"It was technical limitations"
There is no "objectively worse" when you're talking about art and mood, and it's idiotic to diminish anyone's taste for appreciating a style created before this morning. It's fine if you don't enjoy static camera games - just stop fooling yourself that your distaste for them is somehow "right" and anyone who likes them is "wrong".
The thing is that I don't think these are objective. Because the gameplay is designed around these, so the fixed camera angles don't hurt the gameplay. You don't have to look around, and look behind things because everything you need can be seen from these camera angles. Moving becomes second nature after 30 minutes, and since the game is not a shooter, you don't really have to aim preciselly. Just aim in the direction of the enemy and shoot.It's objectively worse to not have to really aim to hit things. It's objectively worse to not be able to look around your surroundings. It's objectively worse to be blocked from seeing certain things because of the angle. It's objectively worse to move in relation to a camera position instead of consistency.
I said "plays objectively worse," and I stand by that. It's objectively worse to not have to really aim to hit things. It's objectively worse to not be able to look around your surroundings. It's objectively worse to be blocked from seeing certain things because of the angle. It's objectively worse to move in relation to a camera position instead of consistency. Now... you can subjectively think these things are worth it for "art and mood," sure. But I can subjectively think you're blinded by nostalgia.
The thing is that I don't think these are objective. Because the gameplay is designed around these, so the fixed camera angles don't hurt the gameplay. You don't have to look around, and look behind things because everything you need can be seen from these camera angles. Moving becomes second nature after 30 minutes, and since the game is not a shooter, you don't really have to aim preciselly. Just aim in the direction of the enemy and shoot.
You're confusing nostalgia with appreciation of a style, and you're arguing from a "gameplay > all" perspective. (I sure hope you never played most of the Codex top 50!) I like smooth gameplay too, but it is not the only thing that makes a good game, and sacrificing smoothness can actually enhance a game if you also care about other things.I think they're so obviously worse (especially on PC) that preferring them is nostalgia.
The primary point you aren't taking into account is that Resident Evil is (or at least originally was) a horror series. A major element of all good horror gaming is denying the player some control, putting them on edge, making them struggle, not just against enemies with lots of hit points and cutting edge AI, but sometimes against the metagame environment itself. And yes, sometimes this means giving the player controls that invite mistakes and frustration. And yes, sometimes this means using a camera angle that shows what the artist wants to show, not what the audience wants to see (or think they want to see). When a design makes everything as simple as pointing a finger, it discards the core of tension that makes horror horror. Worse, the challenges that remain become nothing but get gud twitch challenges. Get gud twitch challenges are fun but they are not the alpha and the omega. I liked RE5 but it wasn't a horror game.
No one said that third person camera was a requirement for all horror games. Hell, even Resident Evil 7 was first person and it also delivers an amazing horror experience. But it's a different kind of game. Whether you recognize it or not, there is a definite value to the aesthetics of limiting player control, using weird cameras, etc. You're not required to like it or even appreciate that value, but to deny its existence, or write it off as mere nostalgia, is foolish.Yes but as I've already said, Alien Isolation scared me way more than any Resident Evil game ever did, and it doesn't control like shit or restrict my view/aiming. I just flat-out reject the idea that the early RE games' control and viewpoint have anything to do with being more "horror." RE5 not being a horror game was by design and had nothing to do with it not controlling like ass.
Full disclosure, I definitely had problems with the camera angles in the first couple RE games ... occasionally. Sometimes a zombie would bite me that I couldn't even see before, not as a planned jump scare, but just because the level design and enemy placement was kind of crap in places. But that doesn't make static cameras automatically horrible, any more than a first person shooter badly optimized means first person games are all automatically horrible. It just means it wasn't done perfectly.The camera angles were never a huge issue for people back then.
No one said that third person camera was a requirement for all horror games. Hell, even Resident Evil 7 was first person and it also delivers an amazing horror experience. But it's a different kind of game. Whether you recognize it or not, there is a definite value to the aesthetics of limiting player control, using weird cameras, etc. You're not required to like it or even appreciate that value, but to deny its existence, or write it off as mere nostalgia, is foolish.
It absolutely does help the horror, and it does so with a distinct visual style that some of us appreciate. That's clear enough, isn't it?So your argument was it helps the horror, now your argument is it doesn't but just offers a unique style? Which is it?
Your theory is wrong.Yes it offers a unique style, but it's a style I think sucks ass. It's also a style most people must think sucks ass, because it's barely ever used anymore and every franchise that used it (RE, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy) dropped it like a rotten fruitpie. I get that you like it, and my theory is the nostalgia dog's got your balls. Even if you genuinely think it adds good gameplay though I'm hardly a weirdo for thinking it's best left in the past.
No one said that third person camera was a requirement for all horror games. Hell, even Resident Evil 7 was first person and it also delivers an amazing horror experience. But it's a different kind of game. Whether you recognize it or not, there is a definite value to the aesthetics of limiting player control, using weird cameras, etc. You're not required to like it or even appreciate that value, but to deny its existence, or write it off as mere nostalgia, is foolish.
So your argument was it helps the horror, now your argument is it doesn't but just offers a unique style? Which is it?
Yes it offers a unique style, but it's a style I think sucks ass. It's also a style most people must think sucks ass, because it's barely ever used anymore and every franchise that used it (RE, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy) dropped it like a rotten fruitpie. I get that you like it, and my theory is the nostalgia dog's got your balls. Even if you genuinely think it adds good gameplay though I'm hardly a weirdo for thinking it's best left in the past.