The way most people these days remember the original Resident Evil from 1996 is pretty skewed. Most folks see the "classic" Resident Evil games through the lens of this 2002 remake, which was stark tonal re-evaluation of what the series was at that point: Action-Horror.

I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now thinking "Nah, RE was always SURVIVAL HORROR bruh" or something along those lines but two consider these two things:

A. "Survival Horror" is just a marketing term that Capcom made up. It's not a real genre, and no one agrees on what actually counts as a TRUE SURVIVAL HORROR GAME™ or not because the term is so vague.

Do Survival Horror games need fixed camera angles? Because the classic Silent Hill games (1-4) do not employ them for 90% of their runtime.

Do Survival Horror games need inventory and item management? Because once again Silent Hill and even Fatal Frame eschew limited inventory in favor of a more streamlined method of item management.

Do Survival Horror games need tank controls? Because Fatal Frame and Obscure dropped them completely and Kuon, Deep Fear and Silent Hill 2-4 gave you the option for a 2-D control style.

So miss me with that "UM, AKSHULLY IT'S SERVIVUL HURRUR" ♥♥♥♥...

B. Consider how fast-paced, action oriented and unabashedly goofy RE1 is compared to other horror games from around that time.

Yes, some of that goofiness is due to age, but there were horror games that came out before RE that were a lot more serious, more tonally grounded, and didn't give you a small military arsenal to deal with any and all problems in your way.

People just seemingly forget there were horror games that came before or around the same time as Resident Evil (Alone in the Dark, Doctor Hauzer, D, Enemy Zero, just to name a few) that were better at nailing the horror experience than RE1 did in 1996. That's not to say they were better games than RE1 (Enemy Zero was, though), but they actively tried to be straight horror, unlike RE1.

Resident Evil since day one has always loved goofy action ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You use a bazooka to blow up kung fu lizards and annihilated a buff naked dude that a weirdo who wears sun glasses at night was trying to steal with a big ♥♥♥♥-off rocket launcher, all before the mansion itself self-destructs. Ya' bro, that's straight horror right there...

The series would only get more bold with that sorta thing as it went on, even before Resident Evil 4. RE2 went hard on it's action, raising the stakes through the roof, and RE3 doubled down on that even harder by adding dodges, a 180 degree turn and ending with a you using a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ RAIL GUN on a blob and saying "You want S.T.A.R.S, I'll give you STARS!" before Raccoon City gets nuked. And you know what? It's cool! It's really cool that Capcom knew that the action element already embeded in RE1 was key to the series going forward.

But that's the funny thing about 2002 remake, it has all of the goofy ♥♥♥♥ that the original had. All of it! But it's presentation is flipped, as it plays everything with a straight face. Now blowing up the kung fu lizards and the big naked dude feel tense and even scary, so much so people forget that all that actiony meat is still there in underneath the surface.

Now because the remake and the original are so very similar, and the fact that this version of the game is more readily available to play, newer fans who've never played the original before, old fans who haven't played the original in a while and old fans with little context as to the horror gaming landscape at the time think "Ah, this is what RE1 was trying to be all along!" and then ask "Why did RE4 turn RE into an action series?" when it always partially was one. I've done it myself, and I know a lot of you have too.

RE Remake is a good game, a great game even. I personally prefer it over the original by a fair margin myself. But it isn't really the best representative of what classic RE was either. It's its own thing, and that's cool, but it and the original trilogy (and I'll through CV in there, begrudgingly) set out to do things a bit differently from one another.

TLDR: Good game. Play it. Stop being Survival Horror boomers cause you have no idea what you are actually talking about. Good bye!

The way most people these days remember the original Resident Evil from 1996 is pretty skewed. Most folks see the "classic" Resident Evil games through the lens of this 2002 remake, which was stark tonal re-evaluation of what the series was at that point: Action-Horror. I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now thinking "Nah, RE was always SURVIVAL HORROR bruh" or something along those lines but two consider these two things: A. "Survival Horror" is just a marketing term that Capcom made up. It's not a real genre, and no one agrees on what actually counts as a TRUE SURVIVAL HORROR GAME™ or not because the term is so vague. Do Survival Horror games need fixed camera angles? Because the classic Silent Hill games (1-4) do not employ them for 90% of their runtime. Do Survival Horror games need inventory and item management? Because once again Silent Hill and even Fatal Frame eschew limited inventory in favor of a more streamlined method of item management. Do Survival Horror games need tank controls? Because Fatal Frame and Obscure dropped them completely and Kuon, Deep Fear and Silent Hill 2-4 gave you the option for a 2-D control style. So miss me with that "UM, AKSHULLY IT'S SERVIVUL HURRUR" shit... B. Consider how fast-paced, action oriented and unabashedly goofy RE1 is compared to other horror games from around that time. Yes, some of that goofiness is due to age, but there were horror games that came out before RE that were a lot more serious, more tonally grounded, and didn't give you a small military arsenal to deal with any and all problems in your way. People just seemingly forget there were horror games that came before or around the same time as Resident Evil (Alone in the Dark, Doctor Hauzer, D, Enemy Zero, just to name a few) that were better at nailing the horror experience than RE1 did in 1996. That's not to say they were better games than RE1 (Enemy Zero was, though), but they actively tried to be straight horror, unlike RE1. Resident Evil since day one has always loved goofy action bullshit. You use a bazooka to blow up kung fu lizards and annihilated a buff naked dude that a weirdo who wears sun glasses at night was trying to steal with a big fuck-off rocket launcher, all before the mansion itself self-destructs. Ya' bro, that's straight horror right there... The series would only get more bold with that sorta thing as it went on, even before Resident Evil 4. RE2 went hard on it's action, raising the stakes through the roof, and RE3 doubled down on that even harder by adding dodges, a 180 degree turn and ending with a you using a fucking RAIL GUN on a blob and saying "You want S.T.A.R.S, I'll give you STARS!" before Raccoon City gets nuked. And you know what? It's cool! It's really cool that Capcom knew that the action element already embeded in RE1 was key to the series going forward. But that's the funny thing about 2002 remake, it has all of the goofy shit that the original had. All of it! But it's presentation is flipped, as it plays everything with a straight face. Now blowing up the kung fu lizards and the big naked dude feel tense and even scary, so much so people forget that all that actiony meat is still there in underneath the surface. Now because the remake and the original are so very similar, and the fact that this version of the game is more readily available to play, newer fans who've never played the original before, old fans who haven't played the original in a while and old fans with little context as to the horror gaming landscape at the time think "Ah, this is what RE1 was trying to be all along!" and then ask "Why did RE4 turn RE into an action series?" when it always partially was one. I've done it myself, and I know a lot of you have too. RE Remake is a good game, a great game even. I personally prefer it over the original by a fair margin myself. But it isn't really the best representative of what classic RE was either. It's its own thing, and that's cool, but it and the original trilogy (and I'll through CV in there, begrudgingly) set out to do things a bit differently from one another. TLDR: Good game. Play it. Stop being Survival Horror boomers cause you have no idea what you are actually talking about. Good bye!