“Perfection” is a term that a lot of reviewers try to avoid using liberally, but it was hard to think of another way to describe Capcom's 2005 thrill-a-thon for the Nintendo Gamecube, Resident Evil 4. Few (if any) games at that point had mixed so many captivating elements of the survival horror genre with the action genre to create a game that was not only scary and intense, but also fun and exciting to play. Although the obnoxious real-time button sequences during cut scenes were a new feature that flourished in Resident Evil 4, the game smoothed out and basically mastered so many gameplay mechanics that it was hard not to “10” or “A+” the game and hold it in history as one of the Gamecube's “sacred cow” games. When Capcom unveiled Resident Evil 5, fans naturally began drooling violently, yearning for that new blood. They wondered: could Capcom improve on the perfection they had already created?
When Capcom started talking details about Resident Evil 5, the questions started getting answered. Depending on your gaming preferences, those answers would look delightfully positive or sadly negative. It was announced that Resident Evil 5 would take place in Africa, that the game would be created as a cooperative multiplayer affair, and that the new-to-the-series control style from Resident Evil 4 would be almost fully intact for a second round. Hey, if it isn't broke or infected with a virus, why blow it away?
So what is the final verdict? Is Resident Evil 5 worth all of the hype? Will Resident Evil fans be getting the gaming experience they want, and will casual gamers be able to jump right into the series and care about the events that take place? How have those mechanics from Resident Evil 4 evolved between 2005 and today?
The answers to those questions and more, as spoiler-free as possible, are just a click away.
To get things started, it should be immediately confirmed to you that Resident Evil 5 is waist-high in all of the storytelling elements that the series is known for. A casual gamer or series newcomer would most likely say that the Resident Evil storyline is convoluted, and that would be a fair assessment – after all, there have been several breaks in the series (Resident Evil 0, Code: Veronica, Umbrella Chronicles, etc.) that could confuse anyone who isn't keeping a very close record of the Umbrella story and iconic characters like Wesker, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Leon Kennedy. If you are not one of the series veterans, does that mean you should skip Resident Evil 5? I'll say it as bluntly as I can: “Hell no!!”
Meet BSAA Agents Chris and Sheva, the stars of Resident Evil 5.
Resident Evil 5 starts ten years after Chris Redfield's Raccoon City mansion mission. Now an agent in the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), Chris is sent on a mission to Africa to investigate a bioterrorist threat. Upon his arrival, he meets and decides to work with a female agent named Sheva Alomar. Their mission begins to unravel when their informant tells them to locate a man named Irving. Just minutes after walking through a small, dusty shanty town, Chris and Sheva stumble across two locals shoving some sort of parasitic creature down the throat of another helpless villager. The victim attacks – but, as Chris points out, he is unlike any other zombie he has encountered in his missions. Soon after this, the team witnesses their informant's execution – a memorable scene that was present in the game's downloadable demo. They have to fight off a siege of hostile locals, which come to be known as “Majinis”, as well as the hulking executioner that brutally decapitated their informant.
From here, the story moves along at a very satisfying pace, never leaving you in limbo for very long. There is always something exciting happening, which is perhaps one of the game's most defining qualities. The game isn't just exciting because you fight for your life with each encounter; you'll also be finding out more and more about the Majinis, the virus that causes their actions, and the people responsible for these terrible events. After all, the Resident Evil storyline as we know it is supposed to be wrapped up in RE5. I said that this would be a spoiler-free review and I intend to keep it that way, but I think it would be unfair to ignore giving Capcom credit for how intense the plot actually becomes. Just allow me to say this: even when considering every single encounter with any of the enemies in the game, or when thinking about every level-specific surprise along the way, and even considering absolutely every other aspect of the game; it is the story that is done so well, and one particular cut scene steals the show. This particular moment sets itself out as the most pivotal and exciting moment in the entire adventure. This is a plot twist so big that it had me and my partner yelling like excited little children at the television screen, thrilled beyond a extent that our nerd minds could withstand. I will admit that I had never previously cared about a Resident Evil storyline as much as I cared about what was going on in Resident Evil 5. It is just amazing how well it is all presented and unfolded. It also helps that the story-related cut scenes are totally breathtaking to observe. I mentioned in my recent review of Halo Wars that its cutscenes were some of the most amazing that I had ever seen, but Resident Evil 5 quickly dethrones Halo Wars and earns the credit for having the most detailed and stunning cinematic scenes in gaming history. From the beginning to the end, the CG work is relentlessly amazing.
