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This Is What I Want From The Next Multiplayer Resident Evil

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Capcom’s two experiments with a multiplayer-centric Resident Evil haven’t been terribly successful. The first Outbreak sold well, but the reviews weren’t all that great and its sequel sold half as well, essentially killing the series until Operation Raccoon City came along. Unfortunately, ORC doesn’t really share much with the Outbreak series outside of four-player co-op. Read on for what I’d like to see Capcom do with the next multiplayer Resident Evil, whether it ends up being the long-requested Outbreak File #3 or an Operation Raccoon City sequel.

In Outbreak, you’re an infected survivor. You have an expiration date and even the smallest mistake can bring your inevitable demise even closer. This is a neat idea, because it forces you to be cautious and aware that you’re not immortal, and that’s important for a survival horror game.

On the opposite end of this is Operation Raccoon City, which rewards you for being reckless and going in guns blazing. It arms you to the teeth with powerful weapons, grenades, and special abilities, and then on top of that your allies (excluding AI partners) can revive you as soon as you go down. There’s literally no penalty for dying, and that’s a serious problem.

Presently, there’s actually a place for both of these takes on Resident Evil. Outbreak pleases the longtime fans who are nostalgic for the old days when puzzles, horror, and atmosphere were all trademarks of the series. ORC is more easily accessible to newcomers, because it’s a simpler, mindless romp through a post-apocalyptic world that replaces survival horror with action and an emphasis on teamwork. Essentially, you don’t need to be a fan of the series to enjoy ORC.

You might not want to hear it, but as games like Resident Evil 5 and Operation Raccoon City continue to be sell bigger than ever, Capcom’s going to continue to pump them out. So let’s embrace it and use our ability as a very vocal fan base to see if we can’t help Capcom make these games better, rather than bitch and moan about how “Resident Evil is dead,” because it isn’t. In fact, it’s bigger than ever, and that’s actually a very good thing.

Let’s start things off with my favorite of the two: Outbreak. For starters, let’s shorten the title a bit.

There we go. Resident Evil: OUT3REAK. You know they’re going to do that, so we may as well embrace it. Only this time around, we’re rebelling against the man by swapping the B with a 3, rather than the E, like what F.3.A.R. did. This could mark the beginning of a revolution for video game titles. Viva La Revolución!

If we’re going to have two separate–and wildly different–approaches to multiplayer focused Resident Evil, then the two need to be as different as possible. That means a lot of puzzles that actually require teamwork to solve. The only thing OUT3REAK should have in common with ORC is the excellent matchmaking system. It’s very easy to find a game, invite friends, or play with a party in ORC, so something along those lines needs to find its way into this.

I think the nostalgic romps through locations seen in past entries should stay with this spin-off, primarily because it just felt weird returning to the Raccoon City Police Department with assault rifles and three friends, but also because fans of the series are going to flock to this. Leave the new locales for the game, in this case, ORC2, which appeals to people that haven’t necessarily experienced a Resident Evil title.

One thing I’d really like to see added in an Outbreak sequel is something they teased us with already. In the first two you could find supplies, like wood planks and a nail gun, and it gave you the choice to use the nail gun as a weapon or to use it to barricade a door. This is fantastic, and it’s something I feel could be explored more.

Imagine the classic campaign offered in the first two games and another Black Ops-style zombie mode where you’re simply trying to survive. It would be like Mercenaries without the annoying time limit and instead of scouring the environment in search of those weird glowing timers to smack you’re looking for the best place to set up your defense.

This would open up new possibilities for the characters as well, giving each character another special trait to make them play more uniquely. Finding a way to combine each character’s unique skill sets, like George’s medical background and David’s carpentry skills–though I’m not necessarily saying Capcom should bring back the original cast, I’d much prefer some new faces. A character like David could craft some sort of makeshift healing station that George could use to treat wounds. This would make each character play differently as well as give players something to set them apart from their comrades.

Also, no Hunters. Hunter fights have sucked in literally every Resident Evil. Moths, too. If I never have to fight another of those again I will die a very happy nerd.

