Resident Evil: Return to Horror

It has been twenty-five years since the initial release of Resident Evil in 1996. The game has evolved over the years, from a survival game to an action game, and recently has returned to a horror game - a good decision, I believe, to appeal to the nostalgics. The original Resident Evil challenges players to ration their supplies, solve complex puzzles and combat in a narrow-space. Resident Evil 7 and 8 restores aspects of survival-horror gameplay to the franchise for the contemporary audience with their usage of the first-person perspective.
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First-person point of view limits the player’s perspective. Players cannot see creatures behind them or even next to them, inhibiting combat and making survival more difficult, especially when the protagonist uses short-ranged weapons, in some cases, like a kitchen knife. This can plainly frustrate players but the survival gameplay, disallowing frivolous actions or button-mashing, creates the expectation that players must ponder carefully about their actions. The player remains in constant alert. Even a shadow cast on the wainscoting can stir alarm. For survival, therefore, players must infer meaning from their other senses, and the creators use this feature to raise the tension. In Resident Evil 7, when Ethan escapes from the dinner and reaches the higher levels of the dilapidated house, the player can hear lycans growl but cannot locate them on the screen immediately. The sound effects fiddle with the player’s sense of anticipation. But vision is still the main source of survival.

​Obfuscated vision also heightens the images around them. Players are forced to stare at the horror directly. In Resident Evil 8, when the protagonist Ethan Winters meets the lycan vigilantes in the village, the player flees through a narrow mountainous tunnel with their arms chain-bound. When the exit seems in sight at the end of the stony path, an enormous lycan leaps from the halo of light wielding a war hammer. His animal countenance is clear in the shallow light. His teeth are crooked; hair adorns his face like a lion mane; and his enormous paws claw the iron weapon. The player engulfs the features.

But point-of-view doesn’t serve the game unless it connects to the plot. Investing emotion into the protagonist perhaps further makes the player more sensitive to the environment, as first-person is the most intimate point-of-view. Resident Evil 7 especially achieves their instillation of fear through the plot. Ethan Winter searches for his wife Mia who has been presumed dead for three years but reunites with her in the Baker household. Capcom develops the depth of their relationship with their actions. Early in the story Mia gestures, negotiates and touches Ethan like a lover. Her hand disappears outside the camera shot when she guides him through an exit. But these only make her betrayal more intense, forcing Ethan to be physically closer to her, when she transforms into a lycan and stabs through Ethan’s guard. Especially compared to Resident Evil 8, where the assumed emotion for Ethan and Mia’s child is underdeveloped, Resident Evil 7 renders Mia’s betrayal more disheartening. ​

Resident Evil 7 and 8 share elements with its progenitor even though it is in third-person point-of-view. The original Resident Evil incites fear of the unknown with obscured camera angles. In the hallway, where the player finds the guard dog Cerberus for the first time, the camera points from the top of the window, facing the player, where Cerberus breaks through the window. The camera angle disorients how the player should manipulate the direction-pad. Prior to that room, the player presses up to move forward, but in this room, because of the camera angle, the appropriate direction button seems to be down. This kind of dissonance raises the tension. ​

Returning to the franchise's former self, a survival-horror, is perhaps a wise marketable decision, as it attracts nostalgics - the other portion of their fanbase. For the past couple of years, Resident Evil 5, 6 and 7 seems to be an action game. Players can engage in hand-to-hand combat zombies, use excessive firearms and fend zombies off from a distance. The game is similar to Capcom’s other popular action games like Devil May Cry or Monster Hunter. While the game draws new players to the franchise, returning Resident Evil to its former gameplay appeals to the players who invest in realism and drama - ones who are not interested in frivolous button-mashing. 
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- John Tang, 11 July 2021