Summary
Resident Evilis on top of its game right now. After wrapping up a new story arc withResident Evil 7and8, the franchise resumed its old practice of remaking past games. While theResident Evil 3remake was undercooked in a couple areas,Resident Evil 2and the recentResident Evil 4both garnered similar acclaim to their original selves decades prior. With rumors that aCODE:Veronicaremake might be next and the doors wide open forResident Evil 9to do whatever it wants, theResident Evilfranchise is still standing strong.
Some fans are becoming worried by a familiar trend, however. After the runaway success of the originalResident Evil 4, the franchise focused on its action elements to the detriment of survival horror, resulting in a lot of AAA action trend-chasing. Capcom doesn’t want anotherResident Evil 6on its hands, let alone that era ofResident Evil’s mixed spin-offs, so it may want to grab some pure horror elements that stood out in older entries. It may be a risky maneuver, but a certain skittering type of giant, infected animal from classicResident Evilwould inspire a scarier tone.
RELATED:Classic Resident Evil Enemies That Should Return in Future Entries
Resident Evil Used To Have A Thing For Giant Animals
The T-Virus deployed in the originalResident Eviltrilogy is notable for its high versatility. It animates just about any human corpse into a zombie, but can also elevate those zombies to advanced states likeCrimson Heads or Lickers. However, it doesn’t stop there. Animals, and even plants, can be infected by the T-Virus.Resident Evil 1players no doubt remember the fountain plant and later Plant 42’s puzzle-oriented encounters, and, in the latter’s case, a boss fight and major turning point for the game’s tension.
However, they pale in comparison to the animals exposed to the T-Virus. Some, like crows and dogs, don’t change much beyond heightened aggression. Others, likeRE1’s Yawn the snake and the sewer alligator fromRE2, grow to gigantic sizes when exposed to the virus. Plenty of memorable monsters result from this trend, including the Neptune sharks fromRE1and theGrave Digger arthropods fromResident Evil 3: Nemesis. Unfortunately for arachnophobes, among the cast of giant animals are some equally huge spiders.
Giant Spiders Are Evergreen Horror Game Enemies
In the older T-Virus orientedResident Evilgames, giant spiders were surprisingly common. They appeared in allthree of the numberedResident Eviltitlesset in the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City, and returned forResident Evil Survivor,Outbreak, and evenCODE:Veronica, among other titles. These spiders are typically associated with poison, sometimes came with boss variants like the Black Tiger, and many had the disgusting trait of releasing smaller baby spiders on death. Considering humans’ widespread dislike of spiders, it’s no wonder these creatures were largely retired onceRE4rolled around.
Still,keeping them out of theResident Evil 2and3remakes feels like doing the T-Virus dirty. The interplay of zombies, mutants, and mutant animals made the originalResident Evilgames' seemingly simple enemy rosters quite memorable, and giant spiders will always be a strong addition to any horror game. NewerResident Eviltitles may need to include arachnophobia settings if they commit to bringing the beasts back, but they’d barely need to change anything about how the spiders work from their classicREtrilogy portrayals. Spiders, and the webs they spin, are staples of the horror genre, and anyResident Evilgame unearthing its survival horror roots will benefit from their presence.
