14 DAY TRIAL // The Resident Evil franchise has always been about killing zombies and potentially saving the whole world from an outbreak of one of the many viruses that either the Umbrella Corporation or other companies that followed it released upon unsuspecting victims.
So far so good, nobody complained about that. But when Resident Evil 5 showcased the fact that Chris Redfield, a Caucasian male, would be killing black zombies in the game, as the action took place in Africa, a lot of organizations that defend the rights of African Americans stood up because the title was racists.
But Capcom did everything it could to prevent such an issue, says cinematic director for Resident Evil 5, Jim Sonzero, who has talked with MTV Multiplayer. He says that the Japanese company paired Chris with an African sidekick, the lovely Sheva, and introduced as many zombies from other races as possible in order to balance things out.
“My feeling about it is this particular game is set in Africa, and the zombies and most of the people who populate Africa are black. Capcom did their best to balance it so it didn’t become an issue by making one of the leads, Sheva Alomar, black. Also, they peppered in as many white and different mixed race characters as they could into the rest of the body count. I think if you really think about it, it’s not really a racial game. If it was set in Japan, most of the people getting killed would be Japanese or Asian. If it was set in South America most of the people would be South Americans or Latins, so I really think it’s just people trying to [complain] about something.”
Sonzero goes on to say that most people just got carried away with the so-called racist nature of the title that they forgot that it was only a game, meant to give people an entertaining experience. Also, the fact that everything is backed up by the story gives it substance, and black zombies aren't present just because the development team wanted it.
People really need to see that the game depicts shooting African citizens because it is set in Africa – so was Far Cry 2, but nobody complained about it because you could pick a black character. Capcom did the same thing with this game, so it isn't really that serious.