Post by THE DERP MASTER on Aug 5, 2012 21:20:28 GMT -5
Resident Evil 4 went through a hellish development process. There were 3 versions of the game before the final product was released. The first one was a massive departure from the series, but rather then scrap it, it was redesigned into Devil May Cry. The second one was too supernatural, and the third, which featured zombies, was considered too formulaic. After a few more years, Resident Evil 4 finally came, and what fans found out was nothing short of strange; Resident Evil 4 wasn't a horror game, not in the slightest. Although it did feature some horror elements, it was a far more action heavy game then the previous instalments in the series, and most people thought that was a horrible decision on Capcom's part... and yet it was the best selling and highest rated game in the series yet, to the point where it was widely regarded as 2005's game of the year. So when development on Resident Evil 5 started, the only logical thing to do was make it more action heavy then the last one. So in 2007 when the game was finally revealed to the public, aside from all the claims of racism, (Cause, you know, Chris Redfield was in a poor African village killing dozens of Africans) fans were pissed that the game didn't return to its survival horror roots... and yet when it was released, it blew Resident Evil 4's sales figures right out of the water, despite being considered almost as good. (That's even stranger then the average Resident Evil plot) It's been 3 years since it's been released. Is it still as thrilling as it was back then? Time to find out...
I didn't know Capcom were Serious Sam fans.
It's 2009 in the Resident Evil universe, and Chris Redfield is sent to Africa by the BSAA to investigate rumours of a supposed Bio-Organic Weapons deal going on. The Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance is an international agency that specializes in the extermination of B.O.W's, with Chris being one of the founding members. By this time, Umbrella (The biggest B.O.W maker on the market) have gone out of business, and their weapons have fallen into the hands of terrorists worldwide. As if Chris didn't have enough stuff happening in his life to feel like $#@!, Jill Valentine, his long time partner and BFF, was recently killed in action. After meeting with his new partner, Sheva Alomar, the two get geared up and set out to catch Ricardo Irving, the person responsible for the weapons deal they're trying to stop. But things take a turn for the worse, and as it turns out, prior to the BSAA actually arriving, the entire town of Kijuju was infected with Las Plagas, and thus, after several dozen shootouts later, find out that the whole weapons deal was a set up in order to test out their new B.O.W's. After tracking down Irving, Chris finds out that Albert Wesker, a long time enemy of Chris', was behind all the attacks on Africa, and that he intends to take over the world with an all new virus; Uroburos, which will infect all of the world and make him a god.
Also, he's a big fan of The Matrix.
This game is quite the looker despite its age. Textures are very sharp and the polygon count is immense. Characters are all well modelled and animate fluently. The B.O.W's look fantastic, especially the Uroburos infected creatures with all the leech-like critters constantly moving around the baddie. However, in game lip syncing is way off, even more off then The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Luckily, you never even see their faces because of the camera, so that's not a big problem. Cutscene lip syncing however, is spot on, and the cutscenes overall simply look fantastic, with characters looking even more detailed then in game. Environmental effects are quite good, with dust clouds forming in the shanty towns, light reflecting off almost everything, and weather and skies that look phenomenal. Water looks pretty average, though. Weapons are all based off real world weapons, so their designs are pretty uninspired, but they look great and very detailed. Chris and Sheva can get additional costumes by fulfilling certain requirements, and this helps with the graphical variety, as the costumes are all very unique. Chris can even unlock his S.T.A.R.S. uniform from the original game. There are also a few graphics filters, such as making the game black and white, giving everything a red tint, or adding 'noise' to the game. (Noise is TV static, basically)
Looks like somebody needs a pair of glasses.
Voice acting is surprisingly good for a Resident Evil game, although the script is as lousy as ever. D.C. Douglas, the man behind Wesker's voice, delivers his lines perfectly, making him sound like an evil genius who is incredibly sexy. His actual lines however, are nothing but clichéd evil one liners. (Still, you gotta admire that voice) Roger Craig Smith, who voices Chris, sounds heroic and not in the least bit constipated. (That's very surprising, considering the steroid use [Citation needed]) And Karen Dyer, who voices Sheva, sounds quite irritating, and combined with her horrible A.I. (We'll touch on that later) makes you desperately want to shoot her in the face. B.O.W's make terrifying (And by terrifying, I mean funny as $#@!) roars and grunts that will surely make squeamish players cower in fear. The Majini (The main enemies, they're basically zombies) have a lot of lines, and the delivery is quite good, shouting and screaming in a foreign language (Which only makes it scarier) very aggressively. Not only that, but they seem to sound more demonic the further you get into the game. Gunfire is pretty quiet compared to other gun centric games, but at least it doesn't reuse every sound byte for every weapon in a certain category. Music is pretty imitating too, with some of the most intense orchestrated music I've ever heard.
"Sheva! C'mon! Hurry!"
"Oh, $#@! off."
As per usual in Resident Evil, you can't move and shoot at the same time. Whether this is because of a programming error or the developers being to lazy to implement a run and gun feature, it's not very important. However, it does feel out of place given that Resident Evil has taken a more action oriented turn. Enemies, also just like Resident Evil tradition, are incredibly dim witted, and spend most of their time very slowly walking towards you making extremely awkward poses. Given that you can't move and shoot, this balances it out quite well. Quick time events, like the virus in the game, spread like the plague and you never go an entire level without experiencing at least one QTE. Still, they're actually pulled off quite well, at least. There are 5 types of gun in the game. There's pistols, which take a lot of skill to use effectively. (Because most of them suck, except for the last one, which is totally game breaking) Shotguns, which are great for killing fast enemies quickly and efficiently. Machine guns are great for crowd control. (And $#@! at everything else) Sniper rifles are great for killing enemies at a distance so the fight up close can become significantly easier. And then there's magnums, pistols that kill almost every regular enemy in one hit. The campaign can be played entirely with a partner via split screen, system link, and online. And you'll really want to, because the A.I. of Chris or Sheva when playing alone is atrocious. They'll pick up landmines that you set on the ground. They'll hold on to ammo forever so then they can give you it when you have spare room, even if that gun you're carrying has unlimited ammo. If they have multiple weapons, they'll always seem to use the the worst one. This game is the reason Xbox Live Gold was invented, because you'd seriously pay hundreds of dollars just to have a partner that isn't mentally challenged. There's also an additional mode called 'The Mercenaries' which tasks you with killing as much baddies as possible. Luckily, there's no A.I. partner here, but it can be played with a buddy.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"
Whatever the fanboys think or say, this new style of Resident Evil has created the two most popular instalments in the series. Resident Evil 5 is perhaps one of the greatest games in the series, and is a must own for anybody with a Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3. The fanboys can complain all they want about the new action focus the series has taken, but the point is, it's propelled the series to new heights of popularity, and there's no reason to stop now. Besides, the original Resident Evil wasn't even that scary to begin with.
Well, not in the traditional sense.
The horror...
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Lasting appeal: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Lasting appeal: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
