There’s recently been quite a bit of debate on the internet as to if the new Resident Evil game is racist. But there hasn’t really been a lot of talk of if the game is actually any good. The short answer is that if you liked RE4, you’ll probably like RE5. The not so short answer is that there are tradeoffs made in this iteration that fans, newcomers and gamers in general will probably feel very different about.
Resident Evil 5 takes the series to Africa where Chris Redfield of the first RE game is now working for the BSAA ( Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance ), an anti-terrorist agency working to contain the threat of terrorist biological attacks. Upon his arrival, he teams up with Sheva Alomar, a member of the West African branch of the BSAA. The story has them working together to uncover the party behind releasing Las Plagas in Africa, a troubling part in Chris’s past, and a new threat that could envelop the world. Long time series fans will be happy to learn that RE5 trys to book end the games up to this point by helping provide a bit of closure for the many stories opened up over the years and will hopefully allow Capcom to take some more risks with RE6.
RE5 revives the mechanics of RE4 with the close over the shoulder camera, action packed gunplay, and quicktime events. While many of the mechanics from RE4 make the transition to RE5, Capcom decided to shake things up, add co-op gameplay to the series, and tweak some other minor elements. This originally seemed odd to me for a horror game to have co-op as one of the staples of the series has been the idea of creating the personal horror of being alone in the dark surrounded by enemies and monsters. Removing these elements makes the game more action oriented with a total removal of the survival horror elements.
The game sports a series of upgrades to the interface to help keep the player in the middle of the action. The new inventory system takes away the cumbersome item management of RE4 and creates a sense of urgency for the player as they’ll need to select items quick as zombies bear down on them. To help with this, Capcom made the d-pad hotkeys for the four positions in your inventory, allowing you manage your weapon/Item load out in the heat of battle. You can also now access the map in-game, just like your inventory, allowing you to find your way around the sometimes mazelike environments. RE5 also now restricts your ability to buy and upgrade weapons till the end of a sub-chapter or until the player dies. Overall, streamlining these features helps to boost the urgency for the player to act and gives the player more control to make decisions on the fly.
The only thing that may mystify some people is the decision not to adopt Dead Space’s mechanic of allowing the player to move and shoot at the same time, but this seems like a pretty clear decision on Capcom’s part. By forcing the player to pick if they should move or shoot, you create situations where they are vulnerable. While this is a mechanic held over from RE4, it holds even more merit in a game where you need to cover and be covered by your ally.
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