Good and fun game which unfortunately lacks RE4's atmosphere and addiction factor.Closer to shooter than survival horror
What I have to really give to Capcom is the loud " BRAVO! " for their intro's or any other in game cut scenes their are providing us with.The intro to the game is beautiful and ultra realistic and it charged me with the necessary vibe that is always related to high expectations and the great anticipation of things to come.
In RE5 you play as Chris Redfield,an ex S.T.A.R.S team member who thanks to his huge experience related to plenty of past encounters with the Umbrella's virus victims,has been sent for yet another dangerous and mysterious mission.This time he travels to Africa where he will have to discover strange behavioral occurences of the native citizens that are said to be closely related to new terrorist activities which are involving bioweapons and the strange virus called " Uroboros ".
What makes RE5 different from it's predecessor is that this time you will be investigating the occurences with a partner....
Her name is Sheva,an African sexy beauty who thanks to her great knowledge of the region was deployed to be your right hand.
Just this simple fact makes the new resident evil a brand new game.Yes,of course,in the previous games there were times where you had a " partner " by your side but those situations were as rare as they were temporary.
This time every move and action you make is the same one your partner makes as well.
I don't know about other players but for me it wasn't the kind of playing experience I usually like which is solo....
This time, not only you have to watch for yourself but you also have to watch out for your partner.This of course works both ways ( many times your partner saves your life or heals you) but being on a constant alert and constantly checking your partner's health or inventory was a little bit to much.
Sometimes it causes to much chaos in the area ,especially if you have to fight with hordes of zombies.You die..game ends.Your partner dies...game ends as well.
What this change also affected in a bad way is the inventory.Now it got much smaller and is divided among two people.
At the beginning it is not irritating but the more you play and the more things you collect,the tighter it becomes.You get 3-4 weapons and you barely manage to fit ammunition in there.Considering that your partner also needs to be armed with weapons and ammunition ( without even mentioning herbs or first aid sprays ) that makes the inventory a very tight place.
You can of course move the items between players but it is all stressfull and many times really irritating when you realise you cannot fit more ammo that you badly need only because you don't have any space left and you know that in order to pick it up you would need to drop some other much needed gear.
Another irritating thing is the way the moving things work and your partner's AI related to that....
Every time I wanted to make one slot available for some nice ammo I needed to pick up,I tried giving it to my P but what made me mad all the time was that every time I did that she somehow managed to replace it with some other type of ammo falsely assuming that I needed it even when I didn't.
When it happens out of combat, it only results in slowing down the game significantly.But when it happens during combat....then it is really frustrating!
I really wished there was some kind of command you could use to restrict your partners from using certain weapons...
One time I gave her my rocket launcher because I needed to free one slot for a new weapon.We got into fight and as soon as she used all her handgun ammo, she used that rocket launcher to shoot some poor majini!
And to make it worse,you can't even buy a bigger bag to increase your inventory!
Really...that whole partnership/inventory idea is a fiasco for me.
RE4 was the perfect example of how it should really work....
The game is full of different cut scenes which are made with great attention to detail and pulls you right into the centre of the plot.It's always been a pleasure watching as the story unfolded and the chemistry and corelation between 2 partners is also there and well done.
Gameplay.....
For people acquainted with past RE4 the controls won't be a problem,especially when you can choose the option to use the same controls as you used during the Las Plagas adventure.The control is intuitive and it's easy to get a hang of it.
The way you move,fight,even talk...it's all very realistic and on par with the previous part.I think it's a slight improvement from RE4 as it looks less stiff and more natural.
What I didn't like about this game in gameplay terms was the " feel " of the game.It wasn't innovative.It felt like the older part but with different background and story.It sometimes felt like playing the same RE4 game.The same movement,same combat....
What didn't feel the same though was the climate,atmosphere,sense of danger and fear of what may come from behind that wall.It just isn't there.
Unfortunately...RE5 feels more like Far Cry 2 rather than the same old scary resident evil I was used to play.It feels more like a shooter rather than a survival horror.
