What the Game’s About
Adapt or die. Evolution isn’t easy, but those who survive the process are stronger for it and the rest are simply left behind. Evolution is the beating heart at the core of Resident Evil 5, for both the plot and the gameplay. While Chris Redfield and his new buddy Sheva are fighting to ensure humanity’s evolutionary path isn’t overtaken by a frightening new disease, Resident Evil 5 is at war with itself and the gameplay that defines it. The game’s greatest strengths are the elements that exemplify Capcom’s willingness to adapt, while the game’s most aggravating weaknesses demonstrate a stubborn refusal to completely dissociate from the genre standards they helped establish. Capcom’s inability to reconcile the old and the new into a cogent survival horror experience is pushing the series deeper into the action category. Yet despite being caught between two genres and unable to dominate either, Resident Evil 5 still succeeds at making pulses race.
What’s Hot
Resident Evil 5 doesn’t rely on traditional “surprise” horror tactics to scare players. Rather, the game constantly reinforces feelings of desperation and panic by assaulting players with legions of a relentless, inescapable enemy. Smart players will only spend as much time shooting as they do running through the large, intricate environments that Capcom has crafted, zigzagging indoors and outdoors through shanty-towns, racing up onto roofs and down through the ravaged streets, scrambling for anything that resembles an escape route and offers the promise of precious seconds to reload, reposition and wipe the sweat from your brow. The combat is intense, but the overwhelming sense of urgency prevents you from ever really having the time to relish killing. Killing is simply a survival mechanism. That, more than anything, is what separates Resident Evil 5 from traditional action fare. Prescripted set-piece battles, vehicular chase segments and boss encounters are the only instances where players can stand back and appreciate the carnage, since combat is the sole focus of these scenarios and escape isn’t an option. The default difficulty setting is likely to be a little low for series vets, so if you’re not feeling the pressure by the second level, consider increasing the difficulty to really get the most of the game’s oppressive atmosphere.
It’s a good thing Capcom decided to adjust their fear tactics, because the old school methods would have been useless in light of Resident Evil 5’s principle innovation: a persistent partner to help you through the game. This new breed of fear doesn’t falter with the addition of a shoulder to lean on or an extra gun to depend on, since two versus several hundred are still horrible odds and watching someone’s back takes precious focus away from covering your own ass. This two-person dynamic influences everything from inventory management to level design and battle tactics, and as a result, online co-op is quite outstanding. Communicating battle tactics on the fly, chaining together tag-team melee maneuvers, and watching enemies drop around me as my buddy guards me with his sniper-rifle are just some of the incredibly satisfying and downright fun experiences RE5’s co-op mode frequently provides. Co-op also adds an extra layer of strategy to the already addictive weapon upgrade system by letting players coordinate different weapon specializations. I had as much fun playing co-op in RE5 as I did Halo 3, Gears of War and Left 4 Dead, and that’s some esteemed company.
The co-op provides a new level of replayability, but it isn’t the only thing that will keep fans coming back. The campaign is broken up into sections and the player’s performance is scored according to criteria like number of enemies killed, accuracy and time taken. Higher grades unlock extra content that fans of the franchise will eat up. Weapon upgrades carry over into the new-game plus, so if those damn zombies were giving you hell at the outset of the game, pay them back with a fully upgraded shotgun on the next go around.
The coup de grace for unlockables is the Mercenaries mode, an ultra-addictive survival mode where players are given two minutes to survive against waves of progressively nastier baddies. It’s a great throwback to the arcade sensibilities of yore, and breaking your own records is almost as satisfying as destroying your buddy’s best score. And wouldn’t you know it, there are even more extras to be unlocked through Mercenaries mode. All told, there’s a hell of a lot of value for your money here, provided you actually enjoy the fundamental gameplay.
