10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Resident Evil

7. Resident Evil 1 Was Conceptualized As A First-Person Shooter

Resident Evil 1 is a game that helped popularize the survival horror genre of gaming in a huge way. With its awkward control scheme, fixed camera angles and lack of resources, it immediately set the guideline of how to control and create a terrifying experience for horror based games. Although when Resident Evil was first being discussed, the third-person perspective hadn't been considered, as the game was originally planned to be a first-person shooter. If this had been the case, the series would have turned out completely differently.

Had the series been a first-person shooter, it's unlikely that the same senses of fear, suspense and anxiety would have been as effective. After all, games like Doom, Left 4 Dead or House of the Dead aren't particularly scary primarily because you see too much. After a few deaths, a player will become familiar with the scares and most of the tension at that point is lost. However, in the original Resident Evil that kind of atmosphere was made due to the awkward controls, perspective and the slow struggle of combat.

Resident Evil 1 director Shinji Mikami said that the reason they didn't go ahead with the FPS approach is because the technology just wasn't good enough, which is when Capcom decided to take a similar approach to Alone in the Dark, after being impressed by the game.