Resident Evil 5

"RE 5, decent action game, but out of touch with the franchise."

Resident Evil 5 is the latest addition to Capcom's Survival Horror genre. The game starts off with Chris Redfield, now a member of the B.S.A.A (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) driving through the African wilderness and reflecting on his struggles throughout the years. The organization Chris works for is a paramilitary unit formed by pharmaceutical companies in conjunction with the US Government and the UN to fight bio terrorism. After the fall of Umbrella, their bio weapons have fallen in unscrupulous hands. These people have sold it to terrorists and even tested it in third world countries. Chris is in Africa to investigate one such incident.

The village of Kijuju is suspected of being targeted so Chris is dispatched to investigate. There you meet up with Sheva Alomar, another B.S.A.A agent. Almost as soon as you get control of your characters you realize something is amiss in this African village and it is no surprise when this investigation explodes into a full blown out military operation. Chris and Sheva are more than up to the task at hand.

Graphic wise RE5 is simply stunning, in fact I'd go as far as to call it the Crysis of consoles. Yes it is that good. The character models for Chris and Sheva are extremely well done. You can see even the smallest of details in their clothes and gear. The models also change visually to reflect what the characters are carrying and wearing. For example, put on a bulletproof vest and it will show on the character. The attention to detail on almost everything is incredible. The guns, the characters, the enemies, the environment, the lighting, the shadow, they're all amazing.

Sound, now this is where the game begins to fall a bit short. The voice acting is superb, and the guns have a realistic feel to them, but the musical score just wasn't there, at least not in the sense it was in the older games *more on this later*.

The Story is good, I'm not going to lie. It picks up right after RE4 and it makes a lot of references back to previous RE games, which is a nice touch, but might confuse players new to the series. This fact is upset by the game's clever usage of the History of Resident Evil file. Every time you need to load a new chapter, the game presents you with a bit of background information on RE in chronological order. My only complaint is that sometimes the game loads too fast to read all the info they give you. This file is unlocked after beating the game so don't sweat it too much if you miss a few lines here and there. Now, having beaten the previous games is not a requirement to be able to understand this game. However, I personally feel that in order to really appreciate it and judge it fairly you need to have a good knowledge of previous games, and the story provided by Capcom in the loading screens simply does not do it justice.

The game goes back to the beginning of basically everything, Umbrella, their viruses and some of the series more enigmatic villains. That said, it fails to even scratch the surface in my opinion. A lot of things get answered, and there are lots of reference back to previous games which is a cool touch, but many other questions aren't, new ones arise, and most disappointingly of all, some of the conclusions leave you asking "That's it?". The story is by no means bad, in fact it is very good, but don't go into this game expecting anything remotely close to MGS4's way of answering ALL of your questions and plot elements. You simply won't get that here.

Gameplay , this is the worst aspect of this game. If you strongly believe that there's no need to fix what isn't broken then read no further. That said, RE5 plays almost exactly like RE4. There are some minor changes here and there but the overall formula remains unchanged. There's co-op, which is basically forced on the player, so if you want to enjoy the game to its fullest you need to play with a friend. Sheva's AI is by no means bad, but she makes a lot of questionable decisions. She wastes ammunition, healing items, and later on becomes down right annoying and a hindrance. You're better off using her as a mule to carry all your ammo and empty weapons.

RE used to be a single player game through and through. Having someone with you at all times to watch your back takes away what little tension and paranoia there is. The game's atmosphere just absolutely fails to deliver that classic RE feel to the game, and it's not just because of Co-op. Classic RE atmosphere can best be described with REmake, a combination of excellent graphics AND music to create an atmosphere that reeks of uncertainty, fear, tension etc. Capcom had the graphics to do it, but chose not to. Remember those moments when you'd walk down a hallway and "things" would pop out of nowhere? That's absent here as well, any sort of jump out of your seat scare is gone. Now you are warned with a cut scene before anything that might be considered remotely dangerous attacks you.

There are some improvements made, such as getting rid of the ridiculous merchant from RE4, the huge weapon cases, and the inventory is now more streamlined and in real time. Using a healing item now makes your character take out a spray and spray green stuff all over healing him and his partner, which is a nice touch/improvement.

All in all RE5 feels like RE4 with co-op added on, which in all honesty does not warrant the long development time. This day in age you can't simply recycle old gameplay and expect to get a good score. The changes are so minor it is only a new game in the sense that the story is new, the graphics are better and the name is different. The series stopped being survival horror with part 4, and RE5 was a clean slate. They could have brought back the old RE feel while improving the flaws in those games. A game doesn't need an overly buff character, and lots and lots of co-op action to be a good game. Whatever Capcom tried to do with this game has already been done and implemented better than they did, which is just a shame because they've deviated so much from what made this series great. You have to ask, why didn't they stick to the core RE elements, the creepy atmosphere, the realistic placement of items i.e not off almost every infected corpse, the difficulty? If you like to be challenged (not by your AI partner's stupidity), i.e force to use your brain to survive and get to where you need to go, you'll be thoroughly disappointed. Even on the highest difficulty setting the game is still relatively easy.

This is a decent action game, and if you're a long time fan of the series you owe it to yourself to at least rent it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/09

Game Release: Resident Evil 5 (US, 03/13/09)