Dental care isn't good in Africa.
Now before I get into the meat of this, I'd like to say that the golden ages of Resident Evil have certainly gone and past. No more are the horror-elements, intense ammo conservation, cinematic camera angles down hallways, and just all those things that made it what it was. Ever since the more action-oriented Resident Evil 4 hit shelves, it became an instant success. No doubt, Capcom will follow the action road valiantly now and while I'm sad about it, I'll stick it for the ride; Because at the end of the day, Resident Evil 5 was an amazing, and most importantly fun experience; Still is too!
The story set up here is very bold and full. Since the fall of Umbrella (the evil zombie-making dudes of long ago) their bio-organic weapons such as viruses and monsters have fallen to the hands of the black market and terrorists. Chris Redfield (a long time protagonist of the series) is now a member of the BSAA, an organization dedicated to fighting bio-weapon threats all over the globe. Today, he is coming to Kijuju, Africa. Think of the movie Black Hawk Down and you've got a good idea of your surroundings. Here he is greeted by an African BSAA member by the name of Sheva Alomar. She is here to make his time as an American in Africa easier, and she will now serve the purpose of being your co-op and/or AI partner through the game. Then suddenly, after this greeting the game throws a curveball into the story that will throw any long-standing Resident Evil fan off balance. Chris flashes back to a gravestone of one Jill Valentine, another long-standing protagonist. "Whoah, what? When did this happen?" you may ask. This is how the story will set you up and no doubt the rest of the story is just as bold in it's presentation and plot points, although much of it is shamefully Hollywood and predictable.
How you will move through the game world and survive is where the real fun comes in. Most of the time your gameplay will consist of being rushed upon by hordes of angry people with everyday weapons, sometimes even a long-range weapon. These people are called Majini, and they are hunting you down because they are irreversibly infected with a parasite known as Las Plagas, which was featured in RE4, though here it is even more volatile. Using your guns, and a slew of very fun satisfying melee moves, you are to survive this ordeal by any means necessary. Usually that means killing the people running at you with hatchets. All of this is presented in-game with a close-following over the shoulder camera save for special cinematics.
Now the controls are what normally turns people off. Resident Evil 5 has still paid respects to it's older brethren by keeping intact many of it's old staples, though it has taken the liberty of giving the player the ability to side-strafe, making movement much easier and smoother. What normally turns people off the game is that, in order to attack, you must aim. And when you do aim, you stand still. You must stand still to shoot and most people HATE that you can't run and shoot at the same time. What they don't understand is that this system has been in Resident Evil since the very beginning, and it forces the player to think a little more strategically, make quicker and accurate shots, and it also prevents you from just backing away while gunning down the hordes with ease. So you stand still to shoot at the enemies. Your other method of attack is Melee. You can either use your knife,
which is mapped to the LB button and doesn't take up space, or you can shoot your enemy in specific spots to open up an opportunity to hit them. For example, Chris can shoot an enemy in the leg, and while they're stunned it is an opening to get close, and perform an Uppercut. This will damage (and possibly kill) the enemy while saving ammo and knocking other enemies in the immediate vicinity onto their asses. Melee is a must, and yknow what? It's just plain fun to shoot a dude in the forehead, and then punch him in the face. Add this together with the fact that you can chain together attacks with your partner, and overall you have a unique, and well-performing combat system.
So that's how you fight. But where you put these weapons brings in another thing that outsiders to the Resident Evil franchise hate. Before each mission, you have a giant inventory you can stuff anything you want inside, but in-game the same doesn't apply. You and your partner have a 3x3 inventory totalling 9 spaces per person. Each item takes up one of these spaces, while things like ammo will stack into one slot. A lot of the older Resident Evils did this same type of system, and I can see where other players are coming from. An AK-74 (seriously) will take up the same amount of space as a plant or 50 handgun bullets. But this simplicity helps to make organization much easier, and the limited space does have to make you THINK of what items to take with you and what to leave behind. I rather like the nine-space system. You can also request any item from your partner (except for weapons. It's to prevent new players from getting rocket launchers) or give them something they'd need. To top it off, anything you place in the up, left, right and bottom squares of your inventory will be mapped to your directional buttons for easy access so it's smart to have three weapons, and a healing item on those particular slots.
Even more controls come in the form of partner actions and commands. You can interact with your partner in a variety of ways. From simply saying "Thanks", telling them to "Go" or punching an enemy off their back as well as saving them from the brink of death, you and your partner's cooperation is needed, and the AI will always listen. I found the AI partner to be just fine, great even. She (or he) will never use healing items if it isn't a reasonable time, she's more accurate than a beam of light, and will even hand over ammo of her own free will should you be running low. And in the heat of battle, you can order her into Attack mode which causes her to stray away from you and use more powerful guns. If you keep her in Cover mode, she'll stick close, and continue using her pistol. Remember that this is vital. The only problems the AI may have is that sometimes they appear to be fumbling around the map a little, she may not react to immediate dangers towards you unless you yell for help, and not to mention she occasionally makes some odd choices. But nonetheless, Capcom has a history of making terrible AI and this is an exception to that.
Finally, and my last point I'll voice on the gameplay because this is becoming a long review, is that of quicktime events. Resident Evil 4 has them in abundance, to the point it became a natural reflex to PRESS X TO NOT DIE. However, here RE5 can fall flat. It does still have quick-time events, but almost all of them come in the form of offensive actions like kicking or punching... or stomping. There's next to zero quick-reaction life saving ones, so when they do happen you're suddenly unprepared and you find yourself having to restart because of being caught off by one of the few life-saving QTE's.
As it is obvious so far, I'm highly fond of the gameplay. How unique it is, and that it takes more thought than just "point your guns at the people and shoot". But one of Resident Evil 5's strong points comes in the visuals. Resident Evil has always been on the cutting edge of graphic technology, and while I'm not one to judge a game based on this sort of thing, here it is nothing short of absolutely amazing. Textures are smooth, believable. The houses are real, enemies move realistically, your characters animations seem fluid and satisfying just to watch, and all the guns you have at your disposal are oh so purdy. Top wrap it all up you'll be travelling through wasteland villages, marshes, oil fields and even ancient ruins, all of which are fantas
tically done. It's just a full treat for the eyes, topping most any game of this generation, and it'll probably hold it's own even in the next. Visually, the only thing I might complain about is a couple direction choices. One is the shaky camera in action-heavy cinematics. I've never been a fan of shaky cameras and they're not necessary for a good scene as far as I'm concerned. The other complaint is that Chris and Sheva are pointing their guns at people in nearly every cutscene. It'd give the characters a less bland look if they'd let their arms down for a second, especially since their tiny pistols won't do fuck-all to the mass of giant bosses they'll be fighting throughout the game.
Since that was visuals quickly wrapped up, let's move onto sound. Soundwise, this game isn't so strong in. The best of it is that the voice acting is absolute top-quality, believable and some of the characters you'd just die to hear talk more and more. But in other areas, this isn't so. The music score is - while pleasing - not quite as amazing at the game seems to think it is; But it no doubt does the work. The other aspect of sound that may fall flat are some of your guns. While most of them sound, and even feel right, a couple of them sound like throwing a pillow onto a pond, an unsatisfying grind of dust and weak metal. However these weapons are far and few between thankfully, as weapons like the M3 shotgun sound hard, and angry. So overall, the sound is well done and does the work properly, though falls on a dead note in some areas.
And then, after you're done the game, you still need stuff to do right? Well the game is high and mighty in this regard. After completing the game, you unlock the ever so important Mercenaries Mode. This is a timed score-attack mode where you gather time, and must kill as many enemies in rapid succession as you can for high combo counts, and directly related high scores. There is eight stages to play from, most of which are altered versions of maps found in the main campaign, and each stage pits you up against different mobs, and mini-bosses to fight, all of which are worth different point values of course. The real fun part? If you didn't like your partner, this is the only mode where you can go full on solo, and it's a different experience to be a one-man ass-kicking juggernaut punching machine. Or you can go Duo mode. The only problem here is that you cannot bring an AI partner in here, so offline players are almost left in the dust... almost. Thankfully the game has a fully-featured split-screen for both it's story and Mercenaries. So train your parakeet to use joysticks or something. Finally for mercenaries, you can unlock up to 10 different characters to choose from. Each of which has a different item and weapon loadout (no you cannot take your main story weapons in here) but for the most part you can apply similar strategies to each of them. Problematically, there is some balancing issues between characters, but since there is no player versus player you'll find here it ain't a big deal. Mercenaries is an excellent mode that extends the game length by days even.
The game has many, many more things to strive for and unlock. An extra couple of costumes you can get for finding hidden emblems throughout the main story, small figurines of all the characters and enemies in the game for you to look at and admire, and special guns to unlock. One of which is a wonderfully-fun triple-barreled shotgun called the Hydra. Oh yes. However, the only unlockable here I won't agree with, is Infinite Ammo. You can unlock this for nearly all your guns and while it is a nice novelty to entertain yourself with, it becomes old and drab because you limit yourself of many of the games doable actions, especially partner communication. It wouldn't be such a problem but, nearly all online co-op games you go into will have infinite ammo turned on. It irritates me to no end and I find it boring.