The CG sequences in RE5 are as thrilling as they possibly could be.
Moving past the story, which gets harder and harder for me to not totally ruin for you with each consecutive line of text I type, I would like to discuss the gameplay. As I mentioned at the start of the review, the development team stuck with the controls that made Resident Evil 4 so much different than its predecessors. Like Resident Evil 4, this game is played from a camera angle that isn't very far behind Chris' and Sheva's shoulders, so there is always a sense of paranoia about what could possibly be behind you. There is no targeting reticle: instead, each weapon comes equipped with a laser sight that you must use like a pro in order to see what you are aiming at. There is definitely a learning curve, but mastering the targeting system and shooting into groups of enemies with confidence is what separates an erratic newcomer from an expert survivalist. After mentioning “groups of enemies”, I must say that there is a major emphasis in many of the game's areas on the feeling of overcrowding and being swarmed by hostiles. In most of the stickiest situations, Chris and Sheva are heavily outnumbered by Majinis and are forced to take them all out in order to proceed. Combine these scenarios with the typical Resident Evil ammo conservation mechanic, and you find that you are consistently put into intense situations where taking good shots is always important and knowing when to run is crucial to survival. Like in EA's Dead Space, sometimes it is much smarter to run away from an enemy and recuperate so that you can heal or think of another way to take out your flesh-hungry adversaries.
If you think this looks problematic, you would be amazed to see what else RE5 throws at you.
I haven't said anything about cooperative mechanics yet, and this is where I would like to put a massive emphasis on those. It should be known now that Resident Evil 5 wasn't made to be a single-player experience – no, this game was created for the finest cooperative gameplay possible. The ideal way to play Resident Evil 5 is with a friend you know well and feel safe entrusting with your virtual life. You can access the cooperative campaign from a split-screen mode or over Xbox Live, and both methods work perfectly. Not only are there actual teamwork mechanics set in place for partners to take advantage of, but the level and puzzle designs are also made with those ideas in mind. For example, there are several moments in the game where Chris and Sheva get separated but can help each other out by shooting at the enemies that are approaching each other. In one scene, I was separated from my partner and had to push a large container out of the way so that I could climb onto a building's roof and drop into a room to press a bridge switch. While I was busy slowly inching the heavy container out of the way, my partner sniped at the enemies that were coming up behind me and took out as many of them as he could. I still had to turn around and fend for myself when he missed some of them, but without my partner's help, I would have been overwhelmed in seconds and it would have been “Game Over”. Communication, either from your partner's side or through the Xbox Live microphone, is a life-saver that is essential to completing the game with someone else.
In the common, typical battles with Majinis, your partner may get grabbed by an enemy. When this happens, a button prompt appears that allows you to kick or stab off the enemy and free your partner from danger. Sometimes Majinis will work together just like Chris and Sheva, particularly when there are “mini-boss” enemies like the Executioner Majini and the Chainsaw Majini that like to kill you in one hit. Many enemies have devastating attacks that you must quickly rescue your partner from, so sticking by each other's side is sometimes vital to the survival of the team. Healing items have even been altered in their standard function for the cooperative mechanics of Resident Evil 5. For example, if you are standing beside your partner and you use an herb or first aid spray, you and your partner are both healed the same amount of health with a single item. If one person takes a lot of damage and the other has a healing item, it is up to the team to figure out a way to keep the weaker player alive. Working together with healing items is incredibly important, because here is the punch line: when your partner dies, you both fail the mission. Teamwork is not only encouraged, but demanded from both players. This is not a game where one player can run through with all of the items: sharing and exchanging health items and ammo is more important than racking up an armory or beefing up one's personal inventory.
