this is what I actually use) wallet will forever be empty for it.

That about covers it for now, but the future of RE is looking brighter than ever at the moment. There’s every chance for all sorts of things we can’t even begin to guess in production right now. Games have taken us by surprise before, like Umbrella Corps., The Mercenaries 3D, hell even RE6 kind of came out of nowhere (revealed on a random Thursday afternoon when promotional materials got sent out to GameStop early). With Sony not showing up to E3 2019, anything they’d have to show would be at Microsoft’s press event, which isn’t unheard of.

We have a lot to be happy about right now as RE fans, both what we have at the moment and what there is to look forward to, and it’s fun to speculate anyway. Do any of you have anything you’re hopeful for? Remakes, remasters, new games? Anyone with me on a RE RTS? Three-way StarCraft style design between RPD, USS, and the monsters? Let us know in the comments. It’s a damn good time to be a survivor of horror, man.

The post ReHorror: After REmake 2, What’s Next For Resident Evil? appeared first on Rely on Horror.

Ever since the Resident Evil 7’s initial reveal, I immediately felt that something was off, and upon release I found many of my suspicions to be justified. Resident Evil 7 released almost two years ago to extremely wide praise. Many rejoiced that the franchise had finally abandoned the orgy of explosions and somersault kicks for a much more horror-focused experience closer to the franchise’s supposed roots. Having played through the game yet again two years later, I still can’t bring myself to enjoy the game. After the poor critical reception of the last handful of titles, there was a clear creative shift within Capcom to create a game with a much stronger focus on horror. Of course, I welcome the change in focus like nearly everyone else, yet I suspect that many non-problematic elements to the ‘RE-experience’ got added to the chopping block in Capcom’s quest for a scary RE game. While plenty of critiques of gameplay changes such as the shift to the first person have been made (critiques I don’t entirely agree or disagree with), for me, the de-emphasis on virus-mutant body horror, and the jarring shift in the writing’s tone standout as being particularly problematic and unnecessary changes, as the chip away at the uniqueness each game offers, leading to a much more bland and forgettable game.

Before you come after my head, let me say that Resident Evil 7 isn’t a ‘bad’ game. Overall the game was clearly competently made with a high level of production value — the item management and the puzzles stand out as being major highlights for me, and as I will explain later, there were moments of the game I actually enjoyed. However, none of this changes the fact that Resident Evil 7…I’m gonna say it…simply didn’t feel like Resident Evil, I dare say more so than the last handful of entries, yes even those ones.

Resident Evil has always been a somewhat tongue and cheek franchise. While I have enjoyed both the survival horror and action-oriented entries, I find it hard to not laugh alongside the series. Maybe they weren’t cliches at the time, but early RE games are filled to the brim with every zombie cliche imaginable. Haunted Mansion: check. Underground laboratory: check. Zombie virus: check. A Weyland-Yutani inspired evil mega-corporation responsible for everything: Absolutely. Add in a mustache-twirling Saturday morning cartoon villain into the mix and Resident Evil starts to seem a lot more whimsical. As the series would go on, the quirkiness of the franchise would evolve from every zombie cliche in the book mixed in with a healthy dose of awful voice acting, into a virus of the week soap opera, in which the same recurring cast would return each week to a new locale to fight new monsters and terrorism. Leon would become a shonen anime protagonist, Chris’ biceps were bigger than his head, someone would give a motivational speech about hope and freedom, then the Machiavellian mastermind would slip through everyone’s fingers, having escaped with another virus for next week’s episode.

I say the above elements are crucial to Resident Evil’s personality. An invisible essence of sorts, comprised of a series of elements, whether they be miscellaneous or not. Everything from the gameplay — to the music and art — and even the tone of a game’s writing all contribute to the uniqueness that the game provides, and all of the aforementioned are extremely important to what makes RE what it is. The greater effect of this is that the franchise is distinguished from other games despite sharing similar components (i.e a horde of bland zombie games). While many aspects of the franchise such as the gameplay and art direction are certainly vital contributors to RE’s individuality, the personality of the game’s writing as a ‘campy creature feature’ was a consistent component of the series through both the good and bad times, and removing it would be to completely overhaul the essence of what the series is. It would be like a Metal Gear game without the charm Hideo Kojima brought, or if Nier: Automata wasn’t directed by a memeable nihilist perv. 

