>>11949080
Before RE4 your choices were:
>Locking-on
>Switching to first person view
>Having your character at the bottom of the screen with/without a reticle that hovered above your character's head
>No aiming at all, you just shoot directly ahead in the direction your character or camera is facing
You can see why developers after RE4 picked up the over the shoulder camera view en masse, even if their games didn't have emphasis on aiming and shooting.