Resident Evil 5

From its humble beginnings all those years ago in the Arklay mountains, through Raccoon City and Spain, and now Africa, Resident Evil is a franchise brought into the new generation with a literal bang.  The series has gone through a lot of changes in story, from starting with the T-Virus, and the inclusion of the G and T-Veronica virus in-between, Resident Evil 4 gave us Las Plagas and now Resident Evil 5 presents us with a different strain of this.

Resident Evil 5 (along with its predecessor RE4) has taken a drastic turn from the series' beginnings.  Gone are the narrow hallways of the Spencer Mansion and the confined alleyways of Raccoon City.  In their place are, for the most part, wide open environments where you'll be blasting hordes of the undead, or rather, the series' newest foes, the Las Plagas, whom fans of Resident Evil 4 will immediately recognise.

The Las Plagas are a more challenging enemy than your standard undead. They aren’t slow and lumbering; instead, they will run, use weapons and try and outsmart you.  Playing on the Veteran and Professional modes, I constantly found myself being challenged as I proceeded further through the game. The boss battles are nothing short of epic and these fights usually require more brain power than ammunition, which is a refreshing change.

One of the major complaints about the demo that was released was the control system - the major complaint being the inability to move and shoot at the same time. Capcom stood by the control method and I personally feel it works beautifully after about ten minutes practice. The controls feel fluid and are perfectly suited to this type of over the shoulder action game.  The sudden stops also serve to build a bit of tension as a horde of Las Plagas come towards you and you have no choice but to aim for the head for the quickest take down.

Taking control of Chris Redfield, it is your mission to find and arrest a man named Irving.  He has been distributing Bio-Organic Weapons, or B.O.W's, and it is up to Chris to bring him to justice.  However, unlike traditional Resident Evil games, Chris won't be alone.  He is helped throughout his adventure by Sheva Alomar, an African agent of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), the unit whom Chris now works for.

Playing a Resident Evil game essentially as a co-op game is a totally different experience from the older Resident Evil games.  There are no truly scary moments here, such as that moment we all know with the dog and the window incident from the original.  The feeling of isolation is all but decimated by the constant presence of your partner.  While she is an able helper, even when controlled by AI, I can't help but feel an option of playing totally alone would have been of benefit to long time fans.

The game is designed for co-op though and the game takes every chance to remind you (just how many broken ladders can one small village have?).  Every time there's a broken ladder, you'll need to give Sheva a helping hand to climb them, and every door that Chris can't open on his own is no longer an obstacle once Sheva helps you out.  It's all very teamwork based, and it works surprisingly well.

With the inclusion of a partner comes the inclusion of dual inventory management.  You'll have to swap items in and out for Sheva as well as yourself and more often than not, as able a partner as she is, you'll find yourself keeping weapons and ammo and using her as a packhorse for your items.  This can be a chore as you constantly have to keep an eye on two sets of items instead of just your own; however this is where co-op comes in.

Any gamer of this generation (minus fighting games) knows online is the place to go for multiplayer action and Resident Evil 5's works perfectly.  You can either start a game and allow another person to join, or search a list of currently active games and jump in, it's as simple as that.  The only problem, as with any online game, is that if you play with a stranger there's a high chance they will take all ammo and gold for themselves leaving you short.  However, if you can find an able friend to play it with, it's a joy to play online.

The weapons in the game are good and varied, from pistols to the RE staple: the rocket launcher. Most of these weapons are upgradeable and once fully upgraded you are ablo to purchase infinite ammo for use on your next playthrough, which is useful for the harder difficulties. The game also has a good amount of replay value, giving you the option to shoot BSAA emblems to collect them, allowing you to purchase “character figures” for viewing, as well as new costumes, new weapons and the ever present Mercenaries mode, where you are dropped in a level with a set amount of ammo and left to kill as many Las Plagas as possible before the time limit runs out.

It would be a crime to review this game without mentioning the visuals.  They are some of the most gorgeous graphics on a console to date (and can give some PC games a run for their money) and the frame rate never takes a hit, even when there is a lot of action on screen.

The characters are well designed, however the voice acting is typical Resi fare and you'll most likely find yourself laughing whenever you hear Irving talking, as he releases such gems as “I've just had an extreme makeover” while he transforms into a hideous monster.

A fantastic game no doubt, but a questionable entry into the Resident Evil series. As good as it is, it just doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game.  There's lots of action, lots of explosions but no scary moments.  This doesn't stop it being a great game though, and one that deserves to be played by any third person action fans, as well as Resident Evil fans looking for the complete story.