You may be wondering "What zombie game is big enough to warrant a whole separate entry?" That's easy, Biohazard. For those unfamiliar, Biohazard (Or 'Resident Evil' as it is known in the west.) is a historic game that is often labelled as the father of survival horror. Whilst that isn't quite true (the 'Alone in the Dark' and 'Clocktower' series' predate it.) we can certainly credit Capcom for perfecting the formula. Every single entry had innovated in both storytelling and zombie design, to the point where I feel I need to cover each mainline entry. This way we'll be able to track the progression of the zombie aesthetic as dictated through the genre leader. So let's go all the way back to 1996 and start at the beginning.
Resident Evil/ Biohazard
Seeing as how the game was made back in 1996, you could reasonably deduce that the game's models aren't the prettiest in the world. The models are all blocky and rudimentary and they move more like stiff puppets actual humans. However, this doesn't mean that the zombies themselves still aren't intimidating. Capcom's Rotted feature the greyish skin that we are used to and shuffle around, arms raised and moaning. It is easy to see the classic Romero influences for these zombies. However, Resident Evil is renowned for not just sticking to zombified humans, so we have even more designs to consider. The, aforementioned, zombie dogs are one of the more impressive entities. Aside from appearing through one of the most effective and memorable jumpscares in gaming, these monsters manage to unnerve with their bloody coats and superficial skin damage. Those Doberman look as mangy as they do viscous. Then there are the Hunters, who look like the love-child between the Battletoads and Wolverine; Plant 42, which is a plant and the Tyrant, who is big bald and has a razor blade for an arm. Series fans may be able to see the genesis of some of the weird and wonderful zombie designs that would follow in the later games.
Resident Evil 2
Two years later in 1998, Capcom delivered the sequel to the original surprise hit. Development woes and design reworks meant that some people were doubtfull whether or not this game could live up to the success of the original. Little did they know, Resident Evil 2 would eclipse all other Capcom victories to become their most successful and celebrated game for years to come. Resident Evil 2 took the action away from Spencer Mansion, to the nearby locale of Raccoon City. There, players took control of either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield as they went toe-to-toe with a threat that completely eclipsed the Mansion incident. The total meltdown of a small city due to the mass release of the G-Virus. The protagonists are tasked with navigating through an old museum-turned-police-station, as they slowly unravel the conspiracy behind the outbreak and work to expose the pharmaceutial company Umbrella. This game was dripping with atmosphere, action and memorable side characters like Ada Wong and Sherry Birkin. It was also lush with a lot more zombies.
The tech available to Capcom at the time of the original was much approved upon by the time they came around to the sequel. This meant that they could work to bring more zombies to the screen then they ever had before. Instead of just 3 zombies, we could have triple that amount at once. This was essential for depicting a city turned to ruin, especially in that opening scene in which players are forced to flee from an onslaught of shambling undead. The models themselves are much more varied than the last game's offering. Zombies can appear with all-new structural damage, mimicking some of the more audacious makeup affects from zombie movies. More influence was placed upon the action element too, meaning that players received a few setpeice moments like the chase scene with the giant alligator. The Tyrant was also improved upon. Instead of the underpants wearing boss from Resident Evil 1; this new Tyrant wore a black trench coat with a matching hat and, crucially, was not limited to a couple of boss arenas near the end. Indeed, you won't have gone very far in the game before you find yourself stalked by this unkillable powerhouse. Mr. X (As he is known) lends to the overarching dread that players feel even when revisiting areas that they knew well, you never know when X could be just around the corner. "But what about the gross bosses?" I hear you cry. "That's my favourite part!". Resident Evil 2 has us covered in that department with the beast known as G. A huge fleshy, eyeball covered, monster who rapidly evolves throughout the course of the game. His final form, as a gelatinous toothy maw, still gives me chills.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
The star of Resident Evil 3 is undoubtedly the Nemesis. This Frankenstein reject popped up on all the marketing and screenshots and even got his mug on the front cover, so it was clear the Capcom was proud of him. And they have a right to be, afterall, he has earned his place in the hall of video game monster fame. Nemesis' most striking feature is his patchwork face that hearkens back to the flesh mask of Leatherface, another horror icon. He sports a heavy trench coat, several protruding tubes and enough mental acuity to wield a rocket launcher. (I feel like the definition of 'Zombie' got a little bit muddled.) Players would find themselves facing Nemesis at points throughout of story wherein they can either run or fight him off; Nothing seems to kill him but at least you have the opportunity to hold him back. This choice carried over onto the narrative, wherein you had moments to make split second decisions about where to go in the face of danger. By the time you reach the final encounter, you have built up enough of a history with the beast to really enjoy it when you watch him get blown to smithereens.
