When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares about zombies, and feared anything zombie-related. This irrational fear of mine was not brought upon by movies or ghastly stories told to me late at night, but by a single game. That game was Resident Evil 2. I never actually played the game, I merely watched as my brother played through it – he loved the Resident Evil games. Over time, I learned to overcome my fear of zombies and managed to play through my own Resident Evil game. It was Resident Evil 4 for the Wii.
Resident Evil 4 really impressed me; it was the best game I had played in a while. Since it had almost no connection to the other games in the series, it was really easy to get into the story. There were also lot of innovative ideas put into that game, so much so that many today would argue that Resident Evil 4′s gameplay influenced several games, such as Gears of War and Dead Space.
Now four years later, we are graced with Resident Evil 5, a game that has been receiving much hype since as early as 2005.
Resident Evil 5 is a great game. Not only did it carry over everything good from Resident Evil 4, but added to it the option of playing co-op. Most of the enemies are simple ports from RE4, but have been updated to match the setting of the new game; the newly designed dogs were especially gruesome. The only problem I have with the enemy designs are with those of the gun zombies, which are introduced later in the game. By giving zombies the ability to use firearms, I felt the game shifted its dynamic to greatly, and turned what I had come to love as being classic Resident Evil action, to what I associated more with your standard run-of-the-mill action game.
Similarly to RE4, RE5 is an over-the-shoulder shooter that requires you stop moving and aim in order to fire your weapon. It’s a control scheme that takes a bit of time to get used to, but works relatively well once you’ve managed to do so. With that said, I believe these controls should have been changed – modernized if you will – they were acceptable four years ago, but compared to many other games’ control schemes, they just don’t cut it. Some people say these controls provide suspense; I say they limit the freedom of movement. Being able to shoot and move allows the players to have that freedom that a game should allow the player to have. Another limit is the button actions and quick-times. After having shot a zombie in the limbs or head you’re given the opportunity to move in and perform a melee attack, but because the attack button is the same as your general action button, you’ll find yourself picking up items if they happen to be at the enemy’s feet, and by the time you’re ready to hit the attack button a second time, the zombie will already have regain his senses, and it’ll be too late to perform your melee attack. Another example is when you stand on a ledge you can drop down from. In some scenarios, the character won’t be able to jump down when they’re another ledge across from him, giving you only the option to jump across. It seems to me that the option of either jumping down or across should be give. They also introduce a cover system in the game, but it doesn’t work very well and can only be used in specific areas, and similarly to how you can’t move and shoot, you can’t move around when you’re hiding in cover.
The quick-times events are appropriate in some parts, while being a hassle in others. While viewing a cut scene, you are sometimes required to go through quick-time events. These allow you to be more involved in the story while keeping you on edge. Sometimes, however, there are quick-time events used directly in regular gameplay. In one scenario, you’ll find yourself walking down corridors, while giant tentacles will try and swipe at you. During this part of the game, you’re required to press the action button to dodge whenever the indicator appears over your head. It seems to me that it would have been much better had the game simply given me the ability to jump or quick-roll out of the way. Making use of quick-time events when a real in-game mechanic would have worked is just lazy.
There are tons of different weapons to be found throughout the game, which you can also purchase and upgrade in a store-like interface that appears in between levels. This storefront also acts as a locker for you to store items you don’t feel like carrying with you. Being able to buy items, upgrade and store items at the end of each level, or whenever you die, is convenient; however, it does take away from the survival-horror aspect of the game. Another change which was brought to RE5 from RE4 was the inventory system. Since RE5 was intended to be played as a co-op game, hopping in and out of an item window would have slowed down the game entirely too much, so instead they created a nine-lot quick swap inventory menu. It works relatively well, but has it’s flaws: an egg shouldn’t take up as much room as a rocket launcher, now should it?
Co-op is been around for a while now and playing with a good friend is fun, especially the first play through. Playing this game solo is frustrating. Sheva’s AI is pretty bad, meaning you’ll have to keep a constant tab on her, making sure she doesn’t get grabbed and killed. She also has a tendency to make use of the health spray when your health reaches the half-way point, which is nice at times, but can also be annoying since you don’t always feel the need to be healed at that particular instance, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to request healing when actually want it.
Another issue surrounding the co-op mode, once again returning to the inventory system, is that although you can switch items back and forth between characters, for some reason you can’t weapons. In one particular scenario, you help Sheva leap to another building where a bunch of Zombies start coming up the stairs. (those of you who have played the demo should know which section I’m speaking of.) In this scenario, a sniper rifle would have been useful for Chris who could have shot the enemies at a distance, but in that particular instance, it was Sheva who had it; even had I known ahead of time (which I did) that this event was going to take place, there was nothing I could do about it. I would simply have to tough it out. The other option, of course, would have been to let myself get killed, buy a sniper for Chris, or simply switch things around in the storefront inventory menu, and reload – but that would have been way too much work.
The story itself is presented well, though if you haven’t played the other games, some parts may seem a bit foggier than others. They do provide you with enough info so you can get the gist of what going on though. There are four difficulty settings for the game; however, you can bring weapons from amateur to professional mode, so people can exploit the mode, making the professional mode not that hard.
The online co-op works well; you can’t just jump straight into a game, but you can join at any checkpoint, which is like 5-10mins apart, so there isn’t a long wait. Once you beat the game, you unlock Mercenaries Mode, which is tons of fun. Whether going solo or duo, you have to kill as many zombies before the timer runs out. Beside that, there are lots of collectibles and unlockables; there’s also DLC multiplayer modes that cost 400 Microsoft points, which includes Slayer and Survivor Mode.
Personally I love this game. If you still love Resident Evil 4, you’ll love Resident Evil 5, even though it has several short-comings in comparison to it’s predecessor. If you’re picking this up expecting a classic survival horror, than I’m afraid you’ll probably be disappointed, since there isn’t really anything scary about it. Overall, Resident Evil 5 is a great game and one I’d highly recommend if you’re a fan of co-op games, but personally feel it was over-hyped. Resident Evil 4 revolutionized the series, and in contrast, Resident Evil 5 didn’t do anything the Resident Evil series has done before, or other games have already done better.
By Neelix
