Last week the maker’s of some of our favorite video game series, Capcom, announced that they will be releasing a new game in the Resident Evil franchise (or Bio Hazard as it is known by our Japanese friends). They revealed their plans through a beautifully cinematic trailer, which had this survival horror nut crying out with joy. This trailer has given the glimmer of hope that the games will return to their suspenseful and dramatic past. As the series has evolved it has strayed further and further from what truly made it great. Zombies. Those clumsy, shambling, piles of rotting flesh which seemed so harmless until they appeared suddenly from a corner off screen, lunging at you and forcing you to scramble with the controls to escape. Those were the creatures that made us fall in love with Resident Evil. It’s why I have continued to buy every zombie movie and game I can get my fangirl hands on.
Now they are back, in all their rancid glory. The trailer shows a new city, Tall Oaks, which has fallen to a zombie plague much like Raccoon City before it. There are fires and panic, and most importantly, zombies. There will be some other familar faces as well. Two of the characters who have been major in the development of the R.E. plot are finally going to meet. Chris Redfield, original STARS agent from the very first game, and Leon S. Kennedy, newbie RPD office from the second game will meet for the first time over the ruins of another infected city. These two men have been at the heart of this franchise (along with their female counterparts Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield) since the beginning. It’s about time they finally ran into eachother.
There will, of course, be new additions to the series, in the form of a young mercenary who may hold the key to saving humanity from the zombie plague. Along with new characters, we may be seeing new gameplay options and abilities as well. Something that has long been missing from the games has been hand to hand or melee combat. Other than a combat knife, there haven’t been many options for players who find themselves trapped without bullets in the game. This appears to no longer be the case, as the trailer demonstrates characters using smooth close combat techniques to defeat zombie foes. Resident Evil games have toyed with multiplayer options and co-op in the past, but they have never been as center stage as they appear in this game. Speculations as to the exact numbers abound on the internet, but it appears that the new game will feature 2 person co-op and multiplayer options offline, and up to 6 co-op and 8 multiplayer online. So you and all your friends can band together to beat down the zombie hordes!
The trailer itself reveals a lot more than just the characters, graphics, and gameplay, though. It shows that Capcom has been listening to their fans and they are taking this seriously. They understand that consumers have a lot emotionally invested in this ongoing story, and they are paying attention when we tell them we want the horror back in our survival horror. The trailer seems more like a full-on action/horror movie trailer than something put together for a video game. The sounds are crisp and show detailed thought and planning to scenes. It has raised my hopes that this game may be as epic as Resident Evil 2 was when it came out back in 1998. Watch the trailer and see for yourself. Let us know what you think, are you excited for the zombie revival?
