Resident Evil Revelations, the first RE game to be released in 2012, will be exclusive to Nintendo’s newest handheld system, the 3DS. Set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and 5, Revelations follows series mainstay Jill Valentine and her new partner as they search for Chris Redfield on a derelict cruise ship. Revelations will feature several new gadgets, including “Genesis” scanning equipment that analyzes enemy weaknesses and uncovers hidden items. More importantly, the game will (thankfully) return to the series’ roots: survival-horror. Capcom has promised a scarier, more claustrophobic experience – something that resembles the first installments of Resident Evil, not the more recent titles. In fact, for the first time ever in a Resident Evil game, players can explore underwater areas, no doubt teeming with terrifying creatures.
For those who care less about inventory management and ammo conservation and more about non-stop action and cooperative play, look no further than Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (ORC), one of the most ambitious and original RE games yet. ORC takes place in September 1998, during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. However, the similarities end there. In ORC, players control one of six unique members of Umbrella Security Services, the Special Forces unit ordered to destroy evidence of the T-Virus outbreak and kill all survivors, including one of the two heroes of Resident Evil 2, Leon S. Kennedy. In Operation Raccoon City, you are the bad guy.
Unlike earlier titles, ORC is a team-based shooter; players work as a team to accomplish goals and earn experience. The campaign mode features both single-player and four-player cooperative play.
Then there's Resident Evil 6, announced just last week. Details are scarce, but it appears that both Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy will be playable characters, a series first. From the trailer, Leon's trials look to be more in line with the gameplay in Revelations – spooky, suspenseful, nerve-shredding – while Chris' adventures in China more closely resemble scenes from Gears of War or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Hiroyuki Kobayashi, head of the development team behind RE6, stated in a Capcom press release:
"From the outset the team’s intention was to create an experience that delivers a gripping storyline, tense single-player and co-op action all set against a constant theme of horror. We are calling this fusion dramatic horror and are confident it will resonate with both existing fans of the series as well as newcomers.”Fans of Resident Evil might as well get used to "dramatic horror" because this seems to be where Capcom wants the series to go.
Release schedule:
Resident Evil: Revelations
Nintendo 3DS
February 7, 2012
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Xbox 360/PS3
March 20, 2012
Resident Evil 6
Xbox 360/PS3
November 20, 2012
Recently, I had a battle of a conversation with a Gamestop employee over the best RE game thus far. He said RE3...really?!?! So it influenced some novels and comics nobody has read, and jump started the "why did they make these movies" film franchise. A bad game spawned more bad franchises.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, RE4 is the best and saved the franchise. Capcom put the story aside and concentrated on what made a great RE game..and they nailed it! RE5 was trying to continue the success of RE4 with new consoles, and almost made it (to be the best thus). I am VERY excited to see how they bring games 1 though 5 all together with these upcoming titles. It's an exciting time to be a fan!
Couldn't agree more. Resident Evil 4 is by far the best game in the series, and one of the finest games to be released in the past decade.
DeleteAre you guys worried at all that RE:6 is too wide in its scope? They want to combine vastly different types of gameplay (which worked well for individual titles) onto one disc. If not handled correctly, pacing would be a huge issue.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very worried about the scope of Resident Evil 6. I think the game will play out like Code: Veronica, where several divergent story lines (and characters) ultimately intersect and interact. Leon's adventures APPEAR to be more in line with Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3, but I'm starting to worry that they will be similar to the action in Resident Evil 5, only on a smaller scale. In other words, the two types of gameplay may not be as different as advertised. Either way, Capcom has invested a lot of time and money into RE6 -- it appears to be the biggest and most workforce-intensive Resident Evil yet -- so that's reason for optimism.
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