The sequel to one of the all time greats delivers.
| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 9.60 |
| Overall | 9.60 |
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Resident Evil 4 is one of the most highly rated, respected, and loved games to come out in the last 10 years. Since its release in 2005 the series creator and director of RE4, Shinji Mikami, left Capcom leaving this massive franchise in the hands of one Jun Takeuchi. Takeuchi had the monumental task of making a game that could live up to what RE4 accomplished while trying to do something new and try to please fans that were not to thrilled with the new series direction. Clearly he could not satisfy everyone but he did manage to create a worthy successor to RE4 while adding a co-op component and giving it a next-gen makeover. It may not be the masterpiece that RE4 was but it manages to retain the same intense action and adds enough elements to make this one of the best entries in the Resident Evil franchise. Resident Evil 5 talks place 4 years after the events in RE4. Original series hero Chris Redfield takes the lead once again, this time joined by a new partner, Sheva Alomar. The two are sent into the city of Kijuju to investigate a new viral outbreak. What they find is a new Las Plagas strain and outbreak, as well as a plot by the series main villain Albert Wesker to take over the world. As in previous RE games those expecting something special out of the story will be disappointed. The story is as campy as ever, filled with over the top characters and bad one liners. What fans will love is the return of Wesker to the forefront and boy does he steal the show. After 13 years, the Chris vs Wesker storyline gets its major showdown. For that reason alone many will enjoy the story in RE5 over RE4 but I feel the way the story is told in RE4 is superior. RE4 had a certain mystery to it, a general creepiness to the whole situation. There were questions about why are these villagers the way they are, what is this cult? RE5 is more a straight forward action movie type of story. The production side of the cutscenes did benefit as there are movie quality scenes with great motion capture. It's almost "Metal Gear"ish at times. The gameplay in RE5 is well, identical to RE4. There are new control schemes which I totally ignored as I rather play it with the traditional control scheme. If you are one of these people that want to complain about the controls, about not being able to move and shoot at the same time, then this review is not for you. I am not even going to address it any further, the controls work perfectly for this type of game. Changes include a new real time inventory screen, so no more pausing to change weapons; it all needs to be done on-screen to support the co-op aspect. This adds to the tension as there is no break in the action but at the same time it brings up situations where you wish it was a bit easier to handle your inventory. It works well for the most part; maybe some slight tweaking to streamline the process of sharing a bit would have helped. One major benefit of this new inventory system is that it adds real time weapon changing. No more hoping in and out of inventory menus to change guns, it makes combat much more fluid. It is one of those additions that you will wonder how you played without in the last game. There are also more melee attacks this time around, not only are there more but they are more context specific. If an enemy is on the floor you can just stomp on their head rather than have to shoot or knife the enemy on the floor. There are combo attacks that can be done with both characters. The melee system is another addition that makes the combat more fluid than before. The best comparison I can make is that RE5 feels sort of like how RE3 did, how it added changes to the core mechanics to aide the combat aspect. The largest change to the title is the inclusion of co-op. Capcom decided to make the single player co-op as well, an AI will take the place of the other character. This results in a game where you must always pay attention to not one but two characters. Some say this lowers the tension, that maybe true. I feel it does detract somewhat from the single player experience, having to manage an AI does change the experience, sometimes it feels more like work. Luckily the AI is for the most part very well done. It will follow you like a dog follows its master. It knows what enemies to go after, when to heal you, when to cover and it does follow orders which you can give with the simple push of a button. The player can choose to keep the AI in cover mode, which is recommend or attack mode which sends the AI on a rampage but gets itself into trouble. Once you learn when to use what, managing the AI is no where near as hard as it may first seem and you will find that the AI will save your life many many times. Yes there are a few times the AI will get stupid and kill itself in an odd manner, I also don't recommend using it on the highest difficulty setting as its not suited for it. Other than that the AI does a commendable job filling in for a human partner. The game shines when you do play with a human partner. While making it always co-op might have hurt the single player aspect, it greatly benefited the multiplayer aspect as every single aspect of this game was built for two players. It can be played with so many different strategies, which is something one can't do with an AI. I have approached the game differently every time I play with someone else. The way the game is designed it keeps the two players perfectly balanced while providing sections where the two may have to split or one may need to cover the other. It’s a game where teamwork is key; every area is built around this concept. I am new to the whole action game co-op thing but wow I was blown away at how much fun playing with someone else can be. This aspect is what, for some, will put RE5 over the edge when compared to RE4, it’s that good. Hell some are calling it the