Great gameplay, lengthy story and incredible co-op play. Doesn't match the expectations set of it by Resident Evil 4
The Good:
-Resident Evil 4's game play almost perfectly emulated onto current generation systems
-Incredible co-operative play through the entire story with a more than capable AI available to fill the void when playing solo
-Huge amount of different enemies and rememberable, fun to play boss fights
-Gripping story that is nicely paced
-Stunning environments with solid graphics
-Mesmerising lighting and shadows
-The much loved mercenaries mode returns and has been extensively improved
-Wide array of weaponry that feels great to use
The Bad:
-Just doesn't have the same gripping experience past Resident Evils have always seemed to have
-Not all will like the new inventory system
-Newcomers to the series will not like the absence of a cover system and the inability to shoot while moving
-Gold and credit farming takes way, way too long
-Pay to unlock the online competitive play
Every effort has been excelled to make sure that this review contains no spoilers.
Resident Evil 4 is the textbook example in how to breath new life into an aging series that has so many iterations ranging from the ridiculously awful to the absolutely sublime. It made some ballsy choices such as changing the perspective of the game and adding more action based elements. The end result was a phenomenal game that not only felt entirely new, but also felt entirely faithful to all the past Resident Evils and it managed to do all this without following other games and movies leads when looking to reboot franchises and taking it right back to the beginning and starting to re-tell the entire story from scratch. Marvel I'm looking at you. The inevitable sequel to one of the greatest games ever made has BIG boots to fill and it has even more pressure on it with the recent critical success of the much loved Dead Space that tipped the horror genre on its head.
Yes. They have employed someone and only charged them with the task of saying 'Resident… Evil………. FIVE' upon hitting Start after the game boots up.
Resident Evil 5 takes place five years after the events of Resident Evil 4. BSAA agent Chris Redfield, who looks as though he's been on a diet of steroids, testosterone, red meat and Red Bull, returns from the substitutes bench to take on the leading role. The BSAA is a sort of multi-national agency that specialises in biological weapons and chase the threat around the world and we find ourselves in the beautiful lands of Africa pursuing intelligence reports of a bio-arms sale and pending attack. After a drive through the stunning African wilderness into town we are greeted by Sheva Alomar a sexy, tight cargo and low cut top wearing local and an agent of the BSAA African branch.
It's hear you see the simply stunning environments. Apart from the towns looking derelict, decaying and if they've been made by a party of raiders that have stolen the materials from allotment sheds they look staggeringly good. Environments are flourishing with life and you can see hundreds of untold stories by looking at the empty areas. It doesn't just stop at the towns but all the way through the game whether it be sewers, ancient ruins, high tech laboratories or massive warehouses to name but a few.
Despite looking choppy and a little rough around the edges the graphics look great, in fact I would go as far as saying this title is one of the top 5 best looking multi-platform games available even until this day. The majority of the character models look fantastic but most of the previous statement derives from just how well lighting and shadowing is done in this game, if you can get the brightness settings correct you are in for a real treat. For a game that traditionally is set at night or in darkened corridors the game isn't afraid to have sections underneath the blistering Sun.
It's not five minutes into the relatively quiet opening before events begin to unfold and plunge us into the world of Resident Evil we know and love.
The are two main sets of controls, the ones that handle identically to Resident Evil 4 and a newer scheme that mimics the majority of third person shooters, without a doubt RE 4's feels by far the best. Regardless of what control layout you select 5 looks and feels exactly the same as Resident Evil 4's. The camera that sits just over your right shoulder, or left if you're controlling Sheva, that gently zooms in when aiming. The knife slash makes a return but this time your blade looks as though it would make even Rambo run and hide behind a bush a shrivelling wreck upon seeing it and it is considerably powerful and practical to use. A lot of people waiting to jump on the Resident Evil band wagon from seeing the pre release trailers were appalled and voicing their disgust across the entire internet upon playing the demo to find it didn't play just like Gears of War, only set in a different universe and with a separate cast of characters. There is no ability to run and gun and there is no cover. The practical y and the abilities to open combat with those features work great in third person but you've never had these abilities in past Resident Evil's and the concept behind it is on the first few titles with the fixed cameras and fully mapped control layout and this created a sense of claustrophobia and complete terror as you were trying to run and having to try and find room to turn and pop off a few rounds before running. It is a time tested formula and it works here as well as ever, and us that have been there wouldn't change this. It does also give the title a distinctive feel even in today's market.
