Yesterday I said there were two games tied in the poll for WeView, and you’ve probably guessed by now that one of them was Resident Evil 5. What’s the other one you ask? Well you’ll have to wait till next week to find that one out.
Anyway, onto Resident Evil 5. There’s a bit of a snag this week; not only have I not played Resident Evil 5, I’ve barely played any Resident Evil games. I have a brief recollection of playing the first Resident Evil for a few minutes on my PlayStation but I’m useless beyond that. I don’t even have a lot of knowledge on survival horror games; Dino Crisis is the only one I’ve played with any real passion and that was almost entirely due to the presence of dinosaurs.
Basically this is a round about way of saying that I’m almost entirely in the hands of Peter’s review of Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition this week. That very review gave the game, or at least the gold edition of it, 8/10, so it would seem that Peter found some things to like.
Amongst the game’s high points was the sound design, which he praised for “scraping and shuffling noises [that] make you think twice before you turn a corner and sinister, grating music that is slightly unsettling.” While he did say that good sound design is “to be expected from this series,” it did seem that he was fairly taken by it.
He was also fond of the game’s protagonists, saying that not only were they likeable but had great character models, noting that they were “more human than most action shooters and more robust than most survival horror leads,” and also found time to highlight the variation in the game’s enemies. However, he did find that the game’s movement created a real problem.
He called the fact that you can’t move and shoot the game’s biggest concern, saying that it was “cumbersome for the uninitiated” and “strange to those of us who have been playing more than our fair share of third person action shooters and FPS games.” Fortunately he did find that “within an hour or so the controls become natural and even add to the experience by providing extra tension” but it’s still not a great opening gambit from the game.
Despite other problems he found with the game’s AI, it does seem that Peter was pretty pleased with the overall experience of Resident Evil 5. The question, of course, is whether or not you were. Would you rather that Resident Evil games stayed firmly in the survival horror zone, or did you like the push that Resident Evil 5 made towards more action based gameplay? Did the controls frustrate you for longer than Peter, or did you get to grips quickly?
Wherever your opinion on the game falls you can share it by dropping a comment below. Remember to add a rating to the game from the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale, and to get it in by Sunday afternoon if you want to take part in Monday’s verdict article.
element666
For me it was a bit disappointing (compared with the classics), yet playing it with the mrs was amazing and we enjoyed it. We did find it frustrating at parts where it was easier to do it solo.
I’m gonna go with rent on this one!
tonycawley
I downloaded it free from ps+ and was looking forward to playing it. After 30 minutes I quit the game and deleted it from my hdd. Worst. Controls. Ever. How can I not move when I’m baiming? I’ve got 30 zombies running at me, for a start zombies don’t run, well known fact, but if they could, I’d certainly want to be able to move around while I’m aiming my gun at them.
tonycawley
Forgot to add – avoid it.
Nate
Like the inner workings of Freddie Starr’s psyche, it’s a jolly xenophobic jaunt with all the mystery and intrigue of a “50 Shades” novel, and only slightly less bondage.
colmshan1990
A letdown after the near perfection of Resident Evil 4.
The co-op aspect may be good in multiplayer, but horror is never meant to be multiplayer, and the AI just isn’t good enough in single-player.
A good shooter (but not a great one) masquerading as Resident Evil.
Good move integration, although this further removes me from the horror experience. If it’s the Gold Edition (the one with Move support and the DLC), BARGAIN BIN it.
Otherwise, RENT IT, and spend the rest of your money on Resident Evil 4 HD instead.
Unterred
Not really played the classic resident evil games 1,2 and 3 which weren’t full third person over the shoulder stuff like this so I came into the series a relative novice. I bought this game because I knew it would be co-op fun and it had move controls.
It’s a brilliant game when played on co-op. The controls are a bit fiddly but it’s well worth sticking with because it’s tremendous co-op fun even though the story doesn’t make sense and it depends on Quick Time Events far too much.
Unterred
Arghhh forgot to say my rating is buy it.
cam_manutd
I enjoyed RE5 thoroughly. I thought it was intense and presented the player with a variety of enemies to deal with in different ways. The setting of Africa for a horror game was odd as the bright gleaming environments compared to the murky depths of eastern Europe in RE4. Either way the game splits opinion and had mine split at various points. 2009 was a different place for this generation. Games that had that recycled edge could go and pass us by with warmth. This year, RE6 comes and is not overly abundantly different to its peers at a time when this generation should be coming to an end. An enjoyable game with intensity and blistering set pieces but recyled and nearly 4 years after its release has lost its appeal.Therefore I would have to say it is a bargain bin.