Five Ways Resident Evil Changed Gaming
by Jake Weston, posted on 20 June 2011 / 3,046 Views
June 2011 is Resident Evil Month here at gamrFeed, celebrating the series' 15th anniversary. This week, we take a look at the impact Resident Evil has had on gaming. Resident Evil didn't just re-popularize the survival horror genre, but innovated in many other areas as well. It could be argued that without Resident Evil, gaming wouldn't be where it is today.
Games for Mature Audiences
While there were plenty of games primarily aimed at adults before Resident Evil , they were generally niche and/or PC titles that were unaivalable to a wide audience. Resident Evil was one of the first home console games that was clearly intended for a mature audience. Sure, it's story was cheesy, but this one was definitely not for the kids. Resident Evil helped prove that games weren't just for children. Now, as a result of its success, most blockbusters released today are aimed towards young adults.
Pioneered Online Co-Op
Gamers may take online co-op for granted nowadays, but back in 2004 it was almost unheard of outside MMO's such as EverQuest. Resident Evil: Outbreak may not have been as successful as other games in the series, but it pioneered online co-op gaming for consoles, giving way to more popular releases such as Left 4 Dead, Gears of War, and even Resident Evil 5.
Brought Back the Zombie as a Cultural Icon
Zombies are ingrained into the psyche of American popular culture, but they weren't always seen this way. George A. Romero essentially redefined the zombie as horror icons with his Living Dead series, but in the late eighties to mid nineties zombies had quickly become over-utilzed as both ciches and parodies. That is, until Resident Evil showed up. Resident Evil brought back zombies into the horror lexicon, and zombies would likely not be as popular as they are today if it weren't for Resident Evil .
Paved the Way for Full Voice Acting
Before Metal Gear Solid showed that a whole game could be carried by quality voice acting, we had Resident Evil . Now, the voice acting in Resident Evil wasn't GOOD by any standards, but it was still one of the first console games to feature full voice acting, as opposed to just snippets of dialogue. And of course, we got such classics as "Jill Sandwich" and "the Master of Lockpicking".
Revolutionized Action-Adventure Games
This one is a little hard to explain, but you know how typically the camera in third-person shooters resides over the player character's right shoulder when they're aiming (Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto IV, Uncharted, inFAMOUS, Dead Space, Red Dead Redemption)? Yeah, before Resident Evil 4, action games didn't do that. Action games prior to the release of Resident Evil 4 , no matter how high of quality, almost always had camera issues in regards to aiming. Resident Evil 4 fixed this by keeping the perspective locked behind the main character, and it worked so well that pretty much every third person action game now does this.
