Capcom is no stranger to the gaming industry, they have made many famous games nowadays and they have had an undeniable impact (Mega Man, Street Fighter, The Vs. Series, etc...), but out of all of their franchises, Resident Evil is without a doubt their most popular.
I have talked about Resident Evil before, (even made a couple of video reviews) and today I talked about one of the most polarising entries in the series has well has the most successful sales wise, Resident Evil 5... a game that me in particular find a lot of enjoyment out of.
Originally released in 2009 for the PS3 and 360, later on PC that same year; the story fallows Chris Redfield, working for the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (or BSAA for short) on a mission to stop BOW weapons trafficking between terrorist happening in Africa. Accompanied by a local BSAA branch member, Sheva Alomar, Chris will soon discover that there is more happening to this mission than meets the eye... will he be able to discover the truth and survive the horror long enough to discover it?
While the RE series has never been high art in story telling, this game serves a much bigger purpose to the series that many realise and that is giving closer to a chapter in the general saga, I won´t spoil much but If you have played the game and are familiar with the RE story then you know what I am talking about... that is not without saying that the story is all perfect, the writing is ok but is many of the choices present in the game that overall hurt the experience... here is what I mean: judging by the story presentation, the writing's weak points and late implemented gameplay elements it feels like RE5 turned out completely different than what it turned out and while all of this is not bad per say it did damaged many of the potential the game had. RE5 was originally going to be single-player with moments where you team up with other characters but most of the time you were going to be Chris alone in a one men fight against horror BOWs in Africa... but then co-op was implemented...
Witch takes me to the gameplay aspects of the game, RE5 is simply put RE4 with co-op; the whole of the game is available to play with a friend from beginning to end and it is a fun ride having someone with you helping out blast monsters. On top of the cooperative element, RE5 adds much more melee attacks and weapons than any of it's predecessors, but despite all this improvements it still somehow remained in it's laurels when they set up the game to have you completely still while firing... at the point RE5 lunched; games like Gears of War and Uncharted already had expanded upon the huge foundation that RE4 stablished with it's over-the-shoulder perspective (pretty revolutionary back in the day believe it or not), but the fact that the people in production made no attempt to incorporate the improvements brought in by others shows that either they thought the improvement weren't required for the game or that they were dumb.
The game's complete edition that goes now for all the consoles includes the Mercenaries mode, where you kill has many monsters has you can before the time runs out and I'll just say right now that this iteration of the Mercenaries mode is my favourite so far, the maps are fun, the monsters you face are fun and the flashing constant action happening on screen makes it a really addicting experience... not to mention it includes the largest rust of characters we have seen in any other iteration (or at least more interesting and fun characters than RE6 IMO). Lost in Nightmares takes you inside an Spencer Mansion type setting similar to the original Resident Evil, Desperate Escape is an action oriented affair where you battle through multiple enemies in an unseen chapter from the story and of course the Versus mode where you battle other players in a Mercenaries type setting... it's an alright mode but is nothing like other competitive experience that you can get from other games out there so don't get to exited about it.
Resident Evil 5 sold many copies, making it one of the most successful entities in the series (the most successful if you only count sales), but fans weren't fully satisfied: Many seem to agree that it's a fun action title for it's time, but many more felt alienated by the fact that it left behind the puzzle solving and exploration of entries past in favour of a more action oriented take to the series (maybe even more than RE4). While I perfectly understand this criticisms and are right, I still find myself enjoying this title... maybe because it's still the same RE4 formula I like but with a little more spice and the addition of cooperative play it's a better way to share the experience with someone else.
RE5 still looks great, even after almost 8 years it holds up amazingly well to the point that proves just how much a good art direction can take your game from looking good for it's time into timeless. That's not to say the visuals are all perfect, the character models can look pixelated up close and the lightning hits show their date by the bloom effect.
Even with all of it's flaws and more, Resident Evil 5 is a fun ride for me, it's not perfect or mind blowing but who says a game has to be does things to be a fun experience? I enjoy RE5 for being a fun action rollercoaster and giving closure to a chapter in the saga of Capcom's beloved series and that alone is enough to make me happy I spent the asking price.
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I am sorry for the lack of content on the blog; but if you fallow me regularly you are probably aware that I have started publishing my comic series here... I want to let you guys know that later today is the Prologue 15 so stay tuned there!
I will try to post more reviews and other stuff regularly.
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