Resident Evil 5/Biohazard 5 (PS3, 360)
Let’s not kid ourselves, if you’re reading this then you probably already have an opinion of Resident Evil 5.You will know about the ‘unique’ controls and know how they will affect your enjoyment. If the barrier of these controls is insurmountable for you, don’t buy it. While the game is more varied than the demo let on, the controls never improve is exacerbated by the camera, which at times zooms in so close that you loose peripheral vision. But I am not here for a technical breakdown of the game. I’m here to tell you what I think of it.
Bear with me on this. RE5 is like a bowling ball which has had an ice cream scoop sized hole taken out of the middle of it. Well not quite the middle, a little off center. It feels a little hollow and unbalanced. But the ‘bowling’ experience, throwing the ball, the atmosphere and slipping around in rental shoes, remains fun even if the game isn’t as ‘good’.
It’s hard to explain why this game feels hollow. A lot of it is to do with the characters. Previous installments managed to produce an interesting, frequently camp, cast. Though they were usually raging stereotypes, this worked in the games favor. Capcom never went out of their way to develop character, so their archetypal nature helped you fill in the blanks. In RE5 Capcom leave the same gaps in character development but now their motivations are unclear. Eventually you ‘unlock’ case files for each of the characters. These help fill out the back story but they tend to become available only after characters are no longer relevant.
Take the game’s initial target Irvine. His direct counterpart in RE4 would be Salazar. As an antagonist Salazar is ridiculous but his behavior is at least consistent, providing the player with a clear concept of his motivation. With Irvine, the writers seemed to want to make a more complex character, but couldn’t find away to convey this during the main narrative. This leads to him to ping-ponging between being confident and cowardly for no obvious reason. Even your motivation for chasing him seems unclear beyond the fact he’s annoying. It makes it hard to care. It’s only upon reading his file that you discover why his behavior oscillates so wildly and how involved he is in the proliferation of bio-weapons. It repeated for every character bar Wesker, you simply play through them like road bumps as opposed to being invested in the fight.
Similar problems extend to the story, which takes itself too seriously. I should qualify that at first, though the series did mimic many B-movie traits it was not in parody but in homage. The setting, the villain perpetually wearing sunglasses provided a mirror in to Japan’s view of American horror movies. RE-Code Veronica set the series off in a more camp direction. It continued to use the crazy puzzles seen the original games, but created a series of strange settings to keep the pace of the game moving. RE4 took this a stage further with walking statues chasing you and vast underground vaults erected to protect sections of puzzles just to open a door. RE5 seems to have decided to move towards a more serious style. Crazy puzzles are rare, and feel like a contractual obligation to the fans. Environments also feel like they are more grounded, but this only serve to exaggerate how artificial the game environments are, and leaves everything feeling soulless.
RE5 goes out of its way to recapture the atmosphere of RE4. Indeed maybe this is the problem. It hits many of the same milestones, trying to recapture the last installments’ magic. Sometimes a little too overtly. You can predict the majority of the game just by thinking back to the last installment and transferring the setting to Africa. Even the games few plot twists are as hackneyed as a Tom and Jerry episode.
Of course the RE always touted itself as survival horror but the series departed from the traditional tropes of the genre after the third game. Initially the changes were subtle. Resource management was down played, ammo became plentiful and enemies became more numerous, until it became a different kind of game. Suspense was replaced by action and survival was replaced by… well survival, but the fight kind rather than the flight kind.
The introduction of a partner (Sheva) also serves to dilute the horror experience. It was a concern I had back with RE0 on the Gamecube, but there you could at least separate from your partner. In RE5 you are bound throughout. Even if you leave control of Sheva to computer the ability of your partner to revive you makes you nearly invincible. Indeed the only times I died during my first play through the game was during quick-time-events and instant kill sections of the game. Oh, and one boss encounter when Sheva locked me in a furnace. This makes the only tense sections of the game times when you are up against a dude with a chainsaw or cut scenes when you’re not sure if it’s going to become a Q-T-E. So I suppose it does remain scary, but for the wrong reasons.
It sucks. No not the game, but the fact that it isn’t as good as I had hoped it would be. It goes through the sequel motions, better graphics, interface tweaks, co-op, but it never manages to live up to its predecessors. Where 4 felt fresh 5 feels stale. But I guess that’s the risk of stretching a single story over thirteen years. In truth it is a good game, just not a great game, which as a fan leaves me feeling a little disappointed.
Tags: 360, Capcom, PS3, Resident Evil 5
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Few things are as frustrating as expecting greatness and merely getting “very good.” My only defense has been to actively erode my expectations in life, which at times leaves me feeling kinda empty inside. But the trade off is I am disappointed less often.
It sounds RE5 echoes 4 in a lot of good ways but the few new ideas it brings don’t add up to much. This may be an impossible question to answer, but when viewed independently, is 5 as good a game as 4?
As a game it is about the same. The set pieces are better realized in 4 and there it feels varied. 5 looks better and with a friend the co-op is fun. But where 4 felt like a side story, 5 feels like it progresses the universes plot, but not always for the better.
If I could play 4 with 5 graphics I would be very happy. But really it depends what your looking for. If you have never played an RE game before though I would say go with 4 and pick up 5 later if you enjoy it (maybe after it drops in price.)
Had another great question: which do you prefer, RE5 or Dead Space? I know you were really impressed by the latter and the two strike me as similar, so how does RE5 compare? I’m trying to see how (if at all) your opinion of RE5 might change without its previous games looming overhead.
Its a tough question. Dead Space came at a time when there were 100 other games around stealing my time away. The time attacks and RPG style persistent character are pulling me back into RE5 more, as are the extras I am yet to unlock. But is that just a sign of the lack of other titles at the moment? I can’t say.
DS was far more satisfying and really felt like survival horror, so snatches it in a head to head. It has more atmosphere and really consistent style that RE5s location hoping doesn’t archive. But RE5 is growing on me as an action game, and while it isn’t what I really wanted from it, it is keeping me enthralled.