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97 of 105 found the following review helpful:
Resident Evil 5: 10 Things to KnowMar 25, 2009
By Zack Scott I just beat Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360, so I decided to post a review of the game. Here are ten important things you need to know:
1. Graphics - RE5's graphics are amazing, and they are some of the best you'll find on a console. They are sharp, the characters are highly detailed, and the lighting makes the environments really stand out and feel real. The cut scenes appear to ramp up the contrast and brightness more than necessary, but that's no big deal.
2. Controls - I embraced RE4's control scheme, but the same scheme today feels a bit outdated. You still cannot walk with your gun or knife ready. The developers say it is more realistic this way, but even in cut scenes Chris walks with his gun pointed forward. And now that I think about it, why can't I simply walk up and punch or kick someone? Why must I wait for them to be stunned?
3. Sound - A lot of the sounds including the music are very similar to RE4, which is a good thing. It helps make the game keep familiar. I noticed nothing about the sound to complain about, except that it often wasn't creepy enough.
4. Co-op - Some of the best fun I had with RE4 was getting together with friends and watching each other play through parts of the game. With RE5, we can now play together. Awesome! One problem with co-op is the fact you can't give weapons to your partner. That doesn't make any sense at all. Also, watch out when using an AI partner for Sheva. She sometimes wastes ammo, refuses to use her powerful weapons, heals you unnecessarily, and dashes off. Surprisingly though, she isn't bad enough to ruin the game.
5. Items - All items have been needlessly streamlined. The weapons are less complex, there are no more combinable treasures, and yellow herbs are nowhere to be found. Also, you can buy items anytime between chapters. I liked the merchant in RE4, but he's gone this time around. So who are you buying items from? Apparently, just a menu system. Also, RE5 redesigned the item management system in order to make it more realistic than RE4. I like how it no longer takes me out of the game, but sometimes it is hard to use. The fast equip feature via the D-pad is greatly appreciated, but it doesn't make up for the fact that the process of trading and stacking items can be cumbersome and illogical.
6. Horror - RE5's biggest issue is the fact it continues the series' trend of removing all aspects of "horror" from the survival horror genre. In fact, I would just call RE5 an action game with elements of adventure. There is rarely any suspense, the action is almost nonstop, and many of the potentially scary settings occur in daylight. The slogan for this game is "Fear you can't forget." It's more like "Fear you'll never notice."
7. Bosses - Simply put, the boss fights in this game are not as original or exciting as RE4's boss fights. Most are easy, unvaried, and unnoteworthy. Some of the boss fights don't even feel like fights, but mere struggles instead.
8. Puzzles - Unfortunately, RE5 offers virtually zero puzzles. There's not even the task of combining treasure. If you're ever confused about anything, Sheva will tell you what to do. The only thing remotely close to a puzzle is finding the blue BSAA emblems. Shooting them is a cool way to unlock bonus features. It makes you pay much more attention to your surroundings and get immersed in the environment.
9. Saving - I like being able to save my game at various points, and I like being able to start a brand new game, but these features are gone. RE5 keeps track of all items and money you have so that to play previous chapters, you always bring your latest gear. It almost makes it too easy. I miss the typewriters.
10. Charm - RE5 lacks a lot of the charm found in RE4. Chris is almost emotionless, whereas Leon was witty and classy. The quick time events in RE5 are overdone and predictable, whereas in RE4 they were fun and surprising. The only character with real "character" in RE5 is Irving. It seemed the whole cast of RE4 stood out.
Conclusion Resident Evil 5 is a short, fun action game, but it lacks a lot of what made its predecessor so great. The only improvements are the graphics and the addition of multiplayer. The rest of the changes negatively impact the overall fun of the game. Still, it is a fun game, and I recommend it for any Resident Evil fan or those who are looking for a good action game.
51 of 63 found the following review helpful:
Better than RE4?, well...Mar 14, 2009
By Craig Moller RE4 was a staggering reboot for the ailing franchise; Res Evil's traditionally clunky controls were discarded and scaled back the puzzles in favour of rapid-fire action against far faster and more aggressive enemies than ever before, all wrapped up in amazingly detailed visuals. More than just being the pinnacle of the RE franchise, many people consider RE4 as being among a small handful of the best titles created for the last generation. RE5 has a handful of problems, and is nowhere near in the same league as RE4 in terms of all-time classics, but it does provide a suitably similar mix of exciting action, along with some utterly gorgeous visuals.
Two-player co-op can be played either online, over system link or split-screen. It's great to see Capcom supporting such a wide range of options for the co-op mode. While the general exploration and blasting of monsters plays out very similarly to RE4, the environments have been expanded a little, with many more split paths to give each player enough elbow room to fight. There are some great moments where one player can stun an enemy with a headshot, while the other rushes in and smashes them with a melee attack. It's even possible to link melee attacks together, so one player's punch will send an enemy stumbling back, then the other player's kick knocks them to the ground.
RE5 also adds a minor improvement to the movement controls. RE4's quasi twin-stick movement has been upgraded to today's standard twin-stick 'turning while walking' control system. For some odd reason though, turning with the right stick is disable when you're running. As you'd expect though, your feet are still nailed to the floor while shooting, to retain the usual Res Evil tension. As you've probably gathered, RE5 mirrors the gameplay of RE4 very closely, but this can be both a blessing and a curse. As in RE4 you'll spend the bulk of your time dispatching monsters and scouring the environments for ammo and treasure. You still collect treasure from corpses, cupboards, crates and by shooting it off walls. You still spend it on upgrading the same damage, reload speed and capacity characteristics of a very similar range of pistols, shotguns and machineguns. You're still forced to waste a lot of cash upgrading early weapons, only to have to sell them back for a fraction of the price when the better weapons are unlocked.
