PS3 Update - Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5
Overall - 8
Art direction/ animation - 9.5
Story - 8
Controls/ Combat/ Platforming - 7
Replay Value - 7
(Scale 1 - 10)
In a word - meh. Seriously, breathtaking graphics (particularly the lighting effects which are groundbreaking). Solid, if overly complex, story, and the same solid control scheme that you've come to love (or hate) from Resident Evil make this a fully respectable sequel to 2005's RE4 (often credited as one of the top 10 games ever made). And maybe that's the problem here. While there is nothing really wrong with this game, there's not much particularly 'right' with it either. It only manages to be noteworthy due to the merits of its predecessor, which it resembles to such an extent that it feels not so much like a sequel as a clone with a facelift.
RE4 is a great game. A really great game. The kind of game that even non-video games can play and go wow - that's a great game. Great story, amazing cinematics, truly bone chilling moments - Ok so maybe my expectations were REALLY high. But stop me if any of this sounds familiar - foreign villagers being controlled by parasites, Giant mutated troll things which you defeat by killing the worm that grows out of their back, gatlin gun carrying mini-bosses, enemies chucking dynamite or flaming arrows at you, lickers jumping through glass at you, trudging through waist high water to get to a primitive marshland village, exploring abandoned mines, chainsaw wielding, burlap sack wearing maniacs, a final assault on a secret laboratory. I could go on, but I won't. Seriously, there isn't one original idea in this whole game. In RE4, the first time an enemy you thought you had killed sprouts a alien from it's neck hole and starts coming at you again, it is truly terrifying. In RE5, the same scene feels like they are checking a box - Las Plagas - check. Something is missing from RE5 - an element of surprise and wonder. You've seen it all before - and I mean everything; every enemy, every boss, every weapon, everything.
So let me mention what is new. The much touted co-op play is fun and I highly recommend that you either find a friend to play with or go online and match up with someone. The co-op is very well executed and adds some much needed freshness to the experience. But with this comes the biggest issue with play - the inventory management. It's clumsy, it's annoying, and by the end of the game you'll be incredibly frustrated by it. Extremely limited carrying capacity is a hallmark of the survival horror genre. (which ironically Resident Evil - the game which created the genre- arguably no longer belongs in) It's a core part of the challenge of the game. But by taking your already limited carrying capacity and dividing it between two people - the problem gets exponentially worse. You'll spend half your 'playtime' trying to shuffle items back and forth between the two characters in what starts to feel like one of those fox, chicken and corn in a rowboat puzzles. And I say 'playtime' because accessing the inventory doesn't pause the game, so you'll be doing this while the ghoulies are trying to emasculate you.
An exact copy of a truly great game is by definition going to be good, not as good, but good. And RE5 neatly fits into that category. This game looks fantastic, plays smoothly, has all the cinematic appeal and solid story telling. It's fine - but it's all feels a little ‘by the numbers’. You'll enjoy it, but you'll also forget it two weeks from now.