FINAL SAY:
Resident Evil 5 followed up on the last Resident Evil game fluently, and rather than trying to stay relevant to horror it simply built itself around fun. While this can be definitely a bad thing, Resident Evil 5 is nothing short of an awesome, amazing and wonderful experience that can be sunk into with weeks worth of play hours. So go get yourself a copy, and start mauling angry parasitic villagers.
The story set up here is very bold and full. Since the fall of Umbrella (the evil zombie-making dudes of long ago) their bio-organic weapons such as viruses and monsters have fallen to the hands of the black market and terrorists. Chris Redfield (a long time protagonist of the series) is now a member of the BSAA, an organization dedicated to fighting bio-weapon threats all over the globe. Today, he is coming to Kijuju, Africa. Think of the movie Black Hawk Down and you've got a good idea of your surroundings. Here he is greeted by an African BSAA member by the name of Sheva Alomar. She is here to make his time as an American in Africa easier, and she will now serve the purpose of being your co-op and/or AI partner through the game. Then suddenly, after this greeting the game throws a curveball into the story that will throw any long-standing Resident Evil fan off balance. Chris flashes back to a gravestone of one Jill Valentine, another long-standing protagonist. "Whoah, what? When did this happen?" you may ask. This is how the story will set you up and no doubt the rest of the story is just as bold in it's presentation and plot points, although much of it is shamefully Hollywood and predictable.
How you will move through the game world and survive is where the real fun comes in. Most of the time your gameplay will consist of being rushed upon by hordes of angry people with everyday weapons, sometimes even a long-range weapon. These people are called Majini, and they are hunting you down because they are irreversibly infected with a parasite known as Las Plagas, which was featured in RE4, though here it is even more volatile. Using your guns, and a slew of very fun satisfying melee moves, you are to survive this ordeal by any means necessary. Usually that means killing the people running at you with hatchets. All of this is presented in-game with a close-following over the shoulder camera save for special cinematics.
Now the controls are what normally turns people off. Resident Evil 5 has still paid respects to it's older brethren by keeping intact many of it's old staples, though it has taken the liberty of giving the player the ability to side-strafe, making movement much easier and smoother. What normally turns people off the game is that, in order to attack, you must aim. And when you do aim, you stand still. You must stand still to shoot and most people HATE that you can't run and shoot at the same time. What they don't understand is that this system has been in Resident Evil since the very beginning, and it forces the player to think a little more strategically, make quicker and accurate shots, and it also prevents you from just backing away while gunning down the hordes with ease. So you stand still to shoot at the enemies. Your other method of attack is Melee. You can either use your knife,
which is mapped to the LB button and doesn't take up space, or you can shoot your enemy in specific spots to open up an opportunity to hit them. For example, Chris can shoot an enemy in the leg, and while they're stunned it is an opening to get close, and perform an Uppercut. This will damage (and possibly kill) the enemy while saving ammo and knocking other enemies in the immediate vicinity onto their asses. Melee is a must, and yknow what? It's just plain fun to shoot a dude in the forehead, and then punch him in the face. Add this together with the fact that you can chain together attacks with your partner, and overall you have a unique, and well-performing combat system.So that's how you fight. But where you put these weapons brings in another thing that outsiders to the Resident Evil franchise hate. Before each mission, you have a giant inventory you can stuff anything you want inside, but in-game the same doesn't apply. You and your partner have a 3x3 inventory totalling 9 spaces per person. Each item takes up one of these spaces, while things like ammo will stack into one slot. A lot of the older Resident Evils did this same type of system, and I can see where other players are coming from. An AK-74 (seriously) will take up the same amount of space as a plant or 50 handgun bullets. But this simplicity helps to make organization much easier, and the limited space does have to make you THINK of what items to take with you and what to leave behind. I rather like the nine-space system. You can also request any item from your partner (except for weapons. It's to prevent new players from getting rocket launchers) or give them something they'd need. To top it off, anything you place in the up, left, right and bottom squares of your inventory will be mapped to your directional buttons for easy access so it's smart to have three weapons, and a healing item on those particular slots.
Even more controls come in the form of partner actions and commands. You can interact with your partner in a variety of ways. From simply saying "Thanks", telling them to "Go" or punching an enemy off their back as well as saving them from the brink of death, you and your partner's cooperation is needed, and the AI will always listen. I found the AI partner to be just fine, great even. She (or he) will never use healing items if it isn't a reasonable time, she's more accurate than a beam of light, and will even hand over ammo of her own free will should you be running low. And in the heat of battle, you can order her into Attack mode which causes her to stray away from you and use more powerful guns. If you keep her in Cover mode, she'll stick close, and continue using her pistol. Remember that this is vital. The only problems the AI may have is that sometimes they appear to be fumbling around the map a little, she may not react to immediate dangers towards you unless you yell for help, and not to mention she occasionally makes some odd choices. But nonetheless, Capcom has a history of making terrible AI and this is an exception to that.Finally, and my last point I'll voice on the gameplay because this is becoming a long review, is that of quicktime events. Resident Evil 4 has them in abundance, to the point it became a natural reflex to PRESS X TO NOT DIE. However, here RE5 can fall flat. It does still have quick-time events, but almost all of them come in the form of offensive actions like kicking or punching... or stomping. There's next to zero quick-reaction life saving ones, so when they do happen you're suddenly unprepared and you find yourself having to restart because of being caught off by one of the few life-saving QTE's.
