Resident Evil Continues to Shoulder the Weight of a Genre Trendsetter

Highlights

• Resident Evil has had a strong year in 2023, with the release of the highly anticipated Resident Evil 4 remake and updates to its content.
• Capcom’s ability to deliver quality products has maintained the faith of fans in the Resident Evil franchise.
• The success of Resident Evil has set high expectations for future entries, making it challenging to meet the standards it has established.

2023 has been a strong year for many game franchises, but especially for Resident Evil. The long-awaited Resident Evil 4 remake was finally released early in the year, establishing Resident Evil‘s third-person gunplay as the best all over again. Across the year, Resident Evil 4 got more updates, filling out its Mercenaries mode and completing its content offering with Ada Wong-focused Separate Ways DLC. Not only that, but the Resident Evil 4 remake also got virtual reality and mobile versions, complementing Resident Evil Village’s VR release earlier in 2023.

Though fans are uncertain whether a Resident Evil sequel or remake is next, faith in Capcom to deliver a quality product remains high. Even with its fair share of missteps, the Resident Evil franchise is one of Capcom’s strongest pillars alongside Monster Hunter, and its contributions to the survival horror and third-person shooter genres cannot be understated. Only a few franchises share the level of industry influence that Resident Evil has, but that much fame also comes with the pressure to keep performing.

Video Games Wouldn’t Be The Same Without Resident Evil

While plenty of Resident Evil spin-offs have struggled to make a dent in the industry, most mainline Resident Evil games are exemplary for their genre. Right from the first Resident Evil in 1996, it had a noticeable impact on survival horror. Many action-oriented horror titles from then on took after Resident Evil‘s gameplay, whether that meant tight ammo management, puzzle-solving, or fixed camera angles. The first Resident Evil wasn’t the first survival horror game, but when the similarly impactful Silent Hill was also clearly inspired by RE in 1999, it’s hard to deny that it made the biggest splash.

Resident Evil Proved Itself Time And Time Again

Astonishingly, Resident Evil has kept the streak of redefining game genres throughout its lifetime. Resident Evil 2 raised the bar for survival horror past even RE1, and 2005’s Resident Evil 4 took a flying leap into the third-person shooter genre and revolutionized it as well. After Resident Evil 5‘s impressive co-op campaign, the franchise suffered several years of setbacks before reinventing itself with the first-person Resident Evil 7, and stunning the industry with Resident Evil 2’s remake. Now, with the RE2 and RE4 remakes serving as exemplary survival horror titles, third-person shooters, and remakes, the franchise has reaffirmed its reputation.

A Strong Reputation Is Resident Evil’s Greatest Burden

Fans have plenty of reasons to gush over Resident Evil‘s accomplishments, but that’s owed in part to the franchise being a chronic overachiever. It’s been the best in whatever genre it adopts for so long that expectations for new RE entries have ballooned. Unfortunately, that means that any Resident Evil title that fails to excel, even if it’s still good by the metrics of many other games, can develop a bad reputation. That’s part of why fans are keen to see remakes of Resident Evil titles with mixed reception, like CODE:Veronica, RE0, and potentially even Resident Evil 5 and 6, that bring them up to the series’ high standards.

Resident Evil Has Already Suffered From Its Success

Resident Evil 6 is the go-to example of a major RE disappointment, but a more recent and illustrative entry is the Resident Evil 3 remake. While not a bad game by any means, fans of both the original Resident Evil 3 and the RE2 remake came away from it feeling burned. The game cut a lot from the original Resident Evil 3, and didn’t add enough to justify it. High expectations directly led to problems, and Resident Evil has set such a high bar for itself that this is likely going to happen again. Resident Evil has succeeded many times, but it’s going to be compared to those past successes for the rest of its life.