Satisfied? I sure am. Now let’s move on to Operation Raccoon City.

That’s right, we’re dropping “Operation Raccoon City” to focus on something exponentially more interesting: the S.T.A.R.S.

For starters, the lame ass you’re-the-bad-guy perspective needs to be dropped, because that didn’t work at all in ORC. I can’t name a single bad guy–not including bad things, like Nemesis–that isn’t comically evil. The USS team in ORC didn’t have a single interesting character because it felt like they were all trying their hardest to see who could be the most evil. Get rid of all that. I want to be a member of the S.T.A.R.S. because they’re one of the most recognizable things from the Resident Evil universe.

I’d also like this to take place at the very beginning of the outbreak, just before all hell breaks loose. I want to be work alongside the RPD and my fellow S.T.A.R.S. members to try and stop an apocalypse that we as fans of the series already know doesn’t end well for the citizens of Raccoon City. But I still want to try. I want to help groups of survivors, find supplies for safe houses, build/reinforce barricades and do everything I can to save the city. Fans know Raccoon City is fucked and it’ll even say it in the title: “The Fall of Raccoon City”, but I think playing on the team that pretty much every RE fan loves–the S.T.A.R.S.–and at a crucial point in the Resident Evil fiction will make this more appealing to fans of the series without losing the accessibility for newcomers looking for to scratch that zombie itch.

I’m sure most of you will disagree with this, but I think Slant Six should develop it. The problem with experiments like this is if a developer makes a risky move with a proven franchise and that move doesn’t necessarily pay in full, they’re immediately taken off the series. Konami has been making this mistake with Silent Hill for years now, having a different developer craft every new installment since The Room. Give Vatra a chance to work on another Silent Hill–for the unfamiliar, they developed Downpour–and see how much better it is. Same goes for Slant Six and an ORC sequel, unless Capcom wants to develop this internally, which I fully support.

Obviously, a lot went wrong with Operation Raccoon City. The multiplayer is unbalanced, the campaign is scary short, the weapons feel like about as dangerous as a squirt gun and about as accurate, many of the guns are totally useless, the characters are laughable (Party Girl? Really?), and the boss fights aren’t just uninspired, they’re actually stolen from past games. That’s not everything, but those are some of the worst offenders. The most fun I had playing that game came when I was exploring the mostly empty streets of Raccoon City. Sadly, only about a fourth of the game is actually set in the city streets, with the rest taking place below it or inside its cramped buildings.

In the fantastic launch trailer the characters were used well. Each member of the USS had a very specific skill set: Bertha’s mad machete skills made her an intimidating foe up close and Specter fired at some cops from rooftops while Beltway went ahead of the group to stop them with a well-placed trip mine. The in-game action was decidedly less interesting since I was rarely more than a few feet from the rest of the group at any given time. There were no rooftops for a sniper to make use of, no branching paths for a demolitions expert to place a mine, none of that made it into the game.

Gone was all that potential, lost in the time between the release of the trailer and the game. Instead we were left with a solid, if uninspired and incredibly unpolished squad shooter where it didn’t really matter what class you chose because they all play so similarly to each other. Your executions function much the same way, the melee moves are nearly indistinguishable from one another, anyone can wield any gun they like, and a startling majority of the special skills weren’t all that special. I can hold a few extra antiviral sprays? Thanks? Or I can run 15% faster than everyone else? I suppose that’s useful if we’re being chased by something big and I want to outrun my teammates.

While we’re on the subject of big things that like to chase you, the bosses in this game are horrible. There are two encounters with Nemesis that have you pumping lead into his remarkably bullet-resistant coat for 20 minutes before he falls down. Two. This boss sucked the first time, why would I want to do it again?

And Birkin? Don’t get me started. He chases you during your first encounter, then during the Spec Ops missions you set him on fire until he gets angry enough to kill himself. That’s weak. The bosses in Operation Raccoon City are more endurance tests than boss encounters, and that’s a shame for a series that’s brought us some fantastic bosses.

I’d also like to be able to vault over cover, because the fact that you can’t is fucking stupid.

