It’s no secret that Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic, expertly crafted video gaming experience. However, there was always something that felt a little bit off, and when the game concluded with no clear relation to any of the events of the previous series entries — save for an Ada Wong cameo — there loomed a deep sense of dissatisfaction and a little sadness. Those nagging feelings have been a part of the Resident Evil experience ever since.
An Editorial By Clark Thompson
You probably expect me to start harping on and on about how RE 4 began transitioning the series into a more action centric experience, culminating in later scenes of Resident Evil 5’s boulder punching and Resident Evil 6’s helicopter jumping, but you’d only be half right.
While it’s true that Resident Evil 4, while opening the door a crack for a more mainstream audience by introducing a more action focused experience, I don’t necessarily see that aspect as being the biggest problem.
As characters grow over the course of their respective source material, they are fundamentally transformed in that their motivations tend to change. Take both Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield. While both men were always very heroic in their own right, both began, for lack of a better term, as victims, trapped in a situation larger than themselves. They then had to find the strength to overcome those dire circumstances.
Now, in the latest series entries, these men are completely empowered heroes who are bringing the fight to those who would spread the horrors of Bio terrorism across the globe. Also, as threats grow in size and they generate more global awareness, the response to those threats grows accordingly. From a narrative perspective, a more heavy emphasis on action with each entry actually makes complete sense.
Did it perhaps go a little too far? Absolutely.
However, at the end of the day, to me at least, it felt warranted by the internal changes instigated in the series mainstays by past events, even if it does begin to fundamentally change the experience.
To further illustrate this point simply compare the action, even if mostly relegated to cut scenes, from the first Resident Evil to the second. There’s a significant jump. Remember the full ending to Resident Evil 2? Talk about a high octane scene.
Now compare that game to the third entry, where the action element is bumped up a little more, this time in game play (the ability to quickly dodge enemies) as well as the accompanying story sequences.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis also upped the action ante by having you continually pursued by a giant intelligent BOW capable of wielding a rocket launcher. Not to mention the fact that the game ended with a city being wiped off the map by a nuclear strike. Now compare that game with Resident Evil: Code Veronica, which opens to Claire Redfield going Rambo on a European Umbrella installation in search of her brother.
The action elements have always been there, and have grown in accordance with the escalating severity of the narrative. Resident Evil 4 did begin the trend of taking that action to all new heights, but that could have worked if not for some other troublesome elements.
My main issue, and one I think most would have no choice but agree with, is the simple fact that the fourth game totally derailed the story.
Nothing in Resident Evil 4’s plot has anything to do with what led up to it, save for Wesker and Ada trying to get their hands on a parasite that just so happens to be involved in a rescue mission being carried out by Leon. It’s this parasite, the Las Plagas, that really muddles things up. Talk about coming out of left field.
Were the intelligent, Plaga controlled enemies cool? Absolutely. Were they intimidating? Yes indeed. But just where the hell did this idea come from? And why? A parasite with the same capabilities, minus zombified humans, as your T, G, or T-Veronica viruses respectively, without appropriate or convincing explanation. It was extremely hard to suspend disbelief here.
Say what you will about Resident Evil 6, but at least it brought zombies back. And that’s just it. Everything in RE4 was damn cool indeed but at the end of the day, running around Europe fighting Spanish potato sac clad maniacs with chainsaws, and some fucked up midget with a giant robot built in his likeness isn’t Resident Evil.
Tie all that together with a story, albeit fine under any other title, that does nothing to further the overall plot, and you’ve got something truly odd and out of place. Seriously. It’s about as far removed from the established canon up to that point as you could possibly get. One has to wonder just what the fuck they were thinking. Especially when you consider that the original version of the game ended up becoming Devil May Cry.
If you look at early gameplay footage of the original version (3.5) before it was scrapped, you can see an evolved form of classic Resident Evil. The inclusion of some supernatural elements is admittedly quite strange, and more akin to something like Silent Hill, yet it’s still much more in line with what you’d expect than what we ended up getting.
Also interesting is it’s mention of the cradle of the progenitor virus, along with a few other recognizable elements that later made their way into RE5.
The fact that RE 4’s story didn’t line up with the rest of the established universe was one big missed opportunity. With all the chilling history and lore created to tell the story of the Plagas parasite, why then were they not made to be the original carriers of the progenitor virus? The parasite would’ve instantly become relevant, and infinitely more interesting.
Not to mention lending much needed credence to the out of control mutations the Plagas were somehow able to induce. I remember waiting for this revelation to make itself known for the entirety of my initial play through. The idea was sparked solely by an early image of the game featuring an adversary fans have come to know as ‘The Big Cheese’.
