The first Resident Evil is the one that nailed and populated the survival horror genre. Not that it was the first one of it's kind, but it just stood out from the crowd and sold millions. Then, back in 2005 Resident Evil 4 hit the market, and was criticly acclaimed one of the best games of all time.
Now almost 4 years later the next chapter in that monumental francise is about to once again scare the shit out of us, and a Demo has already reached the Xbox Live Marketplace, and will the Playstation Network the following weeks. I took the chance to get my game on and see how it does.
In Resident Evil 5 you take controll of Chris Redfield, protagonist of the first game, and follow him through the wastes of Africa as he discovers the latest outbreak of the T-Virus. On his side is the beautiful Sheva, his partner on the Mission, who provides him with intel and most importantly backup in form of bullets...lots of bullets. Together they discover the mysterious leader of the zombie horde, a black man with shades and a very convincing voice.
The story is typicly Resident Evil stuff and the Demo itself does a good job at teasing you and making you wonder what's next.
The game plays out alot like Resident Evil 4. You controll Chris from a third person perspective and can't move while shooting. The camera is still pretty stiff and weapon management is still handeled via a inventory screen that doesnt stop the game, so it always feels intense and insures the action never gets lost. The gameplay comes off a little slow at first, but once you get a handle of the controlls it's fast pasted and fun. Ammo is still critical if you want to survive longer that a couple of minuits, so you always have to be on the lookout for ammopacks randonly dropped by fallen enemys. The game also contains a classic life bar, meaning no regeneration except for picking up herb, that transforms into a spray, acting as a medkit. All these rather old mechanics give the gamea slight arcade feel, but it's alright the way it is.
The big difference that seperates Resident Evil 5 from its predecessors is the Buddy system. You and Sheva always stick together and she'll help you out when you'r being rushed by an enemy, or will heal you if your health is low, or you're downed in combat. Also she will supply you with ammo and you can perform a set of buddy operations, like jumping ontop of objects or jumping across huge gaps. But don't think you can just treat her as an mobile supply station! All these activities also work the other way around. If Sheva is out of ammo you can give her some, what you'll evantualy wanna do, because she will kill alot of bad guys throughout the game. With that said, her AI is pretty well done and she is defenetly a vital part of the game, and the combat and will help you out alot.
Another big part of the demo is the online cooperative play. You can join up with a friend, who will then take controll of Sheva. The great thing about this: The Buddy system still works here. Just as you do it with your AI companion you can give your human buddy ammo, health and perform just the same action operations. The feature is implamented realy well, and keeps you coming back for more. This is rather nessecary, because there is no multiplayer mode included, whatsoever.
Leveldesign also differs extremely from older versions of the game. Instead of keeping you in tight claustrophobic rooms and hallways, this time the game's setting makes you spend most of your time in open inviroments, like marketplaces and big city squares. Sometimes you find yourself in small alleyways or houses, but most of the time the space is more open.
The Demo gives you a small armory of standart weapons: There's your standart pistol, a sniper-rifle , the highly effective shotgun and a couple of grenades. The best way to take out an enemy is a Headshot, of cource, and when you do it you get a nice little effect. The weapons offered in the demo are nothing to special, so we're looking forward to the more specific stuff in the final game.
Resident Evil 5 seems to be nothing short of prior games, and everyone should check out the demo on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. The games release is set March 5th for Japan and March 13th for Europe and the US.
Everyone can see that you put much effort into this preview gj^^
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