Paul Frew
GamerVerdict on: Resident Evil 5
March 19th 2009 08:25
Many online reviews complained about RE5's control system not fitting into the gameplay. I beg to differ, but what got me feeling much like most reviewers is how anti-climatic the experience was.
Back in the days...
Resident Evil 4 exceeded my expectations in terms of story development and the environments we got to explore with Leon Kennedy. The player got to start in a European village, which quickly opened up to a castle, then a cavern, suddenly we jetted off to a fricken island! The different locations, accompanied with its own set of enemies, contributed to the worthwhile experience. RE4 was a great game, and I gladly opened up the Collectors Edition of RE5 when it was released. The controls felt like what you expect from a sequel to RE4: over-the-shoulder 3rd person control with all the limitations found in the last game, like shooting only when standing, and not able to see behind the main character. Now I could complain how the game's threats are too fast for the slow, paced control system, but that's what was charming of RE4, and the RE5 enemies can all be bypassed by using the same tactics.
Control me
What made RE5 a great game is its ability to create a sense of suspense without making the player feel cheated when overwhelmed. You'll most likely end up with critical health and low on ammo, but you'll never feel like the game is over, as you can run past most enemies away to desperately find a barrel to open, and you won't die straight away as there are multiple chances to come back from a critical hit: when your hit during your last sliver of health, your player goes into a woozy state (which I call Drunk mode) and Sheva will pats you on the back to bring you back for another round with a tiny smidge of health again. A problem with this feature is when your partner is gone to another area while your in Drunk mode, your pretty much screwed and you’re simply stumbling around for a good 8 seconds before Chris kick's the bucket and see the "You are Dead" screen.
Small pockets
The inventory for the game consists of 3x3 slots, which acts as hotkeys on the D-pad for quick swapping weapons on the go. It's a great system to keep you in the action when it heats up, but you know there is something wrong with it when you realise its absurd that you can't pick up a first aid spray to heal you and your partner from critical status because both your inventories are full. Another problem is when you accidentally press the inventory button during a heated fight with the Las Plagas, which is annoying when you have to battle turning it off too.
Lets be friends
RE5 introduced a great partner system. It is probably the best I've ever seen. Sheva isn't dumb, she can actually survive in battle when she doesn't have ammo, and when you want her to be somewhere to open a door, she will rush there. The game's puzzles were cleverly crafted so Sheva's AI makes the right action when with you, either to the conditions of the environment or when she is. A glitch I found is when she climbed up a ladder, grabbed an item and climbed down automatically before I made a command, because she was programmed to wait for me at a lever to activate the next cut scene.
Audio in a nutshell
audio is great, the grunts of enemies and the sound of the chainsaw still creates shivers down my spine, and the orchestra adds definite tension when your running low on bullets.
Here it comes...
The game has great sound, controls are flawed but still fun to play with, you have a great AI partner, but what made this RE5 ONLY a decent experience instead of greatness? Well it was the lack of variety in setting that killed it. Besides the first setting, in the African village, all the other areas you explore are dull, and lack any substance. RE4 lets you get to navigate through a large village, then a large castle, then a large island. RE5 felt more like navigating through a small area, to another small area, then a large map with smaller areas... It doesn't help also when the action is stopped and your bought back into reality with frequent "end of chapter" screens.
When your only eating up each small portion of the game one at a time, you'll start to feel hungry for more. It also doesn't help when most of the Boss battles are limited (thanks to the story botching the chance to create a variety of monsters) to giant tentacle monsters, or giant bugs suited to the Resistance universe than Resident Evil. The only saving grace of the story is Albert Wesker, the undisputed champion of evil badassness in the Resident Evil Mythos, working his evil plan to defeat our hero. Instead of sitting on the sidelines like he did in most Resident Evil games, Albert takes centre stage and is the motivation for fans to watch the cut scenes.
GamerVerdict: 8/10
It is a great game that feels a little light on content in terms of story. It's like Star War's episode 1, where the quality of the film was squashed only to its heavily-weighted hype. I had high expectations for this game, but I guess I shouldn't have put it on such a high pedestal with RE4, I probably would have enjoyed it more. Leave your brain and fanboyness at the door, this is still a worthy game to play.
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