I’m saying that Resident Evil is responsible for how I’ve turned out, along with Tim Curry, and I will play and watch anything in the series (frequently to my detriment.)
TRANSLATING THE GAME PLAY TO SCREEN IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE
Much of the atmosphere of Resident Evil can be attributed to the gameplay. The games utilize exploration and survival mechanics to propel players through the story.
Resident Evil frequently features puzzles that require finding different keys to open other areas, most famously in the second game. Throughout the police station in Resident Evil 2, numerous locked doors require finding suite keys that match the suits in a deck of cards.
STUDIOS CAN’T BALANCE THE CAMP AND SCARES
There’s no denying that Resident Evil is played for scares, especially in the earliest and newest entries in the franchise. However, as the series went on, elements of the games became campier.
The second game retained much of this feeling, with a large portion of play time being confined to the bafflingly labyrinthine police station. Here, the series starts to take some quite large leaps into camp.
What makes the early games in the series so iconic is their balancing act between absolute nonsense and genuine terror. The zombie reveal in the first Resident Evil game has gone down in history as one of the scariest moments in gaming.
There’s already a plethora of movie and television adaptations to the franchise’s name, the most recent being the poorly received Netflix show that was canceled after one season.