Naughty Dog‘s former senior environmental artist, Jeremy Huxley, has recalled the influence that Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 has had on major video game franchise including everything from Gears of War to Naughty Dog’s own Uncharted series.
Speaking with Kiwi Talks, Huxley highlighted how Resident Evil 4’s over-the-shoulder camera view was a major inspiration for Gears of War.
We’ve come a long way in the past 20 years. If you look at Resident Evil 4, it sort of inspired Gears of War, Uncharted, and all these different games. I recall them saying that Gears of War was inspired by Resident Evil 4, particularly the over-the-shoulder camera view.
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Resident Evil 4 was originally released in 2005 for the GameCube and has often been cited as a major influence on modern third-person shooters ever since. The game was a major departure for the Resident Evil franchise too, as it eschewed classic survival horror trappings such as pre-rendered backgrounds and puzzle solving in favour of 3D backgrounds and a major emphasis on action.
The game is noted for its troubled development cycle, as it went through numerous concepts before evolving into the game we know today. For example, the earliest build of Resident Evil 4 eventually became Devil May Cry, and one concept had Leon S. Kennedy infected with a virus that caused him to hallucinate.
Capcom ported Resident Evil 4 to numerous platforms over the past two decades, and in 2023 released a full-blown remake for PS5, PS4, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.