My old friend you come back to me!!!

User Rating: 9 | Resident Evil 5 X360
By cgmann16 | Review Date:
Indeed, playing RE5 is like having an old friend back from the dead. no pun intended there :P. It seems lately that the best reviews I'm able to give are for sequels to games I've loved ever since my tiny noobish fingers were capable of picking up a controller so many years ago. RE5 is no different. There have been a great deal of people bashing this new entrance in the Resident Evil saga and I have to say it upsets me. I understand it coming from those who are just picking the series up because it appealed to the third person action shooter fan in them. This is most definitely not just another Gears of War. However I was disappointed at the number of RE fans giving this game mediocre reviews. Before I go into that however let me first address the aforementioned new comers to the series. THIS IS NOT ANYTHING LIKE GEARS OF WAR. I'm sick of hearing the two compared and if you truly find this statement to be mistaken then you're obviously not taking a good look at RE5. That said, on to the fanboy doubters. The first words out of most fans mouth concerning this game are as follows: "been there done that". It kills me to say it but they're right.... to a degree. 5 is playing remarkably like 4 did. However I don't see this as a bad thing. Looking back over the series you'll see the same thing. Why fix what's not broken? Many of the first few installments in the series played very similarly. We appreciate a bit of familiarity when it comes to the games we love. Now I suppose you could say that they should be doing what was done with the Halo series or any number of other popular game collections, but I must disagree. Adding new game mechanics to a sequel simply to give it a flashy new posterior is just masking the fact that its not as good a game as the first. This is true of far too many games especially of the console persuasion. While RE5 did bring many familiar mechanics from 4, I welcomed them with open arms. Let me explain why. First of all, I find the environment story and characters of this game to be far more compelling than those of 4. Leon was definitely a badass for a slightly emo police rookie out of raccoon city, but Chris Redfield is much easier to identify with if you ask me. While they both originated in Raccoon City I can't help but feel as though Chris has been part of the family longer. It also helps having Jill Valentine play a very important, if somewhat predictable, role in this game. Your new partner Sheva isn't quite as compelling but I'll give her a break as she's a departure from the typical zombie fighters we've seen in the past and she does have a cute but firm aspect about her. Continuing on I feel as though the African environment bot visually and story wise was much more enjoyable than the European landscape from 4. To be fair much of this stems from the evolution of things already introduced in 4 so I can't be too prejudice. It also helps that this is the first installment on next gen so it looks stunning. Everything felt extremely fluid. Speaking of which let me move on to the enemies. I have to say that the dynamic AI that's been added, while not revolutionary, has definitely made the game more challenging and enjoyable. The "zombies" have very characteristic styles and aren't complete idiots when it comes to trying to rip you apart. The familiar process of finding an enemy's weak spot and exploiting it is well done as always and manages to not be stale simply due to the fact that there are plenty of new baddies. I also love a game that doesn't force you to fight your way through every situation. There are plenty of instances in RE5 that require the brains to outwit or even run away from an enemy rather than mindless pumping lead into their surprisingly resilient bodies. And now we come to the core feature of this game: co-op. Thank god they finally came up with a co-op system for RE5. I'll admit I was excited if a bit nervous when they first announced this feature, but I think they've pulled it off in classic style. Many people have complained that the partner AI is retarded, and yes they are right to some extent. However I think this only reinforces that its a co-op game.. not a singleplayer campaign that added co-op functionality as some **** way of making it more fun. I'll take the former to the latter any day. The game did a fantastic job of making you feel as though your partner was necessary rather than a burden when playing with someone. Splitting up, while necessary at times, was often a stupid mistake to make which I learned quickly. Overall my friend and I had a blast playing through this game customizing our loadouts to better fit our styles and better counter certain enemy types. I'll admit that if you do choose to play alone you'll find Sheva is more an extra inventory than anything. Its difficult to program a friendly AI well enough to function as if it were truly another person playing alongside you. I only hope that eventually Resident Evil could be the game to do it. For now I'll be satisfied with a slightly clunky partner who has her ups and downs. I couldn't be happier that the gameplay hasn't changed too terribly much. I would've been extremely upset by the idea of be able to run and shoot a its always been a key part of these games. In all reality who is ever going to be able to run and shoot as accurately as so many game protagonists these days, and I personally think that Resident Evil is one of the only games that can get away with not allowing you such mobility. Patience and quick thinking have always been rewarding in this series. I will note that the beefed up melee system made it much easier to conserve ammo and gave me more interesting ways of approaching an enemy tactically so I could eventually snap there neck or somersault kick them off a cliff. Very satisfying indeed :). As always there is never enough of Resident Evil to truly satisfy me, but the game was long enough to make the story seem solid without dragging on too much. The last two chapters took considerably longer than the first few which is typical and as much as I wish there were more crazed majini to throw at me I'm glad story wasn't sacrificed to extend the game a few hours. All I an say is..... LETS GO RE6!!!!!!!

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