REVIEW - Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360, PS3, Windows PC)

Most gamers over the age of 20 will have encountered a Resident Evil game at some point in their time as gamers, and will almost certainly have a story or set of memories to go with it.  As for this reviewer, I remember being a terrified 15 year old sat in front of the tiny TV in my room, playing through Resident Evil 2 back in the late 90's.  When I discuss the "Resi" (as they've become known) games with fellow gamers, we all have our favorite moments, and it can be tempting to look back on those truly terrifying games with cloudy nostalgia.  Yes those games contained pant-soiling levels of terror at times, and sometimes had me so scared that I didn't want to progress into the next room or corridor; and yes although the dialogue was risible, I still loved the story - but the games were also quite flawed in many ways that are so easy to forget about when we put on our rose tinted nostalgia glasses.

It has therefore been with some controversy that the series was redesigned with Resident Evil 4; a game that changed a great deal of the established methods of the series - specifically turning the game from a survivial horror game to an action horror game.  Resident Evil 5 (Capcom) follows on in this tradition, and is therefore drastically different from some of the earlier installments into the Resi series.

Chris and Sheva, looking at something...

You play well known Resi character Chris Redfield, who is now part of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), and is called in to investigate a terrorist threat in (fictional) Kijuju, Africa.  In typical Resident Evil fashion, things go wrong almost immediately, and Chris finds himself fighting for survival alongside fellow BSAA member Sheva Alomar against hoardes of infected Africans who have been infected with some sort of parasite - think faster, more aggressive zombie like creations!  It is therefore up to Chris and Sheva to stop the spread of bioweapon technology in Africa and survive, in addition to a variety of other plot devices that appear throughout the story.

Although the story follows the typical Capcom route of becoming more and more ludicrous as the game progresses, with voice acting to match, it is certainly an entertaining one, and setting the game in Africa instead of just some dark Western factory or house makes the game fresh.  Although the typical Resident Evil environments are still there (sewer, laboratory, docks etc), there is a real sense that this is a game that is breathing new life into the series.

Shoot or Run?  Run!!

He ain't trimmin' hedges!

Yet it is not just the environments that are different, but the whole style of the game.  Like Resi 4, Resident Evil 5 is very action orientated, and you'll be slaughtering your way through a lot more zombies (sorry, "Majini") than in the earlier instalments, and the results of this move are sometimes a little mixed.  The critics of this new turn in style are correct when they say that games like Resident Evil 5 are not as scary as the earlier games.  Although it has a few "jump out of your seat" moments, this game gets its thrills from intensity, not from traditional horror scares.  Whilst initially disappointed by this, I found the game to be scary in its own way.  For instance, the game will frequently put the player into a situation that they simply cannot shoot themselves out of - there will be too few bullets, or there will simply be too many Majini running at the player.  The only answer is to run as fast as you can, and try to escape.  At which point, Sheva might lag behind and get caught up in the mob, meaning you'll have to go back and rescue her while not getting killed yourself.  Although the old Resis did have some of those intense moments, they are a lot more common here, and they are absolutely superb.

Unfortunately some of this dissipates towards the end of the game, and it risks falling into the template of  standard cover based shooter.  Although the action is a joy to play, one can't help but feel that it loses some of its intensity and originality in later levels.  The action is cut up with boss fight segments that are exactly what you'd expect from almost any Capcom game.  Locate the weakspot and attack it with everything you have, while avoiding the crippling attacks that the enemy occasionally unleashes.  They are lots of fun, but many of them drag.  Boss fights that are going on well over 10-15 minutes are simply too long, especially if you get right through to nearly defeating the creature, only for your computer controlled sidekick to get killed, forcing you to restart from your last save point.  That is how TV screens get broken with control pads!

Speaking of the computer controlled side kick, this is one of the innovations to recent games that plays a significant part in the game, and like the change in atmosphere, it is up and down when it comes to implementation.  The implementation of NPC comrades in shooters as a whole has been a move defined by bugs, uselessness and downright frustration.  For the most part, Resident Evil 5 avoids these pitfalls.  Sheva is genuinely useful, and although she needs rescuing from time to time, she will pick up items so you don't have to, will come to your aid when you are in a tight spot, will revive and heal you when necessary, and her aim with a gun is flawless.  Hand her a machine gun and almost every bullet will be on target - she can be very very handy.

'Tis but a flesh wound!

