Resident Evil 5 - 7/10

For those who have only known Halo, Resident Evil has been a survival horror series that centered around many questionable plot items. Mutating zombie viruses, omnious mansions, evil corporations oh how the plot devices seem to umm... I'm sure some people enjoyed them; Lets keep it at that. My point was that the Resident Evil series is generally thought of as a survival horror. Not the survival horror where you have a chainsaw and wish to decapitate every living being that breathes (glares at dead space), but rather, where an psychotic zombie mutant has a chainsaw and wants to slice you in half.

There is something attractive about the idea of the boogyman walking around your house with your only hope being to hide or run as fast as you can. I thought to myself while playing through this game that resident evil 5 forgot this as I hunted down and tried kill ever form of life (or undeath) I found in the level. Of course your even rewarded with extra trinkets you can sell.

I guess I have covered horror, but what about survival? In previous survival horror games, players have been forced to solve puzzles, obtain keys kill the boss with limited amunitions and supplies. The limited resources keep the survival feeling alive; Knowing sometimes you have to run from grotesque creature that has acidic bile for blood and chainsaws for arms that has ever so suddenly appeared beside you inspiring violins screeching and... got a bit carried away, but there are devices used to make the player feel like its a struggle to survive. Selling amunition and health kits is not one of them (yes, you get sold amunition later in this game). This makes Resident Evil 5 feel alot like a action shooter.

The real puzzle they seem to have employed/kept is the inability of our protaginists to multitask. Although I enjoyed the odd feature that left Chris, a man with a torse the size of a truck unable to walk and shoot/reload at the same time. This did make me fear the infamous headsack, chainsaw fiend as his rain of terror is apon those who stand still beside him for more then 5 or 6 seconds.

And while the enemies can seem big, deadly and sometimes oddly designed; nothing deduces from the fact that it is usually easier to just kill everyone than frantically running away from the hideous beast that is the sack-headed chainsaw man. So far there has only been 1 enemy I have let live (The fat executionor, and this was due to ammunition limitations of the second level). there is no fear of being hurt due to the ability to buy health kits that restore you and your partners health in its entirity (and they are cheap too).

That being said the partner system in this game is what makes it so unbelievable fun. You really have to play this game online with a friend or else you wiill have an AI parter wasting all your healing items at teh slightest sign of trouble. But once you do have a partner its great fun fighting through the zombie horde.

The enemies although dumb stupid and at some points plain annoying seem to have great physics effects governing how far they will fly when met with the end of a shotgun barrel. Which is the most rewarding experience in the game since the puzzles are either riduculously obvious and stick out like a poor thumb or non existant.

Weapons wise you have your collection of the usual suspects none of which matter because mid game all you need is a rifle, shotgun and the grenade launcher which SELLS ammunition at the shop.

Oh yes the shop; Resident Evil 5 employs a shop style inter level activity where you stock up and healing potions, buy explosives and upgrade your weapons. After chapter 1 my and my friend had such a powerfull loadout that we felt bad and often resulted to meleeing the small packs of enemies for a challenge.

Oh yeah... there are quick time events that come out of nowhere, vehicle rail sections and vehicle driving sections, (and a cover system... damn this sounds like gears of war) all of which are complete mood killers. And for the true Gears of War fans, an orbital laser.

The great mood enhancer is the flawless graphics and cutscenes RE5 employs. Of course this is only from a technical level because what happens during each cutscene was long, boring, pointless and cliche with Chris feeling compelled to whigne and sob about his ex partner.

I will end on this: They haven't actually created a game here. The developers have taken every single element of the popular 3rd person action shooters and added in characters who can't multitask.

To enjoy this game in its entirity you really have to play it with another human ( a friend possibly ). And this is the reason it might not launch as big as it should. Fanboys seem to have very few friends. Gameplay is around 10 hours.

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blu3man 14/03/2009

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