Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

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ReprobateGamer
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Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

Post by ReprobateGamer »

When Resident Evil 5 was released, both my partner and myself were firm fans of the franchise.
This was an early day purchase for us and it frankly did everything it needed to - it brought new action to a series we always enjoyed playing, delved a little more into the lore, provided a new location and new enemies types to test us and most importantly allowed us to play together at the same time.

It certainly wasn't the first game we co-oped (ObsCure I think ...) or even the first in the series (that would be Umbrella Chronicles) but this finally brought co-op into the main franchise and we loved it.

It certainly wasn't perfect - the difficulty is not consistent, the enemy design quickly become samey, and the level designs can be surprisingly drab. I maintain a persistant dislike for anything with an insta-kill attack (the crocodiles especially, with the reapers a very close second) and a disbelief that once again the gatling gun enemies have returned in a game series where fast response controls have never been a strong suit but the African landscape made for a great contrast to the overall design of most of the rest of the series and it never took itself too seriously.
Most importantly for us, it worked as a co-op game. My partner, who suffers from motion sickness from almost every game these days, is still fine to play on this and her inexperience with controlling a character in 3D space didn't mean a steep uphill battle against the controls - my preference to always take the fight to the Manjini means she is as often rescuing me from attempting one too many melee attacks as her getting flanked.

Others have mentioned this game in relation to racism. Whilst I believe this game is largely the result of a studio wanting to maintain a link to prior games (we had Leon in the previous, so it would make sense for Chris to return here) and also to broaden the world (we haven't been to Africa in the franchise, and it's not a typical game destination), I think that there are some poor design choices that don't help (the blond woman early on is a glaring example, but some of Sheva's outfits also) and that some more care should have been taken, though the anti-colonial message is pretty clear as you play the game. Am I being as guilty in unconcious racism if I attribute some of this to a Japanese development team following both a 'standard' design doc and in maybe not having a full understanding of the history that this could invoke?

The DLC episodes I (we) found to be very lack-lustre. Lost In Nightmares tries to combine the survival horror aesthetic with Nemesis enemy pursuit and just can't make it work. Meanwhile, Desperate Escape wants so hard to be Left 4 Dead, it's almost painful. Both episodes have their place in the lore but even with me being a sucker for this kind of alternative viewpoint, we would be unlikely to come back to either of them.

Mercenaries was fine but not sometime we invested an awful lot of time in - my partner prefers a more narrative led game experience than she got from there

I agree as well that the loss of the merchant and the RE4 inventory system takes something away from the game - it feels like a decision based on trying to refer back to the deliberately limiting inventory system of the 'classic' games. The redeeming feature is that it is quick to use (I do like being able to reload whilst climbing) and makes some sense for a co-op enabled game but I remain perplexed that armour is an inventory slot item

I don't think I have ever played the game in single player - I'm not certain I want to - but I do know that this is something that we'll come back to again. It has it's flaws and is very definitely not a survival horror (we use the term survival action) but as a co-op experience it just works and sometimes that's all you need. However, this games also represents the last point before which we began to fall out of love with the franchise and very definitely the point where my interest in the lore and universe divert from the actual gameplay
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Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

Post by FemalePheromones »

I can remember pre-ordering RE5 from Play.com in 2009 and the day before the game was due to release I went home on my lunch break from work and there was the game sitting on the floor inside my front door. I was so excited but at the same time really annoyed that I had to go back to work and wouldn't be able to play until later that evening but I did go back into work making sure to tell everyone that I already had the game that wasn't actually due to release until the following day. No one cared.

People were expecting a lot from RE5 after the "reboot" that was RE4 but Capcom decided to go even more towards an action game and all but leaving their horror roots behind. Come to think of it now I'm not sure I can remember any parts of the game that were particularly scary. There is the one section in the mines where you need to carry a light to see where you are going which means not being able to use a weapon or there is the option for your partner to carry the light which then means they can't help you with combat but I would say that was more unnerving than it was scary.

The monsters started to become a bit ridiculous with RE4 (Mainly the 3 main antagonists in the game as well as "It") but RE5 went competely over the top (I'm looking at you Irving). They even tried a bit of fan service by bringing the Lickers back but even completely bodged the design of them (Yes I know they were technically Licker Betas (what an excuse)). Arguably the best enemies in the game were the Reapers which I'm sure could have been explained as continued research from the Chimeras in the original but as far as I can recall they didn't actually make that link. I say arguably the best because from all the promotion for the game the Executioner was featured so heavily that I expected much more from him. I was expecting him to be a MR X/Nemesis type enemy that would follow you through the entire game and the first scene with him was really well set up with him executing your contact and only friend you had in this remote African village. Unfortunately he was killed pretty quickly never to be seen again. Not counting Mercenaries.

