Resident Evil

- Resident Evil -
Resident Evil Fan
For anyone who wants to review, it looks like an insane amount of work went into this thesis.

What's to say about the Resident Evil franchise that hasn't already been said? It's the game that brought 'survival-horror' to the masses. While Capcom may not have technically invented the style of gaming, nor was it the first game to feature zombies, it was the first to really make an action based survival-horror game playable and popularized zombies within the gaming world for years to come.

I've been with the series from the very beginning. I own and have played through RE 0-4 (+Code Veronica).



People forget about Code Veronica and that it was one of the Dreamcasts great exclusives (it wasn't ported to the PS2 for another year and half). Personally I think they should have given Code Veronica the official "3" numerical value and RE 3 something else, like "Resident Evil: Code Rebecca", as RE 3 was more of a side-story than Code Veronica was and took place during the events of RE 2 featuring some of the same environments.

I popped the Gamecube RE (remake), RE 0, and RE 4 into my Wii to clear out some memory blocks on my GC memory card and ended up revisiting those games longer than I had planned. I really liked the Gamecube RE remake, and wish that Capcom would've given RE2 and RE3 the same treatment.

If you've never played Resident Evil, or haven't played it since it's Playstation debut, I highly recommend picking up the Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero remakes which have been re-released for the Wii under the 'Resident Evil Archives' moniker.

As for RE4, I don't know how anyone couldn't get into that game. It was terrific - and having 3 entirely seperate environments made it almost feel like 3 different games rolled into one lengthy adventure.

- Resident Evil 5 -
Release Date: March 13, 2009

The titular character Chris Redfield is back! Chris hasn't been the main playable character since the very first game, and as a secondary playable character 3/4's of the way through Code Veronica.

I do wonder how Resident Evil 5 stacks up in the creep factor. One thing about all the other RE games is that the environments alone were always traditionally & stereotypically creepy.

While I'm sure we're probably get our share of lab/factory/underground settings somewhere in RE5, it's the main village setting which raises doubts. I'm not saying a remote african village full of killer 'not zombies' can't be unsettling in it's own way, but it's out in the open and mostly from what I've seen takes place during sunlight hours. It seems more of a setting for a Tom Clancy game than your traditional Resident Evil fare. I guess you gotta give props to Capcom for not rehashing the same environs for the umpteenth time though.

As for downloadable content, an episode entitled "Lost In Nightmares" is due February 17th, stars Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, and takes place in a RE1 throwback-esque style mansion setting.
The second episode entitled "Desperate Escape" is due March 3 (no details have yet been made available about it's content).
Finally, Resident Evil 5 "Gold Edition" is going on sale March 9, and will contain the two episodes and some other extras. If you don't already own Resident Evil 5 (like myself), you might as well wait until the Gold Edition drops.

The only games I don't own/haven't played in the series are Resident Evil Outbreak I & II on the PS2,

the gun games - which are Survivor on the PSOne and Dead Aim (also known as Survivor 2) on the PS2,

and The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles both for the Wii.




- The Resident Evil Movies -

Resident Evil (Live Action)
The first live-action Resident Evil film starring Milla Jovovich is really the only salvagable film of the trilogy. They just get worse from there on in.
A fourth in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife, is set for 2011.
Resident Evil: Degeneration
I was impressed with Resident Evil: Degeneration. It features Leon (from RE2 and RE4) and Claire Redfield (from RE2 and Code: Veronica) and takes place after the events of Raccoon City. It has great graphics...errr uh CGI, and is much more in-line with the video game franchise than the increasingly bad live-action films starring Milla Jovovich.

It is also interesting to see what happened to the US after the events of Racoon City, as everything after RE2 and RE3 (Code: Veronica, RE4, RE5) has taken place in countries other than the good ole' US of A.

Resident Evil: Degeneration along with Final Fantasy: Advent Children (not Spirits Within, that movie was garbage) are great examples of how to do CGI movies based around video games right.