Resident Evil 5 Review

Is it RE5 or Fast & Furious 5?
So … I finished Resident Evil 5 last week. I've been a fan of the game series ever since the first polygonish Umbrella-kicking adventure and thus, was eager to play the most recent one in the series. And given that I had not played the fourth part, I didn't quite know what I was in for. Now I know.

Graphics

Alright, so RE 5 is incredibly pretty; it's realistic and sparkling fresh (but not in a vampire in sun way), right down to the executioner's gritty look. And it's not just the people and environment that grab your attention. The folks have added in little details into your surrounds (like when you smash boxes, hack away at apples … as you do) which adds to the overall look of the game. It may not seem like much given that most modern games look disgustingly dazzling but these little bits count in a horror game like RE. Especially when you have to scout around, looking for treasures and such.

Gameplay

This is where I start a bit of a rant. All in all, the game was easy to play. Aim and shoot, press A to run … how bad can it be? I would say that it would have been much easier if it was a PC game. Then you would have more control over camera angles and in fighting monsters. You know, when you are being over-run by majini and you're running out of bullets so every bit counts? And you can't afford to lose bullets? And you have to run around a bit and then shoot bad guys? In such cases, it's not that easy to aim properly. Plus, the camera angle changes as you run and now you must look around for that machine-gun-totting bad guy before fending off the freaky zombie with the stun rod.

These bits probably wouldn't be so annoying if Sheva wasn't such a pain. That's one of the biggest complaints I have about the game. Sheva! Why is she such an epic fail? Sometimes she doesn't attack enemies. Sometimes she just jumps at moving objects, as if she had a death wish. So, if you are maneuvering your way through a rough environment, chances are, she will get caught a) by a majini, or b) on the conveyor belt to the incinerator or c) run off to grab a herb while you are fighting Wesker and then get caught in his spirally trap. Plus, in between handling the frustrating camera angles and supervising the caffineated Sheva, you also have to watch out for goodies (read: ammo) that the dead majini and co. drop. Take your time picking them up and the goodies vamoose. You see what I mean now. I miss Jill.

There's one more bit to add here. Some people may eagerly toast quicktime events with their beer jugs but I'm not one of these folks. For me, it takes away from the game when you follow a series of prompts in order to finish a sequence/kill the boss. This game has plenty of them and it gets tiring after a while. The most painful one so far was that mutant bat in the ruins. Here you get a series of run, jump and grab prompts. What was the point of that? Sure, you get the hang of it really quickly but it still doesn't take way from that disconcerting feeling that you might as well be lab rat following a list of commands issued by a curious researcher.

Story

Alright, so this game wasn't about the story. In fact, the way the story (or whatever measly little story passed for a plot)unfolded was quite different from the old games. Remember how you were excited to discover more about Umbrella? And the eerie feelings you got with each memo or message? Yea, the magic was missing from this version. The story came across a half-hearted attempt thrown together at the last minute. In fact, it was so bad that, at one point, I found myself laughing at the silly plot. Wait for those bits when you have to go through messages and journal notes of this annoyingly whiny researcher in one of the centers. It is such dreary material that you are glad, when he declares that everyone has suddenly got time-off. Yea, good, good, no more emo scientist material, you think to yourself. Then, a few notes later, you find out that a group of the scientists were shuffled onto a bus and then 'taken care of'. Wow, maybe the big bosses couldn't stand his bickering either. Well, for old fans, RE 5 has to live up to the standards set by its predecessors and this is why the story was such a disappointment. Sure, if you stop thinking of it as part of RE franchise and class it as merely another FPS horror game, then it would work.