8 Amazing Video Games That SURVIVED Development Hell

8. Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 spent an entire six years in development, which back at the turn of century was an absolute age -  especially as the first three entries in the survival horror series were put out in just half that time.

But the fourth installment went through a staggering five iterations before finally hitting stores in 2005, with one discarded prototype even going on to become Devil May Cry.

During this period numerous directors were shuffled in and out of the project, until the first game's director Shinji Mikami stepped in to deliver the final released product.

With Capcom threatening to put the series on ice if Resident Evil 4 underperformed, Mikami took many bold swings, shifting the focus from pure horror to an action-horror hybrid, introducing an over-the-shoulder camera, and shifting the mayhem to rural Spain.

It was all a massive gamble, then, but Resident Evil 4 ultimately went on to become a massive critical and commercial success, remaining the series' high-point to this very day and proving massively influential on the survival horror genre ever since.