Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5

Publisher : Capcom
Developer : Capcom
Date of Release : March ‘09

HDD Installation Size : 6.7GB
Save File size : 76KB per profile
Points released at completion of main story line : 600ish

Action-Horror.,. You see that phrase in films and you know its going to be awful. Not just awful on a basic level, but so awful the action you’ll want to see is leaving the cinema or turning the doovd off.
Action-Horror on gaming? Hmm. Doesn’t have the same effect as it does in films, and that’s all down to the pacing.. the ‘slow horror pacing’ is bad for action games.. and the ‘fast action pacing’ is bad for horror games. It’s a tight-rope that requires a delicate balance.

My personal history with the Resident series starts with RE1 on the Puss1… a game which Ill admit I barely got more than several screens through.. slow, plodding walking though a dodgy angled room that; other than shaded polygons; wasn’t more of a step up from Alone in the Dark on the Amiga 500.
Cue a couple of sequels and (bad) films later & the hamcube from Nintendo comes along, and Capcom decides to reinvent the series for the ‘then’ next generation, moving the game view point from a fixed camera location to an over the shoulder viewpoint.
So now we’ve hit Resident Evil 5 and what’s so new about it?

The over the camera viewpoint from RE4 still remains, though the graphics have been improved since the hamcube version. Also gone is the dark environments present through RE4 replaced in some of the earlier stages with bright sunshine for the numerous zombies to attack from, and a pleasant change it is too..

As with RE based games, resource management is essential if you’re going to complete the game, being conservative with bullets is just as essential as upgrading just the right weapons and leaving the ‘crapper’ ones.

Given the sparsity of ammunition, and the steepening difficult on later levels, you’ll often replay previous levels again, both for more ‘treasures’ (money) or ammo.
Completing the game unlocks ‘unlimited ammo’ and thus makes going through previous levels grinding for cash an absolute breeze.

Much was touted about the co-op aspect introduced and to be frank, the AI works just as well as another real person. – In co-op the two players will jostle for available ammo, especially if both using the same weapons, however the carefully placed checkpoints means that should either partner die the game allows both players to restock current ammo, so changing weapons is never too much of a bad deal.

The AI character does have a tendency to shoot often & waste ammo by going for belly shots rather than the head, but there’s been much worse examples of AI co-op recently too.

Achievements are given out for completing each story chapter and a final 4 for completing each difficulty level (stackable)
Also along for the ride are a number of ‘side’ achievements, some fun, some ‘not as much’
Shooting all 30 emblems & collecting all treasures is really only recommended with a guide as they are very easy to miss.

Given the number of weapons and upgrades available and the amount of money the game gives out during the levels, it could result in a lot of time spent running through the levels again trying to garner enough cash - A lot of time. There is however a glitch where the player can create items, which as achievement hunters, I would recommend as it does also improve the game by buying/upgrading the weapons that personally where never used, sure it lowers the forced potential time with the game, but with the 4 difficulty levels and unlimited ammo that can be unlocked, its not a bad thing.

In summation

A top quality release that is more action orientated than original scares. Givens out points through the game’s initial playthrough & more could be achieved with pre-planning.
The long money grind is definitely a downside, but which can be avoided should you decide to do so.