Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Staying alive
Monday, May 18, 2009
When I was a kid I wandered into a computer store and played a first person shooter for the very first time, a little title called “Wolftenstein 3D.” And Despite the elation I received from gunning down Nazi’s something dampened the experience and I couldn’t help but stop and rotate in circles every couple of minutes out of paranoia, I just had the feeling something was behind me and I didn’t like it. Eventually I grew out of it in stages, “Goldeneye” broke me of the FPS paranoia but even today I cannot play “Left for Dead” by myself without freaking out every time I run across a witch.And I admit I’m a wuss when it comes to being frightened, I just startle easily. What’s more I’ve just never understood the desire to recreate such a horrible sensation like being terrified that most people seem to have. As a result I tend to avoid a lot of horror gems, and although I have no regrets about missing most cinema gore porn it has put a burr in the boot of my gaming pleasure, deterring me from experiencing some of the more memorable moments from video game history. But out of all the “Silent Hills” and “Alone in the Darks” the one series that has always nagged at my trousers for attention the most is “Resident Evil.” In the past I’ve given it bountiful opportunities to hook me; I played about 6-8 hours of each of the first three before I just lost the luster to go on. Something about the clunky controls and limited inventory always grinded my gears and the sudden bouts of terrifying cinematics didn’t help give it a sustainable lifespan for me to continue playing it solo. But as most gamers know Co-Op tends to elevate a mediocre game to a good one, and when I heard that “Resident Evil 5” had such a well developed feature I couldn’t help but give the game another try.
Set about a decade after the original game “Resident Evil 5” stars two huge arms that are attached to a body that looks something like Chris Redfield. The game takes place in Africa, where Chris along with vaguely English-South-African sidekick Sheva Alomar set out to stop a bio terrorist named Ricardo Irving who has released a viral strand on the locals turning them into veracious zombie-like monstrosities that try to club you to death on sight. During the course of the game segments of Chris’ history between the first title and this one are explained including details about his original partner Jill Valentine and old antagonist Albert Wesker.
The first thing you will notice about this game is that it’s beautiful. Africa and being outside in general is a welcomed change of pace from old dilapidated buildings and dark creepy mansions. And somehow despite the presence of sunlight and green grass the game still manages to set an underlying tension to each environment, breaking the idyllic lulls of silence with paced surges of enemies that come crashing at you through windows and doors. Weapon selection to fend off the beasts is the usual fare of shotguns and rifles that you who have fought through countless zombie invasions have grown to know and love. But the twist is that any one of the weapons you pick up can be upgraded using piles of gold being carried on the impoverished African zombies to increase kick, ammo capacity, and reload time; eventually turning them into super versions of the weapons, like a three barreled shotgun or a Gatling gun. This essentially ensures all weapons can be potentially useful through the entire game if you’re willing to invest in them. This is fortunate considering the limited inventory space gets in the way of you carrying more than a few choice selections at a time. You are relegated to 9 inventory slots between missions with each weapon, herb, or stack of ammo taking up a single slot. The series has always been notorious for ammo shortages and lack of carrying space, which is not only realistic but as my friend Gary brought up, is purposefully done to create a sense of panic and get those survival instincts going. Unfortunately all it did was annoy the crap out of me as I hate spending valuable game time cleaning out my inventory (Go to hell Fallout 3) and deciding whether I want to bring an egg or pistol ammo with me, resulting in the whole thing just ends up feeling like a chore.
Another unfortunate downside of the game that didn’t change were the controls, again the same arguments with limited inventory space stands but it doesn’t change the fact that the absence of being able to move and shoot at the same time takes more than a little adjustment. That coupled with the slow rotation of characters and not quite spot on movement dynamics caused untold frustration as I found most of the times I got caught in the jaws of a zombie it was due to the controls and not my inability to avoid a shambling corpse. Another complaint I have is the quick time events, ever since “God of War” popularized them interactive cut scenes have become the darlings of the gaming world. I admit I’m terrible at them and this may factor into how much I detest them, but I am also a big fan of huge sweeping CG cut scenes which allow me to relax for a minute and enjoy some pre-rendered storyline. Resident Evil 5 ripped that time away from me though, throwing in random unexpected quick time events through the whole game; which demand you spend the entire time staring at the center of the screen waiting for a pink square to appear so you can jam your finger against the controller and not get smashed by a falling pillar. Most players will not find this to be a negative aspect as the purpose of it is to let players feel involved in all aspects of the game and retain the tension even in CG sequences, but it just seemed jarring and ill placed.
Where this game really shines is Co-operative play. Capcom spent a lot of time making it essential that two players work in unison to complete tasks, while some feel forced like waiting for your ally to be next to you to open a door, others make teamwork absolutely essential. It not only works but it works well: gold is shared between players, herbs heal both people, and sharing between party mates is simple. In addition to teaching players how to share the game also requires that you watch each other’s backs, running over to assist your partner when they’re down or lending a roundhouse when they’re being assailed by zombies is something you get used to doing. Many instances require one player to cover the other as they advance or operate a pulley system while the other attempts to cross a bridge or dodge crocodiles. The result is what every good co-op game should strive to give to players, a sense of coordinated achievement. The game also manages to insert the age old RPG tradition of breaking barrels to find stuff, which if you’re a packrat is kind of a thrill on its own. The pacing of the game is broken up nicely, with most stages ending in a boss encounter that typically involves the employment of uninventive if not interesting tactics beyond simply gunning it down.
For all the negative traits its retained RE 5 has received a major overhaul that will leave most fans of the series in unfamiliar ground, the game has been streamlined somewhat and turned into more of a ‘run and gun’ style shooter that will appeal to a wider branch of players. As always is the case with change, this new direction runs the risk of alienating hardcore veterans of the franchise but will end up attracting more than enough newfound players to compensate, myself included. I give Resident Evil 5 four zombie chickens out of five.
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