It's a Good Game. It Isn't a Resident Evil Game.
This Review Contains Spoilers
When the Resident Evil franchise begun on the Playstation, it basically redefined what the survival horror genre meant. Hell, it created the survival horror genre. It was extremely innovative and everyone loved it. Then, that formula grew old, so Capcom reexamined the series and practically changed the what genre Resident Evil was known for. The series, then, totally redefined the third-person-shoulder-shooter, just as it had redefined the horror genre many many years previous to that. Just as the older survival horror genre had begun to show some signs of being outdated, now Resident Evil 5 feels dated.
Resident evil 4 did indeed change the genre of the Resident Evil franchise, but the game still felt like Resident Evil. It still had that atmosp here, the puzzles, the nonlinear game design, and now, Resident Evil 5 has even less of that. Aside from the obvious ly Resident Evil driven storyline in the game, it doesn't really feel like Resident Evil. Change the story and the branding, and you would never have known this was suppose to be a Resident Evil game.
You play as Chris Redfield, one of the two main protagonists in the original Playstation Resident Evil game, and Sheva Alomar, a mem ber of the BSAA that will be accompanying Chris on his mission. After Chris' extensive history with zombified beings, he finds himself in another predicament. The Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, or BSAA is a group of people that are in the fight against Bio-Organics Weapons (B.O.W.). They recruit people to their group that have experience in fighting B.O.W.S. The first two people the BSAA recruited was Chris, and Jill Valentine, the other protagonist in the original Resident Evil.
Chris and Jill's first mission for the BSAA was to find Albert Wesker, one of Chris' old arch nemesis from when he first found himself trapped in the mansion with the rest of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) group. Even though Wesker appeared to be a true member of S.T.A.R.S., he was really a member of Umbrella, the pharmaceutical company that developed the Progentior and T-Virus and started the zombie outbreak in the mansion in the Akrlay Mountain Mansion. In search of Wesker, Jill and Chris decided to find Oswell E. Spencer, the President of Umbrella Corp. in hopes he would lead them to Wesker. And, they did find Wesker. During the fight with Wesker, Wesker jumps into Jill and they fall out a window that is thousand of feet off of the ground. Theoretically, Jill and Wesker are both dead.
But then, Chris gets some suspicions that Jill could possibly be alive. So, with that, he decided to take on another mission with the BSAA to investigate Kijuju. Kijuju is a fictional African town that Resident Evil 5 takes place in. Now, ironically, this is the birth place of the original Progentior Virus. So, obviously, like in all Resident Evil games, your gong to have to fight some type of mutated species. Now, the game does claim, just like Resident Evil 4 claimed, that they aren't really zombies. They do not act like the zombies in the earlier Resident Evil games. Just as Chris says very early in the game, "Don't act like any zombies I've ever seen."
The group of people you are fighting are very similar to the Los Ganados in Resident Evil 4, but this time rather than being European they are African American. Just like Resident Evil 4, they are infected by the Las Plagas virus, meaning, occasionally, when you will blow your enemies brains out and blow their head off you will get a Plagas that will pop out of their heads. These are the Majini, and they act ridiculously similar to the Ganados in Resident Evil 4.
One thing I am going to say is that this game is extremely similar to Resident Evil 4. Everything about it has the Resident Evil 4 feel to it. But, the biggest difference between Resident Evil 4 and 5 is that Resident Evil 5 is built solely on co-op. The game design, level design, and architecturial design is clearly based on the fact that the game is meant to be played co-op. Though, this does come with some sacrifices. Since the game is co-op, Capcom had to cut the puzzles down a lot. If the game had as many puzzles as the older Resident Evil games two people playing online would just get frustrated and would have a hard time doing it.
A bunch of the environments in the game can be compared to the environments. You will start out in a small village, just like you did in Resident Evil 4. You will find yourself in a mine, just like Leon was in a mine in Resident Evil 4.
The environments in Resident Evil 5 are not the only part that resemble Resident Evil 4. Literally everything about Resident Evil 5, in some way, besides probably the story, is very close to Resident Evil 4. First, you will notice, the enemies animations are the same as the enemy animations in Resident Evil 4. When you shoot on of the Majinis in the face, they will grab their eye and lean down just like the Ganados did in Resident Evil 4. When you shoot them in the leg they will grab their leg just like the Ganados.
Another elem ent of Resident Evil 5 that was in it's predecessor is the controls. They have tweaked the controls to feel a little bit more up to date, making the left and right triggers the shooting buttons. Also, you can now ai m your gun with the right analog, rather than the left in which you had to aim with in Resident Evil 4. But, one part of the game that feels old and outdated is the lack of mobility while aiming. Yes, you can not move around while shooting. Also, you
Even some of the music that was in Resident Evil 4 returns in Resident Evil 5, you'll definitely recognize some of the songs in this game from Resident Evil 4. Also, a lot of the SFX effects are returning from Resident Evil 4.
