Perhaps I have a unique viewpoint on the series as I was a fan of the game since I first saw screenshots getting a very minimal plotline in a GamePro magazine back in 1995. Yes... before the first game launched. I enjoyed the first game so much that I've bought it multiple times over the years including the original long box for PS1 and the Directors Cut the day it released on PS1. I still have my Director's Cut copy on my wall of fame:
https://vgcollect.com/images/gallery/4/44383/4_re_shadowbox.jpgSo what made Resident Evil... Resident Evil? Well for me, it was the mystery and the characters. They mystery being, what caused the virus. The location of the original was great, adding a ton of atmosphere but it was never the horror aspect. The story arch of Chris vs Wesker became the reason I kept coming back.
I enjoyed RE2 as well as they added to the mystery. This time the mystery was how did the virus get loose? RE3 was essentially a side game. If the two games were new to today's era and released today the third would have easily been released as DLC.
Code Veronica should have been the third in all honesty instead of being the side game. I bought my Dreamcast primarily for it and got to play the demo on a Dreamcast kiosk as they imported the Japanese version. The opening blew my mind. Still holds up as one of the best openings IMO. Combining Claire with Chris vs Wesker later in the story was incredible and I was happy to eventually get an extended version on PS2. This is the RE that really needs the Remake treatment. Not the upcoming RE4 remake.
RE Remake blew my mind when I first saw the graphics. They still hold up today oddly enough. RE Zero had the same great graphics but the story wasn't as good and we already had the mystery solved thanks to the first game. So Zero never really held up for me regardless that I enjoyed Rebecca's character.
That brings me to RE4. The shift in controls was odd and at first, it didn't feel like RE until I played the demo. I had the happy position in life to work at a game store when the demo released and when we weren't busy, I was playing the Gamecube demo. I got insanely good with the controls as well. By the time the game released I was destroying the villagers like none other. They also kept... the mystery. What turned the villagers? I thought we had this crap contained?
When RE5 released and it was Chris (my favorite character) vs Wesker... I was automatically on board. The mystery was gone but the characters were intact and they added some really fun co-op. The story of the game is they finally finished the arch of Chris vs Wesker. It was done, and due to that, I feel that this should have been the end of the series.
RE6 had a ton of characters. I think there were 7 different stories that all intertwined like a messy casserole. It was obvious Capcom was trying to merge the two fanbases they had created between the original games and the RE4 and 5 fans. They were also trying to tie up all the loose ends. The one they forgot was Jill. Jill was my second favorite RE character and we got to learn nothing of her road to recovery after being brainwashed by Wesker in the 5th game. She deserved it more than Jake, Piers or Helena. It was nice though to see Sherry return and what her path ended up being. This is when the series started to nose dive for me.
Keep in mind, I've never really been about horror games through all of this. Obviously... the RE series is survival horror so when they moved away from horror more towards action, I was just fine with that... so long as the mystery and the characters were intact.
Insert RE Revelations 1 and 2. No mystery. Characters were horribly written when they shouldn't have been. A side character was so badly written he actually made me cringe. Other side games from the inception of the series were mostly bad. Only the two Outbreak games were really any good IMO from the side games.
In comes RE7 in first person perspective. Horrible idea from Capcom. I played the demo and it felt nothing like RE because there was no mystery for me. None of the characters were present. I even tried it in VR for a few hours and just couldn't get into it. Resident Evil was essentially dead to me by this point as I can't stand first person perspective in most games these days.
Remaking RE2 and 3 were great. It was revisiting the classics, done really well in modern graphics. They actually did a really good job on these but I have zero interest in RE4 remake.
Then RE8 was announced as a first person game based on the Twilight movies. Do you want to be part of the the sparkly vampire or the werewolves team? I didn't even bother playing it.
For all intents and purposes, the series died for me at the conclusion of RE5. There was no need for the numbers to continue. If they wanted to do RE7, it shouldn't have had the 7 in it. They could have used it as a reboot or simply a VR spinoff. I won't be bothering to buy anymore RE games unless something changes.
Side Fun Fact: Apparently this is my 700th post. I made it a good one.