Here is my continuation of “The History Of The Resident Evil Franchise Part 1“.
In 2007, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, a rail shooter game covering the events of Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, was released for the Nintendo Wii while the third Resident Evil film “Resident Evil: Extinction” was also released and performed well at the box office. In 2008, an animated film called Resident Evil: Degeneration was released and, unlike the live-action films, was actually canon to the universe of the video game series. In 2009, Resident Evil 5 was released with an emphasise on co-op gameplay. The game sold record numbers and was praised critically although some were concerned that the franchise was losing its horror roots in favour of action. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, a sequel to Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles that covered the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was also released in 2009 while the next Resident Evil film “Resident Evil: Afterlife” was released in 2010 and proceeded to double the box office gross of Resident Evil: Extinction which had previously been the highest grossing movie in the franchise.
2012 saw an unbelievable wave of Resident Evil content with Resident Evil: Revelations released for the Nintendo 3DS, pushing the graphical limits of what the handheld was capable of, a squad-based co-op game called Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and the next major entry, Resident Evil 6. Despite selling millions of copies worldwide, Resident Evil 6 received backlash for continuing to strip away the survival horror elements and turning into an outright action game (perhaps a tad harsh in my personal opinion but I understand where they’re coming from). Additionally, the second Resident Evil animated film “Resident Evil: Damnation” was released while Resident Evil: Retribution, the fourth film in the live-action film series, continued to prove successful at the box office.
It’s quite telling then how much backlash Resident Evil 6 had that no games nor movies were released in 2013 or 2014 and some might consider this to be the low point in the history of the Resident Evil franchise. In 2015, an episodic sequel to Resident Evil Revelations was released called Resident Evil Revelations 2 and received positive reviews with strong sales. However, Capcom misfired in 2016 when they released Umbrella Corps, a multiplayer shooter that received highly negative reviews upon its release. They needed to earn the goodwill of the fans back and they decided that the next main game would return to the roots of the series, survival horror. In 2017, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was released and proved to be a very different game to its predecessors. For one, the game was now first person and takes place in a single location, just like the original game, where you must manage your resources in order to survive. The game was critically acclaimed, praised for returning to the survival horror genre and, despite a slow start, has continued to sell to the point now where it’s Capcom’s second best-selling game of all time. The third Resident Evil animated film, Resident Evil: Vendetta, was also released in 2017 alongside the concluding film of the Resident Evil live-action films, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”, which ended up becoming the highest-grossing Resident Evil movie in the franchise.
In 2019, Capcom released a remake of Resident Evil 2 which adopted the over-the-shoulder third-person camera of the later Resident Evil games while remaining loyal to the story and tone of the original. The game ended up becoming critically acclaimed and outsold the original, becoming Capcom’s third best-selling game ever. This was followed up in 2020 with a remake of Resident Evil 3 which was well-received though not quite as much as Resident Evil 2. Finally we reach 2021 with the release of Resident Evil Village, a sequel to Resident Evil 7, which adopts a first-person perspective again. The game proved to be well-received, particularly a certain tall woman, and has sold well for Capcom. In addition, an animated series called Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness was released on Netflix and continues the tradition of the animated movies, being set in the world of the video games between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. Additionally, a reboot of the live-action film series is due to be released next month, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which will emphasise the horror of the video games rather than the action of the previous films.
The Resident Evil franchise is one of the titans of video games and several entries rank amongst my favourite horror video games of all time. Additionally, I’ll be curious to see what the upcoming Netflix Resident Evil live-action TV series will be like. Let me know your thoughts on the history of the Resident Evil franchise, which games you’ve played, which ones you liked and disliked, your thoughts on the film series, what you think of the back and forth between horror and action that Resident Evil has struggled with and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.