As it is obvious so far, I'm highly fond of the gameplay. How unique it is, and that it takes more thought than just "point your guns at the people and shoot". But one of Resident Evil 5's strong points comes in the visuals. Resident Evil has always been on the cutting edge of graphic technology, and while I'm not one to judge a game based on this sort of thing, here it is nothing short of absolutely amazing. Textures are smooth, believable. The houses are real, enemies move realistically, your characters animations seem fluid and satisfying just to watch, and all the guns you have at your disposal are oh so purdy. Top wrap it all up you'll be travelling through wasteland villages, marshes, oil fields and even ancient ruins, all of which are fantas
tically done. It's just a full treat for the eyes, topping most any game of this generation, and it'll probably hold it's own even in the next. Visually, the only thing I might complain about is a couple direction choices. One is the shaky camera in action-heavy cinematics. I've never been a fan of shaky cameras and they're not necessary for a good scene as far as I'm concerned. The other complaint is that Chris and Sheva are pointing their guns at people in nearly every cutscene. It'd give the characters a less bland look if they'd let their arms down for a second, especially since their tiny pistols won't do fuck-all to the mass of giant bosses they'll be fighting throughout the game.Since that was visuals quickly wrapped up, let's move onto sound. Soundwise, this game isn't so strong in. The best of it is that the voice acting is absolute top-quality, believable and some of the characters you'd just die to hear talk more and more. But in other areas, this isn't so. The music score is - while pleasing - not quite as amazing at the game seems to think it is; But it no doubt does the work. The other aspect of sound that may fall flat are some of your guns. While most of them sound, and even feel right, a couple of them sound like throwing a pillow onto a pond, an unsatisfying grind of dust and weak metal. However these weapons are far and few between thankfully, as weapons like the M3 shotgun sound hard, and angry. So overall, the sound is well done and does the work properly, though falls on a dead note in some areas.
And then, after you're done the game, you still need stuff to do right? Well the game is high and mighty in this regard. After completing the game, you unlock the ever so important Mercenaries Mode. This is a timed score-attack mode where you gather time, and must kill as many enemies in rapid succession as you can for high combo counts, and directly related high scores. There is eight stages to play from, most of which are altered versions of maps found in the main campaign, and each stage pits you up against different mobs, and mini-bosses to fight, all of which are worth different point values of course. The real fun part? If you didn't like your partner, this is the only mode where you can go full on solo, and it's a different experience to be a one-man ass-kicking juggernaut punching machine. Or you can go Duo mode. The only problem here is that you cannot bring an AI partner in here, so offline players are almost left in the dust... almost. Thankfully the game has a fully-featured split-screen for both it's story and Mercenaries. So train your parakeet to use joysticks or something. Finally for mercenaries, you can unlock up to 10 different characters to choose from. Each of which has a different item and weapon loadout (no you cannot take your main story weapons in here) but for the most part you can apply similar strategies to each of them. Problematically, there is some balancing issues between characters, but since there is no player versus player you'll find here it ain't a big deal. Mercenaries is an excellent mode that extends the game length by days even.
The game has many, many more things to strive for and unlock. An extra couple of costumes you can get for finding hidden emblems throughout the main story, small figurines of all the characters and enemies in the game for you to look at and admire, and special guns to unlock. One of which is a wonderfully-fun triple-barreled shotgun called the Hydra. Oh yes. However, the only unlockable here I won't agree with, is Infinite Ammo. You can unlock this for nearly all your guns and while it is a nice novelty to entertain yourself with, it becomes old and drab because you limit yourself of many of the games doable actions, especially partner communication. It wouldn't be such a problem but, nearly all online co-op games you go into will have infinite ammo turned on. It irritates me to no end and I find it boring.
FINAL SAY:
Resident Evil 5 followed up on the last Resident Evil game fluently, and rather than trying to stay relevant to horror it simply built itself around fun. While this can be definitely a bad thing, Resident Evil 5 is nothing short of an awesome, amazing and wonderful experience that can be sunk into with weeks worth of play hours. So go get yourself a copy, and start mauling angry parasitic villagers.
No comments:
Post a Comment