Good Game: Race-ident Evil?

The release of "Resident Evil 4" for the Nintendo GameCube in January 2005 marked a revitalization for the "Resident Evil" survival-horror video game series, which was beginning to leave fans unsatisfied due to the lack of innovation and its signature tank-like controls. While the films have utterly misrepresented the video game franchise, each game normally follows a Special Forces team, or a lone person called to investigate a strange occurrence or to answer a call of distress. In the end, scores of zombies are fought, an evil corporation plot is uncovered, and allies get picked off one by one. "Resident Evil 4," however, got rid of the tank controls the game had become known for and drastically improved the George A. Romero-style presentation of the game, raising the bar for survival-horror games to follow. It is for this reason that any information on the upcoming "Resident Evil 5" game for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is being heavily scrutinized and elicits so many responses.

For a time, there had been no information regarding "Resident Evil 5," and, to be honest, there still isn't. The game is still a long ways away from release - the game's producers say they are aiming for a 2009 release date. However, after E3 2007, a trailer for the game was unveiled to mixed reactions. In the trailer, styled very much like "Resident Evil 4," the protagonist is walking around shooting zombies. No problem there. The general media were upset over the color of the zombie's skin, as the protagonist walked around what looked to be Africa, shooting what seemed to be African zombies, something the series has never done before. With no other information to go along with the trailer, this idea of shooting impoverished, African zombies caused a flurry of controversy.

For example, writer Kym Platt of Black Looks, a blog focusing on African women, gained much attention when she wrote in reaction to the trailer, "This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young ... fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."

The only challenge to this statement would be that the "Resident Evil" series has always been rated "M," for mature audiences, meaning a person playing or purchasing the game would have to be 17 or older, but her point is one to be considered.

"My problem is that it presents a fantasy I don't desire," wrote "MTV Multiplayer" blogger Stephen Totilo. "It looks like it's an advertisement to virtually shoot poor people ... when I see a town of what looks like impoverished African villagers - the very image of global poverty, the very spectacle that since my youth has been coded in me to evoke sympathy and charity - I don't want to pull the trigger."

The media's overwhelmingly negative response to the trailer wasn't addressed by Capcom, the game's publisher and developer, or anyone working directly on the project. Details about the game have been scarce, and it is unlikely that these responses will change the game's setting, though it hasn't been explained exactly why the events are seemingly taking place in an impoverished African land. Further revelations have suggested that the game might take place in Haiti, the alleged birthplace of zombie lore, but no substantial evidence has proved this, and it's still uncertain whether or not a change of setting will do anything to assuage the condemnation the trailer has managed to accumulate. Regardless of the result, the video game industry, so besieged with contempt from Congress for its representation of violence in its games, does not need another reason for people to rally against them.

Contact Fernando Dutra at Fernando.Dutra@UConn.edu.