The announcement of theResident Evil 2remake at E3 2018 was met with varied reactions, but few of them involved skepticism. The originalRE2was already one of the most beloved survival horror games out there, and after the successful launch ofResident Evil 7a year prior, many gamers were confident that Capcom knew what it was doing with the remake. Sure enough, 2019’sResident Evil 2did indeed turn out to be a hit, but not a lot of people could have guessed just how popular the game would end up being. The remake overtook the sales of the originalResident Evil2in less than a year, and by 2023, it became the best-selling installment in the entireResident Evilfranchise.
Resident Evil 2’s success incentivized Capcom to make remakes of two other beloved installments in the series,Resident Evil 3andResident Evil 4. These two remakes were released over the next four years, and although they didn’t surpassRE2sales-wise, both ended up finding a spot amongCapcom’s most commercially successful games of all time. TheResident Evilremakes are all largely great in their current state, but Capcom could make them even better by taking some inspiration from a fellow survival horror video game,The Last of Us Part 2.
The Resident Evil Remakes Should Get a Chronological Mode, Just Like the One in TLOU Part 2
A New Feature in TLOU Part 2 Remastered Lets Players Experience the Game’s Story in a Whole New Way
The Last of Us Part 2, the 2020 sequel toTLOUon PS3, wasn’t exactly the most unanimously acclaimed game at launch. Althoughthe hit horror title was lauded by professional critics, its story and characters had a mixed reception from players. Some fans complained about the direction that developer Naughty Dog took with the game, while others criticized the somewhat confusing nature of its non-linear narrative. Luckily, Naughty Dog has responded to some of these complaints by releasing some new content for the game, more than five years after its initial debut.
A few days ago, Naughty Dog and fellow PlayStation studio Nixxes droppeda surprise update forThe Last of Us Part 2 Remasteredon PS5 and PC that added a new feature to the game called Chronological Mode. This mode, as its name implies, allows players to experience the events ofTLOU Part 2in chronological order, without flashbacks or flash-forwards of any kind. While it isn’t necessarily the best way for newcomers to play the game, Chronological Mode allows experiencedThe Last of Us Part 2players to get a better insight into its overall narrative, according to Naughty Dog.
Capcom Should Give Players the Option to Play the Resident Evil Remakes in Chronological Order
The recentResident Evilremakes aren’t nearly as convoluted asThe Last of Us Part 2is, storywise, but they aren’t as intrinsically connected as some might think. While the plots ofResident Evil 2,3, and4are mostly linear, these games aren’t direct sequels to each other.Resident Evil 2takes place during the eventsofResident Evil 3; this means thatRE3is, in a sense, both a sequel and a prequel to the game.Resident Evil 4, meanwhile, has an Ada Wong-focused DLC titledSeparate Ways, which is set before the events of the main game.
It’s worth noting that theResident Evil 2remake has two different campaigns, one with Claire Redfield and another with Leon Kennedy. Since there are some narrative inconsistencies between them, it’s hard to tell which one fits into the overallResident Eviltimeline.
While the chances of this happening are perhaps somewhat slim, it would be great if Capcom added a Chronological Mode of sorts to the modernResident Evilremakes and allowed players to experience them in sequential order without having to switch between titles. This, admittedly, would be a bit more difficult to do compared toThe Last of Us Part 2, since Capcom would have to re-releaseResident Evil 2and3and combine them into a single, standalone game. In the case ofResident Evil 4, however, the company could just integratetheSeparate WaysDLC into the base game itself, which probably wouldn’t require a lot of hassle. Regardless of the specifics, though, a chronological mode would give theResident Evilremakes even more replay value than they already have.
