Resident Evil 5
Less horror, more action
Tags: Resident Evil 5 Categories: PS3 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Apr 28th, 2009
Resident Evil 5 brings the franchise to the HD consoles, but the franchise is far from intact. For good and for ill, Resident Evil 5 completes the shift begun in the prior numerical entry. This game only has the endless horde of enemies in common with the original Resident Evil, and they aren’t even zombies anymore.
Lest I travel too far down the cranky old man complaining about the comics page route, I will say this is a lot more fun than I had originally given it credit for. Much of that fun is due to the co-op system. Not the stuttering idiot called the AI partner, but a real breathing human at the end of a controller co-op. I have said in the past even a mediocre title can be saved by making it a teamwork experience. The level design early on really helps this process, as you and your partner are forced to work out the best strategies to fend off a swarm of enemies from a corner, and then figure out how to escape when it thins out.
Playing this by yourself is just not worth it though, as the computer AI suffers from the same problem most of them do, terrible item management and zero strategy. The co-op is both couch and networked so it should be easy to wrangle someone to help you slay the majini threat. Majini is the term for the new enemies you face in the desert, which are a cross between the biological weapon creatures of the early games and the new enemies of Resident Evil 4. Also archenemy Wesker is back to annoy Chris Redfield. Bringing Chris Redfield back into he series, the whole storyline has taken a bit of a round robin approach to casting. Even worse when you consider all the spin offs and other fodder they’ve done. That said Redfield’s Boy Scout persona and steroid physique help you suspend disbelief that someone who already survived a zombie outbreak would dive gun first into a giant pile of crazed monsters. Now his partner, Sheva Almoar has no excuse, as she has little reason, and she should be freaking out the minute some keeps walking after their head explodes, but the remain ambling ever closer. The series hasn’t been great about making characters anything more than ready for action figure designs,, so it shouldn’t surprise me. The series’ usual abundance of back-story is still here, and I’m sure that you need to get your footnotes and Wikipedia entries ready so you’re able to understand it.
The controls are still an issue. Stiff and lifeless, the game doesn’t lend itself well to the action, and although they say it promotes tension, that’s just a cover for the awkward two-generation-old set up. Resident Evil 4 had added the second analog stick, and the over the shoulder camera. However nothing else has really been updated. Even in the better definition of the PS3, this still plays like something from 12 or 13 years ago. I do have to compliment that they make the knife moderately useful, and the melee quicktime events have been imported from the Umbrella Chronicles for some variety beyond aim and shoot.
Overall this is a nice addition to the series. Online competitive multiplayer is pay to play, which is a little upsetting, but that seems to be the way things are going. The co-op makes this title anyway, I’m not sure I would waste my time with the competitive game anyway. Although this is no longer a play in the dark game, Resident Evil 5 has enough to offer to be worth playing through at least once.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Great co-op game + Expanded action, melee attacks, makes the game a little different |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- AI partner is next to useless - Pay for play game modes are just a rip off |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| The series may not be in touch with its roots, but it is at least delivering a solid entry that is entertaining. | |
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Tags: Resident Evil 5
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Apr 28th, 2009 and is filed under PS3 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
