I’m close to ten hours into Resident Evil 5. So far, I’m throughly enjoying it; it’s not some great masterwork but it’s an extremely well-made game and I haven’t run into any major frustration points. Unlike the technically similar Dead Space, the moment-to-moment game play is deep enough that simple pattern alterations (new enemy, new weapon, new location) are enough to keep the whole thing from feeling repetitive.
Still, it is quite repetitive. The formula is very well defined at this point: traverse through an area that establishes the current location, spend some time shooting zombies, move on to a simple puzzle or QTE event, uncover some story details, fight something new, fight the boss monster. The boss monsters are, as in every Resident Evil game, people that transform into giant tentacle monsters who have conveniently-colored bulbous weak spots. After shooting the red or orange swollen spots and then doing a particularly strong attack when the monster is down, we are treated to a cutscene about the story and the end of a chapter. At the beginning of the next chapter we get the chance to buy items and organize our inventory before continuing. The reverse influence from Devil May Cry is very clear.
But despite the rather systematic precision with which this formula is iterated, it actually works pretty well. I am particularly interested in the segments that aren’t about fighting, the location-establishment and story-building sections. These are the areas where Resident Evil 5 is strongest as a horror game. As in every previous Resident Evil game, there are files to find that fill out the back story and ancillary characters though diaries and reports. Along with the cutscenes, these documents are the player’s primary source of information about the context within which they are operating, and though they can be skipped, the game is much more interesting with them.
The locales that the players visit are the other major storytelling vector in the game. When in exploration mode, Chris and Sheva move through areas that bear the mark of past events. Sometimes this is simple foreshadowing; an empty, quiet, blood-spattered hall is always a good place to heal and reload, as some new threat is surely around the next corner. But other times, the locales themselves suggest a much larger story world. For example, the goal for the first couple of chapters is to track down a slimeball arms dealer named Irving. Irving only has about five lines in the entire game, and they are all conveyed through cutscenes, so he’s not a deep character by any means. But if you are paying attention, you eventually realize that he ran an oil field in Africa that served as both cover and a source of funding for biological weapons research. His work is recent, but later evidence that you uncover links it to the operations of the Umbrella corporation and provides backstory for the company’s movements long before the first Resident Evil events occur. The oil field and subsequent processing plant are just set pieces along the way for players who are not paying attention to the story; a new backdrop against which to shoot zombies in the head. But to people who care about the narrative, the locales provide very specific story context.
The other narrative method that Resident Evil 5 uses is dialog between Chris and Sheva. Since Resident Evil 4 the background environments in Resident Evil games have become much more visual and static; it used to be that every interesting corner of every room would have a line of text associated with it, and by throughly investigating everything the player could learn, often through simple suggestion, about their environment and their character. But the increase in pace and streamlined approach to the series defined by Resident Evil 4 doesn’t really allow for (or encourage) ransacking and investigation of everything. So instead, the characters talk to each other about what is going on and what they see. It’s a method that is used sparingly but to great effect; Chris and Sheva’s observations on their environment do a lot to tell us about how they feel about it.
I don’t mean to suggest that Resident Evil 5 has some fantastic story. It’s just the standard evil-corporation-bio chemical-underground laboratory-conspiracy schlock that they repeat every iteration. It’s fairly predictable and, unless they pull off some crazy Bioshock twist in the next few hours, I think it will end the way most Resident Evil games end: with a giant base explosion enveloping the otherwise-indestructible final boss and the fate of key antagonists left ambiguous. But the story that is there, however trite, is well-told. For players interested in more than just exploding heads, there’s more here to find.
This is my primary complaint with games like Gears of War, which an extremely similar type of game system. In Gears, there’s absolutely no time spent on exposition. The cut scenes exist only to progress the active plot, and while there are some clues about the background of the characters and the events that lead up to the story, it’s so out of focus that it really doesn’t matter at all. The locales really are just set-pieces; despite being beautifully rendered they have no particular meaning or relevance. Nothing can be investigated, and the characters never talk about their surroundings. Even when the protagonist visits his home after spending years in prison, he doesn’t have a single comment to say about it. He’s too busy shooting aliens in the face to notice.
But as a player, I want my characters to notice. I want more information than what is immediately available on the surface. That’s what keeps the game interesting when the game play itself starts to wear thin. In extreme situations, a compelling narrative can keep people playing an otherwise terrible game. Resident Evil 5’s story is nothing to write home about but I’m very happy that it’s there. While the game play is deep enough to last for a while, the addition of story and narrative, especially when communicated a variety of ways, makes Resident Evil 5 a much more interesting game than some of its contemporaries.
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I thoroughly enjoyed RE5 by the way of its gameplay. Its story had me facepalming, from the terrible dialogue to the plot’s extreme transparency. I must say the game ends with a very cool set piece. I was overall pretty satisfied with RE5(with the exception of the writing and paying for a multiplayer mode that should have been free).
I don’t mind the writing so much. I mean, sure, it’s not fantastic, but the series has come such a long way since the Master of Unlocking days that I’m willing to give it a pass. Doesn’t get in the way for me.
