Hoshnasi

In 1996 I received a game I didn’t like to play in the dark.  Its of course Resident Evil.  Telling you nothing you don’t already know, it was a pretty ground breaking survival horror game. In 98′ Resident Evil 2 was released and very important to my point the DualShock controller with two analog sticks was released in 99′.  Which in turn caused a re-release of RE2, which had rumble and dual stick support.

Up until now, RE1 and RE2 were the only games I could stand to play. I enjoyed the fixed camera and stuck in wet cement movement feel.  The game was very intense for those two reasons alone.  It really worked at that time.  I didn’t play other installments in the series except for RE4, which I just couldn’t play.  The controls didn’t work with the very FPS-centric gamer I had become.

The level of enemies on the screen and what I fell to be shackling aiming control frustrated more than made me tense.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but before RE4, all except RE installments except for parts in Code Veronica the camera was set at fixed points on a section of the map, or level.  As the player moved the cameras perspective would change.  Aside from the increased graphics on different systems and depth of story RE4 was the first serious departure from the standard “Survival Horror” and exploration in the RE series.   That’s not a bad thing, but its a leap in the evolutionary path, be it good or bad.

That brings me to the point.  Appreciating what RE is about and what makes it special I really think its time to open the control scheme a bit more than RE5 did.  I really like RE5, the new (Gears-esque) control scheme is a serious upgrade to that of RE4 and actually gives me something I feel is highly approachable to the gamer I am.  With that said, I don’t think its going to pull in all those Halo and Call of Duty players.  I’ll go a step further and say, when speaking on the controls alone, they feel more suited for the PS3 crowd than that of the 360, at least when considering the types of games available.

There has been a heated debate on both side of this control argument since RE5 was announced and that press release video commenting that “Move and Shoot” would be in RE5 then later recanted DID NOT HELP.

Lets try and put this in the simplest of terms.  If there were options in the game for both “stop to aim and shoot” or “run and gun”, which do you think players would use?  It would seem obvious that the run and gun option would make up the majority.  I can hear it now,  “But that’s not Resident EEEEEVIL!”  Well neither was over the shoulder camera until the RE4!  The game has evolved already.  Much of its classic ambiance building - stuck camera, slowed movement and single d-pad control (tank control) are GONE.  Why has “stop to aim” become the last peak the purists have decided to make their stand on?

With my dirty laundry on the neighbors coffee table I have to say, I like RE5;  Even with what I feel are in some cases frustrating controls.  As many of the control purists have said “Try the demo first if you think the controlls are an issue“…  I agree 100% with this, if you are a CoD or Gears player activate the last controller option.  The one with left stick strafe (mostly) and right stick camera.  Then at least the game feels a bit more fluid.