Resident Evil HD: 10 Essential Lessons Capcom Must Relearn
2. Prioritise Atmosphere And Tone
If there is one thing the Resident Evil remake excels at over anything else its atmosphere. The music, sound design, pre-rendered backgrounds, and fixed camera angles are flawlessly combined to convey a chilling, almost cinematic mood to the player. The remake may not be a perfect game, but its ability to unnerve you just through mood alone makes any frustrations easily forgiven. This fact only makes the series increasing lack of genuinely tense atmosphere all the more alarming. Where once the series was able to set a tone within seconds, now it struggles to maintain one as it routinely bounces from action to horror. There are moments in Resident Evil 6 where it is obvious that you are meant to be scared, but you arent in the slightest. This is why that game is looked on with such disdain by fans of the series. It consistently fails to convey a palpable atmosphere. Since the remake remains the gold standard as far as Resident Evil experiences go, Capcom should really take a look back at what that game did right. The remake prioritises atmosphere over everything else and it was a huge success, so future Resi games should return to this design philosophy - the results speak for themselves.
