This past Friday at midnight I found myself at Gamestop in utter excitement of the new Resident Evil being released. I couldn’t wait to get home and start it up hoping not to be disappointed, and let me assure you I wasn’t. Playing the majority of the game with GiantToast, so far throughout this game I have seen everything from Chainsaw wielding tribesmen to huge bat creatures, Resident Evil 5 has a little of everything. 

Now when you first jump in too Resident Evil 5 do not expect your normal RE game with slow moving zombies and a slow paced environment. RE 5 has none of this the zombies move fast, take a lot of damage, and come at you in hordes did I also mention that you have a limited ammo amount? All of this adds up to a truly adreneline pumping experience. I often found myself sitting on the edge of my seat of ten times yelling save me Toast! The zombies are not only new and exciting the bosses are also truly incredible. Each boss encounter is different which is truly refreshing to see in a game. This is one of RE 5′s best features in my opinion, because I actually felt rewarded in figuring out how to defeat a boss instead of the normal shoot it till it dies approach. When you find the second form of Uroboros or Wesker for the first time (No I’m not ruining anything everyone but Chris Redfield seems to realize Wesker is actually dead) you will understand what I am talking about.  Not only do the enemies add up too a truly new experience, the environments are also all totally originally and beautiful i might add.

Throughout the game Chris Redfield and Sheva (the main characters) find themselves anywhere all over Africa from areas ranging from the safari, an underground labratory,  to even a valcano. It can be seen in each of these environments that Capcom took a great deal creating this game. At one point when I first walked into an underground garden I was literally awestruck at how beautiful it was to see the sun from above shining done making all of the flowers radiate.  The enemies and environments are both amazing, but my truly favorite thing about RE 5 is the CoOp.

Cooperative play is what makes RE 5 addicting. There is nothing like being able to face an army of the undead with your best friend, plus CoOp adds another level of depth to the game. Through CoOp GiantToast and I decided what role each of us would play in our group such as he was generally the up close and personal guy with the shotgun and I would hang back more and deal damage through the use of the shotgun. We also found ourselfs at time in the purchasing screen also discussing who would carry the extra health items, or exactly what type of weapon either of us should be taking into the game with us. I personally do not feel that playing through this game in single player would be near the experience it is with a friend. So far I have made RE 5 sound like a glorious experience, which it is, but it also has its flaws.

First I feel that if you haven’t played any of the other RE games or read any of the lore, you will be totally lost with alot of the events which take place in RE 5 (For example the concept of Wesker, Jill, and Chris’s relationship will be totally lost on you). The game does provide you with a history of the game, but the history in my opinion is horrible. It gives random facts about Umbrella, and the different events which took place, but doesn’t tell how any of the characters really know each other, or their experiences. You can play RE 5 without knowing anything about the series and you will still find it enjoyable, but near as much as if you had played any of the prior titles.

Another complaint I have with the game is the controls. If you are going to have zombies which run at me at alarming rates of speed with chainsaws I would atleast like to be able to either shoot while backpeddling or have the ability to turn around while running.  In order for me to turn around I have to stop moving turn the direction I want, then start running in that direction all the while be attacking by numerous creatures. I feel like Capcom with RE 5 is trying to go away from the slow moving RE games of old; which is great in my opinion I just think they need to update the controls. Don’t get me wrong everything works well and flows, but just these two little things bugged me, but don’t really take away from the gaming experience.

Lastly, in my complaints I have one major event in the game which literally ruined this chapter for me, and this event comes in the form of the spinning platform room. If  I could find whoever made this room I would ask them if they found their spinning room fun, and if they said yes I would let them view The Spirit or Battlefield Earth because they would probably enjoy those as well. In this room you stand on a huge spinning platform which moves upward and then are expected to shoot these zombies on the wall who are pulling switchs halting your advance. GiantToast and I wasted nearly all of our ammo in this room at one point only to realize we killed the wrong platform of zombies and the ones we needed were below us. This room is a frustrating event which really took some of the fun out of the game for me.

Resident Evil 5 is a truly amazing experience it has everything that a game needs great boss fights, CoOp, innovative environments and puzzles, plenty of unlockables for plenty of replay value, and its god damn beautiful. I highly recommend RE 5 to anyone it isnt a perfect game, but it is damn near close.

Score: 9.0 out of 10

FrenchToast