After years of anticipation Resident Evil 7 has debuted to widespread fanfare. It's already experiencing success well beyond what many anticipated, and that's not necessarily the game's fault, either.
Resident Evil has played a much smaller role during the past few years than its early dominance would suggest. Capcom hasn't been satisfied, and took some drastic measures to ensure that its seventh main series installment would be something special.
Among Resident Evil 7's bold changes from franchise norms is its use of the first-person view. To some series fans it's an abrasive alteration, but one that has opened up new door of opportunity. Naturally, some gamers have wondered what past games would be like if they went for something more realistic.
Brazilian PC game modder Rod Lima decided to take action and see for himself what classic Resident Evil would be like if played in first-person. He spent the past couple weeks tinkering with the Resident Evil HD Remake's files, making small adjustments on the go to preserve its high-quality experience, inspired by Resident Evil 7.
As explained by Rod Lima, the process first required extracting player model and animation data before importing it into Blender's 3D graphics software. He then worked on altering the animation of the limbs to properly simulate what the on-screen weapon and arm would look like if Resident Evil was a proper first-person game. Surprisingly, the process of moving the camera to what he calls the "1 degree view", or where it becomes first-person instead of third-person, was a far less laborious process.
The result is something quite remarkable. Resident Evil is a much more terrifying game when played with a life-like first-person view. See it in action for yourself:
Sadly, Rod Lima isn't permitted to publish his work online without permission from Capcom. For now, these videos are as close as the average Resident Evil fan will come to experiencing classic Resident Evil in first-person.
Several gamers have commented on the video, sharing how Capcom should have implemented a first-person view setting long ago.
Capcom hasn't publicly addressed the demand for first-person, although tomorrow's release of Resident Evil 7 will prove a huge moment for the discussion. If the new game is commercially successful, Capcom as well as other survival horror developers are likely to embrace first-person design going into the future.
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