When Resident Evil 4 came out some four years ago, there was a lot of scepticism going around. A lot of gamers and critics believed that the series was stagnating, and didn’t believe that in Capcom had it in them to reinvent or redefine it. Of course, when the game debuted as a Nintendo Gamecube exclusive, people were all but blown away by it. What RE4 did was set a benchmark for all third-person shooters (survival horror or otherwise) that would come after it. If not for RE4, third-person shooters as we know them now, probably wouldn’t exist: Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, and even Metal Gear Solid IV or GTA IV. Yes, even CliffyB owes Capcom one. The game was way ahead of its time, both in terms of gameplay mechanics as well as visuals and sound.
As a result, Resident Evil 5 has been one the most hyped games of this year. With high expectations following the incredible success of its predecessor, Resident Evil 5 had to be phenomenal to even warrant a comparison. Unfortunately, it isn’t phenomenal. On the other hand, RE5 is a pretty intense third-person shooter with top-class visuals set in the mysterious Resident Evil universe — and I think that’s enough to keep fans of the universe happy. The game is accessible enough to new players (at least more so than its predecessor), and the online/system linked co-op works well even if the split-screen is a bit bogus. Does RE5 re-redefine the genre? Nope. But then again, you can’t expect every game in a series to be unique, innovative and genre-defying. Is RE5 a bad game? Not by any means. If you actually went out and bought Army of Two, you sure as hell can go pick up two copies of RE5!
Chris and Sheva
If you’re a fan of the original Resident Evil (PSOne, 1996), you’ll experience a strange sense of déjà vu — original protagonist Chris Redfield is back and he’s now got a partner in the form of BSAA operative Sheva Alomar. Bio-terrorism is the name of the game once again, only this time, the setting is Africa. The natives in a small town start exhibiting hostile behavioural tendencies, and this is attributed to experimental biological weaponry. They’re tipped off about a dude known only as ‘Irving’ who is responsible for this mess. Following which, we see Chris and Sheva fleeing a mobs of infected natives (who seem to move a lot faster than the average RE zombie). There are quite a few co-op bits in the game like assisted jump, providing covering fire, and accomplishing parallel objectives, so in that sense, Resident Evil 5 has embraced next-gen while staying true to its roots for the most part. Sheva and Chris can also combine and perform attack combos on enemies, with Sheva’s acrobatic moves and Chris’ melee attacks. RE5’s setting is different from its predecessors’, but the feel of the game is very similar. Even the zombies seem to have a lot of the same code from the previous games. Not only do they look like traditional RE zombies, they even evade like zombies from previous games with their cheeky side-steps. They also carry similar weapons and their attack moves are similar as well. The only difference is that they’re faster. I guess the guys at Capcom have been playing a lot of Left4Dead.
If you’re a Resident Evil fanboy, you’ll feel right at home with the partially clunky controls — which are designed to give the player a sense of anxiety and helplessness during tense moments. You still need to flee and fire when overwhelmed, although ammunition isn’t as scarce as in previous iterations of the series. But like RE4, you can’t move back and shoot at the same time, which was a big complaint people had with the demo. So if you didn’t like RE4’s shooting mechanics, you’ll be disappointed with the very similar
laser-sight fumbling and unnecessarily difficult movement controls. RE5 does have a few improvements like the ability to strafe, control camera movement and an almost “scripted” cover system that’s not of any use for a large part of the game. It feels as if the developers wanted the shooting to be a combination of Gears of War and Resident Evil 4, but changed their mind at the last minute. Overall, the shooting feels incomplete. The inventory management system from RE4 is back as well, and like RE4, doesn’t really give you too many options.
More Action
There’s a lot more action in Resident Evil 5 — more than in all Resident Evil games combined. There’s more ammo, better and more powerful guns, more gore, more explosions and an incredibly high amount of gore. Unlike the previous games, there’s really no reason to be afraid because Chris and Sheva have some pretty big guns at their disposal. The game isn’t as dark as before either, with a lot of open environments — a lot of the indoor levels are also reasonably well lit. RE5 is definitely more action/adventure than Survival Horror because there isn’t anything remotely scary about this game. Besides with Sheva as your companion, you’ll never experience the feeling of being alone in a terrible place. Sheva and Chris can revive each other as well — I guess this feature was added solely because of co-op and to make the game more accessible to new players, but it’s definitely not very Resident Evil. When under the control of the AI, Sheva isn’t particularly useful in a fight. She’ll pick the wrong guns for any given situation (like using pistols for long range and Sniper Rifles for close-up encounters), does not prioritise targets and will consume health kits when you need them. She also won’t keep up with you because of some niggling path-finding issues. But when played with a human player, the game is a lot of fun.
Verdict
RE5 sports brilliant graphics, decent level
design and a fun co-operative mode. It is however, not in the same league as its predecessor. Fans of the series’ storyline will enjoy the game for the most part, but will be disappointed with the
attempted Gears of War-style gameplay.
— videep@gmail.com