However, she is not without frustration.  She can often be very eager to heal you, even if you are only a little bit injured, and will therefore quite happily use up all your health herbs on the most frivolous of pretexts.  I ended up having to confiscate some of them from her, like she was a naughty child who couldn't be trusted near the cookie jar.  Also, it matters not what monstrous weapons Sheva would have in her arsenal; if she had any bullets for her 9mm pistol, that would be her weapon of choice - always!  Although this sometimes worked in preserving ammo, it meant that when we came to face enormous multi-tentacled, building sized bosses, I'd be running around trying to arm my rocket launcher, while Sheva would be happily taking pot shots with her pistol.  Eventually it got to the point where whenever we came to an ammo dump, I would try to locate the 9mm ammo and get to it before she did, so that she would be forced to use one of the bulkier weapons I'd handed to her.

Heal me!!

Apart from these two faults, the system works very well.  It is a much better system when used as a co-op, and is obviously designed to be played in such a way, but the computer controlled player works well enough for it to be an over-all positive addition to the series, despite the frustrations.

Yet Resi's long tradition of frustrating movement and controls have not been vanquished entirely, despite the radical overhaul of the series.  The movement is a heck of a lot better in this instalment, with the ability to turn round and flee a lot easier to accomplish - which is a good thing, as you'll be doing it a lot!  Guns are very easy to aim, and apart from the machine gun which is a little tricky, they all work pretty well.  However, the biggest gripe has to be the inventory system.  Say you are in the middle of some raging battle against a hoard of creatures and you are pounding rounds of your shotgun into anything that moves.  Your health is low and you're stuck in a corner, but you're fighting your way out tooth and nail.  Suddenly, your shotgun clicks empty - disaster!  No worry, you can still fight your way out with your pistol.  In this panicky and heated atmosphere, you must then press the Y button to bring up the inventory, find the pistol with the d-pad, select it with A and then press A again to equip it.  Simply locating the pistol from your selection of guns can take a few seconds,bringing up the inventory, and then selecting and then equipping takes even longer.  None of this would have been a problem had Capcom decided to implement an inventory screen on the pause menu, but this all has to be done in real time; meaning you can be trying to reselect and equip the machine gun, or trying to swap a healing potion for bullets with your partner, all while Chris is stood there with a monster chewing off his arm!

It might not sound big, but in the later levels, it frequently became my number one reason for dying.  Then there are other gripes; loading is automatic when you fire your weapon with no bullets in the chamber, but Chris cannot move as he is reloading (which takes a long time), so you can frantically be trying to avoid some enemy hurling themselves at you, but find yourself unable to move because Chris is slowly putting more rounds in his gun.  With no way to cancel the reload (which can take a good five seconds depending on the gun) and the frequency of some insta-kill enemies, blood pressure can rise very, very quickly.  Yet these frustrations do not make the game bad; but they do prevent it from being an all time classic.

Thomas Malthus vs Zombies!

Wesker is back and as awesome as ever!

From a Catholic perspective, Resident Evil 5 has a good message in there somewhere, but it is obscured by the ridiculous plot surrounding it, and a great deal of gore and violence.  The people Chris and Sheva are fighting against are people who want to use biotechnology to unleash a virus on the world and enact a sort of "Darwinist meets neo-Malthusianist" fantasy of humanity evolving to become gods.  The aim is to create an advanced race of humans at the expense of those who would not be strong enough to deal with the introduction of the foreign virus into their systems.  The influence of the Tower of Babel on the story is obvious, specifically Wesker's claim that it will make them like gods.  Chris and Sheva rightly see this as a monstrous plan and it is this plan that they are trying to prevent from taking place.  Although you will hack your way through plenty of Majini on the way, the ultimate goal is a worthy one - to stop an unprecedented act of bioterrorism and slaughter.  However, this message is slightly obscured by the sheer amount of bloodletting and violence that will occur on the way.  Granted, the violence is occurring to zombie-like creatures, so doesn't carry the same moral implications as killing humans, and you are constantly on the defensive; but it does limit the pro-life message somewhat.

No Resident Evil 5 review would be complete without looking at the accusations of racism that have been levelled at this game.  There can be no doubt that setting the game in Africa was a risky move, and opening up with a hoard of savage out of control Africans attacking the player does nothing to allay this fear.  One of the more amusing aspects of the game is that (presumably at the last minute) Capcom have thrown in a few non-African character models, so occasionally you'll be attacked by a hoard that consists of a handful of people from South-East Asia or Europe; which makes zero sense in terms of plot - unless we are supposed to believe that Kijuju is some sort of tourist hot spot.  As a consequence, it is a slightly tacky way of trying to alleviate people's accusations of racism.

