Standards change as we grow. The older we become and the more experience we gain, things that once seemed great end up not really being something we want forever. As a kid, most of us were probably pretty happy with getting a hot dog and some chips for lunch. However now as adults (or at least most of us being in our teenage years), a hot dog and chips might not end up sounding like the best thing for lunch. We end up wanting something a bit more filling and a bit better quality, but it doesn't mean we'll never eat hot dogs and chips again or no longer like it. Gameplay is much the same way.
The fact of the matter is that with each new generation of gaming and each now "masterpiece", the gaming community's taste change. Each new groundbreaking game makes the community's standards either rise or change. Even if developers want to keep the gameplay and even if there are still fans that enjoy and prefer the older gameplay, they have to pick what's best for the series in order to make a profit. (They are a company after all.) If the community feels that things need to change, then they need to change in order for the game to compete against the other games and sell.
One of the things I've constantly seemed being brought up regarding Resident Evil 5 is the fact that it doesn't feel like "Resident Evil". Naturally when I hear this complaints, I can't help but want to say, "Well no shit..." since it was obvious that this was the new direction for the series when Resident Evil 4 came out. The game was popular...People loved it...Naturally Capcom is going to continue do something that people felt was done well, but not it seems like what was once good is now bad. Maybe I am just missing something but it's something I don't fully understand.
The thing is the survival part of survival horror isn't gone from the series; the presentation has just changed. If you look at the fan definition of survival horror, you'll see that to most people, all it is is the thought of trying to survival a threat. It never really specifies the atmosphere that it is suppose to be in though most people have grown to feeling it belongs with a certain feel. However, as a hardcore Resident Evil fan- and a fan of horror in general- I've come to realize that the idea of survival horror and Resident Evil being connected is really just associating two sub-genres of horror as one instead of separately.
Resident Evil wasn't the first horror game nor even the first "survival" horror game; the genre term was borrowed from the term "ambient survival horror" which spawned from Alone in the Dark that came out prior the Resident Evil series. When we look at the actual horror elements within the first Resident Evil games, we see that they fit within the sub-genre of "Western" or "American" horror. Anyone who's seen horror films by Japanese directors and then watched a horror film by an American director, you will see two completely different approaches to how they scare people.
American horror generally uses gore to make us sick to our stomach and make our skin crawl; it also uses a lot of cheap scares (aka things jumping out at you). Personally when I played the original games, I was never really afraid of the atmosphere or the environment but I was more or less startled by having something suddenly jump through a window in a hallway that had been quiet the past four times I went down it. These are elements that are seen more within the Resident Evil series but the community had seemed to associate survival horror with the "Resident Evil setting" since it made the term popular. However, even without the fixed camera angles, the zombies, the old control scheme, and the more tense atmosphere...Resident Evil is still about surviving.
Resident Evil 5 falls into a sub-genre that I've classified as the "Left4Dead horror" due to lack of a better term at the moment. Basically this horror is when your sense of fear comes from the fact that you're more worried about your team and the fact that you're surrounded; the fact that if you get slip up, you're screwed. The whole time I played Resident Evil 5, I played it with another person. Not once in the game did I get scared from something jumping out at me or from the atmosphere being tense, but it doesn't mean my heart started racing.
The thing that scared me the most in the game was whenever my partner got in trouble...Whenever the game flashed red telling me that my boyfriend was dying, he had no health, and I had no way to get over to him...Whenever we'd be split up and one of us would see a special enemy closing in on the other but not being able to do anything about it.
Yes, it is true that I did enjoy and did love what the series was. Yes, I am disappointed that Capcom couldn't figure out a way to make the game a bit more tense like it use to be but still have new gameplay, like what they were close to doing with Resident Evil 3.5. However, it doesn't mean I can't enjoy the game. I guess fans of the series are now going through the phrase that I went through when Resident Evil 4 came out. I guess the reason why the change in gameplay for the series doesn't bother me as much now as it is for some people is because I grew to accept this change five years ago. Whatever the case maybe, even with the new gameplay, it's obvious that Capcom did make Resident Evil 5 with the fans in mind:
The thing is...It's ok to favor the old over the new. The Remake of the first game remains my favorite in the series, and probably always will be, but you just need to learn to accept change and be open to it. Even though Resident Evil 5 doesn't exactly feel like Resident Evil, it's still a good game.
The same goes for anything else that changes a little over time.
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