Review: Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 4 was revolutionary. It was one of the best games of the last generation and it spawned an entirely new genre of games - the 'over-the-shoulder' third person shooter. It was creative, it was extremely well designed - heck, it was even really freaking scary at some points. Resident Evil 5 is none of these things.

..story..

So the same virus/parasite that was infecting the poor and hopeless in Europe is now infecting poor and hopeless Africans. A company called Tricell is attempting to turn this massive population into programmed killing machines to sell to the highest bidding country. It's up to series veteran Chris Redfield and annoying, pointless newcomer Sheva to save the day - by slaughtering millions and millions of black people. 

Yup a white guy and a Hispanic woman killing a bunch of black people. 

Raise your hand if you think this was a PR nightmare for Capcom.

Yes, the evil corporation already technically "killed" them by infecting them, but you're the one blowing their effing heads off. 

The story is delivered through conversations, but the most interesting information about the story is delivered by reading documents scattered around the game world. They're not always easy to see and if you skip them, you'd be missing out on the best parts of the story. It makes no sense that they would hide these hugely important pieces of lore that really make the story come together. It also makes no sense to make the player read the best parts of the story. A lot of games have gotten really good at doing exposition properly, and RE5 is not one of them. 

By the end of the game, you'll have seen a few familiar faces from previous games, none of which make sense in the context of the story, nor does their appearance have any lasting impact at all to the way everything plays out. 

"This looks fine. Ship it."

  

..gameplay..

The gameplay in RE5 is essentially the same thing you got in the fourth game - a tight, over-the-shoulder shooter in a foreign, zombie ridden environment. But Capcom didn't simply change the setting from Europe to Africa and call it a day. Nay nay. They added an inept, boring and wasteful AI partner named Sheva. So now you have to split the already limited supplies with another character who blows through ammo like religious extremists shooting wildly in the air. If your Sheva dies, it's game over. So you have to continually feed her bullets, only for her to wipe her ass with them. 

Freeze! Or I'll add absolutely nothing to your gameplay!

To be fair, you can play co-op with another human, which eliminates the AI problems. But what should have been asked from the beginning was "does a Resident Evil game need co-op in the main story?" After playing through it, I can answer that question with a hearty "Hell no."

I've literally sat here for the past five minutes trying to think about something that sets RE5 apart from RE4 from a gameplay perspective and I can't think of a stinkin thing. Aside from the setting, and the idiot partner, there is nothing unique about it. At all. 

There were moments where the game allows you to "take cover" behind objects in the environment. It's these moments where I felt like I was playing a watered down version of Uncharted. Then I thought about that idea. The Uncharted series is essentially Gears of War meets Indiana Jones. Gears of War clearly drew it's inspiration from Resident Evil 4. So the direct sequel to a game that served as the inspiration for a blockbuster series, that spawned another blockbuster series feels like a cheap copy of it's offspring. In other words, it's worse than the copy of the copy of the last game. 

Clunky-ass cover system

 ..presentation..

One thing that really can't be argued is that this game looks and sounds amazing. Nothing takes you out of the fantasy and the only complaint I could make would be against the voice acting, but the script really didn't give the actors much to work with. And considering that the series started with this, I think these voice actors should receive a standing ovation. 

 

The game's opening cinematic

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Resident Evil 5 is a good game. The mechanics work, the gunplay is fun, and it is paced pretty well. I found myself getting that "one more checkpoint bug" time and time again. But ultimately the biggest problem with Resident Evil 5 is Resident Evil 4. It adds nothing of value and what it does add only frustrates the player. I'd pass on this one. 

GRADE: C