1996 was a very special year for the zombie genre. The reason is none other than the birth of two of the most important sagas about the undead within the world of video games: The House of the Dead and above all resident Evil.
The first emerged as a more realistic and darker evolution of the Virtua Cop from SEGA, while the survival horror Capcom did the same about the Alone in the Dark of Infogrames. And inevitably they ended up giving feedback.
Parallel lives that ended up coming together
There are certain parallels if we see their premieres in detail, not only because they coincide in the same year of launch, but because both were set in 1998 and with a failed experiment because of a scientist with an air of greatness. Even in both cases the location took place in a mansion.
Their proposals, on the other hand, were radically different: SEGA was committed to a shooter on rails in which it was necessary to shoot incessantly, having to reload every so often trying to save as many civilians as possible and keeping an eye on the weak points of the bosses; while the Capcom classic opted for an adventure with a dose of action and puzzles, fixed cameras and a few scares.
Logically, some game had to give in and "copy" the other and that came with the ill-fated Resident Evil Survivor from PlayStation in 2000, the same year where it debuted Resident Evil Code: Veronica. It wasn't a shooter on pure rails, in any case, by offering greater mobility, but it served the Osaka company to see how that genre suited to resident Evil. In fact, one of the extras of the aforementioned Code: Veronica allowed us to replay the adventure in first person.
His maturity would come through Wii, with the Chronicles (Umbrella and Darkside) between 2007 and 2009, where he did hit the rail shooters genre. Something that had resisted him with the failed Survivor and Dead Aim of previous years.
Resident Evil 5 and the most obvious tribute to SEGA
All this leads us, in retrospect, to the second act of Resident Evil 5; specifically, to chapter 2-3, in which we handle a turret inside a jeep to try to control the Majini on a motorcycle, which did not stop throwing Molotov cocktails, as well as other types of attacks with other weapons from the trucks.
There was no control of movement there, only of the turret. And over several minutes, with some Quick-Time Event involved so as not to lose grip after a jump. A test that prepared us for what would come next, the tough showdown against Ndesu, a mass capable of supporting countless bullets.
Because we couldn't use other weapons there, not even the infinite rocket launcher, it was an endurance test in which you had to pay close attention to the special attacks of this enemy to be able to counter them. Similarly to The House of the Dead, with key points that had to be memorized to center all the shots there. A pattern quite similar, in this case, to the first boss of The House of the Dead 2 released in 1998.
That gigantic Alphonse Elric armor, called Kuarl, was controlled by an imp (Zeal). And is that Ndesu looked a lot like Kuarl, precisely, in relation to the pattern of their movements and attacks, especially when preparing the strongest attacks from the top down. The difference is that Ndesu did not have an imp behind him, but the presence of other Majini to annoy us and to be very careful with the QTE. Tackling this solo duel in Veteran or Professional modes was challenging, definitely. But a nice tribute to a SEGA classic with a strong presence in arcade games.
