I started playing videos games when I was four-years-old. Both of my parents played (my dad more than my mom, although my mom did keep me home from school on occasion to help her with Super Mario Bros. 3) and they passed the hobby onto me. When I was around 15-years-old, I stopped playing. Not because I no longer enjoyed it, but because I cared too much about what my friends thought. Five years went by before I played another game.
I remember watching Resident Evil in the middle of the night on some movie channel (I have so many stories that start this way), back when I would watch any horror movie even if it sounded terrible. I actually really enjoyed it and I still feel that way about the first movie even today. As its own thing, Resident Evil is not a bad addition to the RE universe. It's when they began adding in known characters while completely changing their personalities and making them Alice's sidekicks, and turning Alice into a superhuman, that things went downhill. So basically, Resident Evil Apocalypse. To get back on track though, because I always go off on a tangent, the first movie wasn't horrible. Especially to someone who knew nothing about the games, it was a decent zombie film. I had heard of the games, of course, and I knew my cousin played them, so I asked him, "Is this what the games are like?" And he said no. Not at all.
Fast forward a few months. I went to stay with my aunt and cousin in Florida for five weeks. I asked my cousin to show me the Resident Evil games, I was still curious about them. At that time, he owned RE Director's Cut, RE0, RE2, RE3 and RE4. I started playing RE0. Was that a mistake? Yeah, probably. Play the first game before 0 if you don't want to spoil the story. My cousin told me he never beat that game, he never even figured out how to get off the train. I did. At that point, we started passing the controller back and forth, taking turns playing through the rest of the game. That was my first experience with the Resident Evil series and, regardless of what other people say about RE0, I really enjoyed it and I still love that game.
When I went back home, I had to get a Gamecube. To go with it, there was RE0 and RE4. I give RE4 a lot of hell these days, but back then, I spent a significant amount of time playing it over the phone with my cousin, because I was pathetic and I wanted him to tell me what was waiting in each room before I entered. I had a difficult time with this one, it was only the second game I had played since my five year break and my first time ever playing a shooter (yes, that's what it is, a third person shooter without the ability to completely control the camera because someone made bad choices). It stressed me out. It still stresses me out. I can't even think about the water room without getting frustrated. But again, I spent a lot of time playing it, especially after acquiring the Chicago Typewriter. And if the game had included Ashley's suit of armor, I would have had even more fun with it.
After that, I believe REmake was next. My cousin bought it at the same time I did, but I started playing it first. I read a lot about the game beforehand and I knew Crimson Heads were a thing, and I also knew where the first encounter was. They sounded awful, but I wasn't sure just how bad they actually were. I needed a way to gauge it before I faced off against one, so I called my cousin and said, "Hey, I'm going to walk you through the first part of the game so you can catch up to me!" And that's exactly what I did, like he did for me with RE4. I walked him through everything in the beginning of the game, told him exactly what to expect, except for when he had to walk past that first Crimson Head and it woke up. I purposely left that out so I could hear his reaction and see if it was as scary as I had built it up to be in my head, but...He didn't even react. He just carried on like it was nothing. I would have to get over it and see for myself. As bad as the Crimson Heads were, they were nothing compared to what was waiting for me later in the game.
I don't remember exactly what came next between RE2, RE3 and RE CVX, but I can say I enjoyed RE2 immensely and spent a long time replaying it. The same goes for CVX and I eventually started my infinite rocket launcher run, which was a complete nightmare. I made it to the free save in the middle of the game and never finished it because of the Nosferatu fight. As for RE3, I only played that game once, on easy (sadly), and for whatever reason, I really struggled with it. Nemesis was too much for me and I wasn't good at fighting him. I really need to go back and play it again eventually.
To give you an idea of where my life was at this point, I was someone who went on GameFAQs and read through this entire plot analysis, as well as this one, because I was so enthralled by the story in this series, before RE5. I even read some of the S. D. Perry novels.
By this point, I had run out of Resident Evil games to play, until RE5 was released for the PS3. This time it was co-op! And I could use a mic to talk to my cousin, we didn't have to talk over the phone while we played anymore. Perfect. I can say with 100% certainty that RE5 is my most played Resident Evil game and the thing is, I don't even like it. It's boring. The only way that game is fun is if you're playing with a co-op partner on Pro. And that's what we did most of the time, until the Lost in Nightmares DLC was released. That DLC was amazing, it felt nothing like the main game and it was genuinely frightening. To me, it completely made up for how terrible the rest of the game was.
Next up was RE6...You know, I had high hopes for that game after the demo. The opening of Leon's scenario was quiet and dark and there were ZOMBIES. Actual zombies. Not people with parasites popping out of their heads. So imagine my disappointment when the game was released and I continued playing, only to find that the zombies were replaced by enemies that can be described as mutant dinosaurs. The story was ridiculous and the enemies were even worse. Chris, who was my favorite character in the series prior to RE5, was insufferable. Even the co-op couldn't save this one, and playing alone made me realize how bored I was by it.
I'll briefly mention that I played Umbrella Chronicles, Darkside Chronicles, and Revelations 1 and 2. I don't have much to say about them though. I own Operation Raccoon City, but I've never bothered to play it, I'm pretty sure I bought it on sale for almost nothing. I would love to get my hands on Gaiden, only because I want to see, for myself, Leon supposedly being infected with a virus before RE4 was released. I know Gaiden wasn't canon, but if it were, the implications of that whole thing would be super interesting.
Finally, there's RE7. There was this random, creepy trailer shown during Sony's E3 2016 press conference. The reveal at the end of the short clip was that it was Resident Evil 7. I was stunned and excited and amazed. All kinds of emotions were rushing through me. It was so unexpected and the trailer looked awesome and like nothing we had seen before from the series, which normally would have bothered me, but Capcom already went off the rails with RE4/5/6, so at least if they were done with zombies, this looked like something that would still be really scary. They released several playable demos before the game came out, all of which added something new to what we had already played through. By the time January hit and RE7 was finally in my hands, the anticipation was killing me.
Resident Evil 7 was everything I ever could have hoped for. That game was terrifying. It starts off very survival horror-ish and becomes a bit more action oriented by the end, but you know what? I'll take that over what we were given in RE5 and RE6. Even when it did seem more action-y at the end, it was still fun and my faith in Capcom was completely restored. They were still capable of making a really great Resident Evil game, and on top of that, they finally proved (to me, at least) that they don't have to follow the same old formula to be successful with this series.
Next up for Resident Evil is the remake of RE2, which will be released in January. I went to E3 in June and while I didn't get to play the demo (they cut off the line because it was so long), it was fun to see the mock RPD they set up there. I do have some reservations about the game (specifically, the camera) and I'm slightly disappointed that they're not going the REmake route with it where it's classic and mostly the same, with updated graphics and a few items switched around/things added, but I still think it will be a fun game and I like that they're including the option to use the original soundtrack (if you buy the deluxe edition).
I have a long, love-hate relationship with Resident Evil. The highs were really high and the lows were incredibly low. It's not my favorite horror series, but it's definitely in my top 5 and I am really excited to see where Capcom goes from here, now that I know they're still capable of creating installments that have new ideas while instilling the same sort of dread in me that the original games did. I can't wait to see what the remake of RE2 (and eventually RE8) will have in store for us.
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