Survival Unit isn’t for me, but I admire its bizarre lore antics

The Resident Evil series is known for its obtuse lore, ever-changing tone, and stamp on the horror genre that few can match. In a franchise that’s existed this long, not every entry is a winner, but some seek to ambitiously reinvent it. Resident Evil: Survival Unit mostly hits those notes during my time at Gamescom. However, for every good thing I liked about the Capcom spin-off game, I’m struggling to get fully on board with it.

Resident Evil games have gone through a major transformation in the last decade. I feel like that much-needed evolution began with Resident Evil 6, a flawed misstep that put the series on hiatus until 2015’s Resident Evil: Revelations 2. Since then, three remakes and two brand-new chapters have defined what Capcom’s horror games are capable of. While Biohazard and Village utilize first-person terrors for a fresh perspective, where does Resident Evil: Survival Unit fit in?

It inspires Joycity to go back to the start, according to my interview with producer and Kingdom Hearts co-founder Shinji Hashimoto. Survival Unit celebrates Resident Evil’s beginnings by reverting to a fixed perspective and utilizing lush art direction through painterly backgrounds or detailed interiors. It makes the most of negative space and what lies beyond the frame. To lay the fear on quick, Survival Unit drops me into a place I always try to avoid: the hospital.

With no name and no memory of how I got there, I’m already feeling like Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead. Whereas Andrew Lincoln’s fan-favorite sheriff is adept at blasting the undead, our character isn’t really up to the task. Combat usually involves a trusty handgun, and even at point-blank distance, Survival Unit reminds me constantly how many shots I’m missing. It may seem frustrating at first, but in terms of enhancing the protagonist’s believability, it serves the unfolding narrative well.

Complimenting the return to a fixed perspective are puzzles in various formats that fans will be all too familiar with. Rumaging through notes and files left around levels, using the environment to fill in lock combinations, and interacting with your surroundings are all done very well here. I admittedly took far too long piecing together the clues for a weapons locker password, failing to see an obvious part of the puzzle in an ill-lit courtroom. You can forgive me, of course, we’ve all been there.

That courtroom finds itself within Raccoon City’s iconic police headquarters. I’m escorted there by Claire Redfield, who happens to save me from an onslaught of infected foes on the trash-ridden streets. For me, this is where some of the cracks begin to show. Survival Unit isn’t canon to the mainline games, but if we’re going to meet characters from across the series, I’m expecting some consistency with their characterisations.

Capcom has always managed to weave between genuine terror and strange humor, I get it. But when Claire greets me like she’s just bumped into me at the local supermarket, while my flesh is about to be peeled from my bones, it sucks the immersion off the screen. I won’t spoil who else appears across the first thirty minutes of the demo, but much of the mobile game‘s dialogue is hindered by stilted conversations and largely uninteresting conversations.

It’s at its worst when Survival Unit’s real-time strategy elements appear. The crux of Joycity’s take on the material lies in steering away from traditional third-person action. On paper, this decision is an interesting proposition for a series that prides itself on intense, close-quarters encounters. The space between you and your enemy in environments should be close enough that you can practically smell rotting flesh between your enemy’s teeth.

But it doesn’t quite land when I’m repeatedly told to lay down barricades and makeshift shelters during battle. Not only does it look silly, but it’s another immersion breaker for me. It’s a shame because all the elements around it are genuinely strong. In my interview with Hashimoto, he emphasized the need to relay horror without using ambient audio and music as a crutch. He knows you will likely play this game on mute most of the time, and that’s okay.

Combined with rich interiors to explore, great character models, and the usual flavor of Resident Evil art direction, it should click for me. Maybe Survival Unit just isn’t my thing, but it could be yours.

For more Gamescom coverage, you can check out my interview with PUBG: Mobile producer Rick Li, where we chat about crossovers and even Dragon Ball. I’ve also been hands-on with the Xbox Ally, which had some surprising results.