Resident Evil 7 put the series firmly back on track, and the Resident Evil 2 remake is probably the best game in the franchise, and after those two incredible outings, series fans have been hoping that Capcom would want to keep that momentum going. Be that with a remake of Resident Evil 3, or with Resident Evil 8, but there is a widespread belief that the series needs to keep doing what it’s doing.
The recently unveiled Project Resistance is not what many were hoping for. The spinoff if a 4v1 multiplayer title, and there are many series fans who’ve voiced their displeasure with the fact that Capcom is looking to experiment with the series. However, Matt Walker, who’s a producer at Capcom, firmly believes that providing new gameplay experiences is how they will keep things fresh and interesting.
Taking to Twitter, Walker said that while he understands fans of the series wanting to see a mainline release rather than an experimental spinoff, he believes Capcom needs to “continue to branch out and try to offer up new gameplay in addition to refining the experiences people expect from us”, and that if they never do anything different from the norm, people will start losing interest in the property.
Walker also gives assurances that though Project Resistance is an untraditional Resident Evil game, it’s still “a great survival horror experience” and says that those who play the upcoming closed beta will hopefully be able to see that despite its experimentations, it’s still “very surely survival horror at its core”.
It’s too early to say just yet whether or not this will be a successful experiment for Capcom- the closed beta should be our first real indication of the game’s quality. But to write the game off so early for not being a mainline instalment would be unfair. The way I see it, it’s not like this spells the direction the franchise will take with future games, we’ll still get core, mainline experiences, and if Capcom wants to experiment with some stuff between those tentpole release, well, more power to them.
In case you’re curious about what Project Resistance is, check out its first gameplay footage through here.