Living in the Shadow of RE4
You can't talk about RE5 without knowing the impact of RE4. RE4 won a dozen or more game of the year awards back in 2005 and even introduced real gaming to Wii owners in 2007 :) So, the expectations for RE5 were sky high to say the least. And if you don't think that impacts the reviews both positive and negative, think again.
The Resident Evil series has also been plagued with another significant battle between those that understand and even like the control schemes and those that despise it. The first few hours of RE1 I would have been in the first camp but after playing through the game I gained a huge appreciation and understanding for the controls and their limitations.
But much has changed in years after RE1 and the series took a big leap forward with RE4 in every way except they still kept the tenant that thou shall not shoot and move at the same time. This did not seem to hurt the reviews of RE4 but its certainly taking its tolls this time out. Once again, I have no problem with the controls (I use "D" setup) and I do believe that limiting movement is part of the game. And I don't undstand the need to have every game fit some kind of form factor. I like games that have unique control schemes as long as it works (i.e. Metriod Prime).
So, given that I am a hardcore RE fan who thinks that RE4 was possible the best ac action/horror game every made, you should certainly be right to think that you should take this review with a grain of salt.
The good news, RE5 is a very competent action game with some pretty amazing graphics, some very well integrated coop gameplay, and some good strategic action in the same style as RE4. Unfortunately, the tension and pacing that was near-prefect, no... perfect in RE4 is not done any where near was well here. Its like a sequel to a great movie that goes a bit off because it does not have the same director. But that disappointment comes from the game that I "wanted" RE5 to be and its not exactly fair to judge a game on expectations.
What RE5 does have is really fun action. Weapon selection and upgrades provide a fairly deep system where you have a lot of choices as you go through the game. Upgrades are not cheap and you have to pick the few weapons that you want to rely on if you want to get through the game with ease. On normal difficulty, that won't be that hard but I suspect if you play on harder difficulties weapon selection and ammo conservation become much more critical.
The coop play is done very well in RE5. Better than many other action games before it because you more often have to accomplish different tasks and support one another. The coop does not feel tacked on at all. It definatly feels well desigend. So, if you are a fan of coop games and plan on playing with a friend quite a bit, I really think this makes RE5 a must play.
On the down side, the coop elements can make the single player experience a bit clunky at times but not as bad as I had feared. Most often the coop work well and even supports you when you need it. Many times I was impressed how the AI partner would give you a health boost just as you needed it and really saved the day. But there are times when you just see how much better the game is when you play in coop and you wonder if the game design would have been better if all that energy had been focused on just the single player experience. But if that was the case, you would not have the option for great coop play so it is what it is.
I really enjoyed the single player and only have a few moments of frustration when I was not sure how to proceed but overall, I really liked the single player action. I also enjoyed the cinematics and thought the animation was about as good as it gets.
The story was pretty much crap though. Like most CAPCOM games, I don't know if it translation of intent or just really bad writing but either way, its a throw away plot and the characters and enemies are cookie cutter etc. Despite its completely hokey elements, RE4 has pretty good story telling even if some of the characters were ridiculous you still go a good sense of the enemies and their part in the story. In RE5, the characters are just boring stereotypes and you just don't care about any of them. Oh well.
I got to wrap this up.... So, RE5 is a good action game with great graphics and if you are are RE4 fan (or superfan like me) I think you will enjoy RE5 quite a bit. Single player is fun but make sure you play it coop and you will really get a lot out of RE5. However, it does come with its own flaws and if you fall into the "why are the controls not like gears of war" camp, just skip it and play more gears :)
