Resident Evil 5 and Mercenaries 2

[Trion]

I guess because they won't be coming out for a while people aren't really talking about RE5 and Merc 2 but I always felt that the first Merc was really overlooked for such a great game. Is anybody else as excited as me about Resident Evil 5 coming out? I am not even one of those fanboys that care about the series turning away from "horror" to more action oriented because quite frankly the scariest one was the first RE and then it just got easy to tolerate. Now in regards to Merc 2 I can't wait to wreak some havoc on Hugo Chavez's country so I can seek out the fat bastard and blow him to smithereens. Speaking of political controversy, people keep whining about RE5 being racist as it is going to be taken place in Africa this time around and Chris is pretty much killing black zombies all day long according to the trailer. My response is very simple, where was the crying in RE4 when you were killing spanish zombies all day long? I guess we apply different standards to different people, or it coul d be the fact that Africa has had alot of problems with mass killings in recent years but nevertheless.

 

[Alpharoth]

People forgotten that for the last 10 games(was it 10?) we have been killing white zombies.

 

[Dopples]

RE5 will be great, cause it'll be RE4, but with a real badass, not a wanna-be badass(How lame are you if all of your lines come from cheap, 80's action movies). Also, I hear Jill Valentine is getting a makeover, and is gonna be playable as well. Either that, or Sherry.

 

[Trion]

Oh I didn't know about that but thanks for the update =D

 

[CERU]

I really wish the series would just die instead of capcom raping it like this. :/

 

[Dopples]

I really wish the series would just die instead of capcom raping it like this. :/

How is making the series better raping it? As a horror series, RE sucked compared to Silent Hill, but now they are different enough from eachother to not have to compete anymore.

That said, I will say RE2 was pretty awesome.

 

[Marcus]

People forgotten that for the last 10 games(was it 10?) we have been killing white zombies.

You don't kill zombies in RE4 or RE5, you kill plagued living people.

 

[CERU]

I really wish the series would just die instead of capcom raping it like this. :/

How is making the series better raping it? As a horror series, RE sucked compared to Silent Hill, but now they are different enough from eachother to not have to compete anymore.

That said, I will say RE2 was pretty awesome.

How did RE suck compared to silent hill? Their approaches were simply different. The storyline of silent hill is superior to resident evil, but gameplay-wise it really wasn't any better. I don't know what you're saying about competition, because RE was always more popular than Silent Hill, even though Silent Hill was superior to Resident Evil in its storyline.

What I'm talking about is the new style of RE, which is 90% action with 10% survival horror, a plot that doesn't try, and characters that aren't true to themselves as far as previous game history goes.

 

[Dopples]

If it's of the same genre, it's competing with eachother. RE has been mocked for over a decade for it's cheesy dialouge, tank-like gameplay, and incredibly boring story (Excluding RE2 in the storyline department). Also, despite what you may think, SH is as popular, if not moreso than RE.  Besides having excellent graphics no matter which system it's on, it does what RE fails to do. Tell a truely horrifying tale while keeping you engrossed with an intricate backstory/story that is enforced with one of the best soundtracks ever made.

However, RE changing direction gives it the edge to be really great. As an action game, it allows itself to not take itself too seriously, yet is able to retain the corny dialouge and story. And that was the main highlight of RE.

 

[CERU]

Graphics: RE games have always boasted excellent graphics. The playstation titles still look excellent to this day, and the remake's graphics are stunning.

Story: RE is a continuing conspiracy story. Although it does have its silly points (CV), and its poor points (0), the majority of the plot is decent and interesting, especially 2, just as you noted. These games, tried for a decent story plot. They added depth to their story with the many archives that you find throughout the game. I find the plot of the games interesting and fun, because I enjoy a conspiracy story, or a story about genetically engineered twins - despite the fact that they're silly. 4 however, did not try. There were approximately .. maybe .. 5 archive files to expand upon the plot of the game? Except they didn't really expand upon it, they just kind of stated. it. I am not saying that the plot was ever as good as Silent Hill. Silent Hill's plot is amazing (or at least the first two). But just because Resident Evil doesn't have the same depth as Silent Hill (which it doesn't need to), doesn't mean that it should just stop trying.

As for the dialogue, the classic poor dialogue was mostly fixed by code veronica, except for 0 (0's plot is even worse than 4 because it tried and FAILED ... HORRIBLY). 4 has no excuse. Retains the plot? If the characters had different names, and maybe different physical appearances, there would be no indication that RE4 was a Resident Evil game. RE4's character's make no attempt to expand upon 2's story, and the relationships previously set up there, rather they pretend they don't exist. And furthermore, they turn the main character into a cardboard action hero, that feels the need to spew out cocky remarks every other line. Where Jill Valentine is busy questioning the nature of umbrella's mercenary involvement in raccoon city, Leon is ... saying cocky remarks. And thats about it.

