TheResident Evilfranchise is home to more than its fair share of spin-offs, with there being a total of 16 released since the series' debut in 1996. Unfortunately, these spin-offs haven’t often fared nearly as well as their mainline counterparts. Though games likeResident Evil: RevelationsandResident Evil: The Darkside Chroniclesearned some decent reviews, a much larger portion ofResident Evilspin-offshave been panned by both critics and fans alike.
BadResident Evilspin-offs usually share a key point of criticism in that they stray too far from the core elements of the franchise that fans enjoy. That was certainly the case with 2016’sResident Evil: Umbrella Corps, one of the franchise’s worst-performing spin-offs. But evenUmbrella Corpswasn’t completely devoid of intriguing ideas, and with a few major changes, a new version of it could work.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps Could Work With a Major Change
Umbrella Corps Was a Panned Spin-Off
Released in June 2016 and coming in betweenResident Evil: Revelations 2andResident Evil 7,Resident Evil: Umbrella Corpsmight be the most infamous spin-off in the horror franchise’s long history. One of Capcom’s many failed attempts togive theResident Evilseries a multiplayer spin,Umbrella Corpswas an incredibly basic competitive shooter that saw players battle their way through lifeless maps based on some of the most iconic series locations.
Umbrella Corpssits at a disastrous 38 on Metacriticfor its PlayStation 4 version and an even lower 36 for its PC port. The highest score of its 55 reviews on Metacritic givesUmbrella Corpsa 61, and a whopping 78% of reviews mark it below 50. A lack of content, a severe lack of depth, stiff shooting controls, unbalanced weapons, little to no meta progression, and an overall lack of polish and presentation that’s expected of a AAA game were all common criticisms ofUmbrella Corps.
Umbrella Corps' Concept Could Work in a New Gameplay Setting
But despite its disappointing gameplay and presentation, the premise behindUmbrella Corpswasn’t inherently bad. Set 13 years after the fall of the titular shady pharmaceutical company,Umbrella Corpssees players take control of a mercenary who’s been hired by one of 10 organizations that are all out to find Umbrella’s remaining research. It’s a simple premise, but one that makes quite a bit of sense givenResident Evil’s timelineand lore, and it’s one that could be worth another shot.
Capcom’sResident Evilremakeshave been some of the franchise’s most popular entries, and for fans who have only jumped aboard the series with the remakes, the timeline has some pretty big gaps right now. It might be fun to seeUmbrella Corps' premise come back for a futureResident Evilentry, filling in the gaps for new players about Umbrella’s fall and the resulting aftermath.
The light gun shooterResident Evil: The Umbrella Chroniclesalso briefly touches on the downfall of Umbrella, which would be another good pick for a spin-off reimagining.
Of course, a newUmbrella Corpsgame would need to make some major changes to succeed, the first and foremost of which would be the removal of multiplayer. Instead, a reimaginedUmbrella Corpsgame could give players a short 4-6-hour single-player campaign that sees them play as a mercenary hunting for the last of Umbrella’s research, a task that brings them face-to-face with long-abandoned Bio-Organic-Weapons.
Resident Evil
Resident Evil is a long-running survival horror franchise developed by Capcom. Spread across numerous mainline and spin-off entries, the series is known for it’s third and first-person action horror, zombie-related monsters and references, and challenging puzzles.
