...but, in light of Resident Evil 6 coming out on 10.02.2012,
I decided to finally sit down and actually play Resident Evil 5. I had
this lingering self-disappointment going because I’ve played virtually
all the other games all the way through, save RE0, so I needed to play
it before then. Killing time needed, I plopped it in and took it
serious.
So, I should point out that I am terrible with manual aim. Like, I
am hopeless when it comes to that, so I tend to ammo stock because I go
in with a flurry of explosions and bullets. In the older games,
auto-aim was my tell that something I heard in the shadows was indeed
not my imagination. I remember distinctly going through a hall that was
painfully dark in REmake, and hearing the sound you never want to hear:
a Crimsonhead. Auto-aim and screaming got me through that.
But I managed to get through RE4 and I will make it through RE5.
My biggest props goes to Sheva’s AI programming. I enjoyed Ashley
from RE4 because she actually sometimes did things. Suddenly, we have
Sheva, who will intelligently fight and heal you—as long as you know
when to appropriately work with Cover/Attack. Now, keep in mind I’ve
not touched the alternate control settings, but it’s so annoying that I
have to waste so much time to make her attack, but it’s so easy to make
her cover. Other than that, Sheva is brilliant in my opinion.
I miss the attache case, though. I really preferred the puzzle
system to fit as much as possible to it compared to having nine slots
per character—two of which get eaten up with additional armor you can
buy. Really, the toughest part of the game to me is trying to stand
there, passing items back and forth with Sheva while we’re about to get
our faces ripped off by not-zombies.
I do like that you can go for upgrades whenever you hit a new level
or you die, I like that you don’t need to worry about comboing treasure
to make it more expensive, and I like that you can replay levels so
easily. It’s very Devil May Cry (and I’m sure other games too, but if
you friend me on XBL, you can see how many games I’ve played). Better
yet is the ability to go replay a mission, and then just keep going. No
getting kicked out to the main pick screen after you’re done like in
Assassin’s Creed (my favorite series evar).
If you’re looking for that eerie environment and unsettling images,
but you’re a longtime adventurer into survival horror, outside of the
first sequence, you might find yourself a little disappointed. There
was only one place where I found myself going, “Oh. Well, This isn’t
good.” And that’s when a classic Resident Evil monster is about to come
out to play (look at me being good with no spoilers).
Now, I’m not saying it’s not Resident Evil because of this. It’s
just not the haunting and gut-wrenching anticipation creating Resident
Evil like it used to be. They gave us daylight, and with it, it’s about
surprises and stress.
Frankly, I’m thankful the video game series hasn’t fallen victim to
the issue the Silent Hill franchise has, meaning falling victim to the
movies. I would never buy a game again if they had. Anything that has
happened similar to the movies (judging by what’s happening in RE6’s
trailers) has been through a storyline progression and not just ‘so,
here’s a super chick and let’s let the world all be zombies’.
Because most of the mechanics issues that I have are 95% my fault, I
give RE5 a round of applause and recommend it to anyone who likes
shooters, stress-inducing games, and light horror elements.
The above was written around mid-July 2012
--------------
UPDATE: I have since finished RE5. I REMAIN FIRM IN MY JUDGEMENTS THAT IT'S MOSTLY BECAUSE I'M A FAILGET AND IT'S A GOOD GAME. Story-wise, I would have liked more.
But.
It's Resident Evil. We take what we can get.
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