Racist? No. Problematic? Yes!

I saw nothing in the early parts of the game that made me think that the game was even coming close to racism.  Setting the game in Africa means that you are naturally going to get African zombies, just like setting the game in America results in American zombies.  However, Resident Evil 5 gets a little bit dicey later on when it transports the characters to a remote tribal village.  Here, you will find yourself being attacked by virus-infected African tribesmen and women brandishing shields and spears, and making guttural noises at you.  Although I would not want to go so far as to term this part of the game "racist" - it is clear that the writers simply wanted to change environments - I couldn't help but feel that the approach was clumsy and insensitive.  Two Westernized soldiers (although Sheva is African herself) running away from, and gunning down, savage spear-throwing African tribesmen?  Stealing sacred African treasures in order to upgrade your machine gun?  Yeh, I was a little uncomfortable with it, and I like to consider myself pretty open minded.  Again, I don't see any reason to believe that anyone at Capcom had a racist agenda here, and I wouldn't want to discourage games from exploring new environments like Africa, but I did feel that this could have been approached a little bit more carefully by the developers.  It is certainly something that Catholic gamers will wish to ponder before investing in this title.

Mercenaries mode is a lot of fun, and adds hours to the game.

In terms of length, Resident Evil 5 is solid.  The campaign sits at a relatively unremarkable 12 hours, yet the game's vast amount of unlockables means that this is a game that a player will have little problem replaying and discovering a new experience.  Unlockables include the ability to play as Sheva, new costumes, different graphical designs, a graded rating system for each level, and unlimited ammunition that will change the way in which the gamer approaches the game.  The latter unlockable is a great way of encouraging gamers to try the campaign on the harder levels.  Additionally, the Resident Evil: Mercenaries mode makes a very welcome return.  For those unfamiliar with this mode, it involves what is essentially a timed survival mode; where the player has to fend off hoards of Majini and other creatures until the timer runs out.  The more time pickups you collect, and the more enemies you kill (with more points for combos) results in more points.  Not only can you compare your high scores, but they are also used to unlock more levels and more characters with which to play in those levels.  Amidst this swarm of unlockables there are a few duds - notably the collectible figurines of various players and enemies, that seem completely redundant for all but the most obsessive of completionists - but Capcom deserve high marks for making the game so replayable, and giving such good value for money.

Conclusion


From a technical perspective, Resident Evil 5 is very close to being a masterpiece.  Its plot is well-paced and frequently changes environments to prevent boredom, the action is intense and enjoyable, and the co-op system works very well.  The graphics and sound are both of the highest quality and contribute enormously to the creepy atmosphere that hangs over the game.  The campaign sits tight at about 12-15 hours, but other collectibles and modes such as Mercenaries can keep the player occupied for a lot longer, and the game has significant replayability.  A lot of effort has gone into fixing a lot of the problems of the previous instalments, and by and large it works - controls are better, and it is a lot easier to wade through enemies and escape, as well as easier to shoot them when required.  Yet a slightly buggy computer controlled character, a ridiculous inventory system, and some basic control errors (such as the inability to move while reloading) that still remain keep the frustration levels high at various points, and therefore Resident Evil 5 falls short of perfection.  It is still one of the most heart-pounding, exciting, and downright fun experiences available, but it falls just short of top marks.

From a Catholic perspective, Resident Evil 5 has a positive message that is drowned out by fanciful story telling and the quantity of violence and gore that is contained within this title.  Its explicit condemnation of those who wish to use science to forcibly evolve humanity into gods will meet with nods of approvals from Catholics, but exploding heads and significant gore will tarnish this somewhat  Although the blood will by and large belong to what can safely be described as non-humans, there are some gruesome human deaths if the player gets captured by the creatures, and the creatures deaths can be extremely gruesome at times, with decapitation and mutilation a common theme in this game.  Resident Evil 5 also contains frequent crude and crass language and a few instances of profanity, as well as some instances of tribal animal sacrifice.  Additionally, the issues of race that hover over the game are handled clumsily at times which Catholic gamers may wish to consider before investing in this title.

The technical rating for this title is 9/10

The Catholic rating for this title is L --limited adult audiences.  Contains problematic content that many adults would find troubling.