15 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn't Know About Resident Evil
Oh, you mean that first-person shooter where you fight ghosts in Canada?
One of the biggest video game franchises of all time, chances are you've at least played a good handful of Resident Evil titles. Its rise and metamorphosis over the years is a tale we all know, going from an isometric corridor-crawler to behind-the-back action-fest.
Capcom just have a way with certain franchises, and across the 90s and especially the 2000s, would evolve Resi to dip its toes in a number of influencing pools, whilst retaining a fairly camp and downright loveable identity across the board. Spin-off series, Revelations, took care of fans who wanted a return to the more tension-filled days of old, and until the P.T.-inspired delights of Resident Evil 7 aimed to pick up where Kojima and Del Toro's dream project left off, its remained firmly in the action mould for years.
All that said, there's a special place in every gamer's heart for whatever their first experience with Resident Evil was - one that over time has cultivated a love for the series that makes its fandom one of the most devoted in all the industry.
20 years in the making and more than 12 full titles (and counting) so far, Resident Evil has some pretty awesome stories to tell...
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15. The First Movie Was Originally Written By George A. Romero
Yes, that George A. Romero i.e. The guy who'd already mastered silver screen zombie flicks whilst Resi was but a twinkle in Capcom's eye. Thanks to the original game's overwhelming success, Romero was quickly snapped up as the go-to auteur for anything related to the undead.
He promptly wrote up a script, and when speaking to Gamespot in 1998, said, “I’m hoping that it can just be dark and chilling like the game - good zombies, good makeup, good effects."
A simple thought process, yes? Sadly, Romero was unceremoniously fired from the project when Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto stated the script "wasn't very good."
Since then, fans and many online critics have disagreed, as the tone of Romero's adaptation bore way more of a resemblance to how the game felt while playing. You can read the full thing here, but sufficed to say, the direction it would go in with Paul WS Anderson and Milla Jovovich's kung fu, one-liner madness, was a little left of centre.