Where on earth do I start with Resident Evil 5? such a mixed bag of feelings; anger, disappointment, pity, nostalgia.
OK first of all, I’m a long time Resident Evil (RE) fan, I got the first game with my first Playstation back in 1996 (doing extra temp work as a bin man, so I could save up and afford it!). I found it to be a scary, engrossing, funny & challenging experience, the likes of which nobody had really experienced before (it was 1996 remember) Since then I’ve gone on to accumulate & play 16 different RE games!, more or less the entire series. So yeah – I’m a bit of a fan.
Next, Resident Evil 4 (RE4). Easily one of the best games I’ve ever played, best in the RE series & comfortably in my top 10. Amazing from start to finish. It’s stood the test of time, has a metacritic score of 96 and consistently appears at the top of greatest games of all time lists (Edge put it at number 2 in 1997). Trust me on this one, it’s a very, very good game.
So that leads us finally to the point of this post – Resident Evil 5 (RE5). It’s evident that it had a lot to live up to, but hey Capcom had over 4 years to develop it, they have a proven track record as one of the industry’s best developers, so what could go wrong?
Everything.
To sum it up RE5 is a below average generic shooter, devoid of fun, story, charm & ideas. You have to play the game in co-op mode, there is no true “single player” anymore. Playing single player results in the co-op partner (a token black lady called Sheva, who actually isn’t black if you spent more than 5 seconds looking at her) being controlled by some of the worst AI I’ve ever had to endure in a videogame. She wastes her ammo, uses health packs when they aren’t needed, is in your line of vision/fire about 90% of the time, pinches items that you wanted to pick up and basically is an abomination. It’s fair to say Sheva is all that is wrong with RE5. You spend nearly all of your time playing simply wishing she wasn’t there, she also spoils the atmos.
That leads me onto another major problem with RE5, they’ve taken all the main elements of the RE series (RE4 in particular) and pissed them up the wall. There is none of the oppresive, dark and spooky atmosphere, there is no exploration or puzzle solving, there is no real inventory management (RE4′s brilliant inventory system being crudely reduced to 9 item boxes). The game has essentially become a linear, generic, 3rd person shooter, think Gears of War but with shit controls.
Ahh the controls, so they haven’t changed since RE4, you still can’t move and fire, the turning and aiming speed would make an arthritic turtle look speedy and thanks the new real time inventory most fights decent into a Benny Hill chase, round and round while you find a safe spot to reload or heal. These controls worked in RE4 but that game was 4 years ago – things have moved on Capcom.
I could go on all day about the frustrating and poorly designed boss fights (which seem to be every 10 minutes), the short game length (a measly 10 hours), the fact you seem to jump from location to location with no real reason, the copy and paste enemies from RE4, QTE events in the middle of boss fights, etc, etc.
Then there is the whole racism debate, that is probably a topic for an whole other post, but lets just say when I was blasting the heads off African tribes people in grass skirts, living in little mud huts it did feel like Capcom had scraped the bottom of the stereotype barrel
So…. I think RE5 can’t win. Compared to it’s mighty predecessor it’s doomed to fail, despite copying so much from it’s older sibling it makes a massive balls up of it all, I think the developers wanted to tap into the RE4 “magic” but just didn’t get it. On the other hand, remove RE5 from the shadow of RE4, and it’s nothing more than just another 3rd person shooter with awful archaic controls and AI co-op partner you want to kill more than the bad guys. So after 4 years of waiting, I think it’s fair to say I’m more than a little diapointed in RE5.
Oh dear, i massive disapponitment indeed. I could forgive Sheva and the rate she eats ammo, i could forgive the new control system that allows ‘side-stepping’. The resident evil 4 control remained the same as it had been for all the earlier titles, turn on the spot and run forward,although often accused of being clumbsy,it was an obvious design element to heighten tension. The new 2 stick controls leave the game feeling more like a FPS. But, as i said- i forgive that. What truly dissappointed me was at no single point in 3 complete play throughs did i ever feel that creeping dread of what lay in wait, whether in the arklay mansion or the back streets of racoon city, and certainly not the dusty farmyards somewhere in europe. It’s not just RE5 takes place virtually always in brightly lit areas; using darkness to heighten tension has always been a reliable staple of the RE series. But even where RE4 used well lit areas it maintained its atmosphere of dread. RE has lost it’s element of survival horror, ammo and herbs/health are plentiful, even enough to amply supply the ever trigger happy Sheva. Not once did i spend a few fraught minutes limping around with a handful of bullets left praying to find a green herb. This was largely due to the fact that as soon as i stubbed my toe, Sheva was on hand to ram a herb down my throat! bless her, she looks after you well that’s for sure. But having your own personal doctor on hand , whilst probably very useful given the task in hand, does again ruin any tension. Nothing lept out and made me jump the way though damn dogs back in the mansion did. Again, eagele eye Sheva has invariably already spotted the offending target and uloaded a full clip of 9mm’s into it by the time you taken aim, she’s a damn good shot too! But, as much as i like her and her really rather lovely face, by the second chapter i felt more like i was playing an action buddy movie. I fully expected Sgt. Murtagh to make an appearance at some point and call someone a ‘son of a bitch’.
But hey ho, you know, it’s a damn good action game And played in co-op good solid shooty fun. But just dont expect RE4, or any kind of ‘survival horror’. If by some curious chance you are new to the RE series then grab a copy of RE4, it is as pretty much all reviews say and have ever said a stunning game. Then if you really have to give 5 a spin. I just hope capcom can get back on track for the inevitable Resident Evil 6.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything that has been said above. I have sworn by the RE series since ’96 and to see one of my most favourite game franchises being utterly decimated in this way just makes me feel so angry. Especially after waiting 5 fucking years for this installment.
God I hate Sheva, why Capcom? Why?
RE4 was a work of art, if there was any aspect to that game that I didn’t like it was when you had to escort and look out for Ashley, she was mildly annoying but I saw it as nothing more than an updated version of having Sherry follow you around in RE2, so I could forgive it, it wasn’t frequent anyway.
You can imagine my horror and dismay when I started up RE5 for the first time only to discover that not only was Sheva just as much a main character as Chris, but that I was going to be stuck with the bitch for THE WHOLE FUCKING GAME?!
RE is supposed to be a solitary experience, if I wanted a brainless co-op shooter I would have bought Gears Of War.
Fuck you Capcom.
why on earth did they create this game and call it resident evil-5 no puzzle solving no fear at all just shoot kill, shoot kill if i wanted that type of game i would of bought gears of war also this is sopposed to ba solo survival fight throught with fear and not knowing what enemies lie ahead
WHOLE FUCKING GAME?!
RE is supposed to be a solitary experience, if I wanted a brainless co-op shooter I would have bought Gears Of War.
Fuck you Capcom.
thank u capcom .for fucking up the best survival horror game. i have ever played since 1996. now what have we got mindless. shoot, shoot, shoot. thats not survival horror its. a fucking pointless action game now re5 shooter it should of been called not re5 horor survival