Will RE5 be a big stinker?

I have played the resident evil games since their inception in the 90's I braved the hoards of zombies and carefully managed my items to brave any unforeseen developments in the storyline like any other gamer who has enjoyed this pinnacle of the survival-horror genre.

In many of our eyes RE4 gave us what we have always wanted in the resident evil game. The levels are more intense. The action became constant and those friggin zombies found intelligence to be their most frightening trait.

RE4 was a massive accomplishment in gaming. The story was incredibly involving. The overall setting was extremely creepy and alien to seasoned RE gamers. It was a total overhaul to the franchise and an extremely welcome one.

When i first heard there was an RE5 coming out I was itchy all over thinking of the incredible next gen zombie destruction that was in store with me. Capcom has given us little to go on for months telling us bits and pieces of what was in store for us. First it was explained it would be set in Africa. This seemed like an interesting idea seemingly expanding on the truly isolated feeling of going through an foreign countryside fighting things IE re4. Then we learned you would be paired with a sidekick. Something that really complicated things in RE4. Now we got as a Christmas present an in depth interview on xplay.

Unfortunately for me it was watching this live demo that showed me my fervor for this title might be slightly unfounded. One problem I noticed immediately was that the guy in the demo was plainly cheating. Unlimited ammo for both of the players and even tnt being thrown directly at him didn't phase his life gauge.

To me that wasn't a big deal. They gotta show what it looks like after all. Though the more gameplay footage I saw the more I became concerned. It seems throughout the gameplay the co-op character appears to be of no help at all in fact she appears to be a massive hindrance. My other concern was the gameplay does not seem at all improved since re4. the graphics grew to appear a bit better and that almost appears to be the only improvement.

When Morgan Webb asked the designer to explain how coop would be helpful, he explained how you could hook up with someone online to have them play with you. He kept conveniently tight lipped on how good the AI was for your ever present partner when you didn't have an online buddy holding the reigns on her.

Morgan Webb also asked a great question regarding how they improved the AI on the zombies from re4. The rep basic said in so many words that the AI is exactly the same. Which showed to be proven throughout the gameplay demo where zombies seemed to do very cookie cutter actions from re4. the typical dynamite wielders. crossbow wielders and run at you and attack zombies are all here. The only difference I detected was a few zombies wielding automatic weapons. though I see this as only a small improvement.

After watching this in depth coverage from xplay suddenly I was forced to draw an unpleasant conclusion. Are resident evil fans about to be handed RE4.5?? though the representative claims all they wanted for this game was innovation. The shown gameplay seems to show otherwise. There were few features shown (at least in this demo) that would make me say that I am genuinely excited to pick this title up.

The co-op character seemed utterly oblivious to what was going on throughout demo gameplay. My guess is she would have been killed early in the demo if it wasn't for that handy health cheat they apparently entered.

The AI overall has not been improved for your enemies which is something i wanted to see. Graphics and lighting are obviously better but that can only go so far in improving (PS did you see the bat boss's wing cutting through the wall of the shack... wtf!?! aren't we past those crummy graphics bugs yet?!?).

I loved RE4 I loved it with a passion. But i do not want to play a resident evil experience that is merely an expansion in the gameplay. I want overall improvement. I want better controls, better AI and better graphics. Thusfar RE5 seems to only be offering 1 of the 3 which scares me.

This is all based on what i interpreted from this one demo on xplay. I admit i know nothing of the story and the story makes up a huge chunk of what makes the franchise great. The last story seemed good but they better do something much much better in re5 or this may be a total flop. I pray my conclusions are wrong but only time will tell.

[Shnazzyone]

dammit! I knew i should have proofread this better before I posted it. The grammatical errors are far more obvious when i read it now.

sorry folks!

[pixelsword]

UGH. What a disappointment.

That sucks. Hard. What makes a zombie essentially scary is it's raw power, not needing any weapons.

If zombies carrying guns are any indication of the future, I can expect RE6 will have zombies harassing Chris by e-mailing him pics of their butts and shoulder-shoving him while passing by him in narrow halls.

