Highlights

  • Resident Evil has established a reputation for having the best enemy variety in horror gaming, from hulking monsters to terrifying bioweapons.
  • The recent entries, such as RE7 and Resident Evil Village, continue to deliver terrifying enemies like mold zombies and lycans.
  • The potential use of human-like bioweapons by the BSAA in Resident Evil 9 could be a pitfall, similar to Dead Space 3's disappointing human enemies that didn't fit the series' tone and gameplay mechanics.

It seems fair to say that the Resident Evil series has some of the best enemy variety of any horror gaming franchise ever. For last almost three decade nows, Resident Evil has continued to put out some of the most horrifying enemies foes in gaming, from the hulking Mr. X and Nemesis to the terrifying Licker, the absolutely heart-stopping Regeneradors, and every monstrous bioweapon in between.

The most recent Resident Evil entries aren't an exception, either, with Resident Evil 7's mold zombies and Resident Evil Village's lycans being pretty terrifying in their own right. The Resident Evil franchise is constantly setting a high bar for itself in terms of enemy variety, but if horror titles like Dead Space 3 prove anything, it's that even the biggest and best horror franchises can drop the ball in an instant, and when they do, it's usually game over.

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Resident Evil 9 Shouldn't Fall Into the Same Trap as Dead Space 3

BSAA group chris redfield resident evil

While most Resident Evil games get a tad chaotic in their final act, Resident Evil Village turns it up to 11. Resident Evil Village's ending sees players take control of two characters on two separate, but connected planes of action. On one hand, players are getting hit with huge revelations that Ethan Winters has actually been dead for years, and on the other, they're controlling Chris Redfield, blasting their way through the village with explosives. Mixed in with the non-stop action, players can find a ton of Easter eggs and references that connect the events of Village not only with Resident Evil 7, but the wider Resident Evil universe as a whole.

There's a lot to take in here already, but Resident Evil Village's ending goes just one step further and ends on a cliffhanger that reveals that the BSAA are using bioweapon soldiers in their operations, a reveal that could have massive ramifications in subsequent Resident Evil games. First introduced in the Umbrella Chronicles, the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance is a group that seeks to eradicate the use of any and all bioweapons, and Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are two of the organization's earliest members. But by the time of Resident Evil Village, Chris has become distrustful of the BSAA, and that seems to be cemented with Village's ending, which sees the BSAA using the very thing they swore to destroy.

While this cliffhanger ending leaves the series in a great spot, it does raise a potential issue regarding Resident Evil 9's enemies. With Chris Redfield on his way to the BSAA European headquarters for answers, it would make sense that the BSAA become some kind of primary antagonist faction in Resident Evil 9, or at least another entry in the near future. However, if the BSAA are using human-like bioweapons, then Resident Evil 9 could easily end up trapped in the same pitfall that Dead Space 3 stumbled into.

The Dead Space series features some of the most iconic enemies in gaming with its assortment of Necromorphs, which is why Dead Space 3's human enemies were such a disappointment back in the day. A series centered around body horror and slow, methodical scares and third-person shooting, Dead Space 3's human enemies just didn't fit the series' prior tone, or its gameplay mechanics, and the same might be true for Resident Evil 9 if it uses the BSAA as an antagonist. While Resident Evil's enemies have always fought back, they've never really shot at the player, at least not with weapons, and that just isn't baked into the series' core gameplay formula. On top of that, an army of faceless BSAA soldiers just won't have the same visual flair as even Resident Evil's most mundane enemy design.

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