Wait, Does Anyone Actually Want A Resident Evil 5 Remake?

With Resident Evil 4 Remake landing with a bang this year, and delivering pretty much the reinvigoration and homage all of us had been hoping for (well, not all of us), something strange has been happening in the series’ fan community. There seems to be this assumption, among both fans and media outlets, that Resident Evil 5 is next up for the remake treatment, based purely on the evidence that the number ‘5’ comes after ‘4,’ and something tenuous about Wesker appearing in the Resident Evil Village DLC.

But casting aside the likelihood of whether it will happen or not, I’m kind of baffled that people particularly want this to happen. Resident Evil 5 was, after all, pretty much Resident Evil 4, minus that game’s distinctive character, with co-op tacked on, and based in a generic ‘impoverished Africa’ setting that raised a lot of eyebrows, what with the player blasting their way through a stereotypical depicted ‘West African’ country without engaging in that country in any other way than ‘shoot everything that moves.’ Yes, your targets were zombies (or ‘Majini’ variants of), but come on: the imagery of shooting your way through shanty towns and spear-chucking tribal folks in villages as all-American soldier boy Chris Redfield was always a bad look, and was doing no favours to a region of the world that already has a bit of an image problem.

Related

12 Best Resident Evil Games, Ranked

From the venerable Resident Evil 4 to Resident Evil Village, these are some of the very best titles in Capcom’s iconic survival horror series.

Farewell, Africa

Now, I’m sure that if Capcom did tackle Resident Evil 5, they’d use it as an opportunity to right some of the problematic wrongs of the original game. In fact, that could be one of the motivators in doing an RE5 remake in the first place, but unlike all the other Resident Evils that have been remade, the fifth one isn’t a classic by any stretch; the setting was drab, the story was silly yet lacking in the campy charms of RE4, and its mission-based ‘adventure across [West African country]’ structure feels very much of its time, lacking the less linear exploration, atmosphere, and puzzle-solving of its more refined predecessors (and later games).

I say all this having had a perfectly good time playing through the game in co-op, but Resident Evil 5 set the series on the misdirected path that eventually gave us Resident Evil 6, which—while not all bad—was bad enough that it prompted a total change in direction from Capcom since then, reeling the series back towards the horror direction where it made its name.

Then there’s the fact that Resident Evil 5 really isn’t that old. Resident Evil 2 REmake is, in my mind, the best of the remakes, because it required a total redesign from the fixed-camera-angles PS1-era original, and Capcom pulled it off beautifully.

Resident Evil 4 Remake had a lot less work to do, because the fundamental 3D structure, over-the-shoulder camera, and so on, were already in place. RE5 is a game that’s just two generations old; there’s way less to actually enhance, and a way lower ceiling for improvement too, because the setting and story simply weren’t great. The RE2 and RE4 remakes (with honourable mention to RE3) were the treatment the original games deserved. Can the same really be said of RE5?

Simply put: Resident Evil 5 feels neither old enough nor good enough to warrant a remake. I say let this uninspiring chapter, and the one that followed it, lie. Capcom is almost certainly delivering Resident Evil 9 next, and if it follows its recent ‘remake-new entry-remake-new entry’ trend, then after that we should probably expect the next remake. But there are way better options than chipping into the series’ least inspiring years.

Related

Resident Evil Remakes Are Some Of The Best Games To Replay

Just one more playthrough.

There’s the one where it all began for a start. The original Resident Evil already received a wonderful remake back in 2002, which happens to be one of my favourite games in the series. But even the remake was over 20 years ago now, and it’d be fascinating to see the original spooky-house game get the over-the-shoulder RE Engine treatment like its three sequels did. It feels like there’s a ton of ways in which the Spencer Mansion could be expanded and opened up for more exploration, and would give us a new, hyper-modernised way to experience the classic story.

REdirecting the Remakes

Then there’s Code Veronica, which has its fair share of supporters (and rumours) for a remake, if this recent Reddit thread is anything to go by. The beloved yet oft-overlooked entry that bridged the chronological and technological gap between Resident Evil 3 and 4 saw Claire Redfield trying to escape an Umbrella-owned island in the South Pacific. The game was great at the time, but aged poorly with its rudimentary all-3D graphics. The island setting lends itself brilliantly for Capcom to experiment with a more open world design. Claire Redfield having to scavenge for resources on Rockfort Island’s forests while trying to find her way into the heart of Umbrella’s operations there? Sign me up!

Point being: there are way more interesting directions for the ‘remake’ side of the series to go than Resident Evil 5 (and, god forbid, 6). There are bona fide forgotten gems begging to be unearthed again, so why start trudging through the games that, while not awful, marked something of a low point for the mainline series. In Resident Evil 4 Remake, Capcom remade an all-time classic, with a Resident Evil 5 remake, they’d be remaking a game that simply wasn’t that special to begin with. It’s time for Capcom to break with the remake chronology and dig a little deeper.

Related

15 Best Survival Horror Games, Ranked

From Resident Evil 2 Remake to The Last Of Us, here are some of the very best survival horror games ever made.