Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil’s newest addition to the franchise, Resident Evil 5, culminates the series and attempts to tie all lose ends of the series while explaining the origin of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation. Chris Redfield, the protagonist from the original Resident Evil for the PSOne, arrives in Kijuju, Africa and partners up with agent Sheva Alomar. Together, they investigate the selling of viruses on the black market which eventually leads them to Umbrella’s origins.

While the plot of the entire Resident Evil (RE) universe is extremely convoluted and would be difficult to explain without some form of visual aid, a new player would only need the most basic knowledge of the RE premise to be able to follow the story of this game. The basic knowledge being who Chris Redfield is, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, and the Umbrella Corporation. The controversy of racism seems a bit outlandish, except for a level where you encounter Africans living in mud-huts and flinging spears at you. Why they decided to make Sheva the lightest black person in the game is also questionable as well as Jill’s pointless visual change; although they do explain Jill’s new look it still begs to be asked “What’s the point?”

The graphics themselves are amazing. The lighting effects are superb, which can be appreciated best seen venturing through the cave systems and seeing particles of dust floating through the rays of sunlight that break through the cave’s cracks. The co-op mode makes for a great and extremely fun gameplay if you have proper communication tools, i.e. a headset, and a competent partner. It would be advisable to only play co-op on-line however as split-screen reduces the screen for each player to a tiny mash of colors that could only be seen clearly if you were to sit 2-inches away from the tv or had a 153″ tv set. The inventory screen also becomes a pain at times and often brings the action to a halt as both players must try to figure out how to condense what their carrying in order to grab that last herb; you may find it necessary to throw away a herb just to carry bullets for your empty gun.

The original RE games were designed as “survivor/horror” games, with true horror tactics in dark settings and zombified people attempting to eat you. In RE5, there is very little feel to the original horror or survivor feel as it plays more like a 3rd person shooter. Indeed, the infected, or majini as they are called in this installment, could be replaced with terrorists, drug runners, or even noisy neighbors and it would play the very same; try that with any of the earlier RE games and you would get a completely different game. The reason for this is that the majini can use weapons and run. While this makes for exciting gameplay, it loses the feel of the original titles.

Overall the game is fun, funner with a friend on-line, despite the inventory. Fans of the series will like the conclusion and revelations, however don’t play this expecting the zombie horror RE is known for. For a game like that play Dead Space or Left4Dead.