Resident Evil 5 Review: Hey! Why change the formula?

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 29 March 2009 10:41

Entertainment

The control system is very similar to RE4 with what feels to be a dated and stilted process of directing Redfield around the beautifully rendered and lit landscapes of this new release.  In short, you can move Redfield at walking or running pace, but you must stop still to reload, or aim and shoot.  There is no bunny-hopping or run and gun in an RE game.

To be fair, this adds to the tension of the game, it is after all horror based, and the enemy movement is thankfully equally as stilted, giving a new player time to adjust.  When Redfield and Alomar are in full flight, the battle sections can be surprisingly fluid.

Level design is straight from previous RE incarnations, especially RE 4, despite being set many thousands of kilometres from that setting, the level design is remarkably similar.  Lots of scaffolding, lots of lonely roads and so on, mostly it works.  Some so called puzzles and some boss fights smack of gaming from three or four years ago, but RE fans will lap it up.

While we are on older style game design, it would be impossible not to mention the scavenger hunts – locating ammo in earthen-ware pots or crates, managing inventory through a nine-slot matrix and buying new equipment either at the start of a mission or restart after either Redfield or Alomar snuffs it.  None of it is logical, but all of it stinks of the RE franchise through and through.

Scoring RE as a single release is tough, much of the game as an independent study is not revolutionary or even current day thinking.  But on the other-hand, this can be seen as a good thing; stilted movement, a new buddy system, a new setting with reasonably compelling story, throw in some basterdly hard quick-time events and you end up with a polished release that achieves what it sets out to do.

So if you are a RE aficionado, then you probably have already bought and enjoyed the game.  For those who have not treaded down the RE path yet, beware!  You are in for something different – this is not Gears of War in a horror setting, nor is it a truly Japanese style experience.  RE 5 is somewhere in between, but honest to the RE legacy, not trying to please all crowds.
7.5 health sprays out of 10