After a string of successful new Resident Evil titles, Capcom has turned its hand to remaking the classic games from the series, and all signs point to Resident Evil 5 beig next.
Capcom recently continued its hot streak of AAA hits, with the Resident Evil 4 remake selling a whopping 3million in its first two weeks on sale and achieving a full five-star rating in our review that dubbed it “another fantastic remake”. There’s the potential for more Resident Evil 4 DLC with a side story featuring Ada Wong of course, but following that, players are already wondering which Resident Evil game Capcom is likely to remake next.
The logical answer is Resident Evil 5, and there’s plenty of hints and winks that occur towards the end of the Resident Evil 4 remake that seemingly hint as such. However, so far with its remakes, Capcom has proved that it isn’t shy about remixing and reshaping events from the original versions to give both new and returning players something fresh to play. The Resident Evil 5 remake will be no different, and here’s why.
1. Las Plagas virus
To get the obvious point out of the way, there’s a lot of similarities shared between the two viruses depicted in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. This is because the Uroboros seen to infect people in Resident Evil 5 is actually developed from a specific strain of the Las Plagas virus seen in Resident Evil 4. Wesker uses the Las Plagas sample and hands it to shady company Tricell between the events of both games, and this is what creates Resident Evil 5’s Type 2 and Type 3 Las Plagas.
Unlike the Resident Evil 2 remake that features fairly standard zombie types, Resident Evil 4 set a precedent that meant its infected enemies could mutate, and grow all sorts of irregular limbs that makes fighting them far more strategic. The original Resident Evil 5 kept up this trend through the Uroboros virus’ inclusion, and it’d be silly to expect Capcom to go backwards with regards to enemy complexity. Uroboros – possibly with types never seen in the original – will inevitably be back for the Resident Evil 5 remake.
2. Ashley
From knife parrying to the ability to move and shoot at the same time, the Resident Evil 4 remake improves a lot of gameplay mechanics over the original. The most substantial change, however, is just how easy it is to shepherd Ashley through the game’s dangerous locations as Leon. Whereas before it was a simple 'wait' or 'follow' system, the remake makes it so Ashley is almost always following Leon’s lead – you just get to choose how close she stays near you.
The original Resident Evil 5 ran with this idea also, with Capcom making it an inherently co-op experience from the ground up. Main character Chris Redfield is joined by his BSAA partner Sheva, who absolutely chews through ammo and can be a hindrance when played solo. The Resident Evil 5 remake, therefore, is a prime opportunity to tell this story using a revised partner system where Sheva is less annoying to manage. Capcom just did it with Resident Evil 4’s Ashley, so we should expect to see the same again.
3. No spin-off remakes
Following the release of the Resident Evil 3 remake, many players felt like Resident Evil 4 was too precious a game to remake. Obviously, they were wrong because the remake we just received was handled with love and care, but there was a large movement that hoped that 2000’s Resident Evil – Code: Veronica would be next.
That was for a couple of reasons… For one, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was the last bastion of the franchise’s fascination with fixed camera angles. Why not remake it from the new over-the-shoulder perspective? Next, it’s a game featuring Resident Evil 2’s Claire Redfield, so there’s some built-in character familiarity there. And then you have the usual excuse of improving the original game’s visuals to bring it up to modern standards. Capcom skipped Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, though, in favour of ploughing on with the numbered releases. Expected them to do the same for Resident Evil 5.
4. RE Engine
The original Resident Evil 4 was a very brown game, painting Leon’s mission to rescue the president’s daughter as drab and a bit washed out. This year’s remake perfectly resolved this issue by setting a lot more sequences at night, making encounters like the initial cabin sequence and lake monster a lot moodier and more atmospheric thanks to altering the time of day and making full use of the RE Engine’s amazing lighting.
Resident Evil 5 wasn’t by any means as brown as Resident Evil 4, but a lot of locations were set similarly in the day. This did much to remove a lot of the typical tensions fans have come to expect from a Resident Evil game, and so a remake is the perfect opportunity to make Resident Evil 5 scary for once. Always having a partner with you – be they an NPC or player-controlled – always makes this trickier, but the RE Engine is yet to disappoint in terms how creepy it makes locations look in any of the Resident Evil games it’s been used for so far.
5. Resident Evil 4's ending
At the end of Ada’s story in the original Resident Evil 4, we see her comply with her master’s wishes of obtaining the Las Plagas sample (revealed to be none other than Albert Wesker). In the remake of Resident Evil 4, however, a very different thing happens. Upon learning of Wesker’s plan to kill millions in order to develop a new strain of virus, Ada demands that the helicopter pilot turns around after holding them up at gunpoint. She goes against Wesker’s wishes, hinting at a very different Resident Evil 5 remake.
Of course, Albert Wesker still being teased at the end of Resident Evil 4 remake means he will likely still be featured in the Resident Evil 5 remake. He just may have to go about obtaining the Las Plagas sample a bit differently. Ada Wong herself didn’t feature in the original version of Resident Evil 5, but now that she’s pitted against Wesker rather than working for him, she might play a role in Chris and Sheva’s hellish adventure. Either way, all signs point to a very different feeling remake of Resident Evil 5.
