Turning it up to eleven

These days the Resident Evil franchise is all about fist-pumping action, but that hasn't always been the case. Those of you old enough to remember the early PSone days will recall the series being much slower and, arguably, atmospheric. It’s a format that fans still long for, but according to Resident Evil Revelations director, Masachika Kawata, survival horror just doesn’t make sense in the current video gaming climate.

He told Gamasutra:

For the North American market, I think the series needs to head in that [action-oriented] direction. Resident Evil 4 started in that direction, and Resident Evil 5 kept going in that direction. And I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further.

Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games] ... the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell. A “survival horror” Resident Evil doesn't seem like it'd be able to sell those kind of numbers.

The bigger issue, as far as we can see, is the industry being completely obsessed with achieving Call of Duty numbers. A survival horror Resident Evil might not be able to compete with Activision’s mega franchise, but we’re sure it would still post respectable figures of its own.

That said, we like the look of Resident Evil 6 which, judging from the trailer, seems to strike a decent balance between RE4’s tension and RE5’s action.

How about you, reader, would you like to see Resident Evil return to its roots or continue in the direction it’s headed?

[source gamasutra.com]