Hands up, who likes zombies? Capcom must really hate zombies, considering the number of games the company releases that are almost entirely devoted to removing zombie heads from zombie bodies. While I’ve still got my fingers crossed with hopes of a new Dead Rising sequel, Capcom is giving zombie haters the next big thing in undead elimination: Resident Evil 5.
I recently got to see the game running on an Xbox 360. Though press-type people like me weren’t really allowed to get their grubby hands on the game, Capcom reps played through a brief village sequence to let us get a feel for the action. And the action looks good.
It looks good because the game looks like Resident Evil 4 with better graphics. That same sort of camera presentation and the same closed-in, surrounded by the undead feel. But it wasn’t exactly the same. This village scene took place during daylight hours. Also, it felt a lot larger than the similar village sequence found in RE4, and Capcom reps stated that it was actually four times larger.
There wasn’t much to be gleaned from the gameplay session beyond the daylight setting, the size of the area, and that the same sort of combat will figure into the game. Enemies, some slow and some fast, shamble at Chris Redfield, who seemed more than happy to shoot their heads off with a pistol or simply blow them in half with a shotgun. He also pulled out some incendiary devices and lobbed a few of those at the ever-present horde, which burned a few guys up pretty nicely.
A trailer was also shown, which flashed between various moments of gameplay and deliberately cryptic moments. The game, as you may already know, will take you to Africa, which is the birthplace of the Progenitor virus, which is what got us into all this zombie trouble in the first place. The video also revealed a new female character, who appears to serve as a well-armed sidekick for Chris.
When asked about the game’s potential for a cover system or some sort of co-operative play, the representatives for the development team told me to wait until E3. That’s not a “no,” people.
Oh, and first person to get all snide and say “well, technically they’re not zombies at all” gets a knuckle sandwich. That’s like a Jill sandwich, but with less Jill and more fist.