A nice little touch that keeps the panic inducing game play has been added by making the inventory live. No longer can you find solace in the middle of combat to heal yourself, reload a weapon using the combine feature, and having a nice little tidy up. Now the game doesn't do that, when you open up the inventory you are still in action. It does add a sense of strategy to the game as you can assign a weapon or item to one of the four D-Pad buttons for quick selections that constantly makes you plan ahead. Admittedly I was one of the people that literally spent hours in my inventory keeping it in order and tidy, particularly in RE4, and hated this new feature at the start but it is something that grows on you after a few hours and you can see why it is this way.
Resident Evil has always been about immersion and the development have had a game of Russian Roulette by adding a massive co-operative play element here. Where there has been AI controlled partners in past titles it is taken to such a higher level here. You have a partner from literally the very beginning all the way up until the bitter end whether you like it or not. The single player handles like 'Zero' where you can command your partner to wait, follow, shoot and don't shoot but Christ, is the AI controlling Sheva good. It is never a liability, it never gets in your way, it doesn't steal items from you and is amazingly accurate and always knows when to move. If you fill her inventory slots up with herbs or sprays she always comes to your rescue at just the right movement. It also feels as though that it is constantly reading how you are playing and what you are doing. It is better than most players you meet to play the entire campaign from start to finish with another person. It is great to jump in to the game with a friend but you can't help but feel that magic immersion level drop when playing this way. The ability to trade and share items works nicely.
A vital and now standard ingredient for action games this generation is a soundtrack that sounds as though it has been lifted straight off a movie and this game is no exception. It has the score covered in spades and is done to such a high level. What I love is how there is two distinctive sides to the score. On one there is the music that sounds African, and sounds suspiciously similar to Black Hawk Down, that is used a sort of ambient background track and then there's the side used in confrontations that builds to your fear in combat with the building undertones and strikes that come without warning. They both sound great and amazing still, despite sounding completely different, is when they both combine within a scene they sound as though they are the opposite sides to that proverbial coin.
Zombies haven't been scary for a long time, I mean what is there to fear of a creature that walks slower than your grandmother, an enemy that gives away its position by moaning like a Vietnamese porn star and a foe that lacks the intellect to open a door? Finally they got the kick in Resident Evil 4 in favour a new enemy, that looks alarmingly similar to the baddies from Blade 2, and they have evolved into a menacing evil this game. They do still do the odd slow walking, dim witted thing time to time but when the crowds build up and run at you has you quick stamping your feet in an attempt to make your character run faster. And the horror element certainly isn't gone, when hounds give chase, HUGE axe swinging enemies give pursuit and the returning Lickers run across walls and ceilings things are almost as good as they have ever been.
A ridiculous issue of racism showed its face in relation to this title, is it seriously racist to have a predominantly black enemy with a game set in Africa? Ridiculous. Maybe they felt the dumb AI misrepresented their people. Note to all game developers in the future; make all enemies white and make them British.
The bosses are of a massive scale and deliver encounters that are fun to play which all have a specific criteria which much be fulfilled in order to defeat them, just bullets will not work, and the strategy to accomplish that must be worked out whilst balancing standing your ground and running. Pacing is done almost to perfection, the way game throws a large number of new enemies at you always seems to be done just as you become adept to dealing with the last lot.
A nice arsenal of weaponry with their own specific characteristics and practical uses are available through means of exploring or purchasing to take on your foes. In standard form they all feel slightly underpowered compared to the enemy you are using them against but that can soon be fixed by upgrading its statistics with currency found in game. Farming to upgrade your weapons is absurd. Fully upgraded they do pack a colossal clout so it shouldn't be a quick thing but the fact is it took me longer to upgrade all weapons fully doing farming speed runs on a specific section than it did to complete the game on my first play through. At twelve plus hours that is quite a statement. Thankfully your perseverance is rewarded and all of the weapons sound incredible.
