I've wanted to get this off my chest for a while now as the RE2make reveal (which I originally wanted to make a response video for) has once again sparked the decade old topic of camera perspective and what the series plays best as, as well as in which perspective should be most represented within the series from title to title. So, here I am to provide some of my own wholeheartedly insight, of which is coming from a passionate early 2000's fan who happens to have each of his own Top 3 Resident Evil games in the waters of every camera angle the series has attempted, being REmake, Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 7, also in order of favorite from most to least, respectively. So, coming off the heels of just completing REmake again, let's get to it.
It should be known that I don't believe the camera angle, while immensely important to my own experience for a reason I'll explain in the following, doesn't define a great or true Resident Evil game. I'm as of late starting to realize that the rigid fickleness of some ungrounded individuals complaining about how the series should go back to its roots of "fixed camera angles" are completely missing the point of what makes a Resident Evil game, and don't know what those roots actually are. This leads me to believe that some of us like the early parts of the series for the wrong reasons over the actual things we may or may not subconsciously like, or at least not admit to these more valid reasons, such as item management, pacing and complex level design, being more important to the beloved survival horror series as whole. These actual reasons that I feel I should focus on for a great Resident Evil game vary from art to atmosphere to narrative subject matter and tone, but because I want to just focus on perspective of the camera, I'll do just that for the sake of this subject.
Here's why I think the Resident Evil series should keep to first-person perspective and STAY THERE for every title in the future.
FPS Combat Works and It Works Better
I was astonished to see any sort of backlash against RE7: biohazard AFTER most of us had played it. Coming off of Capcom's track record of continuously disappointing me since RE5, I thought the shift in perspective would be a cheap way to ripoff non-combat first person games like Outlast or the P.T. demo - which, while not bad, are not Resident Evil. In actuality, RE7 ended up playing almost exactly like the Resident Evil games of old with the added skill gap variation of needing to actually aim at your targets, which you'd think we would've universally accepted as a good thing - as it adds another layer of depth without removing any of the elements established prior, thus making repeat playthroughs less monotonous with a chance of more diversive outcomes in its gameplay.
It's hard to deny to me that classic Resident Evil playthroughs aren't almost identical to the previous ones, either. The experience of the journey to the rocket launcher is what makes for the reason in which we might come back to the older games, despite taking almost the same exact path, every single time. In first person perspective, gameplay could focus less on level memorization and monsters being bullet sponges and more on the skill and survivability of the player. This point enough provides enough levity to why I think first-person combat is better than fixed camera angles, but there's another which is way more important to making a case.
Fixed Camera Angles Are Cheap, The Opposite of Immersive
You could guess why I would feel the need to preface this point with the fact that REmake is my favorite Resident Evil, followed by 4 and 7, and in my top games of all time since release. It's the epitome of the series in terms of atmosphere, art direction, design and gameplay. I only wish the remainder of modern Resident Evil games will continue following it as a template, and from the looks of it, that's exactly what's happening. REmake works the best NOT because of its perspective, but because it's masterfully crafted. I would take away its fixed camera angles for Resident Evil 7's first person perspective in a heartbeat. The reason being? Nothing at its core would change and only for the better.
Coming off the heels of just completing REmake once again only a few days before writing this, it became awfully apparent to me, now, that 16 years later, the fixed angles do nothing but injustice to the gameplay. You can't see an enemy just outside your camera angle's view, yet your character should be able to clearly see that zombie 5 feet in front of him/her? Sorry. That's immersion breaking. And then you get bit? Now that's just needlessly frustrating. Not a matter of "git gud" frustrating, either. It literally takes you out of the moment, because you know damn well that YOU playing as that character (what's meant to be the immersion) would've seen that creature if it wasn't for a non-existent perspective you're viewing from... a situation that your in-game character would often be able to clearly see. To me, survival horror is about realism within an unlikely scenario, and this, despite playing fixed camera angle Resident Evil for years, takes me out of it. Within first-person perspective (or any other perspective, for that matter) this scenario would never happen, especially as an unfair advantage to new players. One could argue that Code: Veronica's shifting dynamic angles helps remedy this, but I still think the first-person camera is better in building tension and keeping things clear to what's directly in front of us. Ditch the fixed camera angles. Ditch them for good.
It's also worth mentioning that in-game graphics can now live up to the standard set by REmake and Zero's pre-rendered backgrounds as made clear by RE7. I felt right at home with RE7 for this reason with the photo-realistic art direction that the series once had. Who needs camera angles when everywhere you look IS a camera angle? It's gorgeous and we'd only be able to see more of a beautiful environment without the loss of detail. Fixed camera angles served this highest purpose more than any other reason back in the early years of Resident Evil and technology, but not gameplay. Not anymore.
