Developers recently toned down the shake of the camera in documentary-styled shooter Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles to make the upcoming Wii title a bit easier to play, Capcom developers say.
"It was a bit of a trial and error, this shaky cam," said Masachika Kawata during a meeting at this week's Gamescom convention in Cologne. "It was probably a little too much, so it's a little toned down now."
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles attempts to retell the stories of two classic Resident Evil titles, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica, in a Wii first-person shooter that takes control away from the player and replaces it with camera controls made to look like they were shot with a hand-held camera.
During my time with the game today I played through an early level of the game, killing 34 zombies (four with headshots) as I made my way back and forth through a set of buildings.
While the level, played on the middle of three difficulty settings, took me just 8 minutes and 36 seconds to shoot my way through, Kawata assured me that the game as a whole would take about ten hours to complete.
He also said that levels are meant to be replayed by gamers hoping to wipe out all of the zombies as they make their way through the game, which controls how quickly you work your way through each scene.
Kawata said they made the decision to take the control of the camera and movement away from gamers because he wanted them to concentrate on shooting.
"An on-the-rail shooter is more of an adventure game, is more about shooting," he said. "So players can concentrate on that."
When I played the game earlier this year during the lead up to E3 the camera seemed to slide around and shake more, making it hard to target zombies when they ambled onto the screen. The shaking, though, also made the game more of a challenge.
This time around I found it easier to go through the level, not losing any life until the final moments of the level.
Kawata suggested I play the game on the highest difficulty, but I can't help but think that perhaps the game's unique jittery perspective has been toned down too much.
What hasn't really been toned down is the game's gore. Playing through the level, I first blasted the hat off of a zombie's head and then shot away a large chunk of his skull.
That's just the right amount of gore, Kawata said.
"Obviously if you are creating a horror game, you have to deal with gore, blood, decapitation, but it is getting a little bit tricky because of ratings.," he said. "I feel this is as much as I could go this time around."