» Sun Jun 06, 2010 10:34 pm I have played these games since the very beginning when the first title was released in the good ol' 1990's. Even though there were other games before this one that counted as horror, this was considered by many gamers one of the first successful survival horror titles that inspired many other games that followed its formula such as the Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series. The games revolved around the evil Umbrella Corporation that conducted illegal and inhumane experiments on animals and human test subjects using the T-virus, which turned them into zombies and mutants. Occassionaly there would be an accident and this virus would leak from one of their many labs, turning nearby people into terrifying monsters. You would play as a characters who find themselves trapped in an zombie outbreak and using guns with limited ammo and medicinal items they would have to fight there way out and survive. Though the first few games had some notable flaws such as the horrid voice acting and inconsistent plot holes, they did pretty well for themselves and earned a dedicated fanbase. However the popularity of the series started declining shortly after Resident Evil 0 and Capcom decided to take the series into a new direction with Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil 4 became the first truely successful Resident Evil game and sold millions of copies. This game was different from the others because the survival-based gameplay was removed and replaced with a more action shoot-em-up style. Ammunition for guns and health items were no longer rare and often found on enemy corpses or hidden in wooden crates that were scattered all over the place, and instead of finding weapons you could now purchase them by using gold currency found in the game. The aiming system was improved and you had a laser point to show where your character aims instead of auto-aiming. However I think the biggest change that fans remember was how the classic zombies were taken out and replaced with melee-weilding villagers who had giant parasites popping out their heads. Because this new style of gameplay for the series was so well-recieved by critics it eventually made its way to the sequel Resident Evil 5.
Now I just want to say that I'm not one of those fan rhymes-with-toys who has an unwavering hatred for the new games despite how fond I was of the classic games. While the new games are different, I still find them to be highly enjoyable. But I digress. My problem with the Resident Evil fanbase now is how split they are due to the new direction the series has taken. You now have the Old School fans who are always whining about how they miss the old games and want Capcom to make every new sequel a remake of Resident Evil 1-3 with nothing but improved graphics, and you have the New School fans who make fun of the old games for being supposedly boring just because of the dated graphics and the gameplay that they themselves didn't understand. I feel kind of torn on this because I enjoy both the old and new games, yet every time I browse a Resident Evil forum I feel like I'm forced to pick a side, and I can't choose both sides without risking both sides insulting me and accusing me of not being a "true fan".
I know people here who are familiar with the Fallout series will see it as kind of similar to the split between Bethesda Fallout 3's fans and the fans of the original Fallout games. However for me it's different because I only played Fallout 3 and never played the old games so it was pretty easy for me to choose a side. With Resident Evil I like both sides yet it feels as if though I'm not allowed to have it both ways, so I choose neither and even though I still love the games I refuse to have anything to do with the rude and immature fanbase. They can fight over their precious games all they want now, but I'll just buy and play the games for as long as Capcom keeps making them. :yes:
