Resident Evil 5

"Just the two of us..."

Well, I have finally finished Resident Evil 5 with my friend, and to be quite honest with you, I can't see what the big deal is. I mean yea, it's a good game, and it definitely is one of the prettier games out there, but there are things about the game that take away from the experience and to me shows an even further leave from the original Resident Evil formula. Good or bad thing? Well let's see. On to the review.

Graphics 9/10

As I said in the paragraph above, the game looks beautiful. Everything seams along fluidly and clean, and the character models for everyone are incredibly detailed. The environments look great as well. It's a very high 9, but I can't exactly grant it a ten because there are certain areas where the graphics begin to dull out, namely the cavern based areas, but it doesn't take away from the fact that RE5 is one of the better looking games out there.

Sound 7/10

Pretty mediocre is the best way I can describe it. The guns sound as they should, the voice work is decent, the monsters sound ferocious enough, but when it comes to music is when I had no choice but to dock the score down. The music is very forgettable. It almost trickles out to borderline background noise. I am not saying a game has to have a dynamic soundtrack to distinguish itself, but what I am saying is that the soundtrack should have enough "oomph" to it to distinguish itself from boring background noise.

Story 7/10

I am just going to be upfront with this next point and say that Resident Evil is notorious for having a sort of convoluted, full-of-itself story. There are so many plotholes spread out throughout the entirety of the series that the entire Resident Evil story would need to be published in a large book so as to be told "coherently." I will at least applaud them for trying to fill a few plot holes with this story though, even if by doing so, they in turn made a fault and ended up making a few more.

The basic premise of the story without giving too much away is that you are Chris Redfield, and you are in Africa to investigate some bad happenings of the biological weapons variety along with your sidekick Sheva. Vague enough for you? I really can't elaborate further than that cause then I would have to get into the actual meat of the story. That's the basic gist of it though. It does a good job for providing a backing for your actions, but unless you are a diehard RE fan than chances are you won't really give a crap.

Controls 8/10

Controls take a little while of getting used to. However, once you get the hang of them, you will find that they work good enough for you to control your character properly. They don't get in the way often, so that's a plus. It's just one of those gradual learning curves to getting them down. Not much else to say about it. I gave controls an 8 though because character control is still very stiff and clunky, but that's kind of been a staple for the entire RE franchise, so I will let it slide.

Gameplay 7/10

I hope you have a friend or Xbox live. If you don't, you might as well dock the score down a couple more points if you are tackling this alone. Think of Sheva as Ashley 2.0, but now instead of making herself useful like Ashley did by getting lost as a dumb AI should do, she decides that she wants to fight too. The issues begin when you notice that she will NEVER fire any other weapon besides her pistol unless that pistol is completely out of ammo. Unless you take her pistol away, she will never fire that secondary weapon. She also wastes way too much healing items. You would honestly be benefiting yourself more by dumping all your spare ammo and crap you don't want on her and use her as an extra 9 slots for your measly little excuse for an inventory screen.

I could rant on and on about how horrendous the AI is for Sheva, but the whole aim of this game was the co-op thing. So I highly suggest if you amuse the idea of playing this game that you have a buddy wanting to play with you. Otherwise? Don't even bother.

With that said, now I am going to shift the view into two human players playing the game, and the result?

It's forced. That's the best way I can describe it. "strategy" can only get you so far when there are only a few paths that deviate from the place you have to go. Nearly 90% of these paths are dead ends, so really it's just an excuse to split up and get random treasures here and there. The areas where both of you have to activate a certain part of the level to continue is just ridiculous. Capcom only threw those in to give an excuse that you "need" each other to work together to continue on. It's basically an elaborate invisible wall technique like co-op games of old. Remember side scrolling beat em ups from the old Nintendo days where if a "GO -->" symbol appeared, and you walked in the direction while your friend lagged behind, the game would not progress until you two met up? Basically the same thing.

The issue with all of that is of course that the game is built around a co-op aspect, but it never gets deep with it. It literally feels like a gimmick you are forced to endure, and that's a problem because when a game is based around a co-op aspect? You want a feeling that you need each other to survive, and that's hardly the case with this game because partnership is sacrificed and in it's place is basically just two people with guns. Oh sure, Capcom tried to find a way around this by making it that if your partner is dying, you have to press B to resuscitate them, but that's basically the extent of it and as a result of such an action makes the game even easier than before.

But is it fun? On a very basic level. It's fun in the sense that you don't have to watch your friend play the game, you can play alongside him now. No more passing the controller to play RE, now you both can play. In RE5's defense, it will keep you amused if you have a friend who is willing to run through it with you. The issue is that it basically has a feeling of going through the motions. There is SOME variety in the missions, but it basically feels the same throughout the majority of the game, and that's fine, because it works on a basic level.

The main problem with the gameplay of RE5 though is that it really took away what little atmosphere the game had by introducing another player. RE4 was fine with it's secondary character; she was a part of the story, but she was hardly ever around enough, so it didn't take away from the atmosphere too much. There is no suspense in RE5. There is no eeriness in RE5. There is nothing that made RE what it was in the first place present in RE5. RE5 is just an action game, but a decent one relying heavily on a gimmick. Nothing more.

Replayability 7/10

The game has plenty of things to do. Mercenaries is back, and that has always been a fun minigame. There are also 30 medals to find throughout the game. Resident Evil 5 also takes about an average of 10-12 hours to clear on the first playthrough, and there are many many unlockables to get. In terms of content, the game does not slack, and there has been word of downloadable content in the future.

Buy or Rent?

It's definitely worth a rental. I say rental because if you have a friend and a few days set aside, you both can run through it and clear it no problem. From there it is up to you whether or not you care enough to play it again and again to unlock the unlockables. That would take a while, and assuming how much you liked the game when you rented it, I would say buy in that case. But stick with a rental at first.

Closing Statements

RE5 is a pretty game, but with mediocre gameplay. It's nothing that impressive or groundbreaking for that matter. The fact the game is forced co-op ends up being the big issue here, as exploration is sacrificed or rather, cut down, to make room for shallow branching areas that give the illusion of exploration but are far from. However, RE5 is not a bad game per say, it's just mediocre. It does have nice things about it, and it does try to introduce new things, but it still feels bland. However, it's good enough to at least play through on a weekend with a good bud.

Score

45/60=7.5.

Rounded up to 8.

Resident Evil 5 Scores an 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/09

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