There have been two huge surprises when Resident Evil Requiem debuted at Summer season Video games Fest. One was the timing of its look, coming roughly 17 minutes after government producer Jun Takeuchi requested us to attend a little bit longer. The opposite was how Requiem attracts on a wierd, almost-forgotten nook of the Resident Evil franchise.
For those who’re an old-school RE fan, this text in all probability received’t inform you something that you simply don’t already know. Nevertheless, Resident Evil has been on an upswing for the previous few years, which has introduced numerous new followers to the collection. That is primarily meant for them.
Who’s Grace Ashcroft?
The Requiem trailer launched us to Grace Ashcroft, a younger FBI agent who’s despatched to go to the positioning of her mom Alyssa’s homicide. For anybody who was enjoying RE 20 years in the past, that immediately set off alarm bells.
Alyssa Ashcroft, a reporter for a neighborhood newspaper in Raccoon Metropolis, was one in all eight playable characters in 2004’s Resident Evil Outbreak and its sequel, 2005’s File #2. Each had been a novel on-line spin on the unique survival horror components the place you would group with as much as three different gamers to outlive one in all 10 eventualities set throughout the demise of Raccoon Metropolis. This included the prospect to revisit a number of key areas from the unique variations of Resident Evil 2, 3, and Zero, similar to Umbrella’s underground laboratories, the Raccoon Hospital, and the police station.
Outbreak initially bought very nicely off the power of the Resident Evil title, however had famously horrible load occasions. It was additionally a PlayStation 2 unique, so to entry on-line play, you had to purchase a particular community adapter. (Some territories, similar to Australia, didn’t even get that.) For those who did, Outbreak had its personal famously janky foyer/matchmaking programs and, in a peculiar choice by the builders, didn’t have voice chat.
Whereas File #2 fastened numerous the primary sport’s mechanical points and had higher total situation design, phrase had already gotten round about Outbreak’s shortcomings. Consequently, File #2 bombed in most markets, which reportedly put a cease to Capcom’s plans to proceed the collection. Some previews from the time urged there have been one other 10 eventualities in planning phases, 5 of which may very well be partially accessed through the use of a Recreation Shark on the File #2 disc.
Capcom subsequently launched Resident Evil 4 in 2005, which put a tough cease to the RE franchise’s traditional period. Outbreak was subsequently allowed to fall into relative obscurity, to the purpose the place it wasn’t clear if the video games had been an precise a part of the collection’ canon.
Since then, fan opinion has circled on Outbreak. The net RE collection’ greatest situation is likely to be that they merely got here out too early and/or on the mistaken platform. If Outbreak had been launched as an early Xbox Reside title, for instance, it’d’ve had a hotter reception. Because it was, Outbreak was an bold venture that launched on a console that wasn’t actually fitted to it.
12 years after File #2’s launch, Alyssa Ashcroft made a cameo look in Resident Evil 7 because the creator of a newspaper article that may be present in the principle home on the Bakers’ property. This made her the one confirmed survivor from Outbreak, in addition to the one conclusive proof that followers ever acquired about Outbreak’s canonicity.
Now, Requiem seems to be a narrative about Alyssa’s daughter, partially set within the bombed-out ruins of Raccoon Metropolis. In keeping with producer Masachika Kawata throughout the June twenty sixth Capcom Direct, RE9 is about 30 years after the unique catastrophe, putting it round 2028.
Along with being a celebration of the franchise’s thirtieth anniversary, Requiem is one other helpful instance of how there are not any actually lifeless plot threads in Resident Evil. Whereas there are dozens of dropped plots and characters all through collection historical past, Capcom routinely dives into its again catalog to search out tales. If the subsequent mainline entry in RE is, of all issues, a follow-up to the Outbreak video games, perhaps your personal favourite one-shot character has an opportunity to make their very own return.