Resident Evil 5
Intro:
Capcom has been reinventing survival-horror since the first Resident Evil (1996) popularized the genre. Many gamers would even argue that the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team’s struggle at the Spencer Mansion was the birth of the genre. Over the last decade, the series has received six canonical sequels and several “spin-offs,” all of which enhance the world of Resident Evil, but are not technically accepted as part of the story.
With each of the direct sequels came a deeper story and newer, more dynamic ways to kill the undead. Resident Evil 3 (1999) added Nemesis, who hunted the player unyieldingly throughout the game; 'Zero' (2002) forced players to control both playable characters throughout the story; and 'Code: Veronica' (2000) not only eliminated the locked camera, but also gave players three dimensional environments to explore, rather than pre-rendered ones.
Most notably, the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4 (2005) revolutionized the series more than any of the other entries. The player controls Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 2 (1998) in third-person through a three-dimensional Spain. A drastically altered inventory screen and a new virus to battle completely shuffled up the gameplay.
With its first full effort on the current generation of consoles, Resident Evil 5 focuses more on action, utilizing RE 4’s framework to recreate its greatness, but to what affect? Is the Kijuju region of Africa a suitable location for the house that Resident Evil 4 built? Does Shinji Mikami’s series survive without him?
Story:
Resident Evil is a series that started off very light on plot and has improved over the course of eight games to have one of the most compelling stories in all of gaming. Full of shadowy conspiracy, the series’ mainstay characters have endured twist after comic book quality twist. Resident Evil 5 not only manages to add depth to the already fathomless story of Umbrella, but also adds a degree of closure to many story arcs.
Resident Evil has always focused on the source and cause of the various viral outbreaks, those at fault and the surrounding conspiracies, which is where the series’ intrigue lies. Players aren’t merely surviving some random zombie outbreak. Rather, they are battling the fallout of power struggles between Umbrella’s leading men: Ozwell E. Spencer, James Marcus, Alexander Ashford, Albert Wesker and William Birkin. Resident Evil 5 brings a pair of these men to be judged for their past actions.
Chris Redfield returns as a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) tasked with eliminating the transfer of Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W.s) in the Kijuju region of West Africa. Despite the termination of Umbrella at the end of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007) the world is still at risk of future bioterrorism attacks, as Las Plagas from Resident Evil 4 proved.
In fact, Chris and his new partner, Sheva Alomar, encounter an enhanced version of Las Plagas after a hooded figure infects the population of Kijuju. Links between Irving, the BSAA’s lead suspect in the B.O.W. deal and Tricell, yet another pharmaceutical company, arise. Hints of conspiracy creep into the story and Excella, the chairman of Tricell’s West Africa division, reveals some of the company’s interesting “partners.”
Aside from the main plot, a flashback of Jill Valentine and Chris during their first BSAA mission serves as a driving force throughout the narrative. In many ways this subplot becomes primary, weaving itself into the B.O.W. plot and presenting more questions that beg to be answered.
The plot that Chris and Sheva quickly find themselves immersed in is full of jump-worthy scares, emotional dialogue and breathless, adrenaline-surging suspense. From the first eerie walk through African streets to the epic conclusion, Resident Evil 5 feels more like the final chapter in the events that started in the Arklay Mountains, than a standalone tale.
After seven core games, fans may be sad to see this portion of the Resident Evil saga come to a close, but if one thing is certain Chris, Leon, and the others won’t rest until the world is free from the threat of Bioterrorism. Thankfully, Capcom’s creativity isn’t showing signs of slowing.
Story Score: 9.0/10 A few weak elements punctuate its brevity, but it still retains the feeling of a ‘Resident Evil game’ while expanding the scope of the series even further.
Gameplay & Controls:
Resident Evil 4 reinvented the way fans of the series interacted with the game and “5” takes the action-oriented gameplay even further. One of the more notable changes in Mikami’s absence is that everything feels more streamlined to accommodate the growing number of Resident Evil fans.
For those new to the series, Resident Evil 5 plays similarly to the Gears of War series. Chris and Sheva are controlled via an over-the-shoulder perspective and laser-guided aiming returns to help eliminate the Plagas-ridden enemies. A light cover system has been added, but it really doesn’t add much to the overall experience.
Unlike Gears of War, players still don’t have the ability to ‘run-and-gun’ yet. From Capcom’s position it makes sense since this is only the second iteration of this type of Resident Evil gameplay. That still doesn’t mean it’s welcome, or that stationary firing adds tension. If anything, the result feels forced and outdated. The Majini, the game’s most prevalent enemy, are even faster and more ferocious than the Spanish villagers in “4,” wielding all manner of weapon, rubbing salt into the festering wound.
Originally this “brand” of zombie was included in Resident Evil 4 to accommodate the change in controls and many fans were livid because Resident Evil was simply no longer a “Zombie-game.” The core idea feels the same and though it’s hard to argue for the new style of gameplay, Resident Evil 5 is still engaging and fun.
