We recently shared our impressions of Resident Evil Requiem from Gamescom, noting that it appears to offer a significant amount of horror. One of the new features in the game is that this time around, we will be able to choose to play it in both first and third-person perspectives, and there is a good explanation for why Capcom chose this somewhat unconventional solution.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was played in first-person, which was a new feature for the series and contributed greatly to making it the scariest Resident Evil installment to date. And apparently, the move was a little too successful. In an interview with GamesRadar, director Koshi Nakanishi says that it simply became too scary:
"Looking back at Resident Evil 7's first-person perspective, I implemented that as a way to make it more immersive and scarier than ever before, which I think most media outlets and players agreed was an incredibly scary game, but it was possibly too scary."
By adding a third-person mode, you get a little more distance from your character and a better overview, which is why you now have a choice:
"I think some people couldn't handle it, and either couldn't finish or didn't even start it. And that's something that I look back on thinking that, you know, I want to make sure that people can enjoy this game. So if you started the game off in first-person perspective, and you're finding it's too much, then third-person is almost a way to step slightly back from that level of horror and make it slightly easier to deal with by having the character on screen as a kind of avatar of yourself."
February 27 is the release date for Resident Evil Requiem on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Will you play in first or third-person, and why?