Thursday, March 19, 2009

Resident Evil 5 Review: RE4 + CoOp + Next Gen Graphics

Resident Evil LogoSo finally, after 3 year's of waiting for the next installment of Resident Evil, gamers are finally given it's latest, Resident Evil 5. This game has a lot of live up to coming right after what most people say the best Resident Evil, with it major new addition as adding a coop mode. This highly anticipated survivor horror game is only available on the PS3 and the xBox 360. The game will roughly take most players around 12 hours to complete.



Story:

In Resident Evil 4, Leon Kennedy was sent to Spain to rescue the President's daughter, Ashley. It also just so happened that the T-Virus was breaking out there as well. This time in Resident Evil 5, you play Chris Redfield, who is part of the BSAA and sent to Kijuju, Africa to invested a breakout of a similar virus to the T-Virus from Resident Evil 4. You are partnered up with Sheva Alomar and you have to figure out who is trying to use the T-Virus as a bio-weapon.

Unlike all of the previous Resident Evils, this one's main focus is on the miliary and the use of bio-weapons. You are part of the army, and you have stop and "unknown" force from spreading the virus, and taking over the world.

For those of you who want to know more about the story behind the Resident Evil series, please watch the Retrospectives, brought to you by Gametrailers.com.

resident-evil-5__18

Gameplay:

How you play the game is very simple, when you see an enemy here are the follow steps:

1) Run back to give yourself some distance

2) Shoot them until the get close to you

3) Repeat Steps 1 to 2 until enemy is defeated

Now I know that it very very simple but having to have run from them keeps the tension and the pace of the game high.

Combat:


Having perfected the Over-the-shoulder shooting from Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5 sticks to it's roots, forcing you to stand still want shooting. This brings a lot of the issues that were seen in Resident Evil 4. You have a swarm of enemies that come running at you, only to have them slow down and crawl the last few steps, and even though this unrealistic it would make the game impossible if this was implement.

There a lot of quick-time events in the game, but not as much as in Resident Evil 4, so a lot of times they will catch you off guard and you'll have to repeat that portion of the game.

resident-evil-5-20090225081605006

Coop:

There are 3 ways of playing this game, play with a friend, play with a friend online, or play with a computer. The first 2 choices would be the optimal solution, because you have to play a completely different way when playing with a computer. First of all, she's shoots as many times as she breaths. So you'll find yourself constantly needing to give her ammunition. The next thing is that she has no idea how to manage her inventory. So YOU have to organize for her. If you're wondering why referring to Sheva all the time is because in single player mode you HAVE to play as Chris. Unless you beat the game, then you can play as Sheva.

So playing with a friend is obviously, but playing on the same TV still isn't all that great. If you are on a widescreen TV, the game doesn't really know how to make use of it. I guess it's to keep the high scores fair, because the screen do seem like they are in the correct aspect ratio. But it will be quite difficult for those who do not have a big enough screen because that laser on that gun just isn't bright enough and if you are still on an old cathode tube tv, then you be able to see a thing. It's not that the game CAN play up to 720p, it's that you NEED to be playing at that resolution before you can actually see things properly.

re5-split-screen2

Replay Value:

There are 3 modes you can play this game at: Amateur, Normal, Veteran. If you have played the demo and this isn't your first shooter, than Veteran is good level to start at. Because the game does lean to the easy side on the difficulty scale. Upon beating the game you will unlock The Mercenaries. Its a bonus game that can be played in both single or coop, and the mission is to simply kill as many zombies as possible. The only problem is that its timed. I think I have enjoyed it more if it were endless. This way you can compare to other games like Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, Call of Duty World at War (Nazi Zombie Killing Mode). Your scores will be posted online into the competitive community. It's a great way to sharpen your skills but I'm disappoint that there is not other mini games, like in RE4 where you can play as Ada. It would of been nice to be able to play as the Delta team or something, maybe they are saving that for Download Content. Those bastards. You can also replay the game as Sheva if you want,  there isn't really anything interesting about that, and of course like in ALL Capcom games there are unlockable costumes for your characters.

Presentation:

Looks:

Resident Evil 5 is a graphically stunning game. The amount of detail that has been put in is amazing. The dust clouds, the reflections, the shadows, and even all the facial expressions that the characters make. All puts together an amazing looking game. Resident Evil 4 is 4 years old and it is still a really good looking game. And I'm sure four years from now, Resident Evil 5 will still stand four years from now as well.

Not only the small details but the monsters that you face look amazing as well no matter if  it's small or gigantic.

Even the cinematics that were prerecoreded by the game's in-game engine look amazing and the fight scene choreography are top notch and be compared with a lot of good action movies. Click on the video to watch the HD version of the video at Youtube.



Sounds:

Okay the dubbing, is a bit over the top some times, but you can't blame the voice actors for that, it's the script. The music and sound effects sound great when they come up alerting you about enemies. The soundtrack was key to helping the game keep its high pace and tension.

resident-evil-5-20090225081606584

Conclusion:

Likes:

- The graphics for this game really are next gen, and everything in the game looks amazing and the developers really paid close attention to all the little details.

- Finally closure to many of the series' loose ends.

Dislikes:

- Small split screens in coop mode.

- Nothing new and innovative compared to RE4

- Not enough extra mini games compared to RE4

Resident Evil 5 is a solid looking game, and years from now it will still be known to be a great game. Some might say that it isn't worth buying. But if you are into the series or love this genre of games, then this is a good investment. I can't say it's as fun as Left 4 Dead, but it definely can give you the thrill that all Resident Evils have given. I'm pretty sure that they are going to release some DLC over the next few months, let's just hope that it's worth downloading.

5 comments:

  1. This blog's great!! Thanks :).

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow,I'm almost done playing the game,I barely bought it and so quickly I'm at chapter 5-1 .It's a good game,great graphics,looks really realistic. I'm going to pass the game and play online with my cousin :D

    ReplyDelete