One can say, “Eh, this “personality” is all a product of bad writing, a cultural barrier between the East and West, and a company that was more concerned with following money than horror.” There is a kernel of truth in that statement. Much of what I mentioned can very easily be attributed to poor writing, and the chances of there being any deliberate decisions to achieve this phenomenon are slim to none. It’s easy to extrapolate that with the latest soft-reboot, the days of the horror-action series that wanted so badly to be seen as cool by its peers are over. Except, the game in question actually does retain trace amounts of this personality, RE7 didn’t completely abandon it, but that uniqueness that gave the series’ its identity was neglected and ignored, almost as though it was something to be ashamed of.

Unlike many other Capcom franchises, Devil May Cry, for example, RE7 is clearly afraid to have any actual fun and embrace its less serious — more video-gamey aspects. This ‘realistic’ approach the development team is seemingly in love with is demonstrated through the game’s non-existent soundtrack, dull color palette, grimy environments, and a protagonist incapable of running for more than five seconds. The decision to focus on the Bakers was also a likely attempt to create a more ‘real’ threat as opposed to the fantastical mutations (more on that later).

On the other hand, an example of the silliness I longed for can be seen in action is the early garage scene with Jack Baker, in which, the player repeatedly runs over Jack with a car like an injured deer that you want to put out of its misery. Shortly thereafter, the man then hops into the car with you so that he can then impale himself like a complete idiot. Better yet, the player later gets to enter a chainsaw-hedge trimmer boss battle with the southern caricature. If the game had consistently embraced and emulated the tone of these scenes (without neglecting the horror too much), then my criticisms would start to subside, and I would actually start to feel at home with RE7. However, once that camp starts to trickle in a little too heavily, just as things are getting fun, the shock collar around RE7’s neck goes off forcing it to adopt a more ‘grounded’ and ‘realistic’ experience that countless other horror games provide.

Since RE is supposed to be a horror franchise after all, it would make sense if one was skeptical of my desire for a more tacky story, but it should be noted that RE was never scary for its plot or characters. It’s not like RE stories were ever of the avant-garde ‘you were the monster all along’ variety. Classic RE games demonstrate that a cheesy narrative doesn’t necessarily negate an ominous or mysterious atmosphere. Nothing about having theatrical characters prohibits imposing and well-designed monsters or effective use of item management and combat mechanics.

Speaking of ‘having fun and personality’, it’s a little difficult to achieve these things without having an interesting cast, and few horror games have as colorful of a cast as RE. Resident Evil 4, the other franchise soft-reboot had the sassy pig-headed teenager, the suave womanizer, the femme fatale character, and the game’s protagonist, Leon, couldn’t help but make a joke at the expense of every monster he met, and while the handling of the game’s characters may have never been perfect, this wide array of character archetypes was retained in this massive shift for the franchise. Both RE4 and RE7 are mostly competent survival horror games, but the latter of which has one of the blandest casts to date, outclassed only by the first Revelations game exists (Go ahead and name as many characters from that game as you can. My record is 3. Jill and Chris don’t count.)

The protagonist, Ethan Winters, is mostly silent and unresponsive unless a cop refuses to give him a gun. To make matters worse, Mia and Zoe are also just as bland and shallow as they’re supposed to be ‘ordinary people’ because apparently ordinary people have nothing to say after finding and then killing their missing wife. RE may have never had deep and complex characters, but most of the time they weren’t the empty player-projection vehicles that plague countless games. You could argue the Bakers bring this colorfulness to RE7, but what they offer is simply not enough. Jack is really the only one that is successfully executed in this regard as Marguerite doesn’t really have anything interesting to say, and Lucas is mostly there for one puzzle. I do like Eveline however, as I too would sleep through most of the game if I could.

