Bullet Point Review: Resident Evil 5 (PS3)
What I liked:
Facial - Sheva's facial animations during the cutscenes look so lifelike. If you didn't take notice, go back and watch them...their pretty amazing.
Levels - True, I felt alot of the levels in RE5 felt kind of like those in RE4, but there were some really impressive ones too. My personal favs being the city levels at the very beggining of the game. I wish those went on a little bit longer.
Graphics - As expected RE5 looks amazing. Surprised? No. And you shouldn't be.
Daylight - When reviews first started appearing about RE5 alot of people didn't really like the fact that RE5 took place in the daytime. Well I've got some spoilers here; not all of RE5 takes place in the day. In fact I would say that most of the game takes place away from the sunlight. Personally I liked the levels that saw the light of day, I thought they added something to the game and looked really really good.
Strafing - Alot of people called me crazy when I said I thought RE4 would have been that much better if Leon had the ability to side strafe. Well I've got some news for all those naysayers, RE5 adds the ability to strafe, and as expected, it is a fantastic new feature.
Weapon mapping - In prior RE outtings you had to pause the game over and over to switch weapons, it got old, fast. RE5 thankfully drops that and lets you map any item you want to the D-pad. Thank you Capcom!
What I didn't like:
Sheva - Don't get me wrong here, I love Sheva the character. It was kind of refreshing to have a lead female character that wasn't all sexed out with big boobs. What I didn't like is Sheva the A.I. partner. You have to call her over during a fight if you want an item she has. She got in my way more than a few times when I was making critical shots, and I wish I was able to tell her to stay put like you could do with Ashley in RE4.
Inventory - Remember RE4 how you were able to buy bigger and bigger briefcases so you can hold more stuff? Well in RE5 you can kiss that goodbye. In RE5 Chris gets 9 slots to hold items in and Sheva gets 9. Trouble is, is that it's rarely ever enough room. And another thing, remember how in past RE games the game would pause if you went into the inventory menu? Well that's gone now too. Yes I understand having a menu pop up while the game is still going on adds tension, but it's added tension I'm not too crazy on.
CO-OP - I admit it, CO-OP games holds very little interest for me. And as such I hated having another person (Sheva) around me all the time. I found her just being there totally sucked the fear out of the game. I really hope they ditch that in RE6.
Bosses - Actually there was only one boss fight in RE5 that I felt was really lame. One of the El Gigantes from RE4 makes an appearance, and I thought fighting him this time while just sitting there in the back of a jeep, sucked. Personally I think the Gigante should have been chasing you while Sheva drove...but that's just me.
Summary - When RE5 dropped alot of people were saying it wasn't different enough from RE4. They say it feels too similar. Well it's true, RE5 doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I argue that it doesn't really have too. I mean does a game producer need to change things up drastically everytime they release a game? No. RE4 was a fantasic game that brought many needed changes to the RE series...and now people want things changed again? Really?
If you love RE4 as much as I do, you'll find alot to love here in RE5. Sheva may or may not annoy you as much as she did me, I just hope that once RE6 shambles it's way onto consoles in a few years that Capcom drops the co-op element found here in part 5. I want my RE games to be solo experiences.
All in all I give Resident Evil 5 (PS3) a 4.5 out of 5.
