Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil is an example of a franchise that could’ve only succeeded as a video game.

What other film or television series has gotten away with combining the depth of storytelling equal to a Power Rangers episode with the gratuitous violence of a horror film? Such a concept would nary succeed in movie theatres where film ratings are enforced, but the ESRB ratings didn’t quite carry the same weight in a video game store back in the day. Not that they carry much more weight nowadays but still. Besides, the standards of storytelling in video games are significantly lower. Game magazines were proclaiming that Grand Theft Auto 4 could win an Oscar once upon a time.

In Resident Evil 4, a complete smartass with an exceptional haircut was asked to rescue the president’s daughter from an evil army of mutated Spanish peasants lead by a diabolical cult leader. It stripped away all of the Resident Evil backstory that clouds the previous games, opting to create its own unique, fun little standalone adventure.

Resident Evil 5 backpedals a good deal and returns the series to its main story; of going to great lengths to characterize “The Umbrella Corporation” regardless of how little one could possibly care. And this is the final chapter of the whole Resident Evil story arc; all of the answers to the questions fans may have had will be answered here. If you’re extremely sensitive to any line of text resembling a spoiler then skip this whole paragraph but really, anybody that takes the Resident Evil mythology seriously has already bought this game anyways. The plot is ridiculous, but without a sense of humour or self-awareness. The dialogue is still terrible, and I know that it’s a franchise tradition to have hammy, illogical speech, but this game is trying to be taken seriously with its key plot points. And if you have been following this whole franchise for some 13 years, then you may be disappointed to find out that all of the mysteries built up across the many, many games in the series have been building up to one man trying to destroy the human race like he’s the friggin Shredder or something. To me, the Resident Evil franchise is the intellectual equal of a Saturday morning cartoon with gore (well, maybe less if you count the writing.) There’s a cackling supervillain, a muscle-bound hero trying to stop him, a sexy sidekick and many henchmen along the way.

So we have the incredibly muscular Chris Redfield, going into an African nation to stop some kind of terrorist threat. Joining him is partner Sheva Alomar, sister of the umpire-loving baseball player, and along the way they’ll encounter legions of the same kind of zombie-but-not-quite beings from Resident Evil 4. The gameplay takes many right pages from that game, as well as a few wrong pages from games before it. It’s the same kind of run/stop/aim shooter as Resident Evil 4, and the people at Capcom have yet to pick up on the Japanese translation of the word “strafe” for you still can’t run sideways and fire. The behavior of your enemies is built around this concept, sometimes oddly so; they’ll sprint to your location, even jumping ten feet in the air to a higher platform, and then start slowly approaching you zombie-style when in your close proximity. Then, they will subsequently take their time to remember what offensive tactic to use, before settling on “chokehold.”

The game also takes a bit of a sour turn near the end, when the mindless zombie-but-not-quite beings start arming themselves. Their idea of gun combat is a bit silly, often standing still and firing in a rhythmic pattern, like their shots are being timed by a gym teacher. It’s equally silly that you can take cover only on pre-determined walls during these segments, as opposed to say, any wall and crate in the game, as it creates this crisis where I found myself running across the level looking for what the developers decided would be suitable cover, all the while trying to fend off the meat-shields that are the zombie-but-not-quite melee attackers who were trying to flank us as the zombie-but-not-quite gunmen fired their machine guns and in tune to the beat in their head.

But in spite of these odd scenarios, I liked the gameplay…most of the time. The whole idea of standing still to shoot means there’s a greater emphasis on precision aiming and thinking about your shots instead of running around instinctively aiming in the general direction of the head. There are tactical advantages to say, tripping an enemy with a leg shot, or aiming for the stick of dynamite in their hand. And lest I forget, there’s a decidedly strong feeling of tension when you’re surrounded by zombie-but-not-quites slowly approaching you and acting like the zombies they’re trying not to be.