But, something that is completely redesigned and redone in Resident Evil 5 is the brand new inventory system. Unlike the weird inventory-tetris system that appeared in Resident Evil 4, your back to the very few amount of slots in Resident Evil 5. You will only have nine slots per character, eighteen in total. You can give and swap items between characters. But the inventory system has many flaws. You can not combine items across characters, which can be a huge annoyance. Also, you will no longer will you be able to pause the game and stop the action to access all of your items. Instead, like Dead Space, your inventory will be accessed in real time. Meaning, if you want to heal, you will have to open your inventory, select your herb, and then use it. You can map four slots in your inventory to the D-Pad. If you put in an item in the middle slot of the top row, that will be mapped to up on the D-Pad. Then, the first and third slot in the second row will be mapped to left and right on the D-Pad, respectively. And, finally, the middle slot on the bottom row is mapped to down on the D-Pad. The real time inventory does what is what made to do: not interrupt the game and keep the flow going. Now, it is understandable that the game is in real time during co-op and pausing the game for two people just so one can manage his inventory would be a problem, but in single player the game should be pause. The real time inventory can really be a nuisance.
The guns in the game are pretty similar to Resident Evil 4's weapons. There are some new weapons, such as some of the machine guns in the game, and the grenade launcher, which you can use with a wide variety of round types: electirc, nitrogen, acid, explosive, flammable, and flash rounds. Also, another melee weapon in the game is the stun rod, which can definitely be used to conserve ammo, or to use when you are running low on ammo, which isn't very scarce in this game, so you shouldn't have the issue.
In Resident Evil 4 there was a merchant that somehow traveled around the whole game and met you in many places, offering you a bigger inventory, first aid spray, weapons, and the ability to upgrade your weapons. This was on of the most well recieved part of Resident Evil 4. But, this concept has changed in Resident Evil 5. Instead, when you start a chapter, you will get a screen that will allow you to buy guns, sell things, put things away, give different items to your partner, and upgrade your weapons. This screen will also appear when you die, giving you a chance to do all of these things be fore you return to the game.
And a pretty useless feature, that is returning but in less capactiy is all the treasures you can find in the game. All the treasures you find serve one and only one purpose: to sell them. But you have to manually select the gem, select how many you want to sell, then sell it, and do this with all your treasures. Why the game doesn't automatically sell these is a mystery to me.
Aside from the Majini you will fight, you'll encounter other enemies as well. You will run into lickers, which are returning from past Resident Evil games, and you will also fight Reapers, which are Chimera-ish beats that can jab their limbs into your chest. Besides just regular Majinis, you will fight stronger, powerful, mini-boss Majinis. You'll run into some Majini with gatling guns, chainsaws, and even guns. Yes, guns. The last two chapters of the game feel very similar to a pop and shoot game such as Gears of War. In this time, the game also introduces a half-ass cover system, which allows you to take cover in certain places that the developers implemented the cover system. You will come across some pretty big and badass bosses when playing Resident Evil 5. One thing they did with the bosses in Resident Evil 5 was make them extremely long. Not that this is a bad thing, but unless you one shot the boss with an RPG, which shouldn't be able to happen anyway, it'll take you quite a long time to take down the bosses.
One of the biggest thing Resident Evil is known for is the unlockables and replayability of the games in the franchise. And, this game does not dissapoint with the unlockables. You get three costumes for each Sheva and Chris, which are pretty fun, sexy, and even nostalgic. You will get three different filters that will change the look of the game, not that you'll use them very much, but it's still a cool thing they put into the game. You can shoot and collect BSAA emblems throughout the game, earning you some cool extra goodies. You can get cool figures of the enemies, bosses, and characters in the game. You can move, rotate, and zoom in on them, and have them make a voice. When you start a new game all your weapons, ammo, and items will carry over to your next playthrough. You actually don't even have a choice to do this or not, so if you a person who likes a challenge and wants to start a new game on professional with just the starting weapons you will not be able to do so.
Once you beat the game you will be able to play some Mercernaries. In Mercernaries, you race against the clock to kill as many enemies as possible. You can collect time along the way to increase the time you have to kill Majini. You can play in about 8 stages with four different characters in a bunch of different costumes. You can play by yourself, or co-op, splitscreen, and/or online.
Resident Evil 5 looks.... amazing. The shadows, lighting, and every aspect of the technological part of the game is just great. The cutscenes are some of the best we've ever seen. The animations are great, even if a few of them are recyled from the previous Resident Evil 4. The cutscenes are created using very advanced technology, motion capture. This just makes the cutscenes look great, with amazing body movements and great lip syncing. Most of the dialogue is not bad, but it isn't the greatest out there. The voice actors are extremely good, too. But you will get tired of Sheva saying, "You need to be careful!"
Final Decision
Resident Evil 5 doesn't really feel like a Resident Evil game and some of the hardcore fans from the older Playstation games may not like this, and newer audiences may not like the controls in the game. Resident Evil doesn't really know what it is trying to be. It has the limited Resident Evil controls, which, apparently is trying to make the game more intense and more scary. But this game isn't scary at all. It is a action game that wants to try to be a survival horror game. Resident Evil 5 is very good, but it does not push forward anything like previous Resident Evil games have done. You probably will not fine the atmospheric feeling in this game such as Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 5 is not better than Resident Evil 4, but, if you are a Resident Evil fan that is used to how the series rolls, you should pick this one up. One who isn't familiar with the Resident Evil series, I can't exactly recommend this too. If I said that I'm not disappointed with Resident Evil 5 I would be lying.
