Spin-off discussion

My question today is what spin-offs have you played and how did you like them. Ratings maybe? I dunno, something. As everyone here propably knows, I'm a huge fan of the spin-off titles of Resident Evil. That meaning I have played MOST of them.
The only ones I have not played are the Chronicles & Survivor2. Chronicles because I will NOT buy a Wii just for those and Survivor2 because I'm afraid of all the bad ratings. I hadn't played the mobile games until now that I managed to find the games through the internet and now I have Confidential Report File 1-4 and Missions on my phone! Awesomeness! EDIT: I also got Genesis and Uprising.
I think I'll be getting Survivor 2 if I find a cheap copy of it, but right now I'm going to go for a speed run on Dino Crisis.
Anyway, instead of rambling on I will write about my impressions on the games.

Outbreak: These were truly a great Resident Evil experience, although seriously difficult. I love the fact that they gave us an entirely new cast of characters and topped it with cameos and memorable locations. The games also have a lot of replay value since every character has their own opening and ending in each chapter and there's lots of unlockables. Not that I'd actually want to replay File#1 much (save the earlier levels) due to the difficulty and the seriously long load times. The inventory I liked since you could give stuff to other characters saving your own room and the fact you could leave things lying on the ground was great. Many have said the AI was awful, and though not the best around, I didn't have too many problems with it. Besides, you could always play on the lone wolf mode. Never got to try the online play. Improvised weapons, sparse ammo, dark environment, puzzles, character attributes, old-ish style, move while aim... Those were the things that made me love these games as much as I would any main title. Oh yeah, there was the virus cauge some people have had problems with but since I haven't I don't mind it. Some might, since it limits your playing time. Not through #1 completely yet, so I've only tried #2. The latter one had shorter load time though.

Survivor: Oh man... This game was AWESOME! Crappy graphics it had but the story was intriguing (and canon). I liked Ark as a character (one of my favorites) and the light gunner style was different. Mr. X as the bad guy was great, I remember running around scared as a kid when he came up

Dead Aim: This is one of my favorite RE titles. The foggy environment and creepy atmosphere at the ship reminded me of Silent Hill, I was just waiting when I'd run into Harry. The scariest of the newer games, that's for sure, and you have a feeling of solitary confinement being in the middle of a sea in a ghost ship.. Moving in this game was a little awkward but when I got used to it I didn't have any problems. The zombies were TOUGH and it was rreally scary when they come out of the dark and start shuffling towards you at an alarming pace and there's only so many ammo. One of the best credit songs in RE and it had a nice twist ending.

Gaiden: Another game set on a luxury cruiser, this was the only GameBoy title after the RE1 port was scrapped. You control Barry trying to locate Leon who has gone awol while investigating the Starlight. I liked the oldschool 8bit style on the game and that it was a semi rpg. A different take on RE and I respect Capcom for taking their chances with it. The game had a weird battle system that irritated most people but I found myself having fun playing this game. It also had great music for such a game. My second favorite spin-off title. Too bad it's not canon. Well, at least as of yet...

Confidential Report: I already played (and beat) File 1 with Tyler and I can say that this is looking quite interesting. This is the first RE in a long time that has characters new to me and a plot that I have no information on, since very few apparently has played this game. The turn based tactical gameplay might appear slow to people who have no previous experience on games like that, but as I'm a fan of tactical RPGs I find it ok. It's still feeling a tad slow though... Maybe it'll be faster in the next file.

Missions: This was not as good as it could've been. I liked the idea of having puzzle based missions where completing certain conditions open a variation of different missions. The gameplay isn't really good and the game having 3D graphics instead of 2D was a bad idea for a mobile game. This could've worked as an iPhone game but not as a regular mobile game. Actually the only RE I have not quite liked so far.

Genesis & Uprising: [Genesis thread] [Uprising thread]

Upcoming titles: I'm really hyped about the Revelations and Mercenaries and the possibility of a new Outbreak. Revelations is looking too awesome to pass and I want to see how much they have implemented in the Mercenaries. I'll just have to get a 3DS to play those... Damn it, I hate it when I have to buy a new console to play a game I want :/

Dead Aim: This is one of my favorite RE titles. The foggy environment and creepy atmosphere at the ship reminded me of Silent Hill, I was just waiting when I'd run into Harry. The scariest of the newer games, that's for sure, and you have a feeling of solitary confinement being in the middle of a sea in a ghost ship.. Moving in this game was a little awkward but when I got used to it I didn't have any problems. The zombies were TOUGH and it was rreally scary when they come out of the dark and start shuffling towards you at an alarming pace and there's only so many ammo. One of the best credit songs in RE and it had a nice twist ending.


Pretty much sums it up for me. I really enjoyed this game. Still have my copy, just no ps2 to play it on.

tl,dr

wut?

too long, didn't read

Ah. You bastard.

My favorite spin off was umbrella chronicles but on that list I would go for Dead Aim. I love that game and ive passed it many times. its soo underated its unbielvable.Some say its the worst RE game ever.What a shower of shit.

