In the immortal words of Alan Partridge "Can I shock you?", I am a huge Resident Evil fan. (What!) You may have started to pick on that little personal nugget after I, during my piece on video game zombies, dedicated an entire blog towards their depiction in various RE properties. I really sealed the deal over the weekend, however, when I purchased 5 Resident Evil games in a mad game-buying spree. (Yeah, two of them were technically re-purchases of the 'HD edition', but the sentiment still stands.) So you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that Capcom had unveiled their newest Resident Evil game at Tokyo Games show. Which one would it be? Resident Evil 8? Resident Evil 3 remake? and would it use the stunning Resident Evil engine? To which the answer would be; A new one, no, no and, thank goodness, yes.
Fans were (treated?) to a look at the, dubiously named, "Resident Evil: Project Resistance" through a teaser trailer and a few gameplay looks. What we saw was a game that very much seemed intent on trying something new, whilst actually not achieving that whatsoever. 'Project Resistance' is a asymmetrical multiplayer experience starring a cast of unlikely heroes (Who, as many have pointed out, look like a new-age mystery crew) as they work their way around a hostile space that is being manipulated by the mysterious 'Mastermind', who is yet another player. Gameplay seems to pan out as having the players undergo some task, like smashing up a number of Biocores (Whatever that is), whilst the Mastermind uses their game-creator like power to place zombies around the map in order to disrupt the heroes.
Resistance most closely resembles a game that never came out; Fable Legends. That game would have seen players taking control of some heroes from the Fable lore (Fable's incredibly shallow lore.) and trying to make their way through a gameplay scenario devised on-the-fly by another player. It's kind of like a live version of 'Super Mario Maker', with the Mastermind, or 'Villian' in the terms of Fable legend, having to play a resource game whilst the survivors, or heroes, play a team-objective game. However, Fable Legends never made it launch (Despite getting a full E3 reveal and everything). Heck, the studio behind Fable, Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios, were shut down whilst working on this game. (Although to be fair, that decision was made my Microsoft and probably wasn't solely due to them making this kind of game. If that were otherwise, this would certainly be cause for alarm.)
I say this kind of game is 'nothing new' because we already have a semi-popular horror-themed asymmetrical experience in 'Dead by Daylight'. That game had 4 players cooperate in a typically horrific locale in order to escape and not be sacrificed to 'The Entity' by a revolving cast of horror movie villains. Then there was the, less popular, 'Friday the 13th: The Videogame', which had players assume the role of camp consulars and be hunted down by one of the various movie Jason's. What I'm trying to convey here, is that the medium is already crowded with this kind of niche game and they are all struggling to remain relevant. I named the two most recognizable, and successful, games, but there are a cart's worth behind them of similar concepts that quickly dried up. However, it is true, none of them brandished the recognizable Resident Evil logo.
As a Survivor, the meat of the game comes from utilizing your roles in order to work together and survive the nightmare. You have your usual affair of specializations for this, your Tank, Medic, Hacker and... the other one; all of whom make a powerhouse of a team when you are together. You'll have to support each other whilst being met with traps, automatically locking doors, flickering lights and a huge number of zombies. Capcom decided to bring back all the zombies from Resident Evil 2, including Ivys, Dogs, Armoured Zombies, Lickers and, the big man himself, Mr. X (He's gonna give it to ya.) Gameplay has only shown off a couple of uninteresting indoor maps so far (Places where it is easier to control the level of lighting) but seeing as this Project reeks of 'games-as-a-service' I'm expecting the release of traditional RE locations down the line. (As well as RE characters.)
For a Mastermind your task is simple, divide and conquer. As a team, the survivors are far too powerful to defeat with all their synergistic abilities. Luckily, you have a bunch of tools at your disposal to ensure that the team isn't always together. You look around the map though cameras (similar to the 'Hacker' mode from 'Battlefield: Hardline') and mess around with doors, camera turrets, lights and elevators in order to get your band of heroes to be confused and ready for the kill. Then come the zombies. The Mastermind is put in control of a deck of cards that can be spent to summon an enemy of some type, or buff an already placed enemy. Each action has a power cost (with an acceptable maximum pool of 10 'power points' at any given time) requiring for strategy and planning in order to overcome your foes.
