Okay, first off, I know Resident Evil doesn't exactly have a fantastic story to begin with.  It's filled with retconning and convulsion.  For me at least, it was one worth following, and the backstory on all of the characters was intriguing and interesting.  While I loved Resident Evil 5's gameplay to death, I did feel that this game absolutely destroyed any headway that the story was making.

First of all: Ozwell E. Spencer.  This guy has been lurking in the shadows since the very first game, and when we finally see him, it's in a flashback and Wesker kills him within thirty seconds. 

Wesker was manufactured:  Project Wesker has got to be the worst idea ever.  Wesker was fine as he was being a superhuman and all.  Did Capcom really have to add this extra layer of retarded retconning on top of him?

Jill:  I have to admit how disappointed I was with how little of a part Jill played BEFORE her identity was revealed.  She made what, three appearances?

Wesker in general:  Wesker seemed incredibly out of character in this game when compared to previous ones.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about the consistency in his overall character just didn't feel right.

THE ENDING:  Okay, so given the amount of buildup and all of the work Capcom put into retconning Wesker as the series' supervillain, he dies with zero fanfare.  "That was for our fallen brothers!"  Seriously!?  The man who supposedly orchaestrated the entire series from start to finish dies, and this is all that's said!?  I'm fine with him dying, but come on!  It was handled so poorly!  Chris and Jill should have had more than a slight glance at each other after his death, considering the absolute hell Wesker had put them through since the first game.  If this had been a movie, that would have been an incredibly emotional scene.

The overall story seemed like a cop-out to try and wrap up the Umbrella portion of the story and move on.  I think Umbrella and Wesker had one more game in them.

I agree, the ending was terrible. The whole story of the game was garbage but the ending could have at least given Wesker the finish he deserved rather than just blowing him up like every other Resident Evil villain.

"That was for our fallen brothers," made me laugh out loud.  I think I even said something out loud about pouring one out for my homies.

I completely disagree with all of your points except the ending.

Ozwell E. Spencer hasn't been the central focus so far (atleast not more so than all of Umbrella's central employees), and Wesker is superhuman. It's not like he died of a sneezing fit.

I don't think (or atleast what I got from their conversation) they meant that Wesker was necessarily made in a laboratory as much as he was made into what he is now from all the testing and such.

As for Jill, I don't think she should have been more pushed more in your face. She very aqequately filled the Ada or Wesker type of the agent that made select appearances only when she needed to. I do wish they would have used her more after she was freed though.

I've just mentioned this in another discussion but yeah you're totally right. Wesker being manufactured was really dumb, I thought the idea of this elaborate scheme between him and Birkin was fine/crazy enough as it was. The Jill thing was really dumb, her apparent death in a flashback and then her surprise revaltion as Weskers agent? If anyone was surprised by that/actually cared then I'd be surprised. The whole point of Weskers return being so effective was that it was out of the blue, the guy had been written off as dismembered and blown up for him to show up in CV with crazy superhuman abilities. The Wesker being out of character thing is hard to describe, but can look no further than this "right to be a God" crap, so out of the blue and makes no sense, since when has he been concerned with his own material gains and nothing like this forced evolution crap. It just seemed like such a stupid way to wrap up the series and a slap in the face to long term fans, I'll iterate that this is all obviously just my opinion.

The ending really was the worst part of the game. The story overall was such a letdown for this game. They had all the backstory and loose ends to work with and the best they could do was make Wesker generic and Jill not being dead as the biggest twist in the game. I was expecting so much more. =(

My Favorite part of Capcom's improvements to Wesker was he's amazing and suddenly found karate abilities. But i feel like I've seen it some where before...

I totally agree. Another thing for me was Ouroboros - so, everything in every Resident Evil game was supposedly building up to this EPIC SUPER VIRUS? So that Wesker can OMG RULE THE WORLD? Oh man. Resident Evil 5 totally lost the dark corporate intrigue of the games prior to Resident Evil 4. The story of competing egos and lapsed morality, and of people who would sell their souls and bodies to become Gods among men. Resident Evil 5 didn't incorporate enough of the previous Resident Evil plot for my liking. The whole mystery of the Umbrella corporation was summed up in one cutscene where Wesker kills Spencer, and some files that non RE-tards won't read. Okay, I really liked RE5, and I'm not nerdy enough to nerdrage over ruining the plot a bit, but I gotta say, I grinned ear to ear when the Lickers returned. That was like, the only tie to the past games that meant anything.

I disagree.

"I disagree."

"CL60 said:

"I disagree."

Why?"

"CL60 said:

"I disagree."

Why?"

This game destroyed everything Resident Evil 4 improved on.

"HandsomeDead said:

"CL60 said:

"I disagree."

Why?"

To get his post count up."

"Gizmo said:

"HandsomeDead said:

"CL60 said:

"I disagree."

Why?"

To get his post count up."

Do I have to explain everything? No I don't"

The story in Resident Evil was destroyed after RE4. As soon as Capcom made the decision that undead zombies, T-Virus, and Umbrella were no longer important to Resident Evil I lost faith in the franchise. Resident Evil was always my favorite series, RE2 is still my favorite game ever made. But I just can't like it anymore. RE4 started a chain of ridiculousness that was tolerable because of the tight gameplay that was rather fun if you forgot that the box said Resident Evil 4 (well technically 4 Resident Evil). But RE5 was crap, I tried to do as much as I could to love it but after like two weeks I shelfed it, then pulled it out for all of 20 minutes for the Versus add-on.

Yeah, the game was my biggest disappointment. I might trade it in soon.

RE4 Wii edition ftw!

I would care if the game wasn't awesome. Oh wait, the game is awesome as shit so I don't care.

no

Yeah, if this was suppose to be a final game in the story, they could have gone out with a bang rather than a whimper.

On second thought, we should have had a complete Jill and Chris suck fest at the end. Right before credits roll, Chris bricks in Jill's mouth. Fan boys would be going "WTF! QQ ". That's the proper way to send off an incredible kick ass series like this.

I can totally agree with why you might see Wesker differently in RE5. He just lost that cool edge he had in Code Veronica and even his small cameos in RE4. He no longer calmly sat back and assessed the situation, but toyed with his prey and then failed to finish them off because he was simply too stuck up his own ass with Colmplete Global Saturation. I just think everything about this game lacked those certain factors that make a Resident Evil game Resident Evil... out cool, collected and calculating Wesker being one of those things. Without him the plot simply suffers.

People actually care about the Resident Evil storyline...?

I have to say I read two of those Resident Evil novels back in the day now that I think about it...

RE4 destroyed the story.

Wait, people actually care about the Resident Evil storyline on more than a superficial level? I certainly don't, although I do agree that Wesker did seem out of character from his previous appearances, but that's not why I play RE games.

Nah, RE4's story was fine.  It took the familiar characters and threw them into a new, refreshing situation.  It moved the series forward.  RE5 threw everything right back to where it was pre-RE4, minus the storytelling.

Well almost everything in RE5 was done terribly anyway. Wesker had a complete personality change; an aspects of horror were just sucked from the series; everything was too action orientated, boat and car/bike chases. I dunno, it just seems like the odd one out in the whole series (sans Gaiden maybe)

@BBQBram:

Are you forgetting the re5 is co-op and re4 isn't?

And in single player mode you have a nice looking annoying sheeva with you?

The gameplay isn't equal. And anyone who says otherwise is the "retarded" one.

I didn't care much for the story line, but really killing wesker was a bad call... he was the nemesis of the resident evil franchise! :(