Resident Evil Turned Itself Around 7 Years Ago Today

The Resident Evil franchise is a massive one. There are countless players worldwide who eagerly await to play the next thrilling installment. However, it wasn’t too long ago that fans were worried about the direction Capcom was taking this IP. After Resident Evil 6, it was clear that Capcom had moved quite a ways off from its roots. But fortunately for fans of the original survival horror experience, Resident Evil 7 managed to turn the franchise around.

Thanks to Tech4Gamers, we’re realizing that Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is celebrating a bit of a milestone today. Seven years ago, this title launched into the marketplace, and it quickly got the IP back into its classic survival horror roots. Resident Evil has spanned multiple consoles; over the years, we’ve been introduced to new characters, enemies, virus variants, and locations. Some of these games have been better than others, but it was around the time of Resident Evil 5 that fans started to feel like this franchise was going into a more action-oriented experience. 

Capcom would then release what some fans would consider the black sheep of the franchise, Resident Evil 6. It was a drastically different experience; even the developers found this installment did not meet their intended goals. After failing to hit the projections set for the game, Capcom went back to the drawing board and wrote up Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, a return to the classic survival horror roots, while giving it a fresh spin of being a first-person perspective. It’s worth noting that this is not the first time we’ve seen a first-person experience, but it was a first for a mainline game installment. 

Fortunately, Capcom’s efforts paid off, and the game was quickly praised by critics and fans alike. There’s even an extensive accolades list of awards the game either won or was at least nominated. With that said, the developers continued on the storyline from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard with the last new mainline installment, Resident Evil Village. Of course, we’re still waiting to see just where Capcom takes the storyline next. Since then, we’ve continued to see Capcom go back and deliver remakes to their past game installments of the franchise. 

Currently, their latest release has been the remake of Resident Evil 4. However, there still appears to be interest in remaking past game installments for the franchise. Seeing how we last left off in Resident Evil 4, fans are curious to see if they continue on and deliver a remake to Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, the titles that were initially released as more action-oriented. For now, nothing official has been revealed for the franchise. But we’ll continue to wait and see if Capcom makes mention of what’s in store for fans next as we progress through the year.