The Resident Evil franchise has evolved multiple times, much like one of its infamous bosses that you have to blow up with a rocket launcher. For instance, while the new games come with modern camera controls, the original Resident Evil games (or is the plural Residents Evil?) had a fixed angle camera. The tradeoff for the slower and more awkward gameplay was a more deliberate framing of scenes, with each environment carefully set up to build maximum tension.
A new mod by alphaZomega takes the controls and framing of the first Resident Evil 2 (1998), and recreates it using Resident Evil 2 (2017). Instead of the camera hovering over Leon or Claire’s shoulder, there’s a series of 1700 fixed cameras put all over the game. When the player walks out of one frame, the point of view switches to another camera. It’s a novel and nostalgic interpretation of the game, and it looks great in action.
YouTuber Residence of Evil filmed a 15 minute showcase of the game, which shows off the merge between the two takes on Resident Evil 2.
The video shows a gameplay style that is much more claustrophobic and awkward to navigate, but some fans argue that the original systems are much scarier. Luckily, players do have a helping hand with this mod. The developer included the auto-aim from the original game as well, with a laser-pointer that snaps onto different body parts.
With a franchise as long enduring as Resident Evil, it’s natural that there would be different eras that form over time. The original PlayStation games still hold up, all this time later. There are newer and genuinely great games in the Resident Evil archive, but the original vision continues to endure among horror fans.
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