Capcom has been absolutely knocking it out of the park recently. In the last few years, Capcom has seemed almost incapable of producing a bad video game, withMonster Hunter WorldandMonster Hunter Riseboth being some of the best entries in franchise history,Devil May Cry 5being the rejuvenation the series desperately needed, and most recently,Street Fighter 6putting the franchise back on top of the fighting game world. But, of course, Capcom’s most successful ventures of the last few years have been itsResident Evilsequels and remakes.
Selling over 12 million copies since its launch in 2017,Resident Evil 7: Biohazardushered ina brand-new era for theResident Evilfranchise, an era that’s still very much in its heyday.Resident Evil 7was quickly followed by a remake ofResident Evil 2in 2019, which saw even greater critical success, and the franchise has continued to bounce between those two areas ever since, releasing a sequel, then a remake or two, then another sequel. But while theResident Evilremakes have mostly been huge hits both critically and commercially, there’s one big element that they’re lacking which the new entries have in spades.
RELATED:How the Zelda Franchise Could Benefit From Resident Evil’s Model
The Resident Evil Remakes Aren’t As High Stakes As New Entries
For the most part,theResident Evilremakeshave been phenomenal.Resident Evil 2Remakemanaged to retain the essence of the original while completely overhauling the gameplay and visuals,Resident Evil 4 Remakemanaged to double down and improve upon practically every element of the original, and thoughResident Evil 3 Remakecertainly has its issues, it still looks and plays great. At their worst, theResident Evilremakes are fun action games that respect their source material at every turn, and at their best, they redefine what the modern-day horror genre can be.
But theResident Evilremakes aren’t perfect, and there’s one big area that the recentResident Evilsequels outperform them in, which is stakes. With many fans having already played the original versions of theseResident Evilgames, they likely remember all the major plot beats, and possibly even when they occur in the story. This means that many players already know if a character is going to die, and potentially even how, why, and when. Naturally, this can strip quite a bit of tension away from the experience.
Though theResident Evilremakes do try to switch things up to help this issue, they mostly retain the same major plot points as their original versions. For instance, inthe recentResident Evil 4 Remake, the time, place, and circumstance of Luis' death is altered, but he does still die, just like in the original. Those that have already played the original game will have been waiting for that death to happen, and probably wouldn’t feel the intended impact of the scene quite as much as those who have never playedResident Evil 4before. The stakes of theResident Evilremakes are set in stone long before they even hit store shelves.
NewResident Evilentries, however, have a chance to really catch players off guard and deliver some of the highest stakes in the entire franchise by presenting players with completely new stories where anything is possible. For example, the opening ofResident Evil 7sees Ethan Winters lose his hand suddenly in an incredibly intense sequence. This tension and fear that anything can happen carries through toResident Evil Village, with its own opening sequence showingChris Redfield shooting Mia. High stakes are an important tool for horror video games, and futureResident Evilsequels should lean even further into it, possibly even teasing that legacy characters aren’t safe from the chopping block either.
MORE:How a Chris-Led Resident Evil 9 Could Still Stay Grounded in Horror
