Resident Evil 5

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Rating: M (Mature)
Price: $59.99

By Joe Ziemba

This sequel picks up after Resident Evil 4’s events with the setting of a war torn and impoverished African country. Your character, Chris Redfield, works with an organization to hunt down biological weapons created by the Umbrella Corporation that have fallen into terrorist hands via the black market. Immediately after starting the game following a relatively short intro sequence, I recognized this title’s forte; graphics.

The combination of high quality textures, lighting and color work together creating a vibrant and realistic environment. Object mechanics move and react naturally to elements in the game world. Character body movements and facial expressions are also believably natural. However, as is the case with many heroes, Chris’ body is slightly out of proportion lending him the lion’s share of focus while on screen. Another set of proportions that I have nothing to complain about are those of the character Sheva Alomar. Sheva is introduced at the onset of the game using rendered in-game cut scenes.

A secondary point of this game worth noting is the audible component. The sound effects are crisp and clear. The music is not extremely entertaining, in my opinion, but does the job by lending an eerie tone to the horror setting of the game. However, as anyone with a set of working ears knows, a game’s sound needs to be equalized and balanced to work. There are numerous occasions when repetitive sound bits such as footsteps were overwhelming to me. Other sounds that should have taken the spotlight such as yelling enemies or exploding barrels took a back seat. I find that too often game developers neglect a games audio and this one reiterates that point.

I believe, by far, the most important ingredient is game play. The interactive portion of a game is paramount, being the fundamental reason for the title’s very existence. In the case of Resident Evil 5, game play is lacking a certain level of cohesion. In between enemies the player simply runs down very linear key and lock corridors reminiscent of 1995. To be blunt, while engaging in combat I felt as if I was operating in a turn based role playing game while my enemies had the advantage of real-time action. For example, the player has to hold down L1 to aim his or her projectile weapon or L2 to pull out the melee blade while attacking. This toggling attack mode seriously limits the player’s movements by inhibiting normal walking or running. I found the melee blade utterly useless as standing face to face with 15 to 20 zombies hacking at each other was extremely inefficient. One would think that with the scarcity of ammunition available in the game, melee would become important. Another form of melee combat was a sort of special move that seemed hit or miss due to timing and position. These factors create a frustrating combat system that, again, seems out of balance.

A game can not float on graphics or sound alone, because if it could, I’d rather just watch movie. Resident Evil 5’s clunky and limiting game play did not fulfill my interactive entertainment expectations and leads me to give it a mediocre score.