All of this is achieved through the robust power of the RE engine, and that means that this game already has one advantage over all of those potential competitors that I named earlier: It looks beautiful. The RE Engine was conceived during the creation of Resident Evil 7, with the intention of creating a life-like environment with great atmospheric controls. (essential for crafting an effective horror game) One of my personal favourite features of the RE Engine, however, is it's ability to apply damage layering on a model in order to create some of the most fantastically dynamic structural damage that I've ever seen in a video game. This was shown off, to great effect, In Resident Evil 7 against the, tough-to-kill, Jack Baker, and would go on to become my biggest selling-point for all the undead in the 'Resident Evil 2 Remake'. To see this Engine make a return in a multiplayer environment is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
Fans haven't all be as excited as I am, however, with some taken to divorcing their displeasure on the official series' Reddit. (Which I happen to be a regular browser of.) Cries of "This isn't a true Resident Evil game!" were voiced alongside the general disgruntled vibe that arises everytime Capcom opens their mouth and 'Resident Evil 3 Remake' doesn't come out of it. Discourse went so far that one of Capcom's Producers; Matt Walker, took to the forum of the Internet (Twitter) in order to defend the game, calling it "Survival Horror at it's core". (Actually he said "its" but I felt that an apostrophe was needed.) Mat started his tweet thread by noting "Been seeing a lot of people who are not pleased with- Project Resistance." Before explaining his own opinion on the matter. "My take: we as a company need to continue to branch out and try to offer up new things - If we just continue to offer up the same thing over and over again, people will gradually lose interest with what we’re making." (Which is such a 'producer' thing to say!)
Joking aside, I understand what Matt is trying say there whilst I hope that he understands that there are incredibly valid reasons for the community's concerns. The very idea of "We have to try something new in order to keep the franchise fresh." is what gave us the weird; Resident Evil 4, the inconsistent; Resident Evil 5; and the, jack-of-all-trades master-of-none; Resident Evil 6. (And yes, they were 3 of the 5 games that I recently re-bought in HD. RE 4 Leon is still best Leon.) Not to mention that fact that, everytime Resident Evil has tried to go multiplayer, it has ended in disaster.
Fans were just starting to mourn at the loss of the Resident Evil franchise when 'Biohazard 7: Resident Evil' popped up and granted the series a second life. (See what I did there?) Finally, the game came back to traditional, great, survival horror experience; something that fans had been begging for since 'Code: Veronica X' (Which is another of the games that I bought. It's going to be my first time too!) Resident Evil 7 didn't perform amazingly, however, so people were worried that Capcom might relapse despite the critical acclaim that the game earned. Fears were only put to rest once the brilliant 'Resident Evil 2 Remake' dropped. (One of the only games that I have ever pre-ordered.)
I'm sure that Capcom want to change up their portfolio every now and again, but Resident Evil fans are so tired with their favourite series being 'ground-zero' for hair-brained (and often unsuccessful) experimentation. That is exactly what 'Project: Resistance' is, an experiment. I don't mean that as a play on the title, either. Capcom have shared that 'Resistance' is more of an idea then a set-in-stone product. Therefore, despite the impending closed Beta, the Project's fate is very much in limbo regarding whether or not it will ever see the light of day. (It's at least nice to see developers be up front and open about this stuff every now and again.)
Despite my ample misgivings, I will admit that the game looks like it might be fun for an hour or two. (Judging purely by footage that I have seen pop up.) I'm just not sure how sustainable this type of game will ultimately end up being. That's the problem with Asymmetric multiplayer games; once the gimmick wears off, it is all to easy for the fanbase to wander too. What happens when you have players who only want to play as The Mastermind? They leave once it's their turn to be a survivor. This sort of mentality makes it hard for a game like this to foster the sort of dedicated fanbase that Fortnite and Overwatch have and Apex Legends had. I suppose that the only solution is to watch from the sidelines and see how this 'Project' turns out; will it be a revolution in asymmetrical horror experiences or the first sign that Capcom are beginning to slip back into their old 'throw anything at the wall and see what sticks' habits.
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