Just finished Resident Evil 5 and thought I'd write my review on it, so here it is:
*Spoilers*
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 8
Lasting Appeal: 9 (May go up once the DLC is available)
First off, Resident Evil 4 is my favourite game of all time. So coming into Resident Evil 5, I hope extremely high hopes. I had watched all the pre-release videos and read all the new news that ever came out. And I had been very eagerly anticipating this game since the release date was announced so many months ago.
My initial reaction after beating the game, was "Yeah! Suck on this Wesker!" I was so excited cause I played the last few chapters as a marathon. So when I finally shot him with those rocket launchers, I had a huge sense of accomplishment.
The few days after playing it, I replayed it on co-op with a friend over xbox live (NEVER play it split-screen, half the screen is black and it is too small to see anything).
When playing over live, all those minor annoyances that the A.I. Sheva has (wasting too much ammo, not getting out of the way of fire, not coming to a door.... I do however like how she heals you all the time) disappear. You finally have someone who can watch your back and save your ass if you get wreckless and try and kill everyone with a stun rod!.
But I digress, the game starts off very slowly compared to Resident Evil 4. Instead of fighting zombies within the first minute, you have to walk through a town with some very sketchy looking African people. And instead of saving a dog at the beginning of the game and have him help you later on, there's nothing. Nothing that impacts the game later on, nothing to test your moral compass. Nothing! Instead of adding to the immersive experiences in RE4, they completely take it out and make the game even more linear.
So basically, RE5 will not become my new favourite game of all time. It adds nothing new to the RE experience and takes away many of the things that made RE4 so special. All that's left is the over-the-shoulder camera and the fast "zombies". The cool bosses, not too cheesy characters, the countless ways to get through a specific situation...all gone.
Bottom Line:
While the score is still high because killing "zombies" is always fun (play Left 4 Dead the best zombie killings). It is nowhere near the 10 RE4 deserves. Hopefully RE6 fixes this but I won't wait in anticipation for that day...
