Resident Evil 5

"Though I pray this is not indicative of the future of the franchise, I can't deny that RE5's an extremely fun game"

Background: I have to say, this was not a game I approached with an open mind. My initial excitement turned to complete anger as more and more footage was released showing that Resident Evil 5 would be abandoning almost all that this series had become known for. Simply put, this is no longer a survival horror game, but a suspenseful action game that controls like the past installment, Resident Evil 4, but is otherwise nothing like it, or any other installment for that matter. The game follows an almost level-to-level structure, with cutscenes taking you to the next area but little traveling or exploring yourself. Areas are fairly linear, and typewriters? Save rooms with the soothing music? Mansions/towns/villages with dark, foreboding visuals and thunder? All gone. Instead, Resident Evil 5 takes place mostly in broad daylight, with an auto-save feature, and huge emphasis on non-stop action and co-op play. What!?!?! Sounds like a total disgrace to us long-time fans but don't be so quick to write off Resident Evil 5, because despite my initial misgivings, I stuck with it and the game turned out to be an extremely fun and intense action experience, complete with some of the series' best boss battles, most terrifying monsters, highest production value, and the story...no Resident Evil fan will want to miss this.

Story: Taking place after the events of Resident Evil 4, (and 10 years after the Mansion Incident) Resident Evil 5 stars Chris Redfield, whose now part of an organization called the BSAA. They hunt down biological weaponry, especially in the wake of Umbrella's closing, which has resulted in much of their bioweaponry ending up on the black market. After receiving information that people in a fictional African country are exhibiting similar symptoms as to those detailed in the "Kennedy Report," Chris heads down to Africa to meet up with a new character, Sheva Alomar, a BSAA agent from the African branch. Together they hunt down a dealer believed to be responsible for the disaster. Things turn sour immediately, as they're locked into a village area with hostile locals who immediately attack. After escaping, Chris and Sheva begin to proceed through Africa following the dealer's trail. The country's hostile inhabitants attack them constantly throughout, and as they learn more information, Chris realizes that there's more to this than simple terrorism and that this is something that goes far back into his past.

What makes this story so great for any Resident Evil fan is that this is pretty much...the end of an era. Resident Evil 5 pretty much closes off the series as we've known it, wrapping up everything from Resident Evil 1 in 1996 until now. Characters from part 1 are brought back, and we're taken to Africa, to the origin of this virus that started this all. I don't even want to go into any more detail than that but just know that this story is brought to life with some of the most impressive cinematics I've ever seen. Directed with an extreme amount of intensity and high production, they're all very compelling and memorable. There's an incredible fight scene here that makes Code Veronica X really feel like another lifetime ago, it's just amazing how far graphics and this series' ambitions have progressed. Cinematics are much more frequent than in other games in the series and they're so expertly directed that the story ends up being the game's real highlight. True, not every bit of writing is great, and there's a plot twist that most will see coming, but what we have here is an intense, dramatic, and very well-presented storyline that will make anyone whose stuck with the series for all these years happy.

Gameplay: One thing that's immediately apparent is that Resident Evil 5 controls a lot like part 4, but that's about where the similarities end. Gameplay-wise it's an entirely different experience. Gone is most of the exploration and puzzle-solving, gone is the survival horror atmosphere. In fact, this is pretty much a total action game, where enemies attack your characters nearly constantly. Rather than the exploring and traveling and backtracking you do in other games in the series, Resident Evil 5 moves you from location to location with cutscenes, so in that sense it's nearly a “level-to-level” game. In between chapters and whenever you die, you're taken to a store, where you can buy guns and first aid spray, as well as re-organizing your inventories. Taking somewhat of a step back from Resident Evil 4's perfect inventory system, RE5 moves back to more of a “slot” system, with item management between you and the other character becoming pretty important. Resident Evil 5's other big departure is to feature co-op play, either via splitscreen or online. Much of the game is designed around this feature, and several events will feature the characters splitting up for short periods of time, with one watching the others' back while they operate a lever or something. Despite what you might originally think, this doesn't seem like a tacked on feature, and was pretty clearly a big focus in RE5's development. I ended up playing on single-player, since I tend to like my survival horror games without my friends talking through them, though I definitely want to play through it again with a friend on splitscreen, as that looks like it'd be a blast. But yeah, my first time through was on single-player, and luckily the AI that controls Sheva in this mode is pretty competent overall. Not necessarily perfect, (she definitely wastes herbs and other healing items, so be sure to keep those away from her,) but overall she does a great job keeping up, and at least the way I used her, (she used the rifle and machine gun, I kept the shotgun and handgun for myself) she was very good at shooting enemies and providing me backup.