Why Not Over the Shoulder?
I was pretty disappointed to find out that the latest RE2make was going to be OTS instead of first person perspective. Pretty surprised, too, since 7 seemed to be the direction the series was going in with support of VR. I wanted the new Resident Evil 2 to be first person for the same reasons I'm mentioning. I almost would've rather have taken fixed camera angles, ironically enough, for I feel OTS shows a little bit too much of the area in which you are traversing, making much less feel actually scary to you - specifically on the character's flanks. It's like a weird middle ground that I feel only works for a frantic action game (Resident Evil 4) and not somewhere in a survival horror experience. Revelations pulls this camera type in closer to the character, but it still didn't feel as claustrophobic to me as first-person, or immersive, hence not being "scary" enough. This, I will have to admit, is what I feel is my most subjective point in this post and I am most desperately excited while waiting for the new Resident Evil 2 Remake to be proven wrong. Resident Evil 4 is my second favorite RE title, after all.
And lastly...
Series Consistency and First-Person Being the Best of Both Worlds
I simply don't want to be jumping between perspectives in every Resident Evil game. I really don't. Cutscenes aside, I believe that tonally messes with the series, as I think we all know. RE2 and RE3 were much more action heavy than RE1, but it didn't matter too much to many of us because it looked the same enough to our minds, back then. It's akin to the whole argument of how "bad" tank controls are, meanwhile the controls barely changed until RE6, and only to be changed back again for RE7. It's the camera that hasn't been a constant and not the controls, which I had hoped was general knowledge by now. Because I mentioned RE4, it's worth mentioning that RE4 could've completely worked in first-person with some slight alterations, especially with the mechanics of RE7's Not A Hero's more FPS/action-friendly upgrades that still managed to keep a controllable yet limited visual perspective through first person gameplay. You can keep all the action while creating the first-person perspective's horror of tension and surprises.
All-in-all, I don't think one man could ever stop ALL of what he feels is often baseless complaining on the internet, which must be confusing the shit out of a company like Capcom. I thought I'd personally post this to possibly learn from a different fan... perspective (*rimshot*) that I haven't already heard before, other than the basic "that's the way it always was, so it should be" rebuttal. I want to be proven wrong and see fixed camera in another light, so try me. Civilly, try me. I'm sensitive, so go easy.
Most of the points I made, to me, are what I feel to be OBJECTIVE in the context of the best Resident Evil SERIES survival horror experience, for all of us, and not those of us who may be blinded by nostalgia... but all in good fun. It's just a video game, after all. But a damn good one. Thanks for listening.
It should be known that I don't believe the camera angle, while immensely important to my own experience for a reason I'll explain in the following, doesn't define a great or true Resident Evil game. I'm as of late starting to realize that the rigid fickleness of some ungrounded individuals complaining about how the series should go back to its roots of "fixed camera angles" are completely missing the point of what makes a Resident Evil game, and don't know what those roots actually are. This leads me to believe that some of us like the early parts of the series for the wrong reasons over the actual things we may or may not subconsciously like, or at least not admit to these more valid reasons, such as item management, pacing and complex level design, being more important to the beloved survival horror series as whole. These actual reasons that I feel I should focus on for a great Resident Evil game vary from art to atmosphere to narrative subject matter and tone, but because I want to just focus on perspective of the camera, I'll do just that for the sake of this subject.
Here's why I think the Resident Evil series should keep to first-person perspective and STAY THERE for every title in the future.
FPS Combat Works and It Works Better
I was astonished to see any sort of backlash against RE7: biohazard AFTER most of us had played it. Coming off of Capcom's track record of continuously disappointing me since RE5, I thought the shift in perspective would be a cheap way to ripoff non-combat first person games like Outlast or the P.T. demo - which, while not bad, are not Resident Evil. In actuality, RE7 ended up playing almost exactly like the Resident Evil games of old with the added skill gap variation of needing to actually aim at your targets, which you'd think we would've universally accepted as a good thing - as it adds another layer of depth without removing any of the elements established prior, thus making repeat playthroughs less monotonous with a chance of more diversive outcomes in its gameplay.
It's hard to deny to me that classic Resident Evil playthroughs aren't almost identical to the previous ones, either. The experience of the journey to the rocket launcher is what makes for the reason in which we might come back to the older games, despite taking almost the same exact path, every single time. In first person perspective, gameplay could focus less on level memorization and monsters being bullet sponges and more on the skill and survivability of the player. This point enough provides enough levity to why I think first-person combat is better than fixed camera angles, but there's another which is way more important to making a case.
