14 DAY TRIAL // Last year, the Resident Evil 5 initial trailer caused a lot of controversy when it featured an all-black cast in the role of the mutants and recently new questions have been put about the way racism affects the gaming world, after game journalist extraordinary N'Gai Croal remarked: "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game."
Jun Takeuchi, who is the chief producer for the game from Capcom, has said the setting was only chosen because of the way the story of the game would take the player back to Africa. He says: "I'm not a scientist, so I don't know how things might change in the future, but we thought we would use Africa, which is now called the birthplace of humanity, as the model." The fifth game in the Resident Evil franchise will attempt to explore the origins of the virus that turns people into zombies and a parallel with the origins of mankind was too good an idea to pass up. There was no intention on the part of the team to hurt anyone's sensibilities with their choice.
The sun-drenched African villages and other locations the players will visit also allow for some very interesting gameplay mechanics. The very powerful light will make the shadows apparently even harder to peek into, so the player will learn to fear the places he cannot see into. Also there will be plenty of places where you need to pass from darkness to light, a move that will temporarily blind you and make you very vulnerable to any zombie attack.
Chris Redfield will feature heavily in the storyline and there will be ample opportunity to learn what he has been doing since the days of STARS. The zombies will be more intelligent and capable of taking you down, which is pretty normal considering the fact that the arsenal the player can use to destroy the infected is also more powerful, with several new weapons added. And if ammo is low, there's also the option of taking any enemy down in hand-to-hand combat.
Takeuchi says the team wants to make it so "Everything he[Chris Redfiled]'d experienced in the past ten years we wanted to be able to allow the player to experience as well, so we're preparing a few ways to encourage the player to do just that." This might mean either a flashback system like that in Metal Gear Solid 4 or maybe even a chance to go back and replay some of the most important moments from the past.
Look out for more details from us as the game is nearing the yet undecided release date, which will surely fall somewhere in the last months of the year. Until then, take a look at the trailer that sparked controversy.