So, a few days ago, I'd just finished Resident Evil 5. I've heard this game receive a lot of criticism, and having enjoyed it quite a bit, I wanted to post up a short review of what I thought of the game.
Gameplay
Overall, I didn't think the game play was particularly bad. Having enjoyed being mean to parasitically infested spaniards in Resident Evil 4, I'm going to commit survival horror blasphemy and say that I quite enjoyed the over-the-shoulder shooter action. While I know that Resident Evil is supposed to be a survival horror game, it gets a bit ridiculous, I think, to think that a highly trained agent like Chris Redfield, who has been rectifying the precarious position of the undead in the food chain since the very first game, has any right to be surprised by zombies any more. Chris is huge, has clearly been training under the BSAA, and ultimately, should not be as awkward and clumsy as he is in the first game. To be honest, I'd be a bit worried about the BSAA's training standards if he was. The combat system for the game is quite intuitive and organic, and manages to be fun without sacrificing the horror elements, which I appreciated.
The partner aspect of the game really didn't bother me too much. It was nice, for a change to have a cool, badass partner who occasionally manages to ventilate a zombie's brain with a well-placed pistol shot. During RE 4, Ashley was the closest thing we got to a partner, and honestly, she annoyed the shit out of me. She was easily one of the most blatantly unhelpful side characters ever, and provided no end to annoyance whenever I had to try and save her ass every time some centipede-infested cultist tried to drag her toward the nearest open door. Admittedly, she did provide me with one of the coolest and scariest parts of the game, where she's alone, fighting cultists alone, but overall, she really pissed me off. Sheva, on the other hand, manages, without too many AI flaws, to be a fun, nice supporting character, who, really, I kind of appreciated because she provided a fresh, outsider's perspective on the Chris vs Wesker ordeal, having no idea of the history behind them, and giving someone for RE noobies to relate to, even if she did occasionally waste whole healing sprays on the most minimal of wounds.
One thing I have to criticize, however, is the inventory, which really could not have sucked more ass if it tried. Units of bullets (usually around 30) took up exactly the same amount of space as a bloody herb, which meant I needed to dedicate most of my inventory to my healing items, or give them to my partner, and risk her overreacting and wasting a Green/Red on me the minute a zombie looked at me somewhat offensively. Armor also takes up a slot, making sure that if you want to be fully armored up, you need to sacrifice two very limited slots of space. You also can't just drop items, use a consumable, and pick them up later. The discard function simply destroys items, a move that had me recycling grenades and bits of ammo I could have used later because I desperately needed to heal. RE 4, I think, had the best inventory system, given that it could be upgraded and didn't depend on having to beg/trade my partner items in order to use them.
Story
As a bit of a newcomer to the RE series, I found the story of RE 5 quite good. I liked the return of longtime villain Wesker as the main baddy, which made it accessible to old fans, while at the same time, being able to draw in newer fans like myself to the Tricell plot in Africa. I think the game was quite a good marriage of old storyline continuation combined with enough accessibility to draw in a new audience. Bizarrely, I related to the character of Sheva quite a bit, as like me, she didn't really know the whole history, and had to piece it together from what Chris told her.
The story basically continues the whacky adventures of Mr. Wesker, a man with no end to gullible investors, who, by this game, pretty nakedly stops bullshitting and just flat out states his plans to unleash a highly unstable, uncontrollable bioweapon across the earth, that will give 1% of them superpowers, and turn the rest into gigantic, biomass absorbing worm-monsters. So.....not the most incredible story, but it seems to embrace its campy, B-movie stylings, and at times, seems aware of just how ridiculous the premise is. Overall, it works in a really Robert Rodriguez-esque way, combining pulpy, action movie badassery, with tense survival horror.
Excella and Tricell, I thought, were a really cool enemy, cool enough, in fact, to have my computer backdrop as the Tricell logo for the next few weeks. I loved that Tricell seemed to have examples of old RE enemies (like Lickers), newer RE enemies (like the Plaga) and hideous bioweapons all of its own (such as Uroboros). It really felt like a cool melding between the more science-fiction feel of Umbrella, combined with the more whacked out mutant feel of the Los Illuminados, and really blended the two nicely. Also, unlike Umbrella, Tricell takes basic precautions with its Biohazards, like having railings in its factories and large flamethrowers and kill-satellites to reduce any escaping B.O.W.'s into foul smelling ash. I respect that, and really, if Umbrella took Tricell's example, it might have averted that whole bit of unpleasantness in the Arklay Mansion.
I have to say, I really do like that Umbrella has taken a backseat as the villain in the RE-universe, unlike in its abysmal movie adaptation. In the movies, Umbrella somehow manages to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, apparently with enough funds to have private facilities, and even then, they still waste their money making zombies. Umbrella in the games, is shit-canned as a corporation after the events of RE 2, because realistically, no amount of money is keeping your company together after you made the American government drop a nuke on their home soil. I love that Umbrella is defunct, but its legacy (the Progenitor flowers, the base in Africa, Wesker) is still very much active and effecting the series.
Racism
Now to tackle that ugly, ugly topic of racism. I'm aware that the controversy around this game is kind of a dead horse, but now that it's all died down, I feel I can defend this game. So yes, you are shooting Plaga-infected Africans, who, yes, are an ethnic minority. Still, the game takes place in AFRICA. I would find it pretty weird if the vast maority of people living there were white, and even so, in the first couple of stages, there were a couple white people in the Plaga-infected hordes.
I've heard a lot of criticism about the part where we visit the African villages and fight a lot of people in grass skirts and war paint, armed with spears. Now, here's the thing. In RE 4, the Ganados fought with primitive farming equipment even in the depths of the Los Illuminados base. Sure, quite a few used guns, but even the cultists were attacking with flails and crossbows. I'd be willing to accept the explanation that Plaga infestation causes you to revert to more feral behavior, and besides, I sincerely doubt that an African village in the middle of nowhere would have easy access to automatic weapons. There's even a diary entry from a little kid in the village that states how weird it is that his tribesmen were wearing war paint and grass skirts, especially when it's not even a festival day, implying that this isn't their usual behavior. Again, I can see where all the accusations are coming from, but I honestly don't think that this is any more racist than the portrayal of the Spanish in RE 4. If anything, African natives are portrayed a lot more as the victims of Bioterrorist activity and come across far more sympathetically then most of the white characters.
Conclusion
Overall, I'd say that Resident Evil 5 is a worthy addition to the Resident Evil franchise. It tackles all the necessary bases and manages to still be scary and thrilling while presenting a good jumping-off point for noobies to the franchise. As the second Resident Evil game I've completed (the first being RE 4), I was quite happy with it, finding it a really nice blend of badass combat and horror, with some of the most freakish monsters I've seen in video games, period. Soon, I'm going to be playing Zero, and then all the way through as much of the Resident Evil franchise as I can. Overall, I'd give RE 5 3 stars out of 5. The partner AI is a bit glitchy, and the inventory system bugged the hell out of me, and the story wasn't the most amazing ever, but overall, I'd call it an entertaining and really creepy ride.
- Kephn
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