Gameplay: Tank controls were the only downpoint of the old RE games, and the truth is, these control systems were largely necessary due to the dramatic camera angles and prerendered backgrounds. After about 15 minutes, you get used to it and the gameplay is solid. The previous RE games were survival horror games. Instead of shooting all the enemies you can see, you had to conserve your ammo and be smart. Think about how many herbs you have, how many bullets you have etc. In RE4, ammo and weapons are practically handed to you, as well as countless ridiculous upgrades to take the genre even farther than the genre "survival horror," a term INVENTED by the series itself! (though I find the new gameplay system fun as well).

I can see how RE4 can be a fun game. It is a fun game, albeit boring halfway through. I would actually like the game and support it if it were a seperate series. But it's not Resident Evil, the game that it claims to be. And now Resident Evil has established that its abandoning its "use your wits to survive" gameplay, and Silent Hill seems short to follow suit, especially after the original Team Silent is no more and its being handled by an American company, I am disappointed, because the unique gameplay approach I came to love is dying off. RE needed change yes, but not into something with hardly any remnants of what it used to be, a lot of which fans came to know and love about the series.

 

[Dopples]

Graphics: RE games have always boasted excellent graphics. The playstation titles still look excellent to this day, and the remake's graphics are stunning.

Story: RE is a continuing conspiracy story. Although it does have its silly points (CV), and its poor points (0), the majority of the plot is decent and interesting, especially 2, just as you noted. These games, tried for a decent story plot. They added depth to their story with the many archives that you find throughout the game. I find the plot of the games interesting and fun, because I enjoy a conspiracy story, or a story about genetically engineered twins - despite the fact that they're silly. 4 however, did not try. There were approximately .. maybe .. 5 archive files to expand upon the plot of the game? Except they didn't really expand upon it, they just kind of stated. it. I am not saying that the plot was ever as good as Silent Hill. Silent Hill's plot is amazing (or at least the first two). But just because Resident Evil doesn't have the same depth as Silent Hill (which it doesn't need to), doesn't mean that it should just stop trying.

As for the dialogue, the classic poor dialogue was mostly fixed by code veronica, except for 0 (0's plot is even worse than 4 because it tried and FAILED ... HORRIBLY). 4 has no excuse. Retains the plot? If the characters had different names, and maybe different physical appearances, there would be no indication that RE4 was a Resident Evil game. RE4's character's make no attempt to expand upon 2's story, and the relationships previously set up there, rather they pretend they don't exist. And furthermore, they turn the main character into a cardboard action hero, that feels the need to spew out cocky remarks every other line. Where Jill Valentine is busy questioning the nature of umbrella's mercenary involvement in raccoon city, Leon is ... saying cocky remarks. And thats about it.

Gameplay: Tank controls were the only downpoint of the old RE games, and the truth is, these control systems were largely necessary due to the dramatic camera angles and prerendered backgrounds. After about 15 minutes, you get used to it and the gameplay is solid. The previous RE games were survival horror games. Instead of shooting all the enemies you can see, you had to conserve your ammo and be smart. Think about how many herbs you have, how many bullets you have etc. In RE4, ammo and weapons are practically handed to you, as well as countless ridiculous upgrades to take the genre even farther than the genre "survival horror," a term INVENTED by the series itself! (though I find the new gameplay system fun as well).

I can see how RE4 can be a fun game. It is a fun game, albeit boring halfway through. I would actually like the game and support it if it were a seperate series. But it's not Resident Evil, the game that it claims to be. And now Resident Evil has established that its abandoning its "use your wits to survive" gameplay, and Silent Hill seems short to follow suit, especially after the original Team Silent is no more and its being handled by an American company, I am disappointed, because the unique gameplay approach I came to love is dying off. RE needed change yes, but not into something with hardly any remnants of what it used to be, a lot of which fans came to know and love about the series.

First of all, I would like to state that that Team Silent has never left. They're just busy with another title at the moment, so SH:0 and SH5 were outsource to VERY capable companies (At least SH:0 was. I'm having doubts about SH5). Also, RE didn't invent Survival Horror. Alone in the Dark did (And to an extent, Clock Tower as well). The graphics were great for it's time, I never said they weren't. And about the story (the lack of involvement in the main story RE4 had), RE2 before it had as little involvement as RE4, though RE4 at least gave us a clue as to what's causing the outbreak in Haiti (RE5). The closest we got to some kind of revealing on future events in RE2, was a file mentioning Nemesis.