Oh and did I mention no Hunters? Seriously. I’d rather get slapped on the ass by a Tyrant than pinned against a wall and awkwardly dry humped by a Hunter (again).

Capcom has two different games that cater to two very different audiences. The good thing for Capcom is both audiences are big, or at least they’re large enough to warrant each of these series. Outbreak will never be a multi-million seller, but on something like Xbox Live Arcade or PSN it could be successful. Don’t be afraid to push boundaries with your series, Capcom. Remedy surprised us all when they made an all-new Alan Wake for XBLA, and it paid off. OUT3REAK on arcade could be big too, especially since it has a much larger audience than Alan Wake. As for Operation Raccoon City, with a few big tweaks I could see it turning into a series worth the Resident Evil name. Sure, the first outing was more than a little disappointing, but that only leaves even more room for improvement.

What about you, dear reader? Are you a proud member of Team Outbreak, or Team Operation Raccoon City, and what would you like to see from these two spin-offs?

Toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting

Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

Editorials

The 10 Scariest Moments in the ‘Ghostbusters’ Movie Franchise

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scariest Ghostbusters

WARNING: The following contains mild spoilers for the Ghostbusters franchise. 

Yes, Ghostbusters is a horror movie – gateway horror to be exact. Setting aside the fact that the title literally contains the word “ghost,” a foundational element of the scariest genre, the franchise follows a group of paranormal researchers who battle entities attacking from beyond the grave. After countless rewatches, the classic films and newer sequels may not scare us much anymore, but how many times have we as genre fans asserted that a film does not have to be “scary” to be considered horror?

Genre classification is nebulous and any film that centers on ghosts has a place in the sprawling house of horror. Yes, it’s true that most viewers over the age of thirteen will find more to laugh about than scream while watching a Ghostbusters film, but each entry contains a handful of terrifying moments. With Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire uniting three generations of the parascientific warriors, perhaps it’s time to highlight the most frightening moments from each phase of this legendary franchise. 


Ghostbusters (1984)

A Haunted Library

scariest Ghostbusters movie

Ivan Reitman’s original film begins with a campfire tale come to life. We follow an unsuspecting librarian as she ventures deep into the stacks to reshelve a book. With her hair blowing from a spectral breeze, we watch a hardcover float across the aisle to the opposite shelf. A second book follows, but the librarian remains unaware. She finally notices the disturbance when card catalog drawers open on their own spewing cards into the air like literary geysers. She flees through the maze of narrow stacks only to come face to face with a mysterious force who blows her back with a powerful roar. We won’t see the Library Ghost (Ruth Oliver) until a later scene, but this introduction firmly positions the film that follows in the world of horror. On first watch, we can only speculate as to the ghost’s malevolence and whether or not the librarian has survived the encounter. It’s the perfect introduction to a world in which ghosts are not only real, they will pounce on unsuspecting humans at the drop of a … book. 

Shaky Ground

The original finale may not be the film’s most terrifying moment, but it has become the franchise’s most iconic image. When faced with choosing a form for Gozer (Slavitza Jovan), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) inadvertently conjures up an image from his childhood. Moments later, a set of once-cheery eyes peer through the skyscrapers. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man towers over the city, stomping and destroying everything in its path. While there’s definitely something terrifying about a jovial mascot turned deadly killer, what happens moments before is arguably scarier. 

The Ghostbusters arrive at the luxury apartment building to throngs of adoring fans. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) plays into this hero-worship and promises an easy solution to a supernatural problem. But before they can enter the building, lightning strikes the upper floors sending massive chunks of brick and cement raining down on the barricaded street. The ground begins to shake and a giant fissure swallows the entire team. It’s a destabilizing moment made all the more terrifying by its shocking reality. Speculation about the existence of ghosts may vary from person to person, but there’s no doubt that sinkholes are very real. It’s entirely possible that the ground we’re standing on right now could spontaneously begin to crumble, sucking us down into a seemingly bottomless void beneath the earth. 


