Randomly Mine: Perspectives

I was recently asked why didn't Resident Evil 2 simply copy and paste Resident Evil 7's gameplay and first person perspective? After all, the game was well-received by fans and critics, and seemed to be the shift from a traditional 3rd Person View the series helped popularize in its 4th entry. After playing RE2's campaign twice (it's quite superb), it made me realize they didn't go 3rd Person simply for the sake of viewing its characters, which are permanently attached to RE2's brand. Instead, as it turns out, 3rd Person still had plenty of room to experiment, contrary to what unified controls in AAA Gaming would have you believe.

RE2's gameplay is 3rd Person like many of its previous installments, but the manner in which it uses that camera is very different. RE4 was a literal stop and go experience. Forcing players to not move a step with each pull of the trigger to facilitate high-risk, high-reward gameplay that was action-packed. Later entries then added strafing, and advanced movement mechanics like dodge-rolls, and melee combos to ratchet up everything even more.

Leaving a gap for RE2 to fill. A quiet, tense, and suspenseful experience that doesn't sacrifice direct control. You can strafe. You can sprint. You can reload on the go.

But you can't do it quickly.

You can't rapid-fire precise shots. You can't dodge roll. You can't sprint at a high-speed.

The 3rd Person View hasn't been done like this before in a Resident Evil game, despite a decade of iterations and innovations. Though this raises a follow-up question. Would RE7 have worked with this camera?

Perhaps.

Though, when you're trying to reboot a brand, mainly when it hasn't been received well for years, a perspective can be the most immediate way to communicate change. That is what happened to RE4. Originally, it would've used the franchises (at the time) traditional tank-controls and fixed camera angles.

Going from 3rd Person to 1st Person isn't as much of a jump in terms of unique gameplay, but it was an immediate way to separate the Resident Evil name from what it had become by the time RE6 launched. Titles like Revelations 2 had come out and received positive press, but still carried ties to those action-titles. RE7, by going First Person, immediately tells people "hey, this is different than before."

Now that people have experienced both a phenomenal Remake, and a great Reboot, I certainly give credit to Capcom for navigating that tightrope.