As for the story I thought they did quite a good job of tying into RE0 and CV with mention of the Progenitor virus and the Ashfords. I think this game tied into the others in the series more than any of the previous games had bothered to do. I enjoyed the bit of back story of Chris and Jill working together to track Wesker down and finding out that Wesker had killed Oswell Spencer who was responsible for building the mansion from the original game. The only down side was how obvious it was that Jill had survived the fall and Wesker was using her as the "bird-lady" which was the name used for her in forums before the game released.

The gameplay was pretty similar to RE4 except that they added in follow ups for your melee attacks that could be performed by your partner as well as an execution move you could perform by shooting a Majini in the knee and then getting behind them (Neck snap for Chris, throat slit for Sheva). The only other big change was the fact that opening your inventory no longer paused the game so you had to be very fast with changing weapon or equipping herbs which did add a bit of tension to the game. Although I'm pretty sure everyone pretty quickly figured out that always putting a herb in the bottom middle slot meant you only had to press down to equip a healing items instead of looking around your (much smaller) inventory every time.

Resident Evil 5 wasn't a great Resident Evil game but it was a great co-op game. I didn't play much of Mercenaries but a friend and I had a hell of a time playing the Versus mode which was similar to Mercenaries in that you had to get as many kills as possible in a given time but there was another team of 2 player controlled characters who would be doing the same as well as trying to kill you. They also implemented a feature in which you couldn't just back out mid game so when people did it you knew that they had had to turn their console off just to save from being beaten. My friend would always use STARS Wesker and I would always use Tribal Sheva. A lot of people couldn't get on with the bow because it had no aiming reticle and the arrows had a fair amount of drop over distance but I got to grips with it pretty quickly and could pull off headshots with ease.

REmake is my favourite Resident Evil. RE4 is the one I played more times from start to finish but I probably have more hours played on RE5 than any other Resident Evil simply because of the versus mode and the fact that you could play the whole game in co-op.

I played it again recently on my Xbox One and it is just the same as I remembered. I thought I would get to the end and be done with it but I found myself replaying it a couple more times unlocking different weapons and costumes. I can't see myself playing it again solo any time soon but if anyone asked me to play co-op with them it would probably be pretty hard to say no.

Three word review: Great co-op game
rob25X
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Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

Post by rob25X »

I went into Resi 5 expecting not to like it but it grew on me very quickly. Some sections were terrible (the zombies on motorbikes for example and that big ogre boss thing) but the majority of the game was quite good.

The first time I did the game solo and had fun with it. The second time around I did it co-op and had a lot more fun with it. As others have said, it's in co-op this game really shines. Playing with a friend is the best way to enjoy it.

I never played Resi 4 (or 3) but I did play a lot of 1, 2, Code Veronica and the remake on Gamecube. The changed style made me not want to play 5 but I'm glad I gave it a chance. A good, enjoyable action game if not the Resi we once knew.
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Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

Post by matten zwei »

If you take Resident Evil 5 for what it is, a coop-action-shooter, it is not a bad game at all. If you expect it to be an entry of a survival-horror-franchise, it will disappointed you. As a single-player-experience, I thought it tried way to hard to be serious and lacks the charming self awareness of its predecessor. After playing Gears of War and, yes I'll keep mentioning it, DEAD SPACE, the controls fell dated even in 2009. The fact that Sheva was sabotaging my playthrough by acting incredibly unthoughtful against enemies and challenging my already flawed item-management, didn't help the game either. However, like in bad movies, if you go through all that with a partner, it becomes less a waste of time and more fun. Especially the bits, where the coop is well implemented, like the cave where one player has the gun and the other a flashlight.

Regarding the racism-debate: I found this game's setting very badly handled by Capcom. I think there's nothing wrong to have a setting in an African Environment, I actually found it refreshing. But as soon as Sheva greets Chris with: "Welcome to Africa!", It starts to feel weird. I don't think, Capcom intended to offend people by this game, but they treated the topic very insensitive. It was like Capcom placed Sheva there just to avoid the game to be a white American shooting at African zombies. But adding an african character, doesn't really help the awkward image the game delivers. The unlockable tribal-costumes for Sheva made it even worse. Would the game have been less offensive with Sheva as the main-character? Maybe...
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Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

Post by Mechner »

3 WORD REVIEW:

WESKER WON'T DIE!
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Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)

Post by ReprobateGamer »

Oops, realised that I've missed a three word review:

Don't Like Reapers
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