At least the characters are speaking!
The writing ultimately didn’t hurt the experience so much. I had fans of RE4 tell me they were completely turned off by the bare almost non-existent story. Hell, RE4 was a few words different of having the plot from Bad Dudes. It is refreshing to hear the characters talk but at the same time you’d hope what they say is significant enough for them to speak in the first place. Before I had even played RE5 I was looking forward to the relationship shared between Chris and Sheva but the game never arose to the occasion(though tries several times). Sheva talks but for me her character still ended up having as much charisma as Isaac’s character in Dead Space.
Agreed, Sheva is under-developed. They tried though–you can see that she has an important relationship with Josh, and her face is expressive enough that they could have taken her a lot further (like Alyx in Half-Life 2). But what they’ve got isn’t bad–it’s just not very much.
That’s a very good point about the looting that is an unconscious part of any game with a shop system being very much against the character of Chris and Sheva in this game. So much was mentioned about the uncomfortable cultural references in the imagery in this game, yet no one has mentioned this. I agree with you it was to a large part a matter of cultural ignorance, rather than insensitivity.
I did sometimes wonder why no one suggested that being placed in a culturally uncomfortable situation could be a part of the intentional horrific atmosphere. Capcom could make themselves seem very crafty if they made the sequel set in a middle-American city (a new Racoon style outbreak), made the protagonist an African American BSAA agent, and set him about looting the homes of zombified suburbanites to finance future headshots.
Honestly I wish they’d put that out, under the same engine, almost as defiant answer to the criticism.
Plus I’m tired of all this travelogue in my Resident Evil. I think Left4Dead stole RE’s thunder specifically because people like that urban zombie-pocalypse setting. The whole point of zombies is they are us, made soulless. Las Plagas should be no different. Set it loose in upstate New York and make Ice Cube the agent. That ought to refocus the conversation about cultural sensitivity!
RE5 does have a definite ending for one character. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out who.
In terms of grave robbing in RE5 Chris and Sheva are doing what they have to do against incredible odds. I would do the same if I were in their shoes.
To Dana, what is your definion of Upstate New York? There are many parts of upstate where the citizens are more heavily armed then the police.
I was going to respond to this, but I’ll just put a link here to a blog post I did a while ago about RE5. (WARNING: THERE ARE SOME SMALL RE5 ENDING SPOILERS.)
http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2009/09/the_death_of_survival_horror.php
I just cannot do it…I will NOT say that it is a great game…It was OK..but no more and a lot less,,,
It was ,from the get go.. just a rehashed version of RE4.
RE4 *IS* a great game…But it’s a lousy ‘Resident Evil’ game…
The beginning of RE4 was soooo good ,and then…*zip*…! Plagas? Huh?
Ok, I get it but…–what’s wrong with “regular” zombies? Huts? Cadtles?…MORE Castles? What’s wrong with warehouses and downtown?
All RE5 did was add a 2nd person and ,according to interviews ,the devs added THAT part towards the end of development and reluctantly ..For all the time it took ,I was expecting a LOT more.
I think they pretty much got it started with Last Gen hardware and just upgraded the graphics (some) as they went along. Really .I think there was a LOT of ‘downtime’ in that games development ( ie: watching TV and playing other games,etc…)
The devs ALSO openly state that they had a good thing and knew they didn’t have to change much ‘just for the sake of making something different” ( ie: why change what ain’t broke?—Because with the new hardware -YOU CAN! That’s Why!)
It was what RE4 was..a good game,but really, what if you reskinned 1/2 the ‘zombies’ with normal skin tones?
You got a shooter/big guy/space marine/shooting at ‘terrorist/foreign types/ that you get in any cheezy game like SOF or Armed Conflict stuff…That’s ALL…
( “zombies” do NOT ride Motorbikes and guard gates and shoot RPG’s….Oh,yeah…any game where you HAVE to STOP moving to shoot?…? WThell?)
I look at the other good games that have come along ,annd I find there’s No excuse for putting out such a dull ,predictable,badly controlled ,REPEAT of a game you already made years ago…( It IS very ,VERY nice looking.But .if you ARE going to ‘remake’ a game…FIX the problems of the first one.!)
Just my grumpy two cents I guess…
“I don’t mean to suggest that Resident Evil 5 has some fantastic story. It’s just the standard evil-corporation-bio chemical-underground laboratory-conspiracy schlock that they repeat every iteration. It’s fairly predictable and, unless they pull off some crazy Bioshock twist in the next few hours, I think it will end the way most Resident Evil games end: with a giant base explosion enveloping the otherwise-indestructible final boss and the fate of key antagonists left ambiguous. But the story that is there, however trite, is well-told. For players interested in more than just exploding heads, there’s more here to find.”
AH HA!!! Your suspensions are an epic fail!!! Okay, that’s lame when people say that, but I also thought it would end the same way, I was actually surprised to see Wesker go out with a BANG!
Can’t wait for the DLC to come in February.