With co-op or without, however, the game's atmosphere is very different from part 4's. Aside from the nearly endless daylight, the amount of enemies attacking you at once has been increased dramatically. At times you're surrounded to the point where you can barely see the area you're in. It's this aspect that dramatically ratchets up Resident Evil 5's intensity. This game can get intense, especially when you're in a confined area and a person with a chainsaw's chasing after you and can be coming from anywhere. These monsters, by the way, are some of the most epic the series has ever featured, with some of the biggest (and most amazingly fun) boss encounters, with by far the scariest Lickers of the series. There's one terrifying moment towards the end of the game where you end up being surrounded by them in near darkness and it's INTENSE. The game could have used more times like this, and it ends up being its biggest problem. Because as incredibly fun the game is for almost its entirely, no matter how epic it is and how great these enemies and bosses are, it's just no longer survival horror, it's an action game. Towards the end of the game the Infected are even given guns, and you get in shootouts with them, along with a covering system. (This ends up being pretty tedious, as RE5's small laser targeting system is simply not built for this type of gameplay, and it made parts of the final two chapters a bit of an annoyance.) Series trademarks are totally absent (I really miss the save rooms and their music, where you'd simply take a break from the tension and horror, no matter how brief the escape). So essentially…though I loved Resident Evil 4, I expressed concern in my review that the series would become too involved in its action and not enough in its horror….and that's exactly what happens with RE5.

In fact, from your partner constantly being there and providing you backup, to Chris's very frequent communication to HQ, to no shortage of helicopters and bombs showing up to help Chris and Sheva escape…. any sort of feeling of isolation and horror is totally removed. (Except for those damn creepy moments in a laboratory in Chapter 5, which just isn't enough.)

Plus, the inventory system's a huge step back from RE4's. While it's now handled in real time, which is entertaining and immersive, it's unfortunately a return to the “not being able to pick up a red herb, even though you simply want to combine it with your green one, because your inventory's full,” style of inventory management. Pretty annoying. You do have plenty of item slots between the two of you but these become barely enough towards the end of the game.

Yet, I have to give this game a recommendation because Resident Evil 5, for what it is, is damn good at what it sets out to do. The action's amazingly intense and fun, the story's a huge driving factor and it's very well-told, and some of these bosses are easily among the most epic and fun I've encountered. It's not too short of a game (though still only half the length of Resident Evil 4,) but I completed it in only a couple sittings, I just couldn't stop playing.


Visuals and Audio: The graphics are absolutely incredible. This is one of the best-looking games I've ever seen and everything, from the amazing facial expressions in cutscenes to the great use of lighting effects and extremely beautiful environments combine to create an awe-inspiring visual experience. You visit another world when you play Resident Evil 5; great job, Capcom. And no framerate drops to speak of, despite all the action and enemies onscreen at once.

The voice acting's solid, and while some performances are a bit iffy, this is yet another aspect where this series has come such a long way since its beginning. The main characters all sound great, (better than ever, in fact,) and Sheva's voice actress does a nice job, as well.

Music's the only area where Resident Evil 5 drastically lags behind other RE games. It's either overblown action music or no music at all here, again, nothing even resembling horror and way over-the-top during boss fights.

Overall: Resident Evil 5 managed to win me over despite my total hatred for the game before playing it, which is pretty rare. I definitely don't have a Resident Evil game here as far as gameplay goes, but the storyline's everything a Resident Evil fan could ask for and it's hard to argue with such amazing gameplay; I was having a blast almost the entire time through it. I really hope this isn't the future for the franchise; Capcom's promised a series reboot if there's a Resident Evil 6, and I really, REALLY hope the series moves in a more horror-oriented direction, but that said, this is a GREAT game and as long as Resident fans don't go into this expecting the old style of gameplay, they'll get over their initial disappointment and enjoy what turns out to be a fantastic action game. As far as the definitive survival horror experience, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition remains that, but RE5's a suitable action game if a disappointing follow-up, and I'm excited to see this series with a fresh start in hopefully a much more scary setting.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/09

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