Resident Evil 0/1
In 2002, Capcom were finally ready to release another game, but this wasn't the long awaited Resident Evil 4, but a prequel dating back to before the first game. Some people were dissatisfied with the Hollywood action of Resident Evil 2 & 3, and they wanted the franchise to go back to it's scary roots. Capcom agreed to heading this direction and we ended up with Resident Evil 0. In this game, players were reintroduced to S.T.A.R.S' youngest operative Rebbecca Chambers, as she and escaped convict Billy Coen find themselves on a zombie infested train. Players take control of both protagonists as they make their way back to Spencer Mansion and through the Umbrella labs to discover the origins behind the Progenitor Virus. But that wasn't all that happened in 2002. You see Capcom, perhaps realizing how dated Resident Evil 1 looked, also decided to completely remake the original with shiny new assets, controls, monsters and voice acting. (No more "Jill sandwich".) They even tried to make the story intelligible. 'Tried' being the operative word there.
With the leap forward to the Gamecube, Capcom had the hardware to bring their zombies to life with unmatched fidelity. This time around the polygonal models actually resembled the shape of humans and the zombies improved accordingly. Chewed up faces and desiccated corpses were everywhere now as Capcom went nuts in proving how detailed they could make their iconic zombies. They even went so far as to introduce a new, unkillable monster, to the original game. Lisa Trevor is a hunched, lanky creature with a patchwork face reminiscent of the Nemesis. You can hear her in the early game, wailing from the basement, before she ambushes you at the sheds. Many still remember the sounds of dragging chains as Lisa stalked them through the caves in the later game.
Resident Evil 4
It wouldn't be until 2005 when we would finally see the continuation of the Resident Evil story. Resident Evil 4. Fans were eager to find out what sort of game they would receive, would it follow the horror roots of the original or lean towards the action that the later games embraced. No one expected the type of game that actually released. Resident Evil 4 was weird. Weider than anyone could have anticipated. Taking place in an undisclosed European country, players are put back in control of series favourite: Leon Kennedy, as he tries to track down the trail of the president's kidnapped daughter. Resident Evil 4 completely ditched the puzzle solving, backtracking elements of previous games to tell a more adventurous story that doubled down on the weirder elements of Resident Evil. That means more eccentric villains, mutated monstrosities and the return of Ada Wong. (Conspicuously not dead despite the events of Resident Evil 2.) Although the one element that I find strange even now is their approach to the zombies.
Or rather, the lack of Zombies. Resident Evil 4 ditches the traditional flesh eaters in favour of a game full of weird village cultists who worship 'Los Illuminados'. This means that instead of fighting shambling Walkers, players end up facing off against shambling farmers and one guy with a chainsaw. If you think this means that you won't see any outlandish beings then worry not, Resident Evil 4 has plenty in that department too. There comes a point nearing the end of the first act, when players will notice a villager's head explode into a tentacle. This is the game's signal to get weird. From then you'll fight a troll, a lake monster, this cloaked mantis monster called Verdugo (Who has one of the scarier scenes in the game.) and the heavy breathing Regenerators who... are just really unsettling. That isn't even counting the series stable transformation sequences. Resident Evil 4 has three! First there is the annoying count Salazar who becomes... I don't even know what that is. Then there is Jack Krauser who gets a sword arm and Saddler who becomes a- praying mantis? Body horror was never so surreal as when Capcom got ahold of it.