best co-op experience of the generation, I can't argue with that. Now that I covered what is different it is time to cover what is more of the same, which is basically everything else. One of the main criticisms laid against RE5 is that it’s too much like RE4. Well it is. Besides what I mentioned above, it's kind of RE4 in a new coat of paint. But what is wrong with that, can someone tell me why it is horrible to be like one of the greatest games ever made. Co-op alone differentiates this title enough to be a worthy sequel, the series had 6 games that were almost identical before RE4, I never heard much complaining then. The enemies in RE5 are basically reskinned ganados from RE4. Almost all the general enemy types in RE4 have some type of variation in RE5. The general flow of the game is the same. The weapon selection while larger in RE5 has most of the same types as RE4. Some of the bosses seem similar to RE4 but most of them feel fresh. Those that did not care for the action of RE4 might as well skip this game because it is the same action. In fact the focus on the action is more pronounced in RE5, RE4 at least had some puzzles, this game has one. RE5 takes us even further away from the classic style RE games and into all out action game territory. Some freak out about that, I am fine with it as long as the action was as well thought out as RE4 which for the most part it is. Like its predecessor RE5 presents the player with a series of major action set pieces. There is such a wide range of combat scenarios in this game. For example it goes from a village wide shootout, to a car chase, a spinning elevator fight, boat combat, to name just a few. The scenarios don't repeat, the constantly changing locations and enemies will keep you on your toes section after section. I feared this new production crew would not be able to keep that same level of intensity that the previous game had from beginning to end but I was wrong. It is not as long as RE4, nor does it have the same amount of amazing set pieces but it keeps that same spirit alive and well. Spectacular epic boss fights cap some of the levels. They may not be as good as RE4’s collection of baddies but they put most action games bosses to shame. The scale of some of these battles will have your jaw on the floor. I loved how many of them had a sort of trick to them, you can use that trick or go about it the normal shoot until they die route. In terms of game design I really cannot complain, it has everything I loved about RE4. To me, this kind of action is so replayable; I can play it over and over just trying new ways of completing it. One area where RE5 absolutely blows RE4 out of the water is replay value. This game was designed with multiple playthroughs in mind. It has four difficulty modes, pro mode being the hardest mode in any main line RE game ever. There are rankings after each section, trying to get S ranks on all sections on all difficulty modes will take a long time as well as mad skills. There is an upgrade system for the weapons much like RE4, though its not geared for one playthrough, if you are lucky you may upgrade three weapons in one go. For the rest you will need to play over and over to collect enough money to upgrade all twenty something weapons. There are hidden medallions all over which are deviously placed, shooting them all unlocks secrets. For the speed runners there are leaderboards that keep track of the fastest times. Let’s not forget the entire Mercenaries mode which is so addictive it can almost be its own game, it too includes its own leaderboards which I have lost many many hours trying to climb. To top it off you can buy a versus mode that is a ton of fun, don't expect anything deep though, it is just another fun mode that you can put many hours into. This game will keep you entertained for easily a hundred hours. The budget costs were clearly no issue as the graphics and overall production values are top notch. This game is beautiful; it takes place in a wide range of locations all meticulously detailed. There is plenty of eye candy, not just from the locations but the character models as well. The sound is as good as any big summer movie; you will have explosions going off everywhere, great for mega sound systems. Some high quality orchestrated music rounds out the package, superb stuff from beginning to end. Resident Evil 5 may not be the masterpiece Resident Evil 4 was. It may not blow players away as its predecessor did. I would even argue it is not as well designed a game, but then again practically no game is. It also leads the series further down the path of the action game, leaving behind many disgruntled fans in the process. So it doesn't please everyone, the truth is that it was never going to in the first place. What it does do is make a game in the spirit of RE4 while adding all the bells and whistles of this generation; co-op play, lots of online features, terrific production values. RE5 is hugely entertaining and a sequel that actually surpassed my expectations for it. Take away the name and analyze RE5 for what it is and I find it hard to argue that there are many action games that provide such quality gameplay, such a large adventure with so much replay value. In my opinion Resident Evil 5 is one of the better titles of this generation. |
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Posted by Dvader Sat, 02 May 2009 05:58:47
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*crickets*
Great review, Dvader.
I wish I had at least some excitement or interest in this game. I've enjoyed all of the RE games (except RE0), and absolutely loved RE2, Code: Veronica, and RE4. But for whatever reason, I have no desire to play RE5 at all. It's weird, but I think I'm done with the RE series. Or perhaps my interest will return when/if they bring back Leon and/or Claire.
Very thoughtful review Dvade. Based on what you hear in the RE/BH community is there a preference between PS3 and 360? I won't be playing it online, only single player off-line.