RE fans, love it or hate it: some of RE5's best moments are its not-scary chase scenes.
Other mechanics from Resident Evil 4 return to Resident Evil 5 in prime fashion. For starters, each character can collect and upgrade many different weapons over the course of the adventure. There are handguns, rifles, machine guns, shotguns, and magnums to find throughout the game. You can also find many kinds of grenades, grenade launchers, and the almighty rocket launcher. Last of all is the trusty stun rod, which is incredibly powerful and takes out most normal Majinis in a swing or two. Items can be purchased in between missions from a store. I am sad to report that the RE5 store doesn't have an iconic salesman to ask what you're buying or selling like the infamous “Merchant” from RE4. To buy items or upgrade your weapons, you collect gold and treasures from fallen enemies, destructible barrels and crates, or chests scattered all over the levels. It works just like it did in Resident Evil 4; but with the co-op mechanic in mind, both partners actually collect the same treasures, even if they aren't the character who picked them up. This means that both players get equal benefits for searching for gold and treasure, and so both players can work toward increasing the proficiency of their arsenal. You can only access the store and your stockpile inventory in between missions, so planning out your actions and taking along the right items is crucial. There may be some trial and error involved in this method of pre-planning each level, since you don't always know what to expect before entering a stage for the first time, but you can revisit the store/inventory menu any time you die or reload a checkpoint.
Upgrading weapons is just as fulfilling as it was in Resident Evil 4, although there isn't as much of a visual difference in the appearance of a stock weapon and a fully-loaded one. The performance differences are just as obvious, though. I would say that in comparison to Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5 suggests more faithfulness to your weapons. There aren't as many to find in the game, but almost all of them have their own little perk. Some weapons have “special features” like upgradeable scopes, critical hit percentages (which result in more exploding headshots), and piercing bullet abilities. Some are just much more powerful than others. Some unlock special weapons when they are fully upgraded. Without ruining the excitement of unlocking the hidden weapons, I will encourage you to upgrade the “starter” weapons in each category: those are the ones that, when fully loaded, unlock the special weapons. I personally found more use in other guns than the starter ones. One handgun can be upgraded to rival the power of a shotgun blast in a single shot, and one shotgun can be beefed up to contain almost as much power as a rifle or magnum shot. As the weapons apply to playing the game cooperatively, sticking with certain firearms and designating yourself or your partner as the “rifle guy” or the “shotgun guy” makes ammo distribution work more smoothly. It also ensures that you can focus on upgrading weapons quicker, since you won't be distributing your money to improving multiple guns at once. Finding your comfort zone with each weapon is important, so you will want to learn which ones work best for you before getting too far through the game and wasting any of your hard-earned gold on upgrading the wrong ones.
Whoever is playing as Chris: "Oh crap, oh god, oh s***, holy crap, oh my god!!"
With most of the great qualities of Resident Evil 5 discussed, I must use this space to admit its very few shortcomings: they do exist, sitting among the 98% of the game that is almost impossible to complain about. First, the real-time button-pressing sequences made their return from Resident Evil 4. While many RE4 fans embraced those sequences and felt like they added another sense of tension and surprise to the game, I felt like they were very annoying and created additional frustrations with cheap and unexpected deaths. Resident Evil 5, I am happy to report, does not contain nearly as many of these sequences – but they are there, and they killed me or my partner many times before the end of my first run through the game. They even seemed to demand quicker reflexes on the Veteran difficulty setting, so the same sequences that I memorized on my first effort killed me again during my second round. Another major problem in Resident Evil 5 is its frequent loading times. Although Capcom has finally evolved from the age of those dreadful “door screens” from the early Resident Evil games, there are still so many loading screens that the flow of the game is sometimes interrupted when you least want it to be. It was a nice gesture to include text about Resident Evil history on the loading screens, but most Resident Evil fans will already know all of those tidbits of information and will be nonetheless annoyed with the waiting periods. Last of all, the final encounter in the game was very frustrating to me. I won't go into any details, but besides disliking the difficulty, I also felt like it was out-of-place and a little too “out of this world” to fit cohesively with the rest of the game.
