Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village have been broadly well-received, going quite a long way to make up for some of the series’ prior steps away from the survival horror of old. For the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem, the developers have again opted for a far more grounded, distinctly more terrified horror protagonist in Grace Ashfield, and the message seems clear: It’s time to dial that up even further, for less gun-toting action and more scares.
In fact, that nicely summarizes the team’s attitude towards the creation of Requiem, as the game’s producer explained in an interview with Press Start (spotted by Eurogamer). Producer Masato Kumazawa explained to the outlet that he’s always eager for player feedback on his games, joking, “my mental health is very strong, I am fine to read the comments.” One thing he took on board about previous projects in the series, he said, was that they were too combat-orientated, and so for Requiem, classic survival horror would be the key. The producer rightly notes:
“Towards the end, Village and 7 became very action-heavy, very ACTION ACTION ACTION.”
Avoiding this is difficult, he went on, because a game of “non-stop scares” can be very wearing and may actually lessen the impact of the more intense moments. It’s true that, in a horror movie, we often need the moments of exposition, the slower-paced scenes, which then allow the tension to creep back up to the next big shock. That was the key, according to the director, to planning the gameplay progression and plot for the Resident Evil Requiem team.
The Tricky Horror-Action Balance
He explained:
“You have horror, but then you put a bit of action in there … we have thought about what order [of scenarios] will be important, and what will be the best order of events that will keep players scared for the whole duration.”
As we reported previously, the development team has previously noted that the venerable Leon S. Kennedy was deemed a poor fit for Requiem’s starring role, and though it seems he will feature in the game in some capacity, there’s definitely some truth to that. In Resident Evil 4, one of the most beloved series entries, he spent much of his time blasting through enemies like a classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Like so many others, it’s one of my favorite games ever, but I just felt too powerful to be scared.
For fans of survival horror in the classic sense, the chance to actually take down a roomful of enemies with a weapon is a bit of a luxury, and every single precious shot you have needs to be made to count. It’s in this spirit, it seems, that Requiem has been designed, and I’m looking forward to it all the more as a result of that. One of Grace’s most fearsome foes we’ve seen so far is the enigmatic “stalker,” and the producer suggests that there’s much more to this creature, its true intentions and motivations that we might expect. As for what that is, though, he wasn’t telling. The long-lived Resident Evil series has brought fans all kinds of horrors, and we’ll just have to wait and see what’s coming next.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
