We're definitely not in Raccoon City anymore - Resident Evil 5

Author's Rating:

Pros: interesting boss fights, twisted and expanded story, upgradeable weapons, cooperative play online/off, mercenaries is fun

Cons: strays away from the Resident Evil formula, can't move while firing weapons

The Bottom Line: 
For fifteen bucks, why not get Resident Evil 5?  The boss fights are fun, you can upgrade your weapons, and you can play online or split-screen cooperative with a friend.

Author's Review
The Resident Evil series has been a favorite of mine ever since I jumped into it with Code: Veronica on the PS2.  After that I played through the second and third games on Playstation and then all three games on the Gamecube.  Resident Evil 5 isn't as huge of a step up for the series as the fourth one was, but it's a fun game in its own right.  I originally played it on the Xbox 360 back in 2008, but got frustrated with a certain boss and ended up selling the system before coming back and finishing the game.  Now that I have a PS3, I bought RE5 along with it for only like thirteen dollars and it was definitely worth it.

Resident Evil 5 takes place several years after the events of Raccoon City.  The Umbrella Corporation behind the events of the previous games has since been shut down, though a ripple effect from Umbrella's research and an individual's alternate motives still linger.  You're sent as Chris Redfield to Africa to investigate the use of viruses to distribute bio-weapons to terrorists.  No longer part of STARS, Chris has been recruited by the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) and sent to Africa to meet up with his new partner Sheva.  These villagers don’ t take very kindly to them, and soon become hostile.  Resident Evil has evolved from slower moving zombies to more advanced genetically altered super freaks that are being controlled by some kind of outside source.  Similar to the Los Ganados from RE4, you’re trying to figure out who or what is controlling them and prevent the spread of a new kind of virus strain.  The story can be quite confusing.  The RE story arc has several developing plot lines, and RE5 is full of history by reading old notes left by scientists and journals that you’ll come across.  If you’re familiar with the whole series, some of these journals will trigger “I see now..” moments and others are just interesting supplements.

The gameplay in RE5 is a bit of a departure from the survival-horror mechanics that the series is known for.  Dark corridors and claustrophobic hallways are replaced with more open spaces and focuses a lot on combat and cooperative play.  There are still some short segments in a dark cave and an underground building, but the tactics used in the past are for the most part, absent.  You play in third-person view and the camera closes in to a close over-the-shoulder view to aim (anyone remember the fixed camera angles?).  Sheva is almost always at your side and can be commanded to cover you or go and attack when enemies appear.  Her AI is smart in most cases and there were times I was thankful she was there to save my butt from a flanking corpse.  I used her primarily as a pack-mule and kept her equipped with a melee weapon for support.  She doesn’t have very good accuracy and usually wasted a lot of ammunition on one enemy, but she does come in handy.

Many of the level designs were created with cooperative play in mind, allowing Sheva and Chris to separate in order to reach new areas.  I haven’t played cooperative multiplayer, but I’m sure it is fun.  There weren’t very many puzzles this time around and other than one major instance, there wasn’t a bunch of emblem fetch quests to unlock doors.  Many of them required Sheva and Chris to operate machinery together or cover each other while one person runs around an alternate path.  There isn’t that great of a weapon selection but there are enough that making decisions on which to keep or what to give to Sheva occur due to the inventory being limited to nine slots for each character.  Between ammunition, grenades, and health ferns these slots fill up quick.  You can swap items between characters on the fly, but the game doesn’t stop so you’ve got to be quick to bring up the inventory, select what you want, and equip it.  This led to some incredibly frustrating moments during my play through, mainly during boss battles.  There are a few boss fights you’ll encounter and while not overly difficult, still pose a challenge.  Some have obvious weak spots, and others require thinking outside the box and executing multiple tactics to beat.  I died at one particular boss fight nearly 30 times before the light bulb dinged and I figured out what to do.  Gamer fail.

Switching weapons is easy by mapping them to the directional pad.  You can only move items around in your inventory between chapters or when you die, but pressing left/right or up/down to equip different weapons on the fly is key to enjoyable gameplay.  Weapons are basic like the pistol, a couple sub-machine guns, some shotguns, sniper rifles, and later I the game you can play with big explosives and fire that’s sure to please any pyros out there.  I primarily used the pistol, shotgun, and my trusty combat knife through most of the game – however in some late game skirmishes I ended up exhausting all of my available weapons and began using things I normally didn’t use.  Ammo is much more plentiful than in previous games and unless you have ridiculous accuracy, there ends up being just enough ammo to make it through big fights.  There is one amazing weapon where you come across ammo for it like twice, making it a weapon you save for when you really, really need it and it’s worth it especially if you upgrade it fully.  Speaking of upgrades, enemies get progressively tougher and so you can purchase upgrades for your weapons to increase the power, reload time, and maximum ammunition capacity.  I love using the shotgun, so I upgraded the reload speed to its maximum as soon as possible. 

While there is a bigger focus on combat, you’re still glued in place when you aim.  As fast as the newer enemies move, this gets annoying and requires you to move around constantly.  This wouldn’t be so bad if the default speed wasn’t walking, so you have to press a button to run at a brisk jog to even avoid attacks.  There are melee attacks to use when you’ve got close enough and have already stunned an enemy with a gunshot or knife swipe, but the option doesn’t trigger quick enough or often enough to be very useful.  There’s also a cover system you can use to shield yourself up against walls from gunfire so you’re not as much of a sitting duck, but the cover controls don’t feel tight and could use some work.

Even now, three years after its release, Resident Evil 5 looks stunning.  The background includes a ton of detail and you end up making your way through several locations like the village that you’re initially sent to investigate, to a huge underground research center with a room that screams the Matrix, some ancient ruins, and even a giant marsh filled with alligators.  The caves look pretty bland, but the rest of the locations look great.  There’s a part of the game where you face off against a huge troll creature that has dead bodies dangling from his waist as a belt that is probably one of the greatest creature designs Capcom has come up with in the series.  The story is driven by cut-scenes that look good as well and transition back and forth between gameplay smoothly.  Character models look glossy and Chris looks like a retired WWE wrestler, but facial designs and body motions are fluid and lifelike. 

The music fits the theme well and creates some creepy ambience as it speeds up and intensifies as the action picks up and slows down.  The main theme song that plays in the end game credits is freaking awesome – there’s no other way to say it.  If it weren’t for the fact that Sheva is always with you, the faint sound effects with the absence of music make you feel alone.  Capcom has stayed away from normal scare tactics and uses background music more effectively to create a creepy mood.  The voice acting is much better than it has been, though some of the cut-scenes seem “phone in.”  They’re not as cohesive as the Uncharted dialog, but they’re definitely the best in the RE series.

Overall
 
Resident Evil 5 is a departure from the RE of old and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  There’s a huge focus on action and quick-time events this time around and the control could be tightened up and polished, but otherwise RE5 is a solid title in the RE library.  As cheap as it is right now it’s definitely worth it.  Add in split-screen and online co-op and a Mercenaries mode where you kill as many zombies as you can before time runs out for points – there’s plenty to do for fifteen bucks.  I’m excited to see what Capcom comes up with next, but until then RE5 is a good holdover until then.

Resident Evil 0 (GC)
Resident Evil (GC)
Resident Evil 2 (PS)
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (PS) 
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (PS2)
Resident Evil 4 (GC)