Less quick-time events:
Let us play through the action. I can understand something like that where you’re supposed to be paying attention to story details. Maybe even at the end of a boss battle to make the player gets a bit more out of the experience, but many people had complaints in the last few games that there were simply too many and it was jarring. They would pull the player out of the action then drop them right back in. QTE can be done right, but it can also be overdone and Resident Evil 6 has both of these.
Inventory system should be revamped:
Revamp the inventory and menu system, it has felt clunky and dated for years. Give us a way to hot keys to switch items in and out quickly, having to constantly use the menu system takes the player of the game and kills the immersion only slightly less than the game’s suspense. Even if we’ve got to stop actively playing to manage the inventory, do it so it doesn’t take the player out of the game.
Create situations where the player is under pressure and changing a gun could cost you a few heal packs or a need to reload your save if things go badly or the player’s timing is off. This would also help integrate the user interface of the game better into the RE world. Some games have pulled this off pretty well, Dead Space for instances has a good menu system; especially where the inventory system is concerned. You don’t want people saying they had to “get used” to the inventory system, which were complaints players have made about RE. People should find the system easy to use and actually like it. I know it sounds crazy right?
Make it scary:
Make it Survival Horror again! I can’t stress this enough. The elements are really all there, freaky-ass monsters and quite a few characters that have been well developed throughout the years, but lets see a different and new atmosphere, maybe have more monsters that can just kill you outright? The games just aren’t scary anymore. They’ve moved on passed our standard “zombie,” and I can accept that. I can also understand why they’ve done it.
With all the zombie games being release, both good and bad seemingly flooding the market these days Capcom had to do something a bit different to stand out from the crowd; especially when they’ve had such a successful franchise. Resident Evil can still be different from all the zombies games out there and still be a gritty, survival horror game. Sadly, we’ve probably gone a bit too far for that. New fans of the franchise may be turned off if RE goes back to their roots.
Ending note:
Resident Evil is a good series, but there are a few things that is just holding it back. With it’s popularity though it would be hard at this point to make drastic changes to the franchise. It would upset too many people, or it would alienate other fans. Capcom has taken some design risks in the past and it’s worked out very well for them.
Creating the RE4 game was definitely a step in the right direction for them, which plenty of people think is probably the best in the series. RE4 is also the point where the game diverged heavily from the previous RE titles and polarized the franchise. There are so many different RE titles now that there is a clear stylistic difference between the earlier and more recent titles and as it goes the games just appear to become more action oriented. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’d be good to have a game or two that is a testament to the old days or more emphasis on the horror aspects of the world.
