I find I'm undecided as I found RE5 and RE6 to be fun games despite the action oriented focus. Gameplay wise they have more fluid/ comfortable controls compared to other third person shooters.
Having played Alien Isolation which I find is survival in the extreme (albeit more stealth oriented). The survival genre is a good genre, however when done at it's best it may be more daunting and challenging for more casual players. So it could limit consumer demographic, but this is already the case as many are not happy with the emphasis on action that RE has taken. However the challenge of the survival genre consequentially works better at creating tension which can add to horror.
RE in it's current state is more adventure horror, but even horror is lacking in the series.
Horror comes down to atmosphere and setting. Survival is the gameplay and objectives involved in the story. What are you up against? and how will you take it on and live?
So really the game developers will have to take into account who they are looking to entertain? and who are they looking sell their games to? Do their targets meet up?
With these questions in mind Capcom may yet again run the risk as they did in RE6 in trying to appeal to reviewers and various fans rather than finding a single concept and executing it to the best of their ability.
What were dynamics of their old games versus their newer titles?
The older titles are still an adventure however it was not clear what you were exactly facing and in turn you were provided more surprises for player. Sure there are zombies but there many other things. RE4, RE5, and RE6 kinda revealed more and consequently didn't have the same factor when surprising players.
What are they wanting to actually achieve in the next RE title? An attempt to return to roots? Or try and reinvent the wheel? Both could bode well or be disastrous. Do they want overwhelm the player with unfair odds and force the player to be more intelligent about how they proceed? Or to entertain the player with an engaging adventure that tells a story? or both?
Capcom is still kinda vague about what they are delivering to fans and media alike. Sure they say horror, but they've said this before. RE5 was a step up from RE4's definition of Horror and although having a good premise, it unfortunately revealed too much in beginning and almost mirrored RE4 in execution, despite begin fun and having a more intuitive inventory system unlike it's sequel.
RE6 was guilty of both of these as in Leon's and Jake's campaign, they tried to return to the old (RE2 and RE3) while adding a new spin on it and the campaign both were weak because they didn't narrow down exactly what they themselves were looking to make (That was the whole problem of RE6 for many) Chris's campaign was most action orientated and least liked by reviewers, but it was also the most cohesive in overall consistency and made the most sense it what it was trying to achieve, via gameplay and narrative: An evolution/ continuation of RE5.
Sometimes the problems with video game is they try to be both a film and a game and one gets priority over the other often though not always. Capcom is kinda guilty of this in my opinion as they went with more story line (kinda bad/ corny ones at that) than actual gameplay as evident in some of later RE titles with a continuous same boss fights (Simmons and Ustanak come to mind) or QTE's It's just filler and that is because the developers decided to more so make a story.
Another probelms is the that reviewers are sometimes given to much consideration over the actual gamers when developing. Some games have developed cult following with word of mouth reputation and have achieved immense success that way by actually begin a well crafted game.
The best games that have sold decently well and were successful in their reviews were the ones that have primary concept and went with it to the best of their abilities and made it clear what their concept was, what the gameplay mechanics were and focused on that.
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