However, it isn’t just the approach to writing that makes RE7 feel alien to the franchise I’ve known, as the development team seemingly neglected the actual biological horror component of the RE experience, the series’ bread and butter. As I alluded to earlier, from the series’ very beginning, the games have always been somewhat of a ‘creature-feature’. The Umbrella monster of the week became a fundamental part of RE’s niche in the horror market. Fatal Frame had ghosts, Silent Hill had manifestations of your sexual repression, and RE was the one with zombies and test-tube monsters, and a part of each game’s appeal was whatever the new creations would be. I wasn’t particularly a fan of when RE4 decided to ditch zombies, but at least there were enough thematic parallels to justify the addition of the plagas, because at the end of the day RE4 will still about the horrors of human science gone wrong. The same can technically be said about RE7, but you’d be hard pressed to argue that the Bakers weren’t supposed to be the heart and soul of the game, and that heart and soul doesn’t thematically fit in with the rest of the franchises’ monsters.

For the people that actually found the Baker’s scary, they work because the player is trapped and isolated with a dysfunctional and psychotic cannibalistic take on the nuclear family. Until Marguerite turns into Spider-Woman, the family isn’t presented as biological monstrosities, and unfortunately those scenes are too short lived.  Instant of a family of mutants with massive glowing eyeball arms–they’re presented as being merely unkillable crazies that shout bad memes in your face. This certainly has an appeal to people, but it’s a far cry from a franchise about the body horror of laboratory creations of ‘evil’ individuals attempting to play God.

Instead, for most of the game, a series of black fungus monsters called the “Molded” are the biological backbone. There are plenty of them in the game, which would seem like a good thing considering my stance, but there is a painful lack of variety among them. For most of the game, the player will fight countless numbers of these identical blob-men. Technically, there a couple variations, like a crawly one, and the big one, but needless to say this half-baked attempt at creature variety fails because their differences don’t translate into a unique enough experience. They all look practically the same, differences in their attacks are negligible, and they all die more or less the same way. This is the aspect of RE7 that is definitively the most ‘Resident Evil‘, and it’s the most lackluster rushed aspect of the game.

Since this game is supposed to be a return to the series’ roots, let’s compare that to the cast of the Resident Evil Remake, which features two varieties of zombies (both of which look, sound, and act very differently), zombie dogs, Hunters, giant snakes, giant spiders, fucking sharks, Lisa Trevor, a Tyrant, and Audrey II even makes a cameo appearance. Perhaps the development team of the REmake shouldn’t be given too many creative brownie points as half of those monsters are just large versions of creatures that exist in the real world, but at least it’s something. It’s not like it would be hard for me to go through some of the stronger entries of the franchise and list off all the memorable nightmares. For a series that heavily relied on its monsters to create fear, it is extremely out of character for the latest entry to just Cntrl-C/Cntrl-V the same blob-man for the last third of the game.

Despite the countless games of debatable quality, Resident Evil had always had something that every successful franchise needs. The reason many have continued to be a fan of this series through both the good and bad times is because Resident Evil was always unique. Whether if it was due to the gameplay, or the characters, or whatever, no other triple AAA franchise has been providing the types of experiences Resident Evil has. There are plenty of horror games, but Resident Evil was always the one with giant eyeball laboratory monsters and snappy one-liners. Being able to stand out amongst the plethora of other games is special, and Resident Evil’s identity was that special something. While deviations from a franchise’s formula isn’t inherently a bad thing, Resident Evil 4 can be argued as an example of such, but the erosion of a franchise’s identity isn’t providing any positive here. 

The Resident Evil 2 Remake is just around the corner, and chances are I won’t find a lot of the same issues, and the game is seemingly guaranteed to be fantastic, but going forward I hope that Capcom draws more inspiration from within its own franchise instead of looking outwards for the answers on how to make a scary experience, because, without that uniqueness, Resident Evil becomes just another game, another game that feels just like every other January horror release. Capcom may have been going after the Call of Duty audience with the action Resident Evil games, but you’ll seldom find accusations of Resident Evil 5 being a COD clone. 

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