Technology is a funny old thing. While 30 years may be a blip on the radar for humanity, in the context of video games it encompasses the rise and fall of entire generations.

The popularity of gaming has skyrocketed, alongside the number platforms on which we do it. More than perhaps anything else, is the way design philosophy has shifted to become something new and wonderful.

This is an overly flowery reflection, of course, and it’s not true of every single game out there. Mario Kart, for example, is equipped with all kinds of bells and whistles nowadays, but the core gameplay from the 1992 SNES original — third-person kart racing with the use of wacky items — remains intact.

Change is very much the case for survival horror, however, and this is especially true for Resident Evil some three decades later. When the original game first released, it was a masterclass in how to subvert expectations, stripping the player of many of the tools they had grown accustomed to.

Sure, you could try to unload on every single zombie you happened upon, but they would keep getting back up for more, and you’d come to regret that decision once you ran out of precious ammunition prematurely.

Prior to this, it was very much the case that in a shooting game, you shot things. Everything, in fact, making you a veritable one-man army capable of clearing entire rooms with ease. Resident Evil rewarded strategy over mayhem, and as a result, it felt like a realistic interpretation of an actual zombie apocalypse. You weren’t the danger anymore. You were in danger.

This philosophy carried over into its sequels, though they did ramp up the gunplay with each iteration. It suited the PlayStation wonderfully, and dammit, it just worked — to the tune of a combined 14.4 million sales on that platform alone (plus a little extra if you want to throw Survivor into the mix for shits and giggles).

Once the next console generation arrived, however, Capcom had to adapt. As solid as 2002’s Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero were for the GameCube, they underperformed commercially, putting the franchise on notice.

Had they been released on the PS2 instead — the successor to the hardware that put the brand on the map, as well as the best-selling home console of all time — maybe things would have been different. It’s all a bit of idle navel gazing really, and big changes were on the horizon.

2005’s Resident Evil 4 was a revelation in every sense of the word. Not only did it revitalise the flagging license, but it set a standard for action games that still permeates through the industry today.

It’s unfair to say that none of the familiar horror elements were retained, because RE4 was suitably gory and eerie in its own way, but the power balance had shifted. Now, Leon Kennedy was a whirling dervish of chaos and pithy one-liners. Not only were you able to dispatch of any foe in your path; you were downright encouraged to do so now that they dropped valuable resources.

Trying to find strong parallels between classic RE and this newer style is a futile endeavour. Leon is a familiar face, but even he is much edgier and brasher than the R.P.D. rookie of yesteryear. He’s delivering suplexes and roundhouse kicks, crashing through windows, hucking spears at aquatic behemoths…

Put simply, if you swapped Leon and Ada out for original characters, and replaced the returning items such as herbs and typewriters, it would be easy enough to accept this as a completely different IP. That’s kinda how Devil May Cry happened with an earlier build, in fact.

Some folks out there denounce RE4 as a Resident Evil in name only, and to their great chagrin, it was only the beginning. Subsequent entries like RE5 and RE6 dialled up the bombast more and more, to the point where things really got out of hand.

By the time Chris Redfield is pelting an enemy ship with fire from the cockpit of a jet plane, any semblance of his humble adventure through Spencer Mansion is completely in the rear view mirror. What were we even doing here?

Again, it was time to return to the drawing board, and this time, it was by shifting the balance back in the direction of horror. 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was even more unfamiliar than RE4 had been, taking place from the first-person perspective of newcomer Ethan Winters.

It was jarring to be sure, but as foreign as the perspective was, the spirit of Resident Evil had finally returned. Sections of the Baker estate were unlocked progressively; dotted with puzzles and no shortage of terrifying encounters with the lethally aggressive homeowners.

Whether it’s due to the setting, the presentation or simply the vibes, RE7 reignited the feelings of unease that we first experienced back in 1996. We were in over our head, treating even the slightest movement as a potential, horrifying threat.

Which more or less leads us to where we are today. Every Resident Evil game that has been released in the intervening years has followed either the template set by RE4 (over the shoulder third-person horror-action) or RE7 (first-person survival horror). The controls are a lot smoother now than they were in 2005, obviously, but the blueprint has remained consistent.

The latest entry, Requiem, even allowed us to freely swap between the two; though the preference was obviously for first-person when playing as the terrified Grace Ashcroft, while Leon’s bombastic action better suited third-person. As I indicated after its release, I think this is a winning formula that ought to become a standard for new games moving forward.

Like any longstanding titan of gaming, Resident Evil has gone through countless ups and downs, has been down and yet never out, and has frequently reinvented itself like a digital chameleon, or a less Canadian version of Chris Jericho. Nowadays, pretty much any new release touting the vaunted RE Engine is a surefire winner, and all eyes are looking eagerly ahead to next year’s newest remake, Resident Evil Veronica.

Whether you’ve been a true lifer since the ’90s or you got into the game much later, the wealth of content at our fingertips means that there’s never a shortage of things to try out; especially now that the original trilogy has had a long-overdue rerelease on PC through dedicated platforms like GOG or Steam.

So let’s all raise a glass (preferably containing Sanguis Virginis) to the king of survival horror for its 30th anniversary. Personally, I can’t wait to see what itchy and tasty treats await us next.