When I saw the image of Leon being tossed through the air by this thing, I didn’t even notice his beard. All I saw was a Tyrant model 103, who you may remember as the huge guy in the trench coat who crashed through the roof of the police station in Resident Evil 2. Anyway, the blatant similarities between these two beings, in my mind, meant there had to be some kind of connection.
No such connection was forthcoming. It felt like some kind of sick joke at my expense.
The Uroboros virus in Resident Evil 5, and it’s subsequent mutations seemed to have the stink of RE4 all over it. While it’s true that Wesker used the progenitor virus to create Uroboros, those affected by it were quite far removed from anything else in the series, and did little to reinforce the narrative.
Instead, it seemed just as out of place as all those Plagas brains that were running around. But in reality, Wesker’s acquisition of the Plagas at the end of Resident Evil 4 really backed the series into a corner, making it a necessary part of his assumed control of that region and it’s long forgotten Umbrella facility.
Without it, he would’ve had to find another way, and that way probably would’ve included something a little more reminiscent of what series fans had come to expect, like his straight up assault, and subsequent viral contamination of Rockfort Island, in Resident Evil: Code Veronica.
At the end of the day, a classic Resident Evil story arc had finally been completed, but it felt hollow due to the inclusion of so many foreign and downright foolish elements. Like Ricardo Irving, a biological weapons dealer involved in the plans of Albert Wesker and Excella Gionne.
Irving provides the game’s, and perhaps the series’ most nonsensical mutation of all. Injecting himself with nothing more than a Plaga sample, Irving falls into a large body of water, reemerging seconds later as a Moby Dick sized sea creature. That, in a nutshell, is Resident Evil 5. A step in the right direction held back from greatness by holdovers from the previous installment.
Now we arrive at the current day RE situation, with the latest polarizing series entry, the now infamous Resident Evil 6.
RE6 is my favorite entry of the last three titles by a significant margin, if for no other reason than it’s inclusion of actual virus induced creatures, and, well.. Zombies. Leon’s segment alone, which is extremely reminiscent of the events of Resident Evil 2, is reason enough to elevate this game leaps and bounds above the previous two. The action here reaches a fever pitch, but aside from some of the more ridiculous instances akin to the garbage featured in the live action film series, I find it mostly warranted.
We’re not dealing with victims here. Even though no main character has ever really been a victim in this series, they did however start out as the hunted rather than the hunter. Resident Evil, while always being deeply rooted in horror, is primarily about the heroes that rise up to eradicate said horror.
It’s those same heroes’ growth as individuals that has brought them to this point of taking the fight to the enemy. It’s just a natural progression of the story line. What creates the problem is how confused the game has become about just who/what those enemies are.
While RE6 has arguably more fan service in terms of its enemies, plot points and intertwined scenarios than both 4 and 5 combined, the definition of it’s core adversaries has become a confused and muddled mess. The new C-virus infused J’avo featured in both Chris and Jake’s respective campaigns.
While it’s fantastic that there’s a virus back in play and the Plagas is long gone, its memory lingers in the intelligence and behavior of these creatures. Despite being capable of quite alarming mutations, these guys are basically the exact same Las Plagas style shit heads with a different coat of paint. That’s why certain elements of this game, while being closer to what I want from the series progression as a whole, still feel tainted and bogged down.
As it stands in terms of the story line thus far, it doesn’t seem plausible that this element (highly intelligent enemies) could be easily done away with since it has become such a core element of the game play and overarching narrative. If Resident Evil is ever going to be Resident Evil again, that’s exactly what they’re going to have to do.
As much as it pains me to say this, the only way this series is ever going to be representative of the fear and unease inspired by earlier RE titles, is if the current story line is completely scrapped. Either that, or continue it with a new set of protagonists. But even that route wouldn’t be advisable as the enemies have become so confused over the years, not to mention the style of game play, which lacks the dynamic angles necessary for RE‘s particular brand of horror.
It would be my hope that this new reworked HD version of the original Resident Evil remake, which even in it’s original 2002 incarnation is easily the best game in the series, can be a jumping off point for restarting this whole damn saga. Resident Evil 7? No thanks. How about we start thinking about Resident Evil 2 instead. But next time the number 4 comes around; let’s not try to reinvent the wheel.
Clark Thompson is a 31-year-old horror fanatic currently residing in Kelowna B.C. His main goals in life are to one day experience a zombie apocalypse and/or undergo surgery to have his heart mounted on the exterior of his chest. You can reach him at clarkthomspon@yahoo.ca or on facebook Clorkwork Torange.
