Published by: Capcom
Developed by: Capcom
Score: 80

It’s 2009 and yet another Resident Evil is upon us. What’s that you say? It’s not a remake or port of Resident Evil 4? OH. MAH. GAWRD. Ah, so we have Resident Evil 5, the newest installment in the once scary-but-now-not-so-much horror series. The changes brought from RE4, which have made it be considered one of the best games of all time, have of course remained in RE5. While some have been quick to criticize, I’ve been of the opinion that for the most part, RE5 has managed to take what was loved from RE4 and build upon it.

The story isn’t all that great, in fact, I say it’s average at best. Chris Redfield is the main star along with his newly assigned partner Sheva. They work together to try to ensure that biological weapons aren’t being tested around world. Eventually, tips lead Chris to Africa where he tries not only to stop a biological outbreak, but to also find his lost partner Jill Valentine. The pacing of the story seems to involve chasing characters who are hardly important to the story but are there anyway to keep from bringing out major characters too early. When I was done with game I was fairly disappointed with the ending. For all the scheming I thought there was going on behind the scenes, I was underwhelmed by the overall picture. In fact I almost wished there had been more nonsensical twists and cryptic messages so that at least I wouldn’t have to say, “oh, well that’s…cool…I guess.”

It stands with reason, that most of the controls are the same in RE5 as they were in RE4. For those who never played RE4 (and really, why the hell not?), the controls are fairly simple. Using an over the shoulder camera, the game is basically played with the character about a foot in front of and to the side of the camera. Shooting is prepared by holding down a trigger and pressing another trigger. The control scheme works well, it doesn’t turn it into a fast paced action game, but at the same time, it doesn’t have those annoying inaccurate controls from past REs and Silent Hill. In general nothing has changed, but some what has changed are some of the things that aren’t tied directly to the actual gameplay. By that I mean, things like the attaché case, which holds all equipment and the “shop” where you can buy guns and other things. That weird hooded merchant with the hump and severe case of laryngitis is gone and in his place is the all new, the exciting, MENU. Yes, that’s right, instead of having an actual “place” to buy things, you are given the option to buy and sell stuff in between chapter sections and before starting a session. In addition, you no longer combine treasures and other shit that would be worth more than just some gun, instead, you just sell them as you get them. The store is basically straight to the point. Do you need first aid spray in the middle of a fight? All you have to do is restart the checkpoint and you can buy 50 of them if you feel like. It takes a little bit of the intensity out of the game when you can basically stop midway and get an assload of weapons or buy enough protection so that an atomic fucking bomb couldn’t kill you. The attaché case and playing Tetris with your gear is no longer there either. Each item occupies the same space in a 9 slot attaché case with the ability to hotkey weapons to the D-pad. So now you can’t leave your attaché case screen up for 5 minutes while you’re fighting a huge fucking monster.

Shooting is still the name of the game for RE5. This point is reinforced by the large amount of ammo all over the damn place. I was able to easily accumulate about 100 shotgun shells even on the later stages. However, what has been improved upon are melee attacks. They work the same as usual. You can shoot the leg or head of an enemy and stagger them which will give you the option to hit a button and land a huge punch or kick. Depending on where your character is standing or where the enemy is positioned there can be a variety of attacks. Chris and Sheva can even combo attack. This is good news because the knife seems to have lost its range and a bit of its power. It’s even less useful now that more enemies will attack at any given moment meaning that using your ammo becomes necessary.

The enemies are fairly standard throughout the game. They’re all pretty much the same villagers that may be either in street cloths, ceremonial garb or armored up. I don’t really understand how a mask was able to deflect my point blank shotgun blasts, but whatever. There truly isn’t any difference between these guys and the Spanish villagers of RE4, in fact, they go through the same progressions of difficultly. The bosses are fairly boring and nothing that terribly new or exciting outside of some of the more important bosses later in the game. El Gigante is even back in the game for some reason. I mean c’mon Capcom, with the exception of the Regenerators, none of the enemies in RE4 were that interesting.

Unlike that useless husk of corduroy, Ashley, from RE4, we instead have Sheva, an African local who happens to give Chris a hand by assisting in the genocide she’s trying to avoid. Nonetheless she can shoot, heal and kick the shit out of any infected enemy. Now, I love that I have somebody who can give me a hand when I’m getting attacked from both sides, but there’s always the problem of balance. You give a partner AI too much freedom, they can ruin the game by fighting alone and dying every 2 minutes or you might be forced to baby-sit them. It’s a mix of both. Sheva can hold her own, but she will go through ammo, like nobody’s business, shooting guys more times than a Russian hit van on Denzel Washington (See: Training Day). As a result I found myself having to waste time making sure I gave ammo to her and because of that I had to give her the only type of ammo that was plentiful, handgun ammo. As many of you know who have played any RE game before, the handgun ammo is basically the workhorse weapon of the game. Sadly, Sheva also has a bad habit of advancing to the next section before I’m done picking up items and ammo which is truly a pain in the ass especially if I’m already low on ammo. I made peace with my arrangement after I was able to upgrade her gun so that each shot was far more powerful and efficient and she truly became an asset. Capcom was able to find some middle ground, but I still couldn’t help but feel like I was doing more work that I really should have to, but it certainly wasn’t a chore that made me want to give up the game.

I don’t think there’s a terrible great deal of replay value in the game only because it’s one of those games where the experience is great the first time around, but has a steep drop the next time you play it. Mercenaries is a good, arcade-y style mode which is basically the same mode from RE4. You can play as one the characters from the game and be dumped into of the game’s locales and race against the clock to take down as many enemies as you can. It’s a fun mode and it’s worth playing if you want to unlock some of the secret characters, but I’d say you might only really get a kick out of it if you truly liked the mechanics of the game and not just the presentation. You can do co-op which is exactly as it sounds. Capcom plans to release a downloadable multiplayer mode, but I question the necessity. Resident Evil 5 isn’t really that sort of game where you go around proclaiming “HEADSHOT BITCH!” It’s more, “HOLY SHIT I JUST BLEW THAT DUDE’S HEAD OFF!” There are subtle differences.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the game. Had RE4 followed in the same exact footsteps of its predecessors, I would be calling this game one of the best games ever made. However, that’s the catch. RE5 takes so much from RE4, it almost feels like there hasn’t been much in terms of progress outside of a pretty exterior. What we get overall is a just a good solid sequel that takes no risks and uses a formula which has worked phenomenally. I’d say RE5 is a good rental, but little else.

Oh and I suppose I should say something on the whole killing a whole bunch of black people by a white guy thing. Well here goes *deep breath*. I’m not white or black, and therefore I couldn’t give two shits about who is getting killed in a VIDEO GAME. Thanks.