Sarif v. Umbrella

As mentioned yesterday, a new Resident Evil website has appeared this week, for the Umbrella Corporation. It does look pretty slick, but at first glance it looks very similar in style to the Deus Ex: Human Revolution website for Sarif Industries. I’m not going to put screenshots here, because they would not do the sites justice.

Compare the sites:

http://sarifindustries.com/en/
http://www.umbrellasciences.com/

However, if you wait a little longer on the RE site, you get redirected to another. Now there’s far more on this site than DE:HR has, starting with a mysterious video from someone trying to expose what Umbrella really is. Then there’s a set of cryptic clues which should lead to further evidence, and this is then backed up with a twitter account as well. Now we all know Umbrella is evil, but I’m curious to learn more about the back story. Personally I like the story more than the games.

The website clearly will lead to information (eventually) about the new Resident Evil, but it makes it learning about the new game fun and interactive. This sure beats just reading a press release, or watching a teaser trailer. It’s also quite cunning on their part, since clues are released weekly, it will keep people coming back for more. The twitter account helps with this as well, since it’s updated quite often and in multiple languages. I’ll not spoil it by giving out the twitter account, although it only takes a few seconds to find it.

This blending of real world and video games is slowly becoming more and more common. The catch, it’s tied into Facebook. The Secret World video game also tried this and caused a bit of a backlash from people who do not want to give up all their details to a company. Anyway, go check the site out and good luck solving the clues!