Re: Our next Resident Evil podcast recording (13.10.18) - 341: Resident Evil 5 (Biohazard 5)
Posted: September 19th, 2018, 3:50 pm
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
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