With Resident Evil Requiem confirmed as a critical and commerical hit, a reader offers some spoiler free suggestions for what he thinks should come next.

I’m not sure when this will be shown, if it is shown, but it’s the 30th anniversary of Resident Evil on Sunday and I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better celebration. Not only is Resident Evil Requiem a great game but it’s done incredibly well in terms of sales, virtually guaranteeing we’ll get at least another 30 years of zombie blasting in the future.

I’m not going to try and predict what the Resident Evil of 2056 is going to be like but having played and enjoyed Requiem I do feel we can make some predictions and request for the next game, which I think will almost certainly be called Resident Evil X.

Who will be the lead is a bit hard to say but while it’s certainly Jill’s turn I do think they will start to move towards the Young Avengers line-up that they seem to be preparing, with characters like Rose and Grace. Perhaps it’ll be like Requiem, but with Jill in the Leon role and then Grace and her super friends as the alternative.

Not only am I happy to keep multiple playable characters but I’d also be fine with there being co-op. The difference is I’d keep the two players separate as much as possible. So like Resident Evil 0, but as if it had co-op. The problem with co-op in Resident Evil is that you can’t get scared if you’re not on own, but if you technically are, but you have another person helping you out, you’d hopefully get the best of both worlds.

So you’d have all the usual running out of ammo and getting menaced by Lickers, but there’d be some way for the other player to pass you items and then occasionally you’d meet up for more action style parts. It wouldn’t be an easy thing to design but with Capcom on fire at the moment I feel they could do it.

The best thing is, they could keep the two styles of gameplay from Requiem and just give it to one person, depending on what they preferred. Or they could let you tag team at certain points, so you get a taste of both worlds. I really do think it’s an idea that has a lot of promise.

In terms of what they could improve on from Requiem, I think one clear problem is the boss battles. I’d never really thought about it much until now, but Resident Evil has never been good at them. They’re fine in terms of the set-up and everything but the actual battles just make all the enemies bullet sponges and that’s it. Both the Resident Evil 4 and Requiem final bosses are really bad, and that’s a weird mistake to keep making.

The only good one that comes to mind is Krauser and that’s because you were fighting him like a relatively normal human, which is kind of cheating for Resident Evil (also, I still don’t really understand who Krauser is, even after all these years).

The obvious options are to either get in someone to design some proper boss battles, which should be easy enough for a Japanese company like Capcom, or just stick with something more puzzle-based. The final face-off with Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 (the original, not the remake) is still my favourite and it’s not really a traditional boss fight at all, Jill just flips a switch.

In terms of other issues from Requiem it’s really very minor. I’d like to have seen more puzzles; I know they’re silly but they’re part of the formula and they’re a good change of pace. I’d also like to see them iron out the storytelling unevenness a bit more. Requiem had serious parts and absolutely ridiculous parts full of jokes and it didn’t work for me.

You can still have some heartfelt moments in amongst all the cheese, but I think taking anything in Resident Evil completely seriously is pointless and potentially tasteless. The only other thing I’d say is don’t lean too much on nostalgia. There was quite a bit in Requiem but since it was the 30th anniversary I think that’s fine, and they didn’t go overboard.

But now is the time to try some new ideas and I think Requiem is actually a good springboard for that. New ideas, new characters, new monsters, and new locations. That’s what we need, after all there’s another 30 years of gaming to get through!

By reader Symbal

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