Not only does the team worry about the Majinis, they also fight the forces of nature as seen in this screenshot.
I feel it is very important to mention yet another factor of the game that seemed to be a giant deal-breaker when the demo came out. While I do not find this to be a valid complaint when considering the overall quality of the game, some people are going to complain harshly about the controls until they finally master them or give up in frustration. Here's the deal: as in all Resident Evil games, you cannot shoot while moving in any direction. In fact, you can't even ready your weapon while moving. Your character stops and waits for you to patiently (or not patiently) aim at a target with the laser sight. This means that every fire fight is a stop-and-shoot exercise. There are two reasons I personally don't dislike this method of control: first, it worked fine in RE4 and it works just as well in RE5. With patience and the gradual skill improvement, this method of shooting becomes comfortable and exciting. Second, and more simply, it is the way that Capcom designed the game. Rather than using cheap scares and gratuitous imagery, the developers create a sense of tension and fear with the limited control of your character while he or she defends him or herself from harm. If that is indeed a deal-breaker for you, that is really too bad – Resident Evil 5 offers far too much to hang up the controller because of the targeting and shooting mechanics.
With those very minor complaints laid out, it should be noted that Resident Evil 5 offers a lot of “game” in general. The story takes place over the course of six chapters, with each chapter containing three stages. Completing the game for the first time will take around 9-12 hours, with additional efforts varying in length depending on the difficulty setting, your desire to search for items, or your determination in finding the 30 very-well-hidden BSAA Emblems. There are three difficulty settings to begin with, and upon completion of the Veteran (hard) setting, you unlock the “uber-leet” Professional Mode. Each unlocks an Achievement upon completion. Each level can be played through again to earn better scores and ratings. You can find all kinds of treasure throughout the game by searching high and low, killing certain enemies, or performing specific tasks – and collecting all of the loot unlocks a hard-earned Achievement. For all the time it's worth, owning every gun and then upgrading them all unlocks two separate Achievements. The beloved Mercenaries Mode from RE4 makes a triumphant return, and can be played cooperatively through system link, split-screen, or Xbox Live connections. There are characters to unlock in that mode, and high scores and S rankings to earn for each level. With the bonus points earned from completing the campaign stages and Mercenaries games, you can unlock special items like three different camera filters, secret costumes for Chris and Sheva, unlimited ammo for any fully-loaded gun, and “figurines” that are exactly like the trophies from the Super Smash Bros. series. As if all that wasn't enough, there is a very extensive library of Resident Evil history, character biographies, and intel on the different viruses that have threatened humanity over the course of the franchise history. With all of this in mind, it is safe to say that Resident Evil 5 has more replay value than most games out there. A player could invest 50 hours into the campaign, Mercenaries mode, and unlocking Achievements and still not get bored with the game.
For the record: Best. Fire. Effects. Ever.
To wrap it up, I must say that I have not been so satisfied with any game since Dead Space came out last fall. While I was not one of the eager Resident Evil fans that bit like a starving zombie at every new piece of information about RE5 before it came out, I was certainly happy to buy the game and I was completely floored by the experience that unfolded. Rarely has a game ever taken its core mechanics so far and executed them so well. Never has there been a cooperative experience that demands so much teamwork out of both players – even beloved games like Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead allowed more room for personal glory in their cooperative campaigns. Resident Evil 5 really has it all: a story that is exciting and interesting from beginning to end, moments that are truly unforgettable, characters that are worth your attention, well-executed gameplay mechanics that couldn't have been cooked any more perfectly, an overflowing amount of bonus features and reasons to keep playing, and the best presentation the Xbox 360 has ever seen. If there are a thousand different factors that make a video game worth playing, Resident Evil 5 does all of them “well” at the very least. There may be a couple of hiccups along the way, but all of the brightly-shining greatness that makes up for it is enough for me to call this one a grand success. So, I have two questions for you: Are you busy? Do you own Resident Evil 5 yet? If you answered “no” to either of these and you have a friend nearby, you are truly missing out on one of this generation's very finest offerings with every passing moment.
Final Score: A
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