Resident Evil Shouldn't Leave The First-Person Perspective Behind
Resident Evil was fading into obscurity before the release of its seventh mainline instalment. The once unstoppable survival horror franchise had been worn down by years of mediocrity and a publisher who seemingly had no idea what to do with it.
But a willingness to embrace a new gameplay perspective and lean into influences ranging from The Blair Witch Project to True Detective allowed the series to enact a second coming, with its place in the cultural landscape now more pronounced than it’s ever been, at least post-Resident Evil 4.
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Biohazard was a massive success, and more importantly, it was visually and mechanically fresh while refusing to depend on past successes to draw us in. Existing characters were imagined in new ways while terms like Umbrella, Raccoon City, and T-Virus felt like relics of the past. While I think fighting off giant tar monsters grew tiresome in the third act and The Baker Estate was easily the game’s strongest point, it was filled with so many smart ideas that were simply begging to be built upon.
Resident Evil Village did exactly that, but it also abandoned its more serious horror in favour of B-movie thrills and villains we couldn’t take seriously. Lady Dimitrescu was a big vampire mommy we wanted to step on us, Heisenberg was a cringe-inducing old man with a funny voice, while the baby chase sequence wasn’t nearly as scary as the internet made it out to be. Village was an undeniable rollercoaster ride, but was leaning into the series’ history instead of pushing forward, and that’s a big ol’ shame.
It even failed to make use of the first-person perspective when it came to emphasise certain moments and the expression of tone and
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