And everyone knows that RE3 was pretty much a low point for the series. Even lower than Outbreak or Code Veronica. Also, 0 wasn't bad. I loved it, though that may have been because I've wanted more Rebecca screen time.

 

[CERU]

I know that RE didn't invent it, it coined the term. There was no "survival horror" genre before RE called it. RE2 having as little involvement as RE4? Let's look at this:

(or you could just take it from the fact that Resident Evil 4 contains 9 plot/puzzle related archives whereas RE2 contains 22 plot/puzzle related archives. And the archives in RE2 are in fact often longer than the ones in RE4. But you can also look at the plots themselves):

Depth of RE2: RE2 established that there was  a significant amount of disorder and confusion within the police station, as they tried to fight the creatures off. Weapons and ammunition were moved to inconvient places causing the police force to lose the battle at an increased rate. Furthermore, the police chief, who happens to be a rapist who the secretary feels threatened by, is going around killing people so that they may not leave and let the secret out of the conspiracy between he police chief and umbrella corporation. Meanwhile there is a strange creature lurking about, William Birkin who injected himself with the G virus after umbrella tried to take it from him. His wife runs around trying to stop those who she feels are taking his legacy. He searches for his daughter so he can implant his embryos into her. Ada Wong meanwhile is looking for her boyfriend John, who she secretly got close to in order to find out more of umbrella's secrets. What she's really looking for is the G virus, which sherry possesses but she doesn't know it. As for our hero's, Claire enters town to find Chris but learns that he's gone to Europe. Claire is strong willed woman with a caring side to her as she manages to escape the precinct with Sherry. Leon is a rookie cop, trying to get out of the city who is very naive and easily manipulated by Ada. But strangely, Ada grows to love Leon even though she knows she must use him to obtain the G Virus. Eventually this leads to her pointing her gun at leon, before being shot and falling into the abyss. They loved each other, and the only thing she wanted was to escape from her lifestyle as a spy and be with him, but she couldn't. As for Sherry and Claire, Claire fills the place as the mother Sherry "never had," as her parents were always busy working at the "chemical plant." The 3 escape the city and vow to take down umbrella (which they never do because capcom felt the need to kill the series early). There is of course, more to the storyline than this in the various archives and notes.

Depth of RE4: Leon is now a secret agent sent to find Princess PEach, err I mean ... Ashley. He discoveres that the villagers of this spanish town are not what they seem and there are strange creatures lurking inside them, which seemt o be parasites. There are some crazy creatures in the lake and in the town as well. But nobody knows why they're the way they are. Leon discovers that there is a religous cult of sorts in the spanish village. They parasites into people, including him and Ashley. Krauser is a guy Leon had a history with and he's bad. He has the las plagas in him. Ada and Leon meet each other from time to time, but there's no emotion between them because they're not Ada and Leon they're placeholders for "generic storyline x." Leon has a showdown with Krauser eventually. Leon and Ashley escape, getting rid of the las plagas in their bodies. Wesker is still around and he was looking for Las Plagas. He, Ada, and Krauser were working for a secret organization. There is little to no more storyline than this. There are literally almost no archives and notes.

RE3 was not a low point, but it was not a high point. It was a very good game, however and thats why it earned the "3" title. I've never hear anyone consider it to be a low point. And its one of the few games that was actually scripted well, ... for the most part. Jill's powerful lines in the game were delivered very well by her voice actress, she's a figher! Code Veronica is a fairly popular game, so I'm not sure what you are talking about. It was popular enough to warrent a rerelease to the PS2 with extra cutscenes and enhanced graphics (I think), which people also bought. Also, the outbreak games were very good, but very hard (especially if you're not hooked up to the internet like me).

0, however, was poor, not because of Hamasaki Ayumi, I mean errr .. Rebecca Chambers and not because of Billy Coen, but because of the shitty plot, and silly anime feel to the game. A man singing with long hair summoning leeches does not fit in Resident Evil, for the same reason RE4's scepter mind control doesn't belong in Resident Evil. This psuedo supernatural is not BIIIOOOHAAAZZARRD. 0 could have been good, because the gameplay was decent, and it was certainly a pretty game, but the plot killed it. The only games that I know to be unpopular are the very very first game, unless you can laugh, and 0. And 4, with a lot of Resident Evil fans, but inversely, its insanely popular with those who aren't.

I hope you're right about Team Silent, because I looked it up and there seem to be conflicting stories. Yes they have, no they haven't. The majority seems to say they have, which is probably likely after the movie that was released.