We've all been back and forth about the control scheme of the upcoming Resident Evil game. Many hold the position that the controls are perfectly fine. Not only are they perfectly fine but they can also magnify the mood (tension, suspense, fear) that the game intends the player to feel. They also claim that if you don't like the controls, then you are calling RE4 crap.

On the other side of the fence, you have those who believe that the game's control scheme should keep up with the Jones' by giving it a more Gears of War/Dead Space style. Instead of agreeing that the controls highten the tension, suspense, and fear, this camp believes it actually takes away from the game's quality and fun factor.

While I'm going to make it clear where I stand in this argument, I want to emphasize that I fully understand where the former camp is coming from and why they hold that argument.

No matter what the fans say, this late in development, I doubt anything will be changed about RE5's controls before launch. This is a good thing for some of you and a bad thing for some others. I have RE4 in my game collection on the GameCube. I specifically purchased a GameCube for RE4 even though I already had a PS2, I'm no stranger to the resident evil control scheme.

I have been looking forward to RE5 specifically because of the Co-op feature. I am GOING to buy it regardless of how I feel about the controls and I can't wait to get online with my buddy and kill some fast yet somewhat slow to attack "zombies".

I empathize with the supporters of the RE4 control scheme for RE5 because I hate to think that every game will (d?)evolve into an FPS just because thats what the mainstream gamer wants and likes. I love old school RPGs, I don't want to play an FPSRPG. I love my old school action adventure games, I don't want God of War to turn into Mirror's Edge with blades. But at the same time, I don't want things like controls to hold a great game like Resident Evil back.

>Why I believe the controls should be changed<

The original Resident evil was made for a Playstation controller. No joysticks, just d-pad, 4 face buttons, and 4 shoulder buttons (only 2 more buttons than a SNES). You had the option of 2d and 3d controls. One of those would make your character walk in the direction you pressed on the d-pad, and the other would constrict you to pressing up on the d-pad to walk forward no matter which direction your character was facing. This kind of thing was done because of the limitations of the controller, and the design of the camera system.

Up until RE4 the controls remained generally the same, optionally changing the d-pad for the joystick. RE4 hightened the gameplay and increased the fun factor of the Resident Evil series by simply moving the camera behind the protagonist and giving the player >more freedom< of movement with the aiming system. You could now shoot an enemy in the leg to slow him down and blast his head off to conserve ammo. For this fact, Resident Evil 4 will probably go down in history as the best Resident Evil game in history.


FREEDOM!

I believe that they should continue to give the player more freedom in the control scheme in order to highten the game's fun facter even more. I'm going to now use Metal Gear Solid as an example. The original Metal Gear games on the 8 bit systems were designed around the limitations of the systems. Years later Metal Gear solid came out for the Playstation and blew everyone away with it's similar play style to the original games, but with more freedom of controls and the ability to go into first person to look around. Each Metal Gear Solid game gave a little more freedom than the previous. Fast forward to Metal Gear Solid 4. I loved Metal Gear 4 >way< more than either MGS2 or MGS3 (nothing could supplant MGS) simply because of the controls. I liked the story and characters of MGS3 (out of MGS2,3,4) the most, but it doesn't hold a candle to the fun that I had with MGS4 because the controls were that much of an improvement. I played through Metal Gear Solid 4 three and a half times in a row because I loved it so much. I haven't ever done that with any game I've ever owned. That is how much power a simple, easy to use, and fun to play control scheme can be. And as a huge MGS fanboy, I welcome change for the better.

Control schemes are very important to me, I don't completely avoid a game simply based on it's controls, but I will cast a scornful eye on it if the controls are difficult or don't make sense. While I can see where the purist RE4 hardcore fan stands, I don't want all of my beloved franchises to become UT fragfests. But I wholly disagree with the logic of stagnating gameplay features.

All I want is my freedom, and if you hate freedom, well, then fuck you.

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