Resident Evil 5
Four years later in 2009, fans would be treated to Resident Evil 5. The previous game had been another runaway hit, bringing in an entirely new demographic of fan that came with their own expectations about what a Resident Evil game should be. Perhaps this was the first time when Capcom started to realize how much their fan base tugged in different directions, how could they realistically please such a wildly diverse audience? For the time being, they decided to stick with the formula they constructed in 4 with the tonally confused 5th entry. This time player's were put back in the shoes of original protagonist Chris Redfield with his new partner Sheva Alomar. Through co-op or alone, players would travel across an unspecified region of Africa in search of the cause of another outbreak. This would lead players into another tale about the misdeeds of Umbrella, capping off with the surprise return of two series favourites: Jill Valentine and Albert (I swear this guy has already died twice.) Wesker. The game was a very mixed offering with spotty AI and a lack of thematic consistency, but personally I forgive all simply for the scene where Chris punches a boulder in half with his bare hands. True genius.
Resident Evil 5 expands on the 'tentacle beast' type of monster from the last game. This time the locals had these gross mouth flaps that would stretch out and try to wrap around the players face in close combat. At this point the game's had almost entirely veered away from traditional zombies and moved into general horror monsters. These guys were suffering from a malignant parasite, not a mild case of reanimation. Despite that, we did get some more of the classic zombie animals to make us afraid of our four-legged brethren once again and some big impressive boss monster too. This is the point where Resident Evil's monster stop being imaginatively grotesque and just started becoming unrecognizable bulbous messes. One them flew, one of them was a sort of Kraken, but non of them were memorable. Most fans just remember the matrix-inspired Albert Wesker fight and the follow-up in the volcano at the end. Classic fans came away a little disappointed with the offer, but not to worry, things couldn't get any worse than that, could they?
Resident Evil 6
In 2012, things got worse. Capcom buckled under the pressure of being pulled every which way by their fanbase and puked out a complete mess of a game. No one on the development team had any idea what direction to take, so someone had the bright idea to follow every direction at once. Resident Evil 6 has 3 separate campaigns, (and a secret 4th one) each followed a different storyline with different protagonists and a different theme. You have the Leon plot thread wherein you encountered traditional zombies in a horror-like setting that weakly tried to capture the atmosphere of the original game and appeal to traditional fans; Then was the Chris campaign, which had the characters fighting against gun toting pseudo-zombies in an adrenaline-fueled sprint that wanted to snap up the shooter crowd; and finally there was Sherry Birkin's campaign which was designed to appeal to... fans of punch'em'ups? Was that a thing in the Resident Evil community? Was there a successful branch of resi-themed fighting games that passed me by? Whatever the reason, someone saw fit to throw that into this smorgasbord of a product. In the story you... I can't remember. There were 3 whole different plot threads that took place at different times, all over the world. I couldn't keep track of what was happening. I completely forgot Rebbecca Chambers showed up until I researched for this blog. All I can remember is Leon and newcomer Deborah Harper finding the President killed, Chris shooting things, Ada Wong being vague and mysterious and Sherry being... Ellie from The Last of Us without the heart.
