Survival horror fans have been starved for freshResident Evil 9news, as the last major entry in the series,Resident Evil Village, was released in 2022, and no further information has been revealed since then. Audiences have had theexcellentResident Evil 4 Remaketo enjoy in the meantime, of course, but it’s getting to a point where most want to see what the future has in store, rather than lingering in the past.
As it turns out, the future may be hiding quite a bit forResident Evilfans, as recent rumors have suggested thatResident Evil 9will be yet another major reinvention of the long-running franchise. This rumor comes by way of long-time horror game leaker Dusk Golem on Twitter, who calledRE9“very ambitious,” stating that it’s being positioned as a bold new step for the series, on the same level asRE4andRE7. These specific comparisons are quite significant, as the originalResident Evil 4is responsible for the series’ radical shift into action-survival-horror, and it helped popularize the over-the-shoulder camera that is still the norm for so many third-person-shooters today.RE7, on the other hand, thrust the series into a first-person POV, returning to its psychological horror roots while still feeling fresh. IfRE9is going to be a reinvention on the same level, it’s going to need to pull out the big guns.
How Will Resident Evil 9 Reinvent the Series?
Resident Evil 9’s Open-World Rumors Would Be a Significant Reinvention
Assuming, for the sake of analysis, that Dusk Golem is correct with the aforementioned “reinvention” statement, an obvious question remains: how couldRE9possibly reinvent the franchise again? After all, there have only been two entries—RE7andVillage—released under the umbrella of the series’ most recent reinvention, so leaping forward once again could be tricky.
But the long-standing rumor regardingResident Evil 9’s open-world structurecould very well explain this newer “reinvention” rumor. Open-world exploration isn’t often associated with the horror genre, which is so often at its best in claustrophobic environments with controlled pacing, soRE9would undoubtedly be a breath of fresh air in this respect. And for what it’s worth, there’s reason to believe that an open-world formula could actually benefit a survival-horror premise significantly: more freedom means more uncertainty, after all. Plus, resource management and puzzle-solving could be considerably buttressed by this new framing.
Whatever Resident Evil 9’s Reinvention Looks Like, It Will Probably Be for the Best
There’s been some apprehension aboutResident Evil 9’s rumored open-world, and for good reason: the open-world subgenre has been bloated and swollen for many years now, and many gamers are tired of it being the industry standard. No, not every game needs to be an open-world experience, and some can even be worse off for this premise, which so often prizes quantity of content over quality.
That said,RE9’s potential shift to the open-world formula represents experimentation and innovation, two concepts that are the lifeblood of the games industry. Countless franchises, both big and small, have met their downfall by simply doing the same thing with each entry, giving players what they think they want rather than something entirely new and risky. And experimentation is indeed a risk: audiences could hateRE9’s open-world, or whatever else constitutes its rumored “reinvention.” But audiences might also have hated theswitch to the first-person POV inRE7, or the greater focus on action inRE4. Those risks turned out to be for the best, catapulting the series into higher echelons of greatness. Through further experimentation,Resident Evil 9could define the next chapter of the series, being far more than just another drop in the bucket.
Resident Evil 9
Resident Evil 9 is a rumoured upcoming entry in the long-running series from Capcom. Reports suggest it could be a reinvention of the series.
