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Resident Evil Requiem was phenomenal. While I didn’t like playing as Grace, pretty much everything else was perfect. Capcom did right by bringing back the narrative to Raccoon City (literally and figuratively). It’s definitely the ending of the era and the series looks poised to leap at what comes next. OK… so what does come next? What can Capcom do to make Resident Evil X (or Resident Evil 10 or whatever they’ll end up calling it) top Resident Evil Requiem?
I have some ideas… so take notes, Capcom!
Class is in session.
1 – Open World Resident Evil.
It’s time. After teases in Resident Evil Requiem, it’s finally time for the series to migrate to a fully open world like fellow zombie games Days Gone or Dying Light. The open-ended jaunt in the outskirts of Raccoon City as Leon was one of the highlights of Resident Evil Requiem.
You get to explore, you get to go off the beaten path and, most importantly, you’re making progress as you gather the parts to blow up the gate to Raccoon City proper. An open world doesn’t mean the game has to be massive. It could be concentrated on an island or somewhere secluded or cut off from the outside world.
Resident Evil Code: Veronica (the Resident Evil game Capcom doesn’t seem to want to remake or acknowledge) would be the perfect place to try this out. Rockfort Island is self-contained and can easily support an open-world concept. The Umbrella base in Antarctica can also serve this purpose. Both locations are isolated and you don’t need a large location to play around in.
Before Capcom fully commits to a fully open-world title, wouldn’t bite-sized open world segments be great to cut their teeth on?
2 – Bring back the surviving S.T.A.R.S.!
To date, Leon has been in three main Resident Evil titles. We don’t need more of Leon. Resident Evil doesn’t just have one character in its lore. Resident Evil 10 must look past Leon!
What we need are the OG survivors – Chris, Jill, Barry and Rebecca… and maybe Billy Coen (yes, I know he’s not S.T.A.R.S.). Sure, the animated movies have shown what most of them have been up to, but the OGs should come back for Resident Evil X, even if somebody (I’d be fine if it was Billy) has to die.
Barry in particular has been sooooooooooooo shafted by Capcom. He was cut out from the Resident Evil 3 Remake ending (in the OG RE3, Barry rescued Jill and Carlos with a helicopter), he was relegated to an offshoot game (Resident Evil Revelations 2) and worse still… has yet to even appear in any animated movie!
Let me visualize it for you.
Leon has been in all the animated movies. The Redfield siblings and Rebecca have been in two. Barry has been in a grand total of zero. He’s not even been mentioned. That is unacceptable. Barry has the most interesting background out of all the surviving S.T.A.R.S.
Former traitor, family man, magnificent beard person, and totally incompetent (how else can you describe him after watching Barry uselessly shoot a zombie with a magnum revolver multiple times in Resident Evil) ‘weapons expert’, Barry deserves his time in the limelight again!
He should never have left it!
3 – Death.
Resident Evil has never killed off its main characters.
If you survive one game, chances are you’ll survive the other times you appear. Brad Vickers and Ethan Winters notwithstanding of course… but then again, Brad was nowhere near main character status and Capcom needed an out to explain all the shit Ethan survives.
Here’s the bottom line.
Somebody. Needs. To. Die.
Permanently. In Resident Evil 10.
Not die and come back as sentient mould.
Not die and come back with superpowers.
Just die.
It is incredulous that Leon survives Las Plagas AND the T-Virus, when barely anybody even survives one biohazard. Hell, Claire has survived insane things too! I’ll bet you anything that when Rose Winters comes back into the picture again, Ethan will too.
None of the heroes seem to be able to die in the Resident Evil series and it’s getting ridiculous.
Somebody needs to die. Horribly. Graphically.
Not just a random bystander. Somebody from the main cast. It has to be done to show how high the stakes get in Resident Evil from here on out.
Chris is a likely target considering, he’s very well-known and has been around since the beginning. I say Barry (due to the family angle) would be an even better candidate, but Barry’s not as famous or loved as Chris. His death won’t have the same impact or jaw-dropping shock value.
Better yet, if the people at Capcom have any cajones, have the death be utterly pointless. Don’t have it be heroic or have a grand purpose. Have it be like Harry Mason’s in Silent Hill 3. He died simply because he was there. That’s where the impact will be greatest because nobody will see it coming.
If Capcom wants to alleviate series fatigue, they’ll definitely want to shake things up for Resident Evil 10. I’ve given them three things they should be looking into.
I’m looking forward to seeing my name in the Special Thanks section of the Resident Evil 10 credits, Capcom.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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