New Resident Evil? Or Capcom Farms Out Another Franchise

Via Kotaku, it seems that despite the loss of pro-globalization head of R&D Keiji Inafune Capcom is once again looking outside its own internal devs to bring one of its classic franchises to life.

Slant Six, developer of the first PS3 SOCOM game, Confrontation and several PSP outings are rumoured to be making a team-based Resident Evil title codenamed “Resident Evil: Raccoon City”. Of course when reached for comment, both studios are hush hush on the subject. So, let’s make a short list of outside developed Capcom games shall we:

1. Bionic Commando – Grin
2. Dead Rising 2 – Blue Castle Games (now Capcom Vancouver)
3. DMC: Devil May Cry - Ninja Theory
4. Asura’s Wrath – CyberConnect 2
5. Steel Batallion: Heavy Armor – From Software

Does Capcom even make their own games anymore? With the split off of platnium studios and the loss of Inafune, it seems they don’t really have any stable of talent left. While this is still nothing more than rumour, does the world really need another co-op Resident Evil? Outbreak was best forgotten and 5, while fun was certainly a flawed experience. Can we just get back to making a solo RE game and bring back the scares?

Review: Castlevania Lords of Shadow

System: PS3 / Xbox 360

Played On: PS3

Developer: Mercury Steam, Kojima Productions

Publisher: Konami

Publisher: B-

Of all the series that started out in a two-dimensional format and was subsequently transitioned one dimension higher, Castlevania has had a hard time reclaiming its once former glory. Stumbling out the gate with two forgettable entries for the Nintendo 64 and then nearly getting there with two more on the PlayStation 2, it’s not for a lack of trying on Konami’s part. With the help of legendary developer Hideo Kojima and a brand new team at Mercury Steam, Lords of Shadow is a solid effort that ultimately falls short of the high standards of the famous series.

Forget everything you know about Castlevania, as LOS disregards series canon up to this point. The only links to previous ‘vania’s is a main protagonist named Belmont (Gabriel this time) who carries a whip-like weapon called the Combat Cross and monsters who are seemingly named for the sole purpose of seeing if series veterans can remember what entry they’re from. Even though it is a little disappointing to long time fans that LOS is more or less a reboot, it’s an excellent jumping on point for newcomers to the series who may have been confused over the series overly long time line. In fact, LOS strongest asset is its story that will compel players to play through the games 20+ hour length to see its surprising but heavily foreshadowed conclusion. It doesn’t hurt that acting duties are handled by the likes of Robert Carlyle, Jason Issacs and Sir Patrick Stewart.

Gamers who have familiarized themselves with recent character action games will feel right at home with LOS. Combat owes a lot to games like God of War and Dante’s Inferno, especially the former given the primary weapon carried by Gabriel. LOS is at its strongest when the player is engaged in combat and developer Mercury Steam did an admirable job in making the player get a sense that every flail from the Combat Cross is connecting with its target. Supplementing the fighting in LOS are two magics of light and dark variety that encourage high combo counters. After fighting for a long enough time without sustaining damage, quelled foes will drop orbs that can be used to refill the magic meters. Light magic grants Gabriel the power to regain health while dark adds increased attack power. Striking a balance between the two adds a great dynamic to the fighting system that will keep players engaged through the waves of enemies encounters.

Between combat scenarios LOS is broken up between puzzle solving and light platforming. For the most part the platforming is precise but there are also instances where a poorly placed camera angle will lead to a few cheap deaths. Despite the fact that many of the vistas that you will visit in LOS are among the best on today’s modern consoles, it is also difficult to figure out what can be grabbed or jumped onto. Mercury Steam tried to rectify this by adding a layer of shine to make players aware what can or cannot be interacted with at any given time but this just comes off as an attempt to hide a problem with the level design. Puzzles appear at a frequent enough pace to not frustrate those wanting to quickly jump back into the action, and for anyone wanting to forgo some experience points they can be skipped as well.

LOS is quite long for an action game, taking the most seasoned player over twenty plus hours to complete. While this may seem like a good thing given that games today can come across as quite short, LOS could have done with an editor to tighten up the pacing. Towards the beginning of the game mechanics will already start to repeat themselves and as it goes on you’ll get a sense that Mercury Steam was adding more and more things to increase the overall playtime when they really should’ve focused on making a more well rounded experience. Too often will you have to contend with nonsensical chupacabra hide-and-go-seek sessions that appear way too frequently and levels that make no sense in the grand scheme of things. By the end the quest deviates so much from the main story quest that the motivations of Gabriel have to be recounted by Sir Patrick Stewart’s narration to remind the player exactly why they are doing what they are doing.

What really stops LOS from being a great 3-D Castlevania game is that it doesn’t “feel” like a Castlevania game, more a game that had the name attached to the product to create more interest than had it been called something else. Although it is viewed more as a reboot, it loses the elements that make Castlevania what it is. Boss encounters boil down to landing a few quick hits on the bosses before rolling away, except for three giant bosses (or colossi, if you will) that are not even a fraction as interesting or satisfying as something like Shadow of the Colossus. This is a far cry from more traditional entries that feature some of the most memorable boss battles in videogame history. Overall LOS comes across as a solid action game that does a fine job of borrowing from other titles, but never truly stands out to make a name for itself.

Another large part of the Castlevania experience is the music, and in this area LOS also falls flat. Even at its very worst, the Castlevania series has some of the most recognizable musical libraries of any series. LOS features an orchestral score that does a good job of conveying the mood but does not feature any tracks that will stick in your head. If any of the classic tracks are used in the score, it is difficult to tell also. The only time a song will be immediately noticeable is in one of the worst levels of the entire game.

Fans of character action games will find a lot to like in LOS despite its unfortunate lenght and pacing issues. Castlevania diehards who were looking for the first great entry of the series in the third dimension will still get a sense that maybe their favourite series is better off sticking to the X and Y plain. LOS ends on an interesting note that will bring the series in a bold new direction should Konami chose to further venture further with this new direction in the long standing series. Not to take anything away from Mercury Steam who have crafted a solid but flawed action game, but it’s still difficult to shake the feeling that this was a reskinned game that could’ve easily been titled anything other than Castlevania.