Yet more Resident Evil...

 "This is really becoming quite the inconvenience for me"

Ah yes, for some strange reason the Resident Evil team actually kept going after the reveal of RE8's gameplay, and it wasn't in order to touch on Resident Evil 4's remake. Whilst this was met with no end of disdain online from folk shouting "Isn't it about time we heard about it?" for me it's actually a sigh of relief, because I'm still not working myself around to the idea of an RE4 remake. As I mentioned last update, I feel that Resident Evil is currently split between two states of how it was and how it now is, with the old games circling around the Raccoon city crew in these dramatic action-tilted affairs, and the new ones taking decidedly us away from the larger-than-life-characters-who-may-or-may-have-been-named-after-adult-actors. Now it's all about submerging the player in an immersive horror experience that's entirely first person. Resident Evil 4 5 and 6 don't really fit anywhere into that equation, reviving them would serve only to further muddy the waters and make the franchise more confusing. And it would seem that my scepticism has been mirrored somewhere.

Reports from those 'in the know' people that get in the news so often, seems to indicate that the absence of Resident Evil 4 Remake isn't some sort of marketing decision, but a necessary one seeing as how the game is nowhere near to showtime. And this isn't a case of CDPR "shine it up in the back and maybe it'll stay that shiny till launch", rather the game is literally in early development stages again due to a late-stage shift in development which led to a complete restart. (Isn't it odd how these stories are becoming so popular nowadays? I wonder if that's indicative of any actual trend or we're only just hearing about this stuff now.) As the rumour mill goes, this overhaal of the development process is being fuelled by warring minds within the creative departments as well as a new studio that's been promoted to takeover the project. (Or to assist with the project? It's unclear) So if you thought that interpersonal drama was unique to candid Twitter threads... stay tuned because I bet someone's going break radio silence about it under the ol' azure bird, it's only a matter of time. 

As I understand it, the conflict goes thusly; one group of developers noted how fans reacted somewhat poorly to the Resident Evil 3 Remake, (the value proposition was quite bare considering all the game had to offer. I.E. Not enough) and have interpreted that a critique on the ways in which RE3R skipped over some of the original's plot/systems. (Personally I care not for the little 'faux choice' moments from the original game, I think they're vastly overhyped. But it seems I've been overruled.) This party believes that their next game should stick firmly to the script with RE4 in order to make things right, which sounds like a huge mistake to me because there's no way to recapture 2005-era weirdness, ya gotta make your own! The opposing party, as one could probably rather simply deduce, want to take a few more risks with the remake and change some elements of the story in order to fit nicer into this new canon. (Not that the separate canons are all that different, to be honest. Things have slid together decently.)

From this conflict has spawned battered prides as development needed to be halted and restarted, and I can only imagine the amount of time and effort lost from such a move. (I do hope such overhauls aren't initiated lightly) And our result; no RE4R this year from the looks of things. Which actually works out quite nicely given that Village is due for the midyear. But with this extra time I must take the moments to wonder; will this be good for the project or detrimental? Given what we've been told I can only assume that the new project is erring in the direction of making significant changes to the original- and for some reason that actually does make me feel a lot better. I suppose some of my worry about the remake was wrapped up in the possibility that this game would replace the classic, much as how RE2R and 3R have, but perhaps that won't be the case if things turn out different enough. I don't want one of the most influential action adventurer zombie titles ever to be lost in the crowd, thank you very much, and I hope there's a world of coexistence in this, now inevitable, plane of remakes.

Of course, the things we did see was just about as weird as that which we didn't, and perhaps my biggest shock of the Resident Evil night was learning that Capcom and the Kingdom Hearts team share the same naming conventions all of a sudden. Resident Evil RE:Verse is a brand new oddly stylized multiplayer title that uses the RE Engine's versatility to a confusing end. This here's an actual multiplayer shooter with deathmatches and everything, because I suppose we're all just supposed to forget exactly what happened last time Resident Evil dipped it's toes into competitive multiplayer. (It was really bad) For the pittance that it's worth, however, the recent Resident Evil Resistance was decent enough to prove that there is room for multiplayer carnage in the RE brand, so maybe RE:Verse can fit in too. (That name feels so wrong to say.)

From what I can tell, RE:Verse actually uses the new models that have been made for the RE engine in order to bring the biggest crossover the franchise has ever had. We're talking Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine and, in a surprise turnout, what looks like RE7 Chris from that brief 3 second cameo at the end of the game. (I guess we don't have to wait for Code Veronica until the siblings are reunited. Good thing too, because I'm pretty sure that remake is never coming.) There's also the backdrop of all the classic locations of Racoon city, which means the police station, and a bunch of the RE monsters now playable. That means we have Mr X in his final form, Nemesis in at least his first form and Jack Baker! (That's right, I always forget about the Bakers....)

But the cast list is just the meat of the game, the thing which sticks with everyone is the curious sheen on the whole affair. What I originally assumed to be an issue with the stream I was watching is actually a, (shall we say unique?) take on the art of the game that I, quite honestly, am not in love with. Saturation has been dialled up and there's the odd comic-book grain filter that looks like something out of XIII over the whole thing, it looks quite bizarre. The effect, as I can only assume was intended, is that the game sort of looks like it's from the pages of some old pulpy magazine, but to what end I have no idea. Is the team trying to highlight the comic-book nature of this crossover deathmatch game in order to distinguish it from the otherwise canonical events of the game? 'cause I had to really pull some gymnastics to come up with that explanation and even that doesn't make much sense. (Hey, as long as the game is good. I guess.)

Th event finally ended with a little look-over of the other Resident Evil properties, such as the animated movie coming out, nothing on the alleged film reboot and, what else, oh that's right; absolute nada on the Netflix series. Remember that? The Wesker twins working their way through a rural town zombie apocalypse and we're sitting here without so much as teaser images! Well, I can grumble all I want, at the end of the day this event marks Resident Evil's evolution from a series into modern franchise. Now there's multiple TV shows coming out, both live action and animated, at least three or four games on the horizon and a movie in the works, if you were ever worried about a potential overdose on Resident Evil with these now yearly releases, threat not: it's much worse than you could have possible imagined. But hey, at least it's a good time to be a fan, I guess.