I don't recall hearing anything specific about how sunlight was originally going to affect RE5. I remember hearing it was gonna be important and then nothing ever came of it, until I saw the behind the scenes video in Degeneration that basically made it seem like they were just really proud of their sunlight effects and not that it had any real story or gameplay element. Just curious if its original purpose was ever revealed and where, because that's always alluded me and I've always remembered thinking that the sun had some role or affect on the Majini.
But yeah, as much as I think Resident Evil 5 is a highly underrated game, considering how popular RE4 was, I still would have loved to see the original single player version. This trailer is just absolutely insane and really makes the final game look so tame and watered down.
This actually looks like a massive improvement on Resident Evil 4's horror by swarm approach. It really got across how much more they were able to achieve with the new hardware compared to Resident Evil 4, which is why it's so disappointing that Resident Evil 5 just ended up being more of the same.
The larger swarms, the aggressive attacks and tackles, Majini being able to restrain you down to the floor and even interact with the environment by destroying pillars and tipping over trailers, Chris dodging attacks and kicking enemies back into the swarm. What the hell happened to that? Co-op or not, those were some really good ideas and could have made the entire game way more tense.
But the fact that game used to be single player just fascinates me because it would have been a more seamless adventure like RE4, but so much bigger. And it's crazy to think, but Resident Evil 4 really is one of a kind despite kicking off the direction 5 and 6 would go in, but of those 3 games, it's the only one that was designed as a single player game, and wasn't divided into levels you could replay at will. It was an adventure, and Resident Evil 5 just streamlined that adventure so that it works in co-op, which ended up dumbing down memorable encounters from 4 like El Gigante, Verdugo, and the U-3.
Instead of maneuvering around El Gigante and wasting your own resources on him while also feeling the intimidation of the size difference, in 5, because it's co-op, you're now mounted onto turrets and remain stationary throughout the entire fight with the Ndesu, while being able to unload countless shots into him because ammo is infinite. What a drastic downgrade from what 4 offered.
RE4's single player nature allowed for more freedom in the encounters you come across and in the way you progress the game because it didn't have to account for another player. And to think, RE5 could have been a very similar experience to RE4's, but on brand new hardware, in a new setting, with bigger ideas. Unfortunately, those ideas got stifled by Capcom's greed to capitalize on online gaming. It's such a shame to think of what could have been.