[beavis4play]

turning RE franchise into a shooter is a disappointment to me.

that was a good write-up Shnazzy, even with the grammatical mistakes.

[ali312]

My main concern is the co-op aspect of it. I know someone mentioned this in a previous blog but having an additional character might actually ruin the experience and take away the fear factor. Either way I have been waiting over 3 years for this game so will get it on day 1.

[Shnazzyone]

be sure and tell me weather it is worthwhile. My future purchase of a 360 might just ride on weather re5 is worth my time. Right now it is the number 1 reason why I may be moving up to hd soon.

[DevilVergilX]

For Jill Valentine not to be evil or dead T.T. And if thats cleared then I will love that game. But if we have to kill her or she gets killed off in the story I am gonna be sooooooooooooooooo disappointed in RE5... Maybe not even play the RE series anymore...

[Shnazzyone]

and wtf is with the trollers disagreeing with every other comment here. Damn those douchebags!

[X]

Always good to talk with a fellow RE fan.

I can tell you that when I played the demo that the AI partner was actually able to fend for itself decently. So for now I'd say it was a poor demonstration.

However the enimies seemed to react like their RE4 counterparts at half the speed. Hopefully it was just made to make the demo playable to newcommers.

I do have one major problem with the game though. Should you enter dying (red) status, you can't access your menu or defend yourself. You need to be saved by your partner, even if you are carring healing supplies and I hope they change that. Hope this answers some questions for you.

[Shnazzyone]

Geeze seems as if RE5 is talking a little bit of innovation from gears. That death mode sounds almost exactly like what happens in gears when you get done in on co-op. though I'd imagine in the re universe you aren't equipped with infinite resurrection shots. That would suck bad if ya did... takes the survival aspect kinda out of the game.

[Muff1nB4k3r]

Nice write up, and I'll ignore the grammatical errors as it seemed to get your point across.

I'm not particularly sure, but isn't there a case or example where when playing in 'god' mode that the AI (friendly or otherwise) goes a wee bit out of whack?

Having played RE4, I really agree with your comments regarding changes ... ahem... innovations that the devs are putting into RE4.5 ... ahem again... RE5. I still don't get the zombies with automatic weapons, what happened to in your face, melee, eat-your-brains zombies?

DID THEY ALL GO TO L4D (or were they all left behind in RE4) ?

and a quick note regarding graphics, have you seen the trailer where the 'boss' with the huge axe bashes through the fence? it swings through and out of the fence and then the fence falls, the fact that they keep that in the trailer for everyone to see makes it even harder for me to comprehend what they actually changed to make the basic gameplay and presentation better for the player.

[ChampIDC]

I think the RE series could learn a little from Dead Space. I feel it really moved the survival horror genre to a new level. RE4 really wasn't frightening at all. It was basically an action game with horror themes. Dead Space managed to have the suspense of the older RE games while still being pretty action heavy. I still have faith in Capcom that the game will be worthy of a buy, but at the moment, it doesn't seem like they're doing much to innovate.

[SAiOSiN]

They tagged on the co-op aspect of the game which is the most infuriating thing. I seriously rather have some sort of generic co-op where there are two Chrises, rather than something that's being forced on you. The gameplay just looks horrid and repetative. I will be skipping this one.

[JayX666]

If i recall correctly the developing team seemed to have designed and canned RE4 multiple times to get the gameplay just right, at the moment i think they are playing it safe to get the game selling. However, in an interview they did say after RE5 they would have to go back to the drawing board and push innovation. I personally think they should bring back the shamblers, next gen hardware means they should be able to put hundreds and hundreds of the monsters on screen, that used to be the scary thing about RE, your on your own, everyone is trying to eat you and theres so many of them its overwhelming!

[ajsmit28]

I don't know if its because I was 10 or RE1 was so retro is was the creepiest, but I'm losing my steam for the RE series. Also, I'm more into competitive online gaming now, for cash.

www.bringit.com

I can get you a free $5 to try out the site with the promo code: ajsmit28