Ghostbusters II (1989)

Runaway Baby

Ivan Reitman’s sequel begins with a sly update on the life of a beloved character as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) pushes a baby carriage containing her infant son Oscar (Henry and William Deutschendorf). When last we saw the attractive cellist, she was kissing Venkman in the wreckage of Gozer’s demise and the thought of this loveable lady’s man becoming a father may be more nerve-wracking than anything contained in the first film. We never learn much about Oscar’s real father, but we do discover that fate has a sinister plan for the adorable child. While Dana chats with her landlord, Oscar’s carriage rolls a few feet away. Dana reaches for the handle, but the buggy begins speeding down the sidewalk careening through the busy crowds. As if guided by unseen hands, the carriage twists and turns, then abruptly swerves into oncoming traffic. Cars honk and veer out of the way, but the racing carriage marks a collision course with an approaching bus. The wheels screech to a halt moments before what would surely be a deadly crash and Dana rushes to embrace her vulnerable child. This harrowing scene is likely to terrorize any parent who’s experienced the fear of trying to protect a baby in an unpredictable world.  

Sewer Screams

scariest Ghostbusters scene

While investigating the second film’s primary villain, Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg), three of the Ghostbusters venture into the sewers hoping to find a growing river of slime. Ray, Winston (Ernie Hudson), and Egon (Harold Ramis) trek down an abandoned subway line while speculating about the hordes of cockroaches and rats they hear scurrying behind the walls. These vermin may be scary, but there are more malevolent monsters lurking in the dark. Ray and Egon both amuse themselves with the tunnel’s echo but Winston’s “hello” goes unanswered. Moments later, a demonic voice bellows his name from the dark end of the corridor. Waiting behind him is a severed head floating in the empty tunnel. As he tries to retreat, the team finds themselves surrounded by dozens of ghoulish heads that disappear faster than they materialized. Moments later, a ghostly train hurtles towards them, swallowing Winston in its spectral glow. Egon theorizes that something is trying to keep them from reaching their destination with effective scares designed to frighten the Ghostbusters and audience alike.  


Ghostbusters (2016)

Haunted Basement

Like its predecessor, Paul Feig’s remake opens with a spooky vignette. Garrett (Zach Woods) gives a tour of the Aldridge Mansion, a 19th century manor preserved in the middle of the busy city, and walks visitors through a troubling history of excess and cruelty. Hoping to inject a bit of excitement, he pauses near the basement door and tells the horrifying story of Gertrude Aldridge (Bess Rous), a wealthy heiress who murdered the house’s many servants. Hoping to avoid a public scandal, her family locked her in the basement and her restless spirit can still be heard trying to escape. Garrett triggers a trick candlestick to fly off the shelf, hinting at the spirit’s presence, but a late night incident shows that the deceased murderess may actually be lurking in her ancestral home. While closing up for the night, Garrett hears ominous noises from behind the barricaded door and watches the knob rattle against the heavy locks. An unseen attacker hurls him through the house and eventually drives him down the basement stairs to a sea of green slime pooling on the floor. The stairs crumble leaving the tour guide hanging on to the door frame for dear life as a spectral figure glides toward him with menacing hands outstretched. Once again, we won’t see the fully revealed ghost of Gertrude Aldridge until later in the film, but this terrifying opening sets the stage for a dangerous showdown with an army of the dead.

Mannequin On the Move

The scariest moment of the 2016 remake is arguably the vicious online hatred sparked well before the film’s release. In response to brutal comments posted to the first official trailer, the cast returned to film an additional scene in which they react to dehumanizing negativity. But another sequence may cut closer to the heart of this upsetting experience. The Ghostbusters respond to a call at a concert venue and split up to cover more ground. Patty (Leslie Jones) enters what she calls a “room full of nightmares” and immediately reverses course to avoid a multitude of mannequins stacked haphazardly in the dark. As she walks out the door, one of the faceless creatures turns its head her way. Walking on its own, this sentient prop follows her down the hall, pausing the moment she turns around. Eventually breaking cover, the mannequin chases Patty down the hall to the rest of the team. They unleash their proton packs and make quick work of the gargoyle-like ghost. Though this connection is surely unintentional, it’s a terrifying parallel to a faceless monster sneaking up to attack a woman simply trying to do her job. 


Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Smoke and Monsters

While Ghostbusters: Afterlife is nowhere near as scary as the horror films playing in the local summer school science class, Jason Reitman’s legacyquel does contain its share of frights. The film opens with a harrowing scene as we join Egon (Oliver Cooper) in the last moments of his life. Racing away from a sinister mountain, Egon’s truck collides with an unseen force and flips upside down in a field of corn. The elderly scientist races back to his crumbling farmhouse with a trap in hand, intent on ensnaring this invisible being. Unfortunately, the power fails and Egon has no choice but to hide the trap under the floorboards and wait. He sits in a comfortable old chair as a horrifying cloud of smoke drifts in behind him, momentarily forming the shape of a fanged beast. Demonic hands grab him from within the chair, likely causing the heart attack that will be listed on his death certificate. But his abandoned PKE meter below the chair activates, reminding us that Egon may be deceased, but he is far from gone.  

The Terror Returns

scariest Ghostbusters moments

Ghostbusters: Afterlife turns out to be a touching tribute to Harold Ramis as his friends and family unite to complete the beloved scientist’s heroic mission. In addition to a tearjerker ending, Reitman also includes a bevy of callbacks to the original film. Not only do the Spenglers square off against the team’s first enemy, Gozer (Emma Portner), the nonbinary entity brings back the Terror Dogs that once possessed Dana Barret and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). These demonic beasts first rear their ugly heads while Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) stops by Walmart to buy a midnight snack. While the horde of mini marshmallow men are eerie in their gleeful self-destruction, the ghostly canine that chases him through the store is the stuff of nightmares. Early iterations of this fearsome creature are hindered by ’80s-era special effects, but Reitman’s version feels frighteningly real. While Gary frantically tries to find his keys, this Terror Dog snarls at him from atop his car dashboard, leaving the endearing science teacher with no way to escape. 


Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Frozen Dinner 

After a film set in a small mountain town, the opening of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire takes us back to New York circa 1904. We see the fire station in its early years as a horse-drawn carriage responds to a call. Arriving at the scene, a fireman tests the door for heat and watches in horror as his hand instantly freezes. Inside, they find jagged shards of ice surrounding and piercing a frozen dinner party. Guests are posed in various states of ice-covered surprise while an eerie record skips in the corner. A figure covered in brass armor we will come to know as a Fire Master is crouched in the corner clutching a mysterious orb. When the fireman touches this rippling sphere, the frozen diners’ heads begin to explode, an ominous precursor to the chilling threat awaiting the newest Ghostbusting team. 

Lights Out

If Ghostbusters: Afterlife featured the lo-fi gear of the 80s, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hurls us into the future. Wealthy financier Winston Zeddemore has been surreptitiously building a new containment unit to relieve pressure on the original model along with a secret lab designed to study ghosts and haunted objects. In addition to fancy new gadgets and gear, this facility contains several captured spirits like a fanged Wraith and a speedy Possessor. Lab techs assure the astonished Spengler team that they are perfectly safe, but it seems they’ve overestimated the facility’s security. Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) and Lars (James Acaster) are studying the aforementioned orb when the power goes out, leaving them stranded in the dark with a cache of haunted objects. Not only does the ancient sphere hold a deadly spirit, the proton fields containing the captured ghosts have just been disabled. These terrifying creatures begin to drift through the walls toward the defenseless lab techs, perhaps at the bidding of an evil commander. Thankfully the generator kicks on in the nick of time, drawing the ghosts back into their cells. It’s a tense moment reminding us that no matter how charming the Ghostbusters may be, they still spend their days with evil spirits just waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc.  


The Ghostbusters franchise excels at mixing humor and fear, practically setting the blueprint for the modern horror comedy. Moments from the original two films terrified a generation of gen-xers and elder millennials and newer iterations are currently scaring their kids. The fifth franchise installment effectively passes the proton pack torch to a new generation of Ghostbusters and we can only hope additional films will continue to induct future generations of Ghostbusters fans into the horror family as well. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now playing in theaters. Read our review.

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