A little boring history to start out with. Scroll down to the dashes if you don't care to read the fluff and background.
Let me start by saying I LOVE Resident Evil. The first game I bought for the PSone back in the day was Resident Evil: Directors Cut--Dual Shock, and the last game I bought was the above-mentioned Resident Evil 5 Gold, and in-between, I have accumulated nearly every Resident Evil game for every console (other than PC and handhelds). So, I can say without hesitation, but with as much modesty as possible, that I have a very firm grasp on the Resident Evil canon. That being said, I'm sure you're thinking, "What the **** took you so long to get Resident Evil 5?!" Well, to put it simply, I couldn't afford it, and, despite my love for the series, I wasn't in a hurry to get it. And, as I have come to find out in the handful of hours I've put into the game so far, I can't say I feel I've missed too much.
Anyway, here's the first impressions I've gotten so far, with a more indepth review to come at a later time.
Please feel free to discuss the various points I bring up and those I don't, but please include SPOILER alerts, as I'm only about halfway through as of now.
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STORY & SETTING
Right off the bat, I was pretty psyched at the prologue presented by Chris that Umbrella's biological weapons were being sold on the black market following its collapse. Unfortunately, so far (about halfway through), it actually has very little to do with said preface, other than to merely be the impetus for Chris going to Africa. The revelation of a B-story involing Jill was a pleasant relief. Jill and Leon are my favorite RE characters, and when either is in a game, I usually will end up liking it. That being said, I'm holding out hope that it unfolds as more than just a weak excuse to put someone more liked by fans than Chris in the game. (More about this in "Characters/Enemies" section.) One thing that pi**ed me off to no end was when Wesker showed up in a flashback doing Matrix moves in bullet time will wearing a black alligator skin trenchcoat AND GOD I HATE IT! He's a joke. And, you know what, it's not the character himself. He's fine. In fact, he's a bad ass. But, after 6 games in the canon (1, 2, 3, 4, Code Veronica, and Zero), with Wesker in three of them (1, CV, and Zero), I'm tired of him. Compared to a large pharmaceutical conglomeration with Saddam Hussein-esque testing methods that has led to the deaths of many innocent people, a vendetta against the guy that stabbed you in the back and got roughly 4 or 5 Alpha Team members seems pretty petty to me. It just seems like two steps forward, and then two steps right back when you very gracefully and tactfully get rid of Umbrella, but still keep Wesker around -- Mecha Wesker, nonetheless.
Speaking of which, the Africa setting is awesome. I love it. Africa, in my opinion, is an underutilized setting in video games, save Far Cry 2 and Afrika. Such rich history, diversity in environments, and tragically rampant violence. The stages so far are no worse in comparison to those in RE4, and in some cases, such as the opening in the town, it's more impressive than its counterpart. The use of daylight and lack of ubiquitous darkness that's traditional in survival horror games made me very happy. It's very reminiscent of when "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" came out, and was one of the earliest successful horror movies that took place mostly in the light, bringing terror to the one place we thought we were safe: daylight. But I digress. . . .
CHARACTERS/ENEMIES
All right, this is where I'm going to start to get a little more negative.
First off, I never liked Chris. Never. From Resident Evil longbox on PSone to Code Veronica to now, he's been a boring character with no incentive to root for him. His design is bland, and his personality is forgettable on every level. My theory is that the game designers realized this, and instead of trying to create a complex character by building off of the nearly 15 years of history he's been involved, they went the less demanding route and just made him unreasonably roided out. I can't get over this. He's huge. And it's not in his character. It's not in ANY of the RE characters' designs (other than Barry) to be a big, strong, muscled guy that can tear his way through zombies. They're all normal build, average people with their will to live and courage to confront fear being their true strength. But in this game, f*** it--give him 60lbs of muscle and have him punch them in the face. (I blame '300' for this.) Some may think this makes him a more badass character, fitting more into the two recent games' focus on action, but they didn't do it for Leon in RE4, so why now?
Sheva Alomar isn't bad though. I was so relieved to FINALLY get a new female character in the RE canon after the piles of sausage since RE3. (3, CV, and Zero all introduced only male characters. And, no, Alexia Ashford in CV doesn't count. Play the game, and you'll know why.) This all being said, Sheva is forgettable. Her personality and design aren't very unique, though her incentive for going against Umbrella is very awesome, and reminds me a lot of the plot from "A Constant Gardener", a very disturbing story on the exploitations of African locals by pharm companies. But, other than that, I really could care less about her, which really hurts the game since the theme of the story and game itself is partnerships and camaraderie. It just feels like neither of them are developed characters, made even more apparent since they're tethered to each other the whole time. It feels like they're attempting to create a single cohesive character between the two, and even then it's falling pretty short.
I can't really comment on the enemies in the game since I don't know too much about them. I haven't gotten that far. I guess I'll detail these guys more in the second half.
Presentation
The graphics in this game are good. Very good, in fact. Best in the RE series. Not up to MGS4 or Uncharted 2 standard, but it's hard to expect that level on a multi-console game. (Please spare me the "fanboy" label. I'm not a PS fanboy. I think there are Xbox exclusive games that are on par to said above games, but I can't comment too much on those since I don't own an Xbox360. It's just my experience that multi-console games usually suffer more in the graphics department because of differing technical demands from either of the systems.) The one thing that goes from average to atrocious is the water effects. When wading in water it's not too bad, but in some cut scenes (the boat chase, namely) it looks on par with PSone games. No joke. Just poor spray effects on a sheet of gray flatness.
