Reloaded Review: Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)

Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Player:(s) Offline 1-2, Online 1-2
Genre: Survival Horror
Release Date: (NA) March 13, 2009 (JP) March 5, 2009 (PAL) March 13, 2009
Platform:(s) Xbox 360 (also on PS3, PC)
Rated: Mature

Resident Evil 5 is a game I have been meaning to review for a long time now since I have a lot to say about it. Keep in mind that I am a huge fan of the franchise and have been since the original game's release in 1996.

This game features series veteran Chris Redfield as he is deployed to Kijuju, Africa to join his new partner Sheva Alomar as they attempt to capture a man named Ricardo Irving who is attempting to sell a bio weapon on the black market. As the story begins, they quickly realize that something is going terribly wrong in the town.

I'll begin by discussing the pros of the game before I delve into the bad aspects of it. Resident Evil 5 features some of the best graphics on any console to date. The environments, character models, special effects and everything else look nearly photo-realistic. Everything in the game is so highly detailed that it's sometimes hard to tell what is real and what isn't.

One of the biggest features implemented in RE5 is the new co-op mode. You can literally play through the entire story with a friend and quite frankly, this is the only true way to play the game. Co-op is available both offline and online and any items and weapons you have obtained during your single player campaign are transferred over to online play. It's a very fun way to play through the story without having to deal with the A.I. and I'll get into that later.

RE5 features one of the series' best musical scores to date featuring both ambient musical pieces and adrenaline pumping music that cues in at perfect moments in the game which only adds to the intensity of your situation.

Seeing some of the characters from the older games like Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker was a huge bonus in my eyes and it was great to see how a story spanning over five games finally came to an end. The voice acting was also very good as far as most of the characters go. Some of them have pretty annoying voices and I wouldn't be surprised if they caused your brain to bleed in agony.

Replayability is also something this game does very well. Every time you clear a stage, you earn points to use in a library where you can purchase alternate costumes, weapon upgrades, trophies, and other in-game bonuses which will definitely keep you playing for a while so the price is worth the amount of content this game has.

Now onto the bad. The controls are really annoying and take a lot of getting used to. You cannot move while aiming and vice versa and considering they are pulling the Resident Evil series further and further away from it's horror roots and more into the action genre, they should have seriously made this an option at least.

Like I said before, the A.I. in this game is terrible and I'm not talking about the enemy A.I. Sheva is one of the dumbest characters in gaming history. She will constantly get hung up on obstacles, get lost somewhere in the level, walk directly into an enemy and get herself killed, and in one level in particular where you have to travel across a bunch of conveyor belts, she will constantly get pushed to the very end. Capcom did put a switch there to turn off the belt so maybe they knew they had screwed up on Sheva's intelligence from the very beginning.

My final and biggest complaint is that Resident Evil 5 is just Resident Evil 4 with a graphical overhaul. It's exactly the same game with very few changes, if any. Don't get me wrong though. Resident Evil 4 was a great game but you'd think Capcom would have improved upon this title in some way and you know it isn't a good sign when you're playing a game and suddenly start to feel deja vu.

If you are looking for a typical Resident Evil experience, you aren't going to get it here. The only thing that makes RE5 anything similar to the old games is that it features the characters. If you were introduced to the series through RE4 and have not been exposed to the older games then you will no doubt enjoy this one. I mean I enjoyed it, I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Adrenaline junkies and fans of fast-paced action games like Gears of War should definitely check it out, and even fans of the franchise itself should at least give it a rental to see how the story ends.

7/10

12/10/09 Colton West