Due to the game being so confused on what direction to take, there sure are a lot of different types of zombies to talk about. Although, none of them are new or different. Leon's zombies had more structural damage then we had ever seen before, sometimes with entire chunks of the face missing, but Chris' zombies were essentially just the same guys from Resident Evil 5 just with ballistic armour on. Sherry and Jack's zombies were literally just people in masks; you could have called that portion of the game Streets of rage 5 and no one would have called you out. Even in the horror sections, the Zombies seemed a lit more mobile than one would expect from beings known as 'walking dead'. I remember some zombies launching themselves through the air like acrobats. (Apparently rigor mortis does wonders for your athletics!) Resident Evil 5 certainly had some of most authentic looking zombies of any game to date, but they were woefully underutilized in an underwhelming outing. I remember hearing a story about some boardroom executive saying that they wanted 'Resident Evil' to be spoken about in the same breadth as 'Call of Duty'. Well, if we're talking about franchises that ran out of steam, then he certainly got his wish. Resident Evil 6 underperformed and the franchise went on hiatus for 5 years.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
In 2016, Capcom went back to the drawing board and tried to return to their horror routes for their next outing. Fans were treated to a couple of demos that tried to capture the popularity of PT and fill the void from the recently cancelled Silent Hills. Neither demo captured the ingenuity of Kojima's PT, but they did build up anticipation for a return to form for the Resident Evil franchise. On January 24th, 2017 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard released. (Or 'Biohazard 7: Resident Evil' in Japan.) This time the game was completely in first person and came with a big focus on personal body horror, the kind that really gives me the shivers. Thematically, the game borrowed heavily from modern Hollywood horror movies with the whole, stuck in the middle of nowhere with a creepy family, premise; but Capcom managed to put all those lazy Hollywood duds to shame with their mastery over atmosphere. Resident Evil 7 went right back to basics, setting the action in one location like with the original, having the woefully unprepared protagonist scrounge about for resources and ensuing that players never felt safe anywhere they went with relocating enemies. This time players had to survive the Baker's family ranch as they tried desperately to find a missing loved one and uncover the secret of the weird goings-on in Louisiana.
Capcom veered away from the armies of zombies and focused on the horror surrounding the Baker family. The Bakers all appear to be human but harbor some sort of parasitic entity that makes them unique. Jack is semi-indestructible and incredibly powerful, able to walk through walls and take a car to the chest. Marguerite is... she has... there's these bees... and then she turns all long and skinny... she's weird. Then there is Jack who has an unhealthy obsession with jigsaw-style death traps. As I said, All of these beings appear human but their abilities make them anything but. And thanks to the brand new RE:Engine, us players were able to take advantage to that to gruesome effect. Jack may not go down to a bullet to the face, but the bullet still pierces his skin and leaves a mark. For the first time players could actually see the effect of live structural damage on their enemies, rendered in a realistic fashion. Just imagine what that technology would look like rendered on a traditional zombie! Oh right, there's also the 'Molded' monsters, but they're not really worth remembering.
RE: 2
All the way back in March of this year, Capcom debuted their next outing and much to everyone's surprise, it wasn't Resident Evil 8. Many were worried when the last outing failed to hit sales figures, they thought that it might be the end of Resident Evil, or at least the end of their plan to return to horror. Seems they were wrong on both counts, it just signalled Capcom to change their approach and try their hand at the Disney model for success. And so we received RE:2, a completely fresh remake of Resident Evil 2 in the RE:Engine. Capcom wanted to reignite the passion for Resident Evil by returning to the entry that sparked off the fervour in the first place. And it was good. It was very good. I am not usually a huge fan of horror games but I personally rank RE:2 on my list of my top ten favourite games of all time. It deftly handles dread and action in a world that looks and feels beautiful. Survival horror has never been done as well as Resident Evil 1 & 2 and the RE:2 project managed to capture that illusive charm perfectly and translate it into the modern age. And I haven't even mentioned the zombies themselves yet.
Much of video gaming zombie culture has been formed and shaped by the Resident Evil games. The fact that the trope still isn't completely played like it honestly should be, is because of franchises like Resident Evil that keep coming back and keeping it fresh. I jokingly rib Capcom for forgetting what zombies looked like during games 4-6, but in truth this was just the way that they managed to keep the subject matter scary whilst continuing the same story. Now we've gone full circle and have gone back traditional movie zombies, only now games have come to realize them better than the movies can. It honestly makes me intensely excited to see what the future holds for zombies and The Resident Evil franchise. We may not even have to wait too long to catch a glimpse. This morning. news broke that Capcom are looking for ambassadors to playtest a new, unspecified, Resident Evil game. (News that wasn't out when I started this article yesterday.) Could this be the rumored Nemesis remake, or perhaps Resident Evil 8? No one knows yet, but we all wait with baited breath. We can't wait to see what undeath has in store.
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