About the partner aspect; boo-urns to it. It’s annoying when Sheva’s occupied one of the sparse cover locations later in the game, for one. For another, Sheva is anything but good at handling resources. I wouldn’t trust her to run my small, unnamed African nation. If she has a first aid spray or herb, regardless of size, she’ll use it if she notices a small scratch on your arm. While the AI is proficient enough to rarely find itself in danger, she also tends to burn through ammunition like it’s a renewable commodity. So you kind of have to idiot-proof your AI teammate; don’t trust her with healing items and make sure she doesn’t carry the same kind of guns you do. Even then, she seems quite oblivious to the makeshift weapons system I invented and I still found myself ordering her to pick up ammo cases I had reserved for her.

And lest we forget about the inventory system; each character can only carry nine items. Body armour that you’re wearing counts as stored item, and thus I couldn’t waste precious inventory space with protection. Dropping an item will disintegrate it forever, and the interface for moving items from person to another is too cluttered. If you want to, say, give ammo to Sheva, you have to go to your inventory screen, pick the ammo box, select “Give” and then confirm that you indeed want to give Sheva this pack of ammo. And the game doesn’t pause during this whole process; you could be swarmed by legions of the undead-but-not-quite and thus in a situation where you need to make key item decisions (like combine two herbs), only to have a zombie-but-not-quite chokehold ruin your botany practice.

So Resident Evil 5 is meant to be played with another person. In fact I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed most of the boss battles more if I was playing with a friend, being that they were all designed with some kind of teamwork aspect in mind. You can play online but there doesn’t seem to be too many people willing to allow a stranger from the Playstation Network in on their game. Or perhaps everyone’s PS3 is busy installing the game. Likewise, you can play in your living room with a friend, and I’m sure that if I had a friend that wanted to play through an entire Resident Evil campaign with me, that I would’ve found the experience to be fantastic, inventory micromanagement and everything. But I don’t feel like Resident Evil 5 is the most accessible multiplayer experience to someone that doesn’t already know that red and green herbs belong together. When I think multiplayer, I think of games that buddies can casually come over, learn how to pick up and play quickly, kill some virtual Nazis (or the solo to Let There Be Rock), and be on their merry way. I feel as though Resident Evil 5, with it’s slower pace and focus on item management, doesn’t constitute to a positive and accessible co-op experience. Thus, it’s meant to be played only with a fellow hardcore Resident Evil 4 fanatic, or whoever counts inventory at your grocery store.

The game is about 8-9 hours long, shorter than its predecessor but that’s still a good length for a next-generation action game. I couldn’t, however, tell you what the multiplayer versus mode is like, because Capcom is charging five bucks for that and this game already sells at a full $70 in Canada. For aspiring Jill sandwiches, I believe the real value in the package is the unlockable Mercenaries mode, where the player is thrust in an open area with a time limit to rack up zombie-but-not-quite kills. This time around, there are more levels and online leaderboards, so there’s an inherent lasting value amongst devoted fans.

But I ultimately didn’t feel like Resident Evil 5 is a good purchase to anyone but those who are already committed to the franchise and must see it through to the end. If you’ve waited 13 years to give Albert Wesker his just desserts, or you’re a devoted Resident Evil 4 fanatic with a roommate who’s also a Resident Evil 4 fanatic, then this is $70 well spent. But for the average Joe gamer, looking from the outside wondering what Milla Jovovich is doing appearing in all of these movies, then don’t bother. Go play Resident Evil 4; it has all the action with a touch of wacky fun.

And as the climax to a supposed iconic game franchise, I can’t help but a feel a bit disappointed. This could be due to a lack of an attachment to the cast on my part, but why would I want to sympathize with Mr. Redfield? Metal Gear Solid 4, despite a compulsive need to make the largest stretches in logic to explain the smallest loose ends, felt like a grandiose epic, an explosive climax to a story arc more than a decade in the making. By comparison, Resident Evil 5 lands with a thud.

3 ½ stars.