Remaking Resident Evil

How should Capcom approach future Resident Evil remakes?

It was one of the greatest turnarounds in video game history. Resident Evil went from being apparently dead (no pun intended) to not only alive, but on top of the world thanks to Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 2 Remake. The dust has now settled on the Resident Evil 3 Remake, with the consensus being that it’s a good (though not great) entry in the series. So, what’s next? Capcom is already talking about remaking more Resident Evil games. But is that a dream come true, or more of a wish on a monkey’s paw?

Remembering Resident Evil

Resident Evil as a franchise has had the notable distinction of redefining the horror game genre twice with the original Resident Evil and then Resident Evil 4. Despite having a foundation in the horror genre, the developers have tried to experiment with different designs and aspects with each game. We could see this with Nemesis in RE3, the obvious action tones of RE 4–6, the redesigns of the original Resident Evil and the dual character format of Resident Evil Zero.

The franchise began to dip in quality was when it moved away from experimenting and iterating and instead focused the action-horror elements in recent games— leading to titles that all felt the same and were not at the same…