The most obvious addition to gameplay is the emphasis on cooperative play. Beating the game once grants you the ability to play as Sheva as well. However trivial this may seem it’s actually a neat addition as Sheva is the first left-handed character in Resident Evil history. Overall, the A.I. of your partner is solid, if not a bit slow at following directions, especially during any of the game’s sparse puzzles.
The idea of co-op (on or offline) has been a major point of interest prior to the game’s release. Not only does this completely alleviate the shortcomings of the A.I., but it is one of the most enjoyable co-op experiences to-date. The sense of teamwork hasn’t been this strong since Army of Two and the joy of standing back-to-back with your partner while mauling down hordes of enemies is tingle-inducing. Players can also employ melee attacks against the Majini immediately after disabling them with bullets. These punches and kicks are really wound-up and the effect may make players involuntarily shout out in exhilaration.
Players can expect an eight to twelve hour fight for survival depending on their skill and the level of difficulty. While this makes for relatively short play, the locations and levels have incredible diversity to them, which keeps the linear gameplay fresh throughout multiple plays. In keeping with that, the basic Majini receive different models every two chapters and beasts also change to reflect with the setting of the current level. Like Spain in RE 4, players will get a memorable sense of setting regardless of whether it’s an accurate depiction of Africa.
One major change is the reversion of the inventory system to a nine-space system where both large guns and tiny eggs fill up one space apiece. This streamlined approach works well enough, but is an unfortunate reversion as the virtual attaché case was a remarkably unique feature of the last game. The larger issue is the loss of the “inventory pausing” in the game. Even though the action can still be broken up with a regular pause, trying to give your partner ammo or first aid spray on the fly can result in unnecessary frustration.
Along with the dynamic, expandable inventory went the creepy weapon’s dealer. Now all purchases and upgrades are made in the “Item Management” lobby prior to games and in between levels. Most weapons can receive upgrades to their power, reload speed and ammo capacity with a few others having specialized upgrades. Upgrading a weapon all the way is one way to attain the game’s numerous unlockables and keeps things fair at the higher difficulties.
Money is earned by selling treasures you find throughout the story with more valuable ones being harder to acquire. Picking up small bags of gold also helps, but they only add 1-300 currency, which is nothing when weapons can cost anywhere from five to forty times that amount to upgrade. The amount of money earned in one play-through is substantial enough to upgrade a handful of guns all the way, but seeing as there are three to four models of each weapon (handgun, machine gun, shotgun, etc.) the task for completists can be daunting.
Exchange points, earned for completing levels, are also currency for outfits, screen filters, and other unlockables. The amount of points earned after each level depends on overall time, accuracy, enemies defeated, and number of player deaths. Earning 1000 points per level is the maximum and, like weapon upgrades, with the amount of unlockables present, multiple playthroughs are needed to unlock everything.
Thankfully, items remain in Chris and Sheva’s inventory when going from one play to the next. While the prospect of multiple plays isn’t awful by any means, Resident Evil 5 doesn’t quite have the amount of content to make things interesting on a fifth or sixth time through. Furthering this frustration are quick-time events. While they can enhance the gameplay initially, missing them in later playthroughs will quickly become an annoyance, especially when grinding through levels to upgrade weapons. Many of these events are deadly if failed, but thankfully the margin for error is scaled down for lower difficulties.
Overall control of Chris and Sheva doesn’t really differ. All weapons must first be readied before they can be used and the laser-guides, while a complete and utter necessity, still feel imprecise at times. Having to ready then swing the standalone knife feels like a nuisance as does the fact that inventory hot-keys mapped to the D-pad only work for cardinal points. Other than that, running, movement, locating your partner, weapon use, and camera adjustments all feel so intuitive that Capcom successfully makes the player forget they are using controller.
No doubt, the gameplay will immerse players into the story and, as mentioned before, the story actually rewards the player with action, suspense, and answers. The more action-oriented gameplay may not appeal to die-hard fans of prior Resident Evil titles, but it does accommodate the grander scope of the story while exhibiting the direction that survival-horror is moving toward as a genre.
Gameplay & Controls Score : 9.3/10 Solid all around. The enemies, the setting and the controls all mesh into an experience that makes the player forget they’re even holding a controller.
Graphics:
The MT Framework engine that Capcom has used on all of their current generation games gets a boost from Havok Physics and the result is some of the most visually compelling graphics on the 360 and the PS3. Everything looks and runs great, with isolated pop-up and tearing issues. The frame rate remains steady, even with lots of action; textures are very good as is draw distance. In short, the presentation is very polished.
The design benefits from this in very large way, as the detail in levels and cut scenes looks really stunning. A large part of RE 5’s eye candy is the new lighting system. Broad daylight is overpowering and the darkness is spirit-consuming. From the dust-filled shantytown where the game begins, through African marshlands and into an old secret laboratory, the crisp detail is geared more toward looking as good as the best offerings out there than creating suspense. A few levels really do stand out and create some tension, but they are best experienced by the player.
