Review: Resident Evil 5 (360)

A bit harsh maybe, but playing Resident Evil 5, it seems the development team failed to see what made RE4 so great. Instead they've added the worst use of co-op we've seen in quite some time. For this review, initially, we played on our own with the computer controlling Sheva, the sidekick Chris Redfield gets lumped with at the beginning. Many games are best played with friends, but that's not what the RE series has been about. The last time they delved into co-operative play was with the pointless Outbreak series and here co-op seems to have been shoehorned in with no idea how to actually handle the mechanics behind it. Yes, when you have a friend controlling Sheva, it's a less painful experience; however, games like Gears of War 2 also manage to give you decent AI that feels like it's doing a good job of helping you. Sheva is the reason a controller almost went through the television.

You have no way of giving her direct orders, she gives you items that you don't always want and seems intent on wasting as much ammunition as possible. Even when up against bosses that only have one specific weakness, she just shoots anywhere. In the end we came very close to taking away all her weapons and just having her heal Chris, which it seems is the only thing she's good at. When she's not stealing items, she's busy following you and blocking your shots. One earlier moment has you up against an enemy with a specific weakness on its back. Sheva shouts "let's surround it". Fair enough, only she doesn't and just sticks to you like glue. We hope she never appears in a Resident Evil game again. Ever.

This game, though, is a very strange one. Described even before it came out as more of a sidestep than an evolution, it does even take a few steps back in some respects. The attache case in RE4 was a well utilised and fresh way of handling your equipment; not once did you feel unequipped to handle what came next. But here, we're back to a nine space inventory. Why? What is the purpose of this? Later in the game, you're struggling for spaces and it seems like the game thinks you should know what's coming next and be prepared for it. It's almost a godsend that, when you die, you get kicked back to the inventory screen and move things accordingly. It also doesn't help that you're not only juggling your own items, but also Sheva's. And here's another odd one: when giving ammo to each other, you can only give them all the ammo; you can't split it accordingly. There are so many oversights here, it's almost laughable. And if you're wondering why the merchant from RE4 ("hello, stranger!") doesn't make an appearance, it's because such a joyous idiosyncrasy has been replaced with a menu system that pops up automatically at the start of each chapter, or as we've already said, when you die. Finally, we haven't even mentioned the fact that item-management is now all done in-game, in realtime. No pause at all. So while you're busy fiddling around with your stuff, you could end up with your face chopped off by an enraged African.

Yes, Resident Evil 5 is set in Africa, and while we don't want to dwell too much on the whole race issue, Capcom certainly do themselves no favours with this game. They aren't exactly known for their realistic or subtle portrayals of cultures, and although it's all fine at the start, depicting an African shanty town, about a quarter of the way through, they introduce some tribal folk with spears, shields and hilarious masks. It's more stereotyping than anything.

So far, we've been very down on the game. It's not all bad. As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery, and RE5 goes a long way to imitate its predecessor. Sections are nigh on identical. You have a village siege at the beginning, a giant sea monster and some very familiar QTE sections. All are handled well, and seem like they were built around the limited controls. Then the development team decide to implement some ideas of their own, including enemies with machine guns and a hilarious cover mechanic, causing it to all go completely pear-shaped. All of a sudden, it turns into a gun vs. gun affair, and because of how your character moves, it doesn't work particularly well. The cover system is borderline pathetic; you're unable to move along the wall and can't even aim, making it a slow and laborious process, only made bearable by your enemies being equally immobile. But at least upon completion, which doesn't take too long (roughly eight hours), you unlock the brilliant Mercenaries mode, essentially an arena where you just go up against as many enemies as the game throws at you, trying to rack up a top score in the process.

You definitely can't knock Resident Evil 5 for looks. It's one of the best-looking games on the console (though v-sync isn't locked, which may be problematic, depending on your setup), with some stunning lighting effects and decent animations. Music is a bit lacking in places, but believe it or not the voice acting has gotten better. Okay, it's not Oscar-worthy material, that's for sure; however it does the job and is less comical than its earlier predecessors.

Underneath the layers, there is some semblance of a good game here. It's very ambitious and we applaud that. But ambition doesn't always equal a good game, and while RE5 is nowhere near a disaster, the disappointment we felt is made worse due to our lofty expectations.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver