Resident Evil 5 Review (PS3)
Now a days I tend to avoid scary games. Yet there was indeed a time when I enjoyed them; enjoy may be the wrong description, it was much more: cringed my way through the experience. Yet clearly some part of it was exciting enough to be entertaining.
Resident Evil (the original) was probably the first horror game I played on the console and boy did it scare the shit out of me. The spooky atmosphere in that vast ancient house, monsters dropping on top of you when you least expect it, and every nerve racking moment when nothing happens but you just can’t help expecting something to jump out at you anyway. Plus I got to kick ass playing a girl, which is always a big plus in my book.
All that is super tame now. Since Resident Evil first debuted the scare factor in games has escalated way out of my tolerance range (granted my range has shrunk a bit.) So when my husband brought Resident Evil 5 home I had no intention of even watching it while he played.
Knowing this, my husband invited a buddy over to play with him. The big new feature in RE5 is cooperative mode, and since I wasn’t being very cooperative, he had to find someone else.
Since I wanted to be able to peek, I stayed in the room playing on my laptop. Gradually I was peeking so often that I gave up and just admitted to watching. The game reminded me quite a bit of the original game and while there were scary bits it wasn’t unbearable.
A little ways into the beginning of the game I was finally convinced to try it. The characters were in a warehouse, a perfect environment to get a handle on the controls. After a bit of controller practice we ventured onward into a train yard, looking around and picking up ammo. And then I came face to face with my first monster, an infected dog. The music went all panicky and creepy, the controller started rumbling, and the rottweiler’s head split in half as a monster emerged.
The only response I could muster was to fling the controller away from me and leave.
Yeah, this game isn’t for me.
Review
Release date: March 13, 2009
Website: http://www.residentevil.com/
Developer: http://www.capcom.com/
Platform I played on: PS3
Game Summery
Another biohazard has broken out in the depths of Africa. Contain it or see the entire human race obliterated (or eaten!)
Game play
The feel of the game reminds me a lot of baseball; great spans of supposed inactivity, pierced by frantic action.
Part of the scare factor is being caught unaware, and the game achieves this by littering the game play with very quite sections – sections where you end up exploring and picking up gear more then fighting. It definitely enhances the jump factor when the monsters do show up.
While this is a pretty standard over the shoulder first person shooter, the controls are a bit different. For one there is no moving and shooting at the same time. It makes for a very different strategy, as in you can’t back up and shoot. No running in this game. I find it easier to control overall as I have trouble aiming anyway.
There are also items to pick up, ammo (yes you can run out of ammo!), different guns, first aid stuff, and so forth. All this stuff can be traded between characters. The inventory system for these items is extremely limited so don’t bother saving too much stuff. Also you have some hotkey slots available for gun swapping and emergency health packs. Super important features!
Combat in general is rather frantic and not a topic I am very familiar with in RE5 as I didn’t actually manage to survive any fights. One thing to note is that there is an added type of combat in the game. Essentially it’s a cut scene with button prompts. Be sure to pay attention and hit them when you need to, because to fail results in instant death.
Overall the game had a very similar feel to the original and I would say is an incredibly strong addition to the Resident Evil IP.
Graphics
The graphics for this game are quite astounding. They managed some pretty awesome artistic magic by hitting the prefect balance between realistic looking models and overly stylized models. The result is a very realistic background and characters with features that are just enough exaggerated to give them a slight super hero look.
Fantastic eye candy!
Multiplayer
The whole game is playable in cooperative mode, which can be local or online. The main character is male, but the second character is female (yaay!) Playing cooperatively on the same screen results in a decent split screen (one on top of the other), yet if you play online, each person at their own console, the screen will not be shared.
It’s a fabulous feature of the game as you can help each other out by getting each other out of tough situations, healing each other, and swapping items.
Multiplayer is probably the biggest reason I ended up trying the game.
The game actually gets bumped up to two because of its cooperative mode and the fabulous graphics. It also helps that it plays really well. Despite my apparent handicap, it was obvious that the game offered a well polished and impressive experience.
Mood Progressions
Last Thoughts
I’m a total wimp. >_<
November 5th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Very fun game. Can be a tad scary, yeah.
Also, the 360 version is *way* better than the PS3 version, just FYI for the loyal readers out there.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Ah a Xbox fan. Always recognizable by the moan of pleasure they emit when the xbox is turned on. The incredibly loud fan seems to trigger some sort of pleasure center in the brain (hur hur) after extended exposure to said device.
Seem that Microsoft put in this Easter egg since they couldn’t guarantee that anyone would like the loud buggy machine that looks like a grey turd.
;P
November 8th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Have you played Left4Dead? I really like it very much.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
No we haven’t played it yet. Not sure if we own it. I should check. Its console right?