Resident Evil 5 is actually the Resident Evil most in need of a remake. A whole new environmental structure and scenario design that reigns in the action and dials up the horror would bring it in line with capcom's of remakes but all of this doesn't account for Resident Evil 5's most notorious problem: Racism.
All in set in a fictional West African country Resident Evil 5's primary antagonists are black people. Yes it's technically the Oroborus virus that protagonist Chris Redfield is fighting but the parasite's host is depicted as a nation of mobs and Primitives who are violent even before their infection. Intentionally or not Resident Evil 5 positioned Africa as the Dark Continent an uncivilized World harboring a diseased population that needs gunning down via Western intervention in the name of Global Security.
This insensitive treatment of people of color was hotly debated even as early as Resident Evil 5's debut trailer with writers such as eni croll and Steven totillo pointing out the game's uncomfortable postcolonial imagery the arguments and think pieces continued well into the game's release window with IGN's own former editor-in Chief Hillary Goldstein having also wrestled with the subject but that was 2009 a time when race was apparently a debate rather than a reality.
In the 2020s in a post black lives matter World there is only one acceptable response to a white man shooting waves of Africans for an entire video game: "No."
There is one thing I do. I have a job to do and I'm going to see it through remakes may be able to redefine their Source material but there's only so many changes you can make until it's not a remake at all but an entirely new game and if you take Africa out of Resident Evil 5 is it Resident Evil 5 anymore even with a vastly improved more sensitive take on the continent, perhaps one with a black protagonist and a more empathetic look at the outbreak The Experience would simply be too divorced from the original to hold the name Resident Evil 5.
So where does Capcom go now? Personally I'd look backwards code Veronica is an ideal candidate as is the original Resident Evil but if the only way is chronologically forward then a total rewrite of what comes next is the logical path because what followed Resident Evil 4 was not one terrible game but two.
Resident Evil 6 double down no triple down on the action-packed setpiece heavy shooter design to the extent that much of it could be mistaken for a third person Call of Duty spin-off were it not for the monsters its restrictive level design practically puts you in a choke hold forcing you to endure a barrage of bombastic moments that have no interest in evoking any sense of fear Resident Evil 6 is a survival horror only in that it's a horrible game that you have to survivelaying but this time around it doesn't have to be like that.
Capcom now has the opportunity to ignore the past and completely reinvent this chunk of the timeline. In Resident Evil 4 remakes post-credit scene evil mastermind Albert Wesker details his plans for world domination to ad Wong reflected in his glasses is an image of excel gon and the stairway of the sun two significant plot.
Elements from Resident Evil 5 which indicates capcom's intentions butthere's more to consider this scene is largely a replication of the sequence from assignment ADA a non-canon chapter from the original Resident Evil 4 it shift from unofficial to Cannon points to a willingness to change furthermore the end of this scene is completely
Rewritten when learning of wesker's plans rather than dutifully deliver the stolen last plaga sample to to him Ada betrays her shadowy boss and forces her helicopter to turn around. In this moment unclear Capcom has given itself the freedom to do whatever it wants I just hope it's not a remake of Resident Evil 5
Full Article: https://www.ign.com/videos/the-resident-evil-game-that-cant-be-remade
What did RE4 have that was offensive? I played the Wii version many years ago, did it get cut out of that version?
All the enemies are Spanish. If all the enemies being African is a problem then both games are similar on that plane. Like I said, imagine a MAGA playing RE4 and hearing them speak Spanish.
But anyways if RE5 has actually racist things in it discuss and I will change my opinion. I saw at the early few posts talk of dudes in grass skirts but don't think that is enough to make this declaration.
All the enemies are Spanish. If all the enemies being African is a problem then both games are similar on that plane. Like I said, imagine a MAGA playing RE4 and hearing them speak Spanish.
But anyways if RE5 has actually racist things in it discuss and I will change my opinion. I saw at the early few posts talk of dudes in grass skirts but don't think that is enough to make this declaration.
someone tried making the comparison of racism to them using spears as weapons and compared it to the one slur, which isnt the case at all
in spite of the "spear-chucker" slur used on african people
like bro
saying "a virus did it" doesnt make the real-world implications any better. like, ok they thought itd look cool. that doesnt make it not racist (or bad taste). it doesnt require intent
You're going to have to prove anybody from Capcom has ever heard that term before.
totalnerdken posted...
I mean, no offense, but whenever there's a person of colour in a Norse game, people will complain saying it's not accurate (and I'm not even sure if that criticsm itself is accurate).
But suddenly, when someone says hey, the non zombie and pre zombie people are not accurately representative, then suddenly "it's just a game bro"?
That exact same argument could be used with the people claiming RE5, Kingdom Come Deliverance, and Witcher 3 are racist.