Scary or a bit non-dairy?That Resident Evil 5 has a lot to live up to goes without saying. Resi 4 was an unfettered masterpiece and a kick up the arse to a series that had comfortably shambled along like the decaying undead for far too long. Eschewing the static bitmap backgrounds and fixed angles, it also gave us the most intense and involving survival horror experience imaginable while upping the action quota by laying on the set-pieces thick and fast. Start playing Resi 5 and things initially look like they might follow suit. It may be superficially more of the same, but when that same is possibly the finest survival horror game ever made, then you're in for a treat, right?
Working for the BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) investigating a fresh outbreak of the Las Plagas parasite, Chris Redfield is back on the scene hooking up with local operative, Sheva Alomar. As such it's down to both of you to contain the virus and the hordes of raging infected who sprout lovely bio-organic crap from their mouths or neck stumps. It's standard stuff really, offering the perfect excuse to blast all comers into lumps of quivering meat.
[THUMB1]What immediately strikes you about the latest Resi is that it looks absolutely stunning. The fictional African town of Kijuju and its dilapidated shanty towns are incredibly well realised and the animation and behaviour of the native infected 'Majini' is genuinely unsettling. After a few hours of sustained play however, doubts start to creep in before the inevitable realisation that the latest Resident Evil is neither scary nor particularly daring or innovative hits you, putting a slight dampener on proceedings. Still utterly compelling and absorbing, Resi 5 caused this writer and a friend to play through the entire game in one uninterrupted 12 hour sitting.
The problem is not that the game fails to enthral, it simply flounders in delivering on its initial promise in supplying genuinely tense and memorable moments. With a painfully predictable twist and desperately ho-hum narrative, Resi 5 is also pretty weak in giving the player anything really significant in terms of revelations or surprises like you'd have hoped. Series antagonist Albert Wesker is transformed into a sneering, smug, plummy-accented pantomime villain, who not only irritatingly insists on calling Chris 'Cress', but also provides one of the most infuriating and obfuscated boss battles of all time. Like all annoying bosses, the key to defeating him becomes blindingly obvious once the penny drops, but until that moment you can expect to tear out a few clumps of hair. You'd have expected Wesker's return as the central villain to be an exciting, dramatic affair, but it's a damp squib that's exacerbated by his shitty sub-Matrix leather trenchcoat look and lame martial arts moves.
[THUMB2]Despite its narrative shortcomings however, it's hard not to love Resident Evil 5 regardless. Sure, it might be naïve and hugely insensitive in handling its racial imagery, igniting the hugely controversial racism allegations that have been levelled at the game, but we'll be damned if it isn't still a good, solid action title. And that's the problem right there. It's good but falls somewhat short of greatness, withering in the almighty shadow of its superior predecessor. Resident Evil 5 is just too precious, too reverent towards the formula established in Resi 4 to push the envelope in any way.
Sure, co-op is a major addition and a welcome one at that, but it just doesn't inject as much new lifeblood into the game as you'd expect it to. You'll play through, enjoy it immensely and perhaps revisit it once or twice, upgrade a few weapons and then move on. There's definitely a huge amount of bang for your buck here with The Mercenaries making a triumphant return boasting its very own co-op mode. As far as the value and wealth of content packed into Resi 5 is concerned, no one could complain that the game skimps on the extras. Some of the added goodies are worthwhile, most of them are pointless, but they'll keep you playing for hours on end anyway.
It's co-operative play that's the pivotal element in Resident Evil 5 and it's fantastically well implemented whether you're playing single-player with an AI partner or with a friend via online or local multiplayer. Split-screen mode is utterly hideous though, taking a leaf out of CoD: WaW's book and plonking bloody big L-shaped borders at opposite edges of the screen, removing a hefty chunk of the overall display. We have to ask, when other games like Gears 2, Left 4 Dead or Halo 3 provide full split-screen, why the hell does Resi 5 have to include this horrible concession? Anything below roughly 37 inches in screen size renders the local co-op mode virtually unplayable, which is a great shame when you consider that the game is built entirely around the co-op experience. Still, if you're lucky enough to own a big TV, this never proves to be a massive problem and won't mar your enjoyment of playing the game with a mate in the same room.
[THUMB3]Resident Evil 5 is undeniably one of the most visually accomplished games currently available, which makes it even more of a shame that it doesn't really manage to muster up a single real shock or scare. You'd think with such exemplary graphics, Capcom could have really gone to town stirring up some frighteningly grotesque mutations, but instead all we get are mounds of black spaghetti that sprout glowing orange meatballs. Granted, the Majini are pretty nasty and the Executioner and chainsaw wielding Hessian sack-head still conjure up the odd spell of panic, but there's nothing that'll ever enter your nightmares. Later levels where the game has Gears of War pretensions, pitting you against gun-toting Majini excel in draining the tension too, with a crappy cover mechanic accompanied by big button prompts, snapping you out of the atmosphere completely. Character movement and controls are pretty much identical to those featured in Resident Evil 4 too, so there's still no ability to strafe or move while aiming. For purists like myself, this isn't really an issue since it wouldn't be a Resi game without the classic stop and aim gameplay, but it just doesn't gel with the more action-oriented approach that Capcom are intent on pushing. Instances where you're forced to fight distant enemies while using cover simply don't work.
For followers of the series (this does include myself), there are some familiar monsters to rediscover and confront once again under different conditions, which succeed in delivering some decent fan service. Yet there's no escaping the fact Resident Evil 5 doesn't quite live up to expectation. After constant release date slippages and delays, what we're left with is a fantastic looking action game set in an evocative environment with an unsatisfying storyline and slightly creaky gameplay. You need only take a look at Dead Space to see what Resident Evil 5 could have been. It's ironic that EA's game, which borrowed so liberally from Resident Evil 4, now has lessons of its own to teach its successor. Nevertheless, Resident Evil 5 is worth playing and is immensely enjoyable while it lasts. Just don't expect to be blown away. When the biggest surprise is realising that it's getting more and more difficult to class Resident Evil as a survival horror game, you know that something's not quite right.
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#1 - Richie - on 26/03/2009 at 00:57 wrote:
#2 - Trip SkyWay - on 26/03/2009 at 04:32 wrote:
#3 - HairyArse - on 26/03/2009 at 08:49 wrote:
:D