‘Resident Evil 5’ Review (PS3)

• Format: PS3/360
• Age Rating: 18
• Developer: Capcom
• Publisher: Capcom
• Local Multiplayer: Yes (2 players)
• Online Multiplayer: Yes (2 players)
• SIXAXIS motion sensitive: No
• Genre: Action/Horror

 
           As soon as the fifth instalment of the Resident Evil franchise was announced, way back when the very first screenshots of PS3 games were being released, it had extremely high expectations upon it. Fans of the series couldn’t wait to shoot zombies to smithereens and get scared out of their wits in high definition, and I’m positive the prospect of this game alone strongly influenced many people to go out and buy Sony’s new console, even before the game itself was actually released. So for all those people that did just that…was it worth it just for that one game? Well, to put it simply, no I don’t honestly believe it was.

          Before I explain why, let’s take a look at the storyline. To sum up, Albert Wesker, the infamous villain from the Resident Evil series, is essentially trying to destroy the human population and then take over the world, becoming the leader of a ‘new age’. Typical. Of course someone has to take on the challenge of stopping him, so Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, who work as partners throughout the game, take up the responsibility of terminating his plans, as well as trying to achieve another more personal objective of Chris’, which is to find out if Jill, his old partner, is still alive.

          The first thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is how very clunky it is moving the characters around the environment. Almost all games in this day and age allow you to walk at the same time as shooting, but unfortunately RE5 doesn’t allow you this liberty. Once you start aiming, you have no choice but to remain stationery. I’m sure you can appreciate how very annoying this is when trying to defeat hordes of zombies that are all coming after you at once, where the only option is to stop, shoot for a bit, then stop shooting, turn around, run a bit further away, turn back round, stop, start shooting again…and so on. Not good, not good at all.

          However having said that, the shooting itself is sturdy, and it’s very satisfying delivering killer blows to your enemies. There’s also the ability to upgrade your weapons as well as buying and discovering new weapons along the way, but you only have nine slots in your inventory so you have to be selective. Although this sounds like a potential negative, it actually turns out to be quite the opposite as it introduces an element of thought to the game; do I want to keep upgrading two or three guns and mainly use just them to save space for armour and herbs (which heal you and/or your partner)? Or do I want to have five or six moderately upgraded weapons and not worry about saving space? The choice is yours, and the fact ammo is somewhat limited at times as well as inventory space adds even more of a tactical element to the game.

          A big part of what has made the Resident Evil series such a success is how bloody terrifying the games are; in fact, I defy anyone who played RE4 at night time to have gone to bed after and not been at least a teensy bit afraid that there was a zombie waiting to come in your bedroom and finish you off. Go on, admit it. But seriously, the ‘scary-factor’ always has been an integral part of the franchise, and although there are some scary moments in RE5 (thinking you’re safe from the Lickers that you’ve just been fending off and then suddenly noticing an approaching dark shadow on the floor just ahead of you will make you yelp), I just didn’t feel that there were enough of them. The huge bosses you have to defeat are, sure, kind of scary, but is terminating a gigantic boss as scary as quietly and stealthily creeping around a run-down house and exploring it, in the fear that a zombie’s going to pop out and try to murder you at any moment? No, of course not. There just aren’t enough moments like that in RE5. Many levels were too blatant and unnecessarily large-scale, when they could have actually toned it down and made it a hell of a lot more petrifying, and hence enjoyable to play. Because, let’s face it, in the Resident Evil series, fear is fun.

            Another factor which detracts from the scariness of the game is the fact you always have your partner with you, meaning you’re never totally alone. This means you never get that sense of isolation like you did in previous games in the series which contributed immensely to the fear felt by the player.

            However although always having a partner with you decreases from how frightening the game is, it isn’t a total bad thing, as it means you can play through the game in co-op on and/or offline. This can be great fun, especially online with a friend as obviously you get the whole screen to yourself and, as ever, playing games with others is very often more fun than with yourself; finishing off a boss or a particularly aggressive horde of charging zombies with a mate after multiple attempts is very fulfilling. However this still doesn’t change the fact that a single player, more nail-biting experience would have been far superior.

             The voice acting is, in fact, excellent for the majority of characters, but unfortunately not all. In my opinion, Sheva’s voice is extremely irritating; she speaks too pedantically, enunciating every letter, and her English accent quite simply does not fit in with all the other American accents of the characters, or the general American action feel to the game. The music in the game, however, is solid enough, with it intensifying as enemies appear and slowing down again once you’ve finished them off. It’s nothing special, but it works, certainly adding to the overall atmosphere and helping the game to be at least somewhat spine-chilling.

            As for replay value, once you’ve completed the main game (which consists of 16 levels, and should last around nine or ten hours for an average gamer) on any difficulty setting you can play the mini-game that first appeared in RE4, Mercenaries mode, which is where you team up to kill as many zombies as possible. This is actually rather fun, but not mind-blowing. There are also figurines to collect, as well as characters to unlock, and of course you can try and complete the game on all three difficulty levels and get a grade A in each level. But really, who on Earth is going to bother replaying the whole of the main game? You got me.

            The graphics in-game are, however, undeniably brilliant; zombies have never looked so pretty. But the outstanding graphics still don’t change the fact that the game is just not as good as previous titles in the series, and that it simply isn’t as enjoyable to play as everyone expected after the huge success of its predecessors.

            If this was a brand new game on the market and didn’t have the rest of the games in the series to live up to, then it would probably be viewed in a better light. But it’s not, and despite being a solid game in its own right, we all know that Capcom are capable of so much more.

7.5/10

Written by David Miles.