What makes this emphasis on visual appeal forgiving is the excellent amount of ambiance included in the levels. Without this amount of detail, the levels would surely fall flat, but there are characters that inhabit the world too. All of the main characters look excellent from the Majini to Chris, Sheva, Irving and Excella; the modeling is really impressive.
Chris’ bulging muscles, while just a tad on the ridiculous side, look awesome. Sheva and Excella both have very attractive figures and the motion capture work for this game really comes through for this game. The enemies look visceral and are loaded with slimy tentacles making some battles truly terrifying.
Taking all of these things into account, Resident Evil 5 does an exceptional job of measuring up to the high standards set by Killzone 2 and Gears of War 2, but the fact the most of the game doesn’t riff on the fear of darkness misses the point in a way.
Graphics Score: 9.5/10 Brings Resident Evil to the fore-front of the graphics battle. Overall presentation is some of the highest quality around.
Audio:
The audio in Resident Evil 5 is nearly flawless. The music and ambient sound work just as hard for the game as the level design. 5.1 is impressive, working exactly how it should except in a few instances where noises behind the player will deceive them as to where their enemies are. Really though, it leaves little to be desired.
The music that accompanies action sequences actually heightens suspense really well because it’s barely noticeable. In moments of panic though, it will quickly remind the player to stay on their toes. On the other hand, the music that enhanced cut scenes often felt over the top. The perfect example of this is during the game’s climax, where two characters are having a conversation and the music completely cuts across the dialogue to cringe-worthy effect.
Possibly the most impressive aspect of the audio presentation is the voice acting. Throughout the entire eight-to-twelve hours, there is not one fault in syncing and the delivery is top-notch, with the exception of one or two characters. The only reason these performances are called into question is that they pay homage to the days of completely ludicrous voice acting the initial entry of the series. Frankly, they work really well if you’ve been a fan of the series, but for newcomers these characters may feel completely unbelievable.
The audio design in the game does what it should, when it should, nearly flawlessly. It’s not likely that Resident Evil 5 will be remembered for its audio but it certainly helped make the game much stronger.
Audio Score: 9.6/10 The voice-acting here is phenomenal for the most part. Suspenseful music, creepy ambiance, and loud gunfire all treat the ears to an immersive experience.
Replay:
First of all, Resident Evil 5 should be commended for the high quality and excellent online support that keeps the campaign interesting in and of itself, for at least two additional play-throughs. Add in achievements/trophies and the usual wealth of unlockable material, and the this game will no doubt find itself making return visits to the disc tray of your system of choice, years down the road.
As mentioned before, unlocking new outfits, figures and other weapon upgrades in the “Bonus Features” section will warrant a few more strolls through Africa; not to mention the ability to slather different filters on.
Aside from multiple replays with friends online, the 4-player Mercenaries mode makes a return. Like iterations of this mode, players will attempt to off as many enemies as possible in a 2-minute time period. Limited ammo and time weigh heavily on the player’s performance, but luckily both can be regained during play. The diverse character selection can be increased with top grades on each level.
The final ray of replay-hope is the addition of a Versus Mode, which will be released as downloadable content within the next month. Just as it sounds, players will be able to meet friends online and use their arsenal of weapons to gun each other down. Nothing like a good old deathmatch to resolve any issue that arose between friends during the campaign.
Replay Score: 9.0/10 The campaign content alone does so much right that it’ll likely be as replayable as RE 4. Co-op, upgrades, unlockables, Mercenaries and Versus will stretch this far beyond the eight-to-twelve hour experience found in single-player mode.
Summary:
Resident Evil 5, like RE 2 following the original, is really only a half step in the progression of the series, relying heavily on the groundwork laid by 4. The locations may not feel similar, but many enemy-types and gameplay mechanics find their way back into Capcom’s latest. This doesn’t mean that Resident Evil’s first full-fledged “next-gen” experience isn’t worthy of praise though.
Where the first four games in the series felt similar, it’s hardly fair to chastise RE 5 for being too similar to RE 4 when the latter was such a great game. While all of the tenants of the series are present, Resident Evil 5 doesn’t necessarily feel like a traditional Resident Evil game and neither did '4.' Resident Evil 5 does stray a bit farther from what many expect from a survival-horror title, but the mechanics that are changed more than make up for what is missing.
If it weren’t for its shorter length, or the fact that it follows rather than precedes a game that a staggering number of gamers will forever deem their favorite, Resident Evil 5 would likely receive near-perfect scores. With so much to offer for both zombie-enthusiasts and the casual gamer, Resident Evil 5 is the first competitor for 2009’s “Game of the Year.”
It’s rare for a game with such a prodigious history to effectively wrap-up as many plots while adding even more characters and conspiracies. The fact that Capcom pulls it off is truly a testament to the strength of the series and of Capcom themselves.
Play this one with a friend. Absolutely a must-own title for fans of the series and video games in general. Capcom hasn’t reinvented the series, but this is definitely going to help tide us over until the next Resident Evil.
Overall: 9.3/10
