Resident Evil

Capcom · Since 1996

Capcom's survival horror franchise defined the genre's vocabulary — fixed camera angles, resource management, tank controls, and safe rooms. Resident Evil 4's over-the-shoulder camera reinvented the series and the third-person action genre simultaneously.

Resident Evil (1996) was developed by Shinji Mikami at Capcom as an explicit survival horror game — a genre the game effectively named and defined. The design constraints were deliberate: limited inventory, scarce ammunition, slow movement, and puzzles requiring item combination created a resource management anxiety that distinguished the game from action games with horror theming. The fixed camera angles — inherited from Alone in the Dark (1992) but implemented more systematically — created cinematic framing that concealed approaching enemies until dramatically appropriate moments. Resident Evil 2 (1998) doubled the content by telling the story from two perspectives with different paths through Raccoon City Police Department; the scenario select system, where the order of play changed item availability and enemy encounters, extended replayability in ways that were relatively novel for the genre. The game sold over 4 million copies and confirmed the franchise as Capcom's most commercially important property. Resident Evil 4 (2004) was initially planned as multiple different games before Mikami committed to a radical redesign: an over-the-shoulder third-person camera replaced fixed angles, real-time enemy behaviour replaced scripted attacks, and action pacing replaced atmospheric dread as the primary experience. The resulting game was critically acclaimed and commercially transformative — the over-the-shoulder third-person camera that Resident Evil 4 standardised became the default for action games across subsequent generations, influencing Mass Effect, Gears of War, and virtually every subsequent third-person shooter.