The rich Resident Evil story and timeline has been respected and built upon on this title and path the stones for future titles to follow, what? You seriously thought this game was going to be the last in the series? Newcomers to the series won't have to have any knowledge of previous titles to pick and thoroughly enjoy it as the past games only get referenced but there is an array of material for those wishing to swat up on the lore of the universe. Umbrella is long dead, all of the Resident Evil titles and we don't get one where we bring the evil corporation to its knees and destroy it once and for all? And a new company is trying to fill the gap in the market, so to speak, spearheaded by a returning villain who is a true video gaming idol and a mysterious masked female side kick that spreads the parasites, infecting the entire population. Whether playing with a friend or riding solo the game has a real nice length to it but you feel as though you are rushed through it all to quick with each chapter giving you a rank depending on your performance within it. Resident Evil's always have an enigma ending in the sense that it is nice and conclusive but also leaves a few little ends that could lead to a sequel. No different here but all of the loose ends appear tied up, could this truly be the end of the T-Virus and Las Plagas saga??
A comment that is worthy of its own paragraph is regarding the dialogue. For those who don't know all of the Resident Evil games have a trademark for having either very bad or very cheesy dialogue, inn a game that is heavily story driven that is never a good thing. Capcom has finally paid an extra bit of money and got more talented scriptwriters in to address this long running problem and they've almost completely eradicated it as a result drives the story along so much more strongly. It's a shame that Chris sounds like he voiced by a radio from the 1980's which is a shame as the actor does a very good job with him.
Within each chapter there is hidden treasures to find that can be used to purchase new armour, weapons, upgrades and health as well as BSAA emblems hanging in concealed locations around, just like the hidden blue medals in Resident Evil 4, that can be used to purchase additional content such as new character outfits, unlimited ammunition for individual weapons, and different screen filters. Figurines, just like Resident Evil 4, can also be purchased that serve as a sort of glorified gallery so you can get right up close and inspect the finely detailed character models. I'm going to hide US Navy Seals emblems around Afghanistan before they are sent out on a mission and reward them for seeing them and shooting them when they should be concentrating on other more important things… At the end of the day they all promote you to investigate everywhere fully and reward you fittingly for it I suppose.
When you feel as though you have fully completed the story, or gotten bored of replaying it or farming, there is two modes to keep you playing. Mercenaries and online competitive play.
Mercenaries was a much loved feature in Resident Evil 4 and makes a, what I'm sure is a very welcomed return, for the masses but I for one never liked it. The concept is that you are timed and constantly get enemy after enemy thrown after you while traversing the confines of a small map and your objective is simple, kill everything and survive. All weapons, ammo and health is found from downed foes, and even power ups can be found, in order to keep the fight going trying to build up your score as high as possible before the timer hits zero.
Online competitive play on a Resident Evil game? Surely not. The concept sounds as ridiculous as mixing tomato sauce with ice cream. Not the case here and ludicrously you have to pay a considerable price to buy an unlock key to have the right to play something that comes already installed on the disc. I'm sorry the idea of playing RE online feels as though Mr. Bean commissioned the idea and I'm not going to part with my money when it comes on the disc in an age where online play has become a standard and vital feature.
The DLC episodes however are reasonably priced and lengthed that offer the player the chance to play through the events of flashbacks that appear in the narrative of the story.
You can't help but feel as though that in some places they have sacrificed immersion and a sense of fear in favour of delivering blockbuster style action. It has had just too high of a mountain to climb trying just to match Resident Evil 4's achievement. A fact that isn't helped by the fresh Dead Space that come along a few months before and played by its own rules delivering an experience that fiercely rivalled the best of vintage RE games. You feel as though that in order to go forward the series needs to find it's testicles. Stop with the rotating cast of characters and adding more and more all the time. Kill some off and impact the gamer, you can always tell which characters will make it through to end alive and intact minutes after meeting them for the first time.
Make no mistake though, despite feeling just a few pegs down from either of the above games Resident Evil 5 is an excellent stand alone game with a thoroughly enjoyable, uncomplicated story but it lacks the x-factor that keeps you coming back for more. When I review a game I replay the entirety of it beforehand and I just lost the will to live three sections in to the first chapter and turned the game off despite loving this game.