Fixed Camera Angles Are Cheap, The Opposite of Immersive
You could guess why I would feel the need to preface this point with the fact that REmake is my favorite Resident Evil, followed by 4 and 7, and in my top games of all time since release. It's the epitome of the series in terms of atmosphere, art direction, design and gameplay. I only wish the remainder of modern Resident Evil games will continue following it as a template, and from the looks of it, that's exactly what's happening. REmake works the best NOT because of its perspective, but because it's masterfully crafted. I would take away its fixed camera angles for Resident Evil 7's first person perspective in a heartbeat. The reason being? Nothing at its core would change and only for the better.
Coming off the heels of just completing REmake once again only a few days before writing this, it became awfully apparent to me, now, that 16 years later, the fixed angles do nothing but injustice to the gameplay. You can't see an enemy just outside your camera angle's view, yet your character should be able to clearly see that zombie 5 feet in front of him/her? Sorry. That's immersion breaking. And then you get bit? Now that's just needlessly frustrating. Not a matter of "git gud" frustrating, either. It literally takes you out of the moment, because you know damn well that YOU playing as that character (what's meant to be the immersion) would've seen that creature if it wasn't for a non-existent perspective you're viewing from... a situation that your in-game character would often be able to clearly see. To me, survival horror is about realism within an unlikely scenario, and this, despite playing fixed camera angle Resident Evil for years, takes me out of it. Within first-person perspective (or any other perspective, for that matter) this scenario would never happen, especially as an unfair advantage to new players. One could argue that Code: Veronica's shifting dynamic angles helps remedy this, but I still think the first-person camera is better in building tension and keeping things clear to what's directly in front of us. Ditch the fixed camera angles. Ditch them for good.
It's also worth mentioning that in-game graphics can now live up to the standard set by REmake and Zero's pre-rendered backgrounds as made clear by RE7. I felt right at home with RE7 for this reason with the photo-realistic art direction that the series once had. Who needs camera angles when everywhere you look IS a camera angle? It's gorgeous and we'd only be able to see more of a beautiful environment without the loss of detail. Fixed camera angles served this highest purpose more than any other reason back in the early years of Resident Evil and technology, but not gameplay. Not anymore.
Why Not Over the Shoulder?
I was pretty disappointed to find out that the latest RE2make was going to be OTS instead of first person perspective. Pretty surprised, too, since 7 seemed to be the direction the series was going in with support of VR. I wanted the new Resident Evil 2 to be first person for the same reasons I'm mentioning. I almost would've rather have taken fixed camera angles, ironically enough, for I feel OTS shows a little bit too much of the area in which you are traversing, making much less feel actually scary to you - specifically on the character's flanks. It's like a weird middle ground that I feel only works for a frantic action game (Resident Evil 4) and not somewhere in a survival horror experience. Revelations pulls this camera type in closer to the character, but it still didn't feel as claustrophobic to me as first-person, or immersive, hence not being "scary" enough. This, I will have to admit, is what I feel is my most subjective point in this post and I am most desperately excited while waiting for the new Resident Evil 2 Remake to be proven wrong. Resident Evil 4 is my second favorite RE title, after all.
And lastly...
Series Consistency and First-Person Being the Best of Both Worlds
I simply don't want to be jumping between perspectives in every Resident Evil game. I really don't. Cutscenes aside, I believe that tonally messes with the series, as I think we all know. RE2 and RE3 were much more action heavy than RE1, but it didn't matter too much to many of us because it looked the same enough to our minds, back then. It's akin to the whole argument of how "bad" tank controls are, meanwhile the controls barely changed until RE6, and only to be changed back again for RE7. It's the camera that hasn't been a constant and not the controls, which I had hoped was general knowledge by now. Because I mentioned RE4, it's worth mentioning that RE4 could've completely worked in first-person with some slight alterations, especially with the mechanics of RE7's Not A Hero's more FPS/action-friendly upgrades that still managed to keep a controllable yet limited visual perspective through first person gameplay. You can keep all the action while creating the first-person perspective's horror of tension and surprises.
All-in-all, I don't think one man could ever stop ALL of what he feels is often baseless complaining on the internet, which must be confusing the shit out of a company like Capcom. I thought I'd personally post this to possibly learn from a different fan... perspective (*rimshot*) that I haven't already heard before, other than the basic "that's the way it always was, so it should be" rebuttal. I want to be proven wrong and see fixed camera in another light, so try me. Civilly, try me. I'm sensitive, so go easy.
Most of the points I made, to me, are what I feel to be OBJECTIVE in the context of the best Resident Evil SERIES survival horror experience, for all of us, and not those of us who may be blinded by nostalgia... but all in good fun. It's just a video game, after all. But a damn good one. Thanks for listening.
Thanks, man.