I don't know..maybe Capcom is running out of ideas? Or maybe there is a limit to how many times you can bake the same cake?
One thing is for sure : RE5 doesn't have that " something " that would make me play it over,over,over again.
With regards to monsters,zombies etc..
There's a fair amount of different mobs you can fight against.I even noticed some that I fought against in RE2.That I must admit was a nice surprise.
But....there's to many boss fights.Now..I wouldn't mind them if there were some nice erhmmmm....money or gem/artifact rewards for the time and stress invested in them,but usually you get nothing from killing some level-end boss.I must give it to Capcom though that the boss encounters are really interesting,realistic and varied.Most of them make a really good impression and killing that tough bastard really feels like an acomplishment even though their toughness and learning curve is nothing comparing to some raid bosses in some MMO's :)
Another problem is with the money or I should say..lack of it.
It's really hard to get a nice amount of gold pieces in this game.Broken barrells or crates more often give you ammunition or herbs than money and when you actually find it,it's usually small sums which make your decision about some serious weapon upgrade to be put on hold.
I am not saying that there is no money at all.You can collect different gems,valuables etc., but even selling them won't provide you with enough amount to be able to perform some serious maintenance.
In RE4 all the money you invested for improving your weapon was returned to you as soon as you sold it and replaced it with a new one.
In RE5 you lose your investment when you sell your weapons.At least in a big way.
What I also liked in the previous part was the knowledge that every new weapon you found was actually a much better version of the old one.It had better damage,capacity etc.
In this game you can have up to 4 types of the same weapon but even finding the last weapon of the same type doesn't have to mean that it's the best of them.It appears that what one weapon exceeds in,it also lacks in something else.
AK 74 for example looks to have the superior damage rating but really lacks in maximum capacity.Some other weapon ( which name I don't remember unfortunately ) has much better capacity but lacks in damage.
Unfortunately...considering how tough it is to get rich in this game,it is also really difficult to check which one is the best as it would only be possible with maxed stats which is,as I mentioned before impossible if you play the game just once......
And that's the ironic thing about RE5.The inventory is much smaller,there is much less money on the field but the amount of weapons is much bigger.
It looks like Capcom wanted us to play this game couple of times in a row before we get to decide what works better.All of this combat,difficulty,inventory,reward system feels half baked and kind of puts you away from the screen...
Graphics......
Now this is the area where this game excells!
There is nothing bad I can say about it.It's 10/10!
Everything from your " hero ",through npc's,mobs,surroundings looks astonishing.It looks photorealistic and all the textures look like some 4x or 8x antialiasing has been applied to them.It all looks neat and is just a true joy to look at.
The conversations between you and your partners feels alive.The way they move their lips,their facial expressions....honey for the soul.
Audio.....
Now that's weird but when I am writing this I don't actually remember what the ingame music sounded like.The only sounds I remember are sounds of walking,running,panting,shooting.This game is so intense sometimes that through all that masacre and chaos I couldn't hear anything except just that.
Anyway,all of the sounds are well done.I only wish AK74 actually sounded like one with that characteristic echo after the first salve.Oh well..you can't have everything I guess....
Miscelaneous.....
The game is pretty long.It takes around 20-30 hours of gameplay to finish it.
The game is constructed in this way that every time you think that this must be it, it provides you with new facts and new areas to explore with even more mobs to kill.The plot is well done and can surprise you couple of times.
Summary.....
I must say I expected many things from this game.Yes..i expected alot actually.What I got instead was a nicer version of RE4 that was lacking the brilliance and the addiction factor of it's predecessor.
Somehow I passed RE4 couple of times and I am still playing it while enjoying it every single time...
With RE5 it was : Bought it,Played it,Passed it,Put is aside.I tried to play it once again after I finished it but I quit after 2 hours.The addiction and fun factor is just not there...
A big shame I must say.
So to be frank...buy it and play it if you love the RE series.Don't expect miracles and if you loved RE4,don't expect better experience.This game is good but for me currently....RE4 still is number one.
Resident Evil 4 FTW!