In lots of ways it's a good thing that RE5 sticks closely to RE4's brilliant template, but in other ways it's a shame it's progressed so little. A lot has happened in the games industry over the past four years and RE5 does feel dated as a result. It sure doesn't look dated, because the graphics look incredible, but it feels old. Other than the co-op mode and a couple of very minor tweaks here and there, the gameplay is identical to 2005's RE4.
25 of 30 found the following review helpful:
Not Horror, But AMAZING gameMar 31, 2009
Alright, in order to best summarize this game, I should probably break it down to serve the game some justice...
Graphics: 10/10 Absolutely amazing, whether in broad daylight fighting the Executioner (a giant axe-weilding zombie),or in pitch darkness using a lantern to see the zombie hordes, the graphics are just beautiful, living up to both the PS3's and the Xbox 360's standards.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): 9/10 Let's kickoff with Sheva, your partner along the journey. She is definetly a god-send to RE5, but can have her problems.
Pros: + She is never far behind you + She gives you ammo that she doesn't need based off the weapons in your inventory + She heals you when the game senses you have low health (provided she has a herb, the main way of healing) + Has an "Attack" mode, where she runs recklessly around killing zombies. Has a "Cover" mode, where you meet a more caution-oriented sheva, conserving valuable ammo.
Cons: - Rarely aims for the head, and is quick to waste valuable ammo - Is quick to use up herbs, even if your above 70% health - Is slow to help you when grappled by a zombie, even if she's right there - Dont assume she's got your back... chances are, she doesn't. - Specific to the "Caves" level, she seems hesitant with the lantern
Next, is the zombies; boy do we wish Sheva had this kind of intelligence. Frankly, I would be searching hard for bad things to say about the enemy AI, other than they are slow to react when you are near, but sometimes this is actually PROGRAMMED!!! For example, the harder the difficulty, the less preparation time the zombie carrying a chainsaw above his head will take when near you before cutting you in half. The RE5 team programmed an IN-GAME difficulty switch, depending on how your doing with your enemies. For example, if your doing really well on Amateur (the easiest difficulty), but maybe a little less than average on Normal, you could actually end up with the same difficulty, thus always providing a challenge.
Gameplay: 9/10 The controls are similar to RE4, with a few minor improvements. At first they ae hard to grasp, and a new player to Resident Evil will struggle with the first couple levels. My only concern, in addition to the complexity of the controls, your character lacks the ability to walk and shoot. Although it adds to tention, it just feels cheap, and I feel ripped off as a gamer. As for enemy spawns, I have no complaints. Everything runs smoothly, zombies arent appearing out of thin air (although it'll feel like it) like we've seen in Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. Lastly, lets talk about the zombies reation to bullets. Obviosly, they dont like to be shot at and wll respond in rage once they recover from the wound. Interestingly as well, they also have animations and actions depending on where you shoot them. Say i were to shoot a zombie in his weapon heand. He will drop the weapon and grip his hand in agony. Sometimes a shot to a body part will allow chris and sheva to use a context sensitive move, conserving ammo and dealing massive damage. The only reason I marked this off one is because of the controls.
Replay Value: 10/10 There are many great games with impressive single player and multi-player, but lack replay value. Fortunately, RE5 is not one of those games. With additional mission modes, costumes, Acheivements/Trophy's, unlockable weapons, and countless bonus features, this is a game worth owning. If I use too many more words, I'll kill the effect, so I'll just leave it at that!
Story: 8/10 This story starts off just like all other horror games... WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!?!? I wont spoil it, but the story is best around the mid-game, when your still left guessing, but arent completely uninformed. Unfortunately, towards the end of the game, you've already guessed who's in the mysterious mask, who's the main problem, and how it's going to end. My other problem is the final boss. I must have killed him on 4 different occasions, and HE'S STILL COMING BACK!!! Overall, the story was intense, but predictable.
So Is It A Horror? It seemed to me that CAPCOM's idea of horror is throwing together a whole bunch of blood, gore, and zombies.If your opinion of a survival horror matches this, then have a jolly old time changing underwear, but for me, with the exception of a couple select chapters, was unpreturbed.And in order to satiate my horror needs, bought Left 4 Dead. So is it scary? Thats for you to decide.
In conclusion, with grea graphics and gameplay, this game deserves to be honored with 5 stars, and re-defines action games (in a good way). But if your looking for a horror, and your not easily scared, game like Silent Hill, Left 4 Dead, and Dead Space might be the ones for you.
Best Regards!
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Wait for this to hit the bargain bin before buying.Jun 28, 2009
By Kristian Carazo
"Killer"
This game is worth about 20 dollars. The controls are awkward. The camera is flaky at times. The unnecessarily prolonged and repetitive boss battles are very annoying they are extremely easy and just requires you to perform the same sequence of actions for what seems like hours. One of the most annoying aspects of the game is the pseudo cut scenes.. Right when you think you are watching a non interactive cut scene... BAM you better press a button or you die. Very annoying but you get used to it. The game has its good points though, the visual are good and the story is nice.
Another point I would like to make is how TERRIBLE the friendly A.I. is. Although it is better then other games, sometimes your partners actions leaving you questioning if this is supposed to be a punishment for choosing to play by yourself. I would not recommend attempting this solo. I did complete the game solo, I would warn against it. Unless of course you are a masochist like me.
Save your money, get something else instead.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Ok Game in the seriesJan 30, 2010
By Adrian Esparza I am a big fan of the series and was a little disappointed in this one. I really don't like that they have gotten away from the original zombie creepy mansion type play. I actually like the camera angels in part one and two. Good game for what it is but if you are a fan of the series I think it is very disappointing.
based on 233 reviews
( 233 customer reviews )
