Clearly this is going to upset many people but i'm going to say it anyway. It's just not that good a game. Having seen reviews in the press i'm actually amazed at how high a score it recieved in some very respectable game publications. I could imagine the reviewer writing the final score with a quivering hand, a bead of sweat running down his brow as the gun from the man at Capcom is pushed harder into the side of his head.
Firstly - do not buy this game if you intend to play it in single player. It just doesn't work. At all in fact. But I'll get on to that later.
Also, in a final detraction and dumbing down from the Resi series this edition does away with puzzle solving, reverting it back to a mere action game. In my eyes Resident Evil had always been a forerunner of Survival Horror but Resi 5 shuns this, making the ammo fairly abundant and restorative items relativley commonplace. The survival aspect has almost been stripped away as you no longer have to worry about resources or save points; the latter being removed altogether and replaced with checkpoints. As long as you keep killing you can keep going.
For me the games dumbing down is a step too far as it actually manages to fail where Resi 4 succeeded. In Resident Evil 5 you feel no engagement with the characters, in fact apart from the usual partnership bravado there really is no interaction between them at all. Couple that with the fact that the levels are extremely simplistic and revolve around finding a key from a boss character until you move on and repeat, Resi 5 really does feel like you're playing an entirely different game from its namesake - it's Resi in name alone.
I suppose having been spoilt with the excellent control system of Issac in Dead Space it comes as a shock when Chris Redfield, with all his years of military experience, can't actually point a gun and move at the same time. The commando equivalent of a cat with a sock on its head, Chris stands stock still the second you aim your gun which results in a kind of POINT, FIRE, RUN AWAY, POINT, FIRE, RUN AWAY strategy. Later in the game this works a little better but at the beginning when you're plugging away at a zombie with your pathetically weak pistol and discover you can't walk back as it bears down on you you begin to realise the critical flaw in this dynamic.
The main bugbear in the game for me is the odd addition of Sheva. I have yet to play the co-op experience and can only assume it works more proficiently because in single player it's actually, genuinely, laughable at times. Often i found the tragic humour of what Sheva was going to do next was the only thing that was keeping me soldiering on.
Unfortunately for this actress Google claims that she's the inspiration for Sheva. She best keep one eye open at night.
There are many examples of Shevas demonstration of her wayward spirit and i believe if she actually existed she would be diagnosed with having Attention Defecit Disorder. Many is the time that i've screamed at the screen, "SHEVA WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" or, "DON'T USE THAT YET!! YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO!!!" or, "STOP FIRING!! SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD!!"
The AI behaviour of Sheva is what i imagine to be the same as playing co-op with someone who either really hates you or is doing everything in their power to scupper your gaming experience.
Two things stick in my mind after my excursions with Sheva; firstly was her buggering off with the lamp in the mines to leave me banging around in the dark surrounded by zombies and secondly was her insisting that she could finish off some zombies on a cliff top. Reluctantly i gave in, i'd been tricked by Sheva before but like an idiot i decided to give her one last chance - i boosted her up the cliff and watched as she sprinted off with a grim resolve on her beautiful face.
A few minutes elapsed as i polished off the zombies on the ground and i began to look at my watch and grow concerned. Then i started to see her health bar going down. I started hammering the circle button trying to recall her so that i could heal her (again) and probably restock her ammo as she had no doubt used it all again with wanton abandon, shooting squirrels and rocks and generally just being flipant about the whole mission.
A few minutes more and a message appeared on my screen informing me that my partner had died and that, consequentally, i had died as a result - despite the fact that i was just standing around waiting for something to happen.
What Capcom were thinking when they added this unpredictable, chaotic element into the game is beyond me - Ashley in Resi 4 was a nuisance but at least you could throw her in a bin until things cooled down. In contrast Sheva steams in there, firing bullets everywhere and refusing to equip weapons that are handed to her. Many is the time when shes wheeled on me, mid firefight, and demanded more ammo even though i know full well she has a fully stocked machine gun and is just being awkward.
A typical in-game shot, this is taken moments before Sheva no doubt empties a clip into a passing dog, throws a grenade at you and then runs off. Probably to die somewhere like cats do.
Don't get me wrong, as a game this is passable - as a Resident Evil game, however, it falls significantly short of the mark especially in light of what Resi 4 delivered. If you can forget that it has much to do with the Resi franchise and don't mind playing a somewhat shallow, stripped down version of what should've been an amazing game then by all means go out and buy it. You probably have already considering the hype over the last few months.
For me though this game has been an enormous disappointment, especially considering as this is Resi's first foray into the next gen market. The return of Chris Redfield, the ideal setting of Africa which harks back to classic films like Zombie Flesh Eaters - for me the formula seemed perfect.
It's such an enormous shame that Capcom felt the need to dillute the experience in order to tack on a co-op mode. Maybe i'm just anti-social but i don't always want to play games with others and i feel that this game, in particular, is a grim forebearer of the future - a future where if you don't want to play co-op your single player experience will be greatly diminished. If this is still classed as Survival Horror then the only Survival part for me is trying to play it through to the end and the Horror is that i paid £39.99 for it.
My verdict: 6/10
Any criticism or opinion is greatly welcomed, join me tomorrow amigos.
Okay so now i've completed it and maybe i was a bit harsh in hindsight.
ReplyDeleteI still stick by what i said about the enforced co-op decision but i think the game deserves a 7 and a half out of 10.
For anyone finding it hard going just endure up to the mines and then things start to get good, also there's enough unlockable content here to keep you going for a while.