Now, I remember when I was reading about this game early on, one of the creators of the game stated that light was going to play as much a role in this game as darkness in previous ones. And he's right. It does. It takes on a life all its own. You'll transition between indoor and outdoor environments, and the light will take a moment to adjust. That being said, it does point out some issues with the game, and maybe the genre in general. Everything being illuminated really shows how limited the different stages are. In RE4, it very rarely felt like the areas were small or could sense the invisible walls. But in the middle of a marsh and roaming around in the little swamp boat, it really feels like you're very limited. Even if RE4 had just as many limitations, it at least created the illusion of more space. (Much like many Final Fantasy games create the illusion of free-roam.)
I don't really have too much to comment on the sound in the game. It seems very similar to RE4. I don't have any complaints really, but nothing is very remarkable either. I'm sure some others can comment more on this than I can since I normally don't notice sound aspects of a game unless its either very bad or very good.
The scare factor in this game is no more than RE4, which is the one complaint I had about RE4 -- I never felt scared. I sometimes felt a little stressed by the amount of enemies, or anxious about certain situations, but never scared. It's no different in this game, which is perhaps even more obvious since just a few days prior I made a run through Resident Evil on Wii, and was genuinely scared in some moments. (Eventually I'll do a Resident Evil vs. Resident Evil Remake review. You'd be surprised how hard it is to chose one, actually.) One thing you will feel in this game is stress. There will be an overwhelming amount of enemies and you'll have very limited ammo between the two of you, and in that way, it can still be called survival horror. But it really ends there for me.
GAMEPLAY
*Sigh* All right. This is where I get frustrated. Immediately, some will accuse me of being a RE purist, preferring the original style and controls. Not the case. Don't get me wrong--I love the tank controls and set camera angles; but I also loved RE4. I consider them to be two different types of games, but still one in the same, really. But this one just made it so frustrating. Why? Two words: Partner System. It barely worked in RE0, and they decided to bring it back. The AI isn't that bad, though. Sheva combines herbs on her own, uses healing items when I need them, and will go break vases and give me ammo for weapons I have. But, just a few seconds later, she's trying to shoot an enemy by taking the shortest route possible: through my head. Not to mention that she'll run in front of you when you're trying to shoot a guy in the knees. Her aim isn't that bad, but in boss battles, she's useless other than to draw the enemy.
Speaking of which, the bosses I've fought aren't that great. They're very, VERY easy to figure out. Oh, the camera focuses on a furnace? Proximity mines every where? Wonder how to kill them . . . What's that, Sheva? Aim for what? Oh OK. Bosses are forgettable too from what I've faced. It's weird, but the most memorable bosses in RE were just enlarged versions of normal creatures (snake, scorpion, centipede, alligator, giant lake fish, etc.), but it seems like in this one they're trying to create Lost Planet-esque new enemies, but they're forgettable. The one thing that made me mad was that the version El Gigante is a turret battle. I don't know . . . to me it's not quite the same as having to run around, dodge his giant steps, get in and out of the little shacks for ammo before he crushed them, and then having to climb onto his back and slice the Las Plagas parasite with your knife. YOUR KNIFE!
Aiming in the game is fine, except with the extra light it can be hard to pick out where your laser is landing on, and I'm using a 47" HDTV. The controls aren't that bad, especially when I realized the weapons are automatically hotkeyed to the d-pad. Very nice. Having to give ammo or herbs to Sheva while being gang-raped is always an issue though. I can never give her anything in a swamped situation without getting hurt even a little, which is even more of an issue when I'm being chased by those tribes leaders or the chainsaw guys.
This is the first game since REmake that I've had trouble managing ammo. In RE4, I always had a backup weapon, or something to rely on in case the shotgun or SMG runs dry. But in this game, I never have enough. Not when I have to share it with Sheva. (PROTIP: Give her the shock stick ASAP. She'll never use a firearm, and you can take all the ammo for yourself.) Another thing is that the Buying/Selling of the weapons isn't explained in the story. I mean, in RE4, it's some mysterious guy. OK, a little bit of a stretch, but OK, I'll buy it. In MGS4, its whats-his-name, which added a layer onto the story itself. Hell, even in Dino Crisis 2, the TRUE inspiration for the current RE style of gameplay had a computer system you would do all these transactions at. But in RE5, it's like 'F*ck it. You don't care, we don't want to explain it. It works out.' In that case, maybe I'm just nitpicking then. I'm assuming this is all because of the greater emphasis on melee. You strategically fire are certain spots allowing you to use different levels of devastating melee attacks. I guess it's kind of a little like Dead Space's specific aiming, but not really(?) Either way, I'm not too fond of it. I play RE for guns and grenades. Even the occasional bow gun. If I wanted to punch someone, I'll pop in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.
Now, bear in mind, all of this above is based on a single-player play through. I haven't done co-op yet, and maybe if I do it'll be a completely different experience. Hell, if anyone wants to help me dissect this aspect of the game, please add me as a friend on PSN and play even just one or two stages with me. I'll put my PSN Tag at the bottom, in fact.
Overall, though, I would have preferred the co-op mode be an option to the gameplay. Just change the cutscenes and add enemies if the person decides to play single-player. Hell, you can keep Sheva in the game, just have her say something like "All right, Josh and I are going to secure a boat. You go after Irving." See? Simple.
Anyway, that's about all I can say without getting really longwinded (if I haven't already.)
Like I said, please feel free to add me on PSN if you want to help me play co-op, as I'm very interested to see what it's like. (I don't have a microphone yet, though.) And once I get further in, I'll detail some more about the game, namely the story and replay value.
Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think.
Kelly
PSN Tag: Snapdragons