The presentation values for Resident Evil 5 are off the charts. The character models are some of the most lovingly crafted I’ve ever seen, and the environments — while linear — are varied, huge and beautifully textured. The oppressive atmosphere is set perfectly by the lighting and particle effects, such as the blazing sun beating down on the action and dust swirling around the characters as chaos unfolds in the streets. The music segues perfectly between ominous and aggressive tones, depending on the setting and the amount of action. The weapon effects are satisfyingly chunky and deliver a great sense of power with every shot, while the sounds enemies make when they attack or get shot are suitably nightmarish. Unfortunately, as this is a Resident Evil title, expect some of the worst dialogue and voice acting in the industry. Honestly, at this point it has to be an intentional design choice, but that doesn’t make suffering through the dialogue-heavy cinematics any less painful.
What’s Not
Resident Evil’s gradual march into the action genre has cost it more than just old school horror tactics; Resident Evil 5 is all but devoid of exploration and environmental puzzle solving. Personally, I’m not going to miss the trademark nonsensical unlocking puzzles that involved various combinations of random trinkets, but I do miss the element of mystery and adventure that came from opening up new sections of the world. The levels in Resident Evil 5 are linear and broken up into separate areas a la Devil May Cry, so that feeling of slowly uncovering one large, connected world is completely missing. If Capcom felt the need to abandon puzzles or exploration to create a great action game then so be it, but the fact is these sacrifices have left us with an unrefined control-setup and limited partner AI. Individual players will come to their own conclusions as to whether it was worth it, but I personally believe that Capcom could have found a better balance between the two extremes. They also probably could have done more to set the game apart from Resident Evil 4. Online co-op and next-generation graphics are great additions, but it’s hard not to get flashbacks of Leon Kennedy and Las Plagas as you play through the game, simply because the underlying gameplay templates are so damn similar.
Speaking of Resident Evil 4, there’s a huge misconception among the gaming populace that the game had good controls. It didn’t. Compared to the downright awful tank controls that the franchise featured up to that point, the controls in Resident Evil 4 were a godsend, but they were still pretty damn crude. The controls in Resident Evil 5 are the same as they were in its predecessor — give or take some new functions — and they’re still only passable at best. They don’t come off nearly as well when you’re comparing them to Gears of War or Dead Space. The argument has been made that poor controls are necessary to make players feel vulnerable in a survival horror title, and even if I was willing to pretend that Dead Space hadn’t already proven that notion patently false, the argument still wouldn’t make sense given the franchise’s current evolutionary trajectory. You can’t skew the design toward one genre and the control setup toward another. If you’re going to task players with surviving against faster, smarter, nastier enemies and lots of them, you have to give players the ability to do so effectively. Don’t only let me melee or dodge when the game decides it’s okay, and don’t force me to become a stationary target when I’m getting attacked from every direction.
Sheva’s AI isn’t terrible but it’s irritatingly unreliable. Players have two commands to guide her with, “attack” and “cover,” but neither is particularly useful since the rigid behaviors don’t conform to the constantly changing combat scenarios. In cover mode, Sheva will play defensively, sticking close to Chris and generally putting her focus towards any enemies that might be coming up behind you. Sounds good, but this also makes Sheva incredibly conservative with her weapons and ammo, and having her take pot-shots with a pea-shooter when you’re surrounded by hordes of powerful enemies is relatively pointless. In attack mode, Sheva is overly aggressive and often strays too far away from Chris to be of any direct help. She also goes manic with ammo consumption, unloading on enemies with the most powerful weapon at her disposal, and she generally does an incredibly bad job of deciding which enemies are worth spending the expensive stuff on. There’s no middle ground; she won’t cover your ass with the powerful weapons, and she won’t attack intelligently with the appropriate weapons. You can exert some additional control by choosing which weapons and ammo to give her, but exchanging items with the computer AI is a chore. Sheva will rarely if ever get you killed outright, but do yourself a favor and avoid some unnecessary headaches by playing the game with a buddy.
Final Word
Resident Evil 5 is in a very difficult position. It’s not refined enough as an action game to contend with the likes of Gears of War, it’s been usurped in the survival horror category by the stellar Dead Space, and it’s such a deviation from the franchise’s foundation that it’s almost certain to alienate a large contingent of diehard fans. Yet despite all of its problems, the game is still a thrilling genre hybrid, and stands as one of the best cooperative gameplay experiences on the market. Whatever audience Resident Evil 5 ultimately ends up appealing to, they’ll be playing it for a long time to come.