UC is propably great, but I'm not buying a Wii to play it. And yeah, DA was awesomeness, I don't know why people give it so much crap. It has been the best spin-off thus far.

I played UC and DS Chronicles. I actually liked the latter a bit more. I especially liked the CV part where alfred ashford set up his own sick little maze. I thought it added a level of depravity to him.

I hope that the next RE Chronicles incarnation, if it happens to get made some how is an off a rail first person shooter.

Solidus wrote:

I hope that the next RE Chronicles incarnation, if it happens to get made some how is an off a rail first person shooter.

No thanks. I think that would be a step away from what RE really is.

Considering RE has been an on a rail shooter twice, a fps, a top down shooter, a 3rd person over the shoulder game twice, and an alone in the dark styled game, I think the series can evolve and take on new forms.

Solidus wrote:

Considering RE has been an on a rail shooter twice, a fps, a top down shooter, a 3rd person over the shoulder game twice, and an alone in the dark styled game, I think the series can evolve and take on new forms.

It has never been an fps. The games were light gunners. Top down shooter it has been in some sense, but the handheld games have been more like a horror/adventure with rpg elements.

Right I understand that. My point is I think that you could conceivably create a decent RE game as a FPS. I've played some pretty scary FPS before that had zombies like the Ravenhome Halflife 2 demo, They Hunger, Left4Dead, and Condemned. I think it might be cool as a spin off to do a game that has a RE quality story and scares in the first person mode.

I mean before it was a top down shooter or a game with RPG type elements, it was strictly an Alone in the Dark kind of game. So I think it could be conceivable that another format for the saga could work out well.

I'm sure it would sell big time as an FPS. But it wouldn't be scary. None of the games you mentioned as FPSs are scary. Ravenholm was pretty eerie though, but mainly because you only had the gravity gun most of the time. I'd rather TPS be as far away from the originals as we go.

I would like the next Chronicles to be called Resident Evil Survivor Chronicles, featuring levels from the two survivor games and some new levels like the darkside chronicles.

That could actually make Dead Aim officially canon...

Mass Distraction wrote:

That could actually make Dead Aim officially canon...

For me its already cannon in my head.

I thought those games were scary when I played them. I remember jumping out of my seat when a randomly placed smoker pulled me into a hole in the sewers that I missed. Condemned was also intense as hell brawling one on one with zombies and having them run off to hide and only to jump out at you unexpectedly to take you down.

I thought ravenholm was eerie because of the imagery, and not the gravity gun. If anything having a weapon that can turn any object into a projectile was the least scary thing to me. I also thought that the monsters that would chase you down and corner you were pretty scary.

Being in the first person doesn't preclude something from being suspenseful or eerie if you ask me. Resident Evil 5 was in the 3rd person and I can say that there are episodes of Glee that gave me more intense tremors of fear.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on whether those games were scary though. It's all really subjective.

weskersbarber wrote:

Mass Distraction wrote:

That could actually make Dead Aim officially canon...

For me its already cannon in my head.

Same here, but as I said, officially Still, there's nothing that says it can't be. Capcom just never said anything about that.

@Solidus: I still think that RE as an FPS would not be RE anymore.

It'd be kind of like taking Civilization and making it a sidescroller. I don't necessarily disagree with you. I guess I just think that they CAN make scary FPS games, but they WON'T. Or maybe don't want to or really know how to do it well. For me, I'd love an FPS that was claustrophobic like in the mansion in RE1. Though...I'd still like a TPS better than that...and the old style more than that.

I think the leap from a strategy game to a side scroller is much bigger than a leap from a third person shooter to a first person shooter. Although RE could be pretty badass as a board game

The Doom board game was cool.

Still, RE has never been a usual kind of 3ps.

I also think a Resident Evil interactive sing along dvd would be a good spin off. I've always thought that it would be great to see lisa trevor and albert wesker have a tap dancing battle.

Haha. It's funny that you bring that up. A while back, I wanted to make a parody movie of the first RE as a musical. One of the highlights was going to be Barry singing Meatloaf's "For Crying Out Loud (You Know I Love You)" after Jill takes his gun away and after she subsequently asks him why she should give it back. The whole time you think he is singing to Jill (For crying out loud you know I love you as his answer.) Near the end of his song Jill looks all flattered as he goes to grab her hand, but instead he reveals he was singing to his gun all along and holds it instead. Obviously this parody would change many of the characters' personalities into fumbling idiots. I wanted Chris to be particularly dumb with Wesker as the only actual intelligent one realizing he is just surrounded by idiots. Through the course of the parody I wanted to have Richard die in as many ridiculously impossible ways as I could and at the very end right before the mansion blows up, you see just a hand crawling toward the escaping helicopter as he faintly says "waiiiitttt..." Also, at the beginning in the helicopter ride to find Bravo, to introduce the characters, I was going to have them randomly break into the "cookie jar song." Barry took the cookie from the cookie jar! Who me? Yes you! Not me! Then who? ....uhhh......Jill! Jill took the cookie...etc. lol. It would have been good times.

All this talking about RE being fps made me search for RE maps for L4D2

Awesome campaigns too. Too bad all of them are still in the making...