14 DAY TRIAL // The Resident Evil franchise has been one of the most acclaimed series of survival horror games, winning over a lot of fans with its intricate gameplay mechanics and the eerie atmosphere. Now, with the latest installment, Resident Evil 5, the game has ventured farther from the horror genre and closer to the action one.
I recently had a chance to play the game in co-op mode with my colleague, Andrei Dumitrescu, and here are my impressions of Capcom's latest and, supposedly, greatest title, which has been selling quite well.
At first glance, the most impressive aspect of the game is its looks. The fictional African country of Kijuju is stunningly detailed and by far one of the best-looking virtual worlds ever created in a video game. The second aspect that jumps into the attention of the player is a somewhat funny one, as the muscles of the main character, Chris Redfield, are some of the biggest ever modeled in a video game, and a great difference from the somewhat slimmer version of him that appeared in previous titles, including the first Resident Evil. It just goes to show that fighting zombies is even better than going to the gym.
The plot is detailed through the unskippable cutscene at the beginning of the game. Chris is a member of the BSAA, an organization that works on preventing bio-terrorist threats, and, from what we've seen in previous games, it isn't doing a good job. He is teamed up with African agent Sheva Alomar, who has been added to serve as a pack mule in single player mode and a true life saver in co-op – that and to avoid any racism claims against Capcom.
As always, while the village in which you are present seems rather quiet, all is not well, and its inhabitants are infested in just a short cutscene with a deadly virus that transforms them into zombie-like creatures. It's up to you and Sheva to prevent this virus from spreading, even if it means killing every citizen of Kijuju in the process.
The fact that you don't move while you are shooting is something a big aggravating, but you do get used to it rather quickly. You won't get used to the limited inventory system, which only has 9 slots – in later moments of the game these get filled up very quickly. Luckily, your partner can ease the load and carry items for you.
We're thrown into action immediately, being faced with a horde of zombies that aren't very thrilled with us being there. While the regular monsters are relatively easy to dispatch, there are some very special and rather big enemies that won't go down without a fight. Chris' muscles come into play on a lot of occasions, besides opening doors and holding weapons, as you can punch or kick the zombies after you stunned them with your hand gun or machete.
But Resident Evil 5 is in no way an easy game, as if you can't micromanage in the heat of battle, by combining bullets with weapons and staying one step ahead of the enemies, then you are pretty much doomed to becoming zombie food. You also need to collaborate with your partner in order to heal yourselves or perform other actions, which resulted in quite a lot of arguments between me and my colleague.
All in all though, RE5 is a very interesting game, but, if you take into consideration other iterations, not that scary. However, what it loses in terms of horror, it makes up for in the action department. Look forward to the full review in the following week.
