Resident Evil 5 Review

I've been playing Resident Evil 5 for the past two days now, and I'm torn. The game had the potential to stand as a seminal title of the Biohazard series and of the current console generation, but a few fatal flaws have relegated the title to simply, "A great video game". RE5 demands a lot of the player in terms of patience - and I'm not referring to the controls. Too often am I asked to bear with convoluted boss encounters, idiotic ally A.I. and a few broken mechanics. I could recall hundreds of anectodes during gameplay, but the point stands - there are some moments where Resident Evil 5 simply doesn't feel like a good game. Now that I have your attention, I'd like to make it clear, those moments can be few and far between and (depending on your opinions and expectations) they may never make themselves obvious.

Capcom has done something wonderful with the game's environment. Graphically, I was disarmingly astonished by the games achievements. Not only are the weapon and character models great, but the environment wreaks of a sordid mood which enhances the experience. From time to time, (and most notably in the Cavernesque underground city) you'll exit a tunnel or small room and be rewarded with a stunning view, which will make you forget you're playing a horror/survival game. Reuben Langdon, the motion-capture director for RE5, has claimed he wanted the game to reach a cinematic and Hollywood-esque zenith. With that in mind Resident Evil 5 can be considered an accolade in bridging the gap between video game and high-budget motion picture. Some of the game's quick-time events and cinematics will keep your mouth ajar for minutes - I assure you.


I played Resident Evil 5 both with a friend and alone. I essentially played two different games. The first was almost reminiscent of Left 4 Dead. Complete co-operation was paramount, zombies were in sight and, above all, the plot took a backseat to over-coming the games difficulties. While playing the second game, I sat at the edge of my seat, volume turned up, paying close attention to my own character and the environment surrounding him. The second game had me "examing" every inch of each area - tapping "X" at anything that looked like it might reveal some parochial detail about my situation. I can't definitively claim one style of play is better than the other, but I can tell you that, they were two completely distinct experiences, yet it seem seems obvious that RE5 was made for co-operative play.

Considering the mass hysteria over Resident Evil 5 my I'll get to the point and make my reservations obvious. While the weapons felt great, there were fun and challenging puzzles, the game looked gorgeous and the plot seemed passably enjoyable, there were quite a few things which lead me to believe the development team was just outright lazy. First and foremost, your A.I. counter-part is completely mindless. If you're not playing the game with a friend or a stranger over PSN or XBL, you're out of luck. Your partner acts like a toddler - someone on whom you have to constantly check up. I played as Chris, and so Sheva was my team-mate. Not only would she expend all of my hard-earned ammunition, she would habitually waste green herbs and sprays. Sheva could not even hold her own, despite all of the powerful weaponry I handed over to her, she would continually find herself with lower health than me. This problem persists on all difficulties unfortunately. Luckily, the A.I. stays close to the player-controlled character, so it can't cause too much trouble.

Another small pet peeve I found with the game, was the voice work. The cinematic acting was great, and I have no issue with it, but I'm shocked to see developers recorded so little in the area of in-game voice commands. You will not hear Chris or Sheva make more the than 3 or 4 unique commands - and for a 10 hour game, hearing "take this" or "help" yelled in the exact same manner gets annoying. Lastly, Resident Evil 5 makes its fair share unreasonable demands of the player. I've never played a game which forced me to do so many boring and tedious things in repetition than RE5. Especially on veteran mode, bosses and more powerful enemies will force you to unload your ammo for more than six minutes without pause. After the first two, it tends to become uninteresting and boring.


All my complaints concerning Biohazard 5 seem - in my mind - to be temporary. Because as soon as I kill an oddly-powerful enemy, or once Sheva seems to smarten up after some trial and error, I can't help but to feel excitement for what is coming next. Even now, with the game complete, it's difficult to feel dissapointed by what I got from playing the game. I may have sounded wildly pessimistic, but rest assured, RE5 is a must-play. It's getting quite late, so I'll probably edit this and elaborate tomorrow. And if you're curious, I own a hacked Xbox and so I was able to play about 12 days before the release.