Resident Evil 5 "Sheva!!"

OK its that time that I get on that keyboard and clack out another post (yep quite alot of clacking indeed!) and this one is on another Resident Evil video game, having covered various ones in the series already this one will be on Resident Evil 5.  So let's give this mother a look....

Right so a bit about the plot which takes place five years after the events of RE4 it follows the main character, Chris Redfield who was a former S.T.A.R.S. operative but is now a member of the BSSA (Bioterrorism security assessment alliance) who is sent into Kijuju (which is actually a fictional region in Africa) along with Sheva Alomar, a fellow BSAA operative based in Africa.  Chris and Sheva together are sent to aprehend Ricardo Irving, before he can sell a BOW (bio-organic weapon) on the black market.  Chris and Sheva both discover on arriving they find that the locals have been infected with parasites, which they fight off and they are soon rescued by the BSSA delta team, one of whom is Josh Stone, Sheva's mentor.  Josh reveals to Chris that he has a data file with a photograph of his sister, Jilly Valentine, who Chris believed to be dead after an encounter with his old foe, Albert Wesker.  Chris and Sheva along with the Delta team advance on Irving but he manages to escape, however he leaves behind some documents, which contain information on the whereabouts of the deal, which is in some oil fields.  Chris and Sheva then continue into the marshlands and they track down Irving, who injects himself with a variant of the Las Plagas parasite and he mutates into a monster, whom Chris and Sheva finally defeat and with Irving's dying words he leads them toward a cave belonging to a tribe which holds the flower from which the T and G viruses were created.  From here Chris and Sheva continue their investigation into who and what is behind the BOW attacks (which is soon revealed to be Albert Wesker after all) and also they learn a far greater threat is brewing in the form of a new enhanced bio-organic virus, which they must stop from being used across the world.....

As a follow up to the superb RE4, Resident Evil 5 does a fine job in doing so even though it still does borrow quite heavily from the format of what went before in the previous game but that in itself is not a bad thing given just how good RE4 was.  Gameplay wise the game is very similar in style except the single player game now almost takes on almost co-op based style as the main playable character, Chris has Sheva run alongside him and at certain points she has to perform some tasks to open doors or help take out enemies to cover Chris, which again was covered in RE4.  Chris and Sheva at certain points in the game also have to peform timed actions totgether such as bashing down doors and Chris himself at times will be required to carry out physical actions in scenes where he has to evade baddies or perform a melee attack when he is in close contact with an enemy.  The game also features similar enemies to those in RE4 (the Ganados) the Majini who are Africans infected with the parasite and they also can run, wield weapons and dodge attacks.  And one of the notable enemies in the game is the return of the crazed leatherface chainsaw psycho (well except this will be an African one rather than Mexican) who Chris will have to run away from fast or he run risk being sliced up (and you are treated to a rather gruesome cutscene if Chris is killed by him). 

Weapons and ammo wise the game is also fairly similar to RE4 in that Chris can pick up ammo from dead foes as well as money, which you can use at the end of a level to upgrade your weapons and ammo as well as buy other items which will help you along the way.  Chris can also break open creates and barrels to pick up items. e.g. ammo, first aid sprays or herbs to restore his health.  The weapons in the game are also pretty varied as Chris can pick up various guns such as handguns, shotguns, sub-machine guns, assault rifle and a sniper rifle and as the player can actually select the weapons and health items during the action rather than go into a menu to access what you need.  The game also features the standard combat knife which is practically useless except for breaking open crates, but you can also pick up different grenades such as incindenary, flash or frag grenades, which can come in handy.    

As for the game's visuals RE5 looks stunning as it is the first game in the series to have been made in high definition and the game's environment are richly detailed and sharp.  The character models are also great and in some instances almost lifelike and one example is the character Josh Stone, who you could swear is an actual guy when you look at him in the game!  Chris and Sheva's charactel models are also excellent as well (and it has to be said that Sheva is rather sexy! Sorry perv!).  There is also great graphical variety with the baddies in the game not just the majini infected humans, but also other monsters as well, a giant mutated octopus and also infected dogs, which can split open into two, which looks gross and like something from John Carpenter's The Thing! (probably the influence here!).  The game also features an excellent music score by several Japanese composers that include Kota Suzuki and Akihiko Narita, which contain many exciting, fast paced tracks that are guaranteed to get your adrenaline going.  In fact one of the tracks, Majini 2 remains one of my favourite video game music tracks of all time as it really is an intense and powerful piece of music that knocks off your feet when you hear it (well nearly!).

As for the voice acting, overall its excellent as Roger Craig Smith is fine in his lead role as Chris, who get's some pretty standard serious RE dialogue but also one or two amusing lines aswell such as during Chris's fight scene with Wesker, where Sheva says to him "He's lost it!" and Chris says "He never had "it" in the first place!".  The other voice cast members are also very good such as Eva La Dare as Sheva, Chris's partner and T.J. Storm as Chris Stone, the BSAA delta team team leader who aids Chris and Sheva.  

So as for flaws....yes OK RE5 has one or two, to start with I think the game probably borrows too heavily from RE4 at times and in doing so it offers not a great deal new to the series overall, so it feels alot like playing a retread of RE4 itself.  And whilst RE4 was something of a landmark in action games and also reshaped the series it also lead towards RE5 moving further away from the roots of what made Resident Evil good in the first place, the creepy corridors, the dark hallways, moaning zombies or other monsters coming at you all added up to the great experience it originally was.  But by RE5 the series really has moved into the action genre and getting a bit further away from its original horror-survival concept, even though this is something the games does pretty well is still immerse the player in the action.  I also was bugged by the fact that Albert Wesker now has been effectively given an English accent as if all archetypal villains in video games now need to be English in order to be a real badass and in the game his accent just sounds silly anyway!  And D.C. Douglas, the voice actor from Wesker, delivers some naff dialogue in such an exaggerated accent such as "You're merely postponing the inevitable!" and "there's no point in hiding!".
 
And last of all some of the quick time event sequences (introduced in RE4) where you have to press a button on your controller prove to be a bit of a pain in some instances, particularly in the last battle Chris has with Wesker when he has to push a big boulder into lava to clear a path and he will die if he mistimes it.  This bit whilst not difficult, does highlight what a pain in the ass all this quick time event nonsense can be these days in video gaming, where the player can be reduced to a raging wreck simply because they couldn't time pressing button just at the right moment!    

Aside from the flaws there were also some accusations raised at the game for being racist as it depicts white people killing black enemies during the African village levels, but I think you can't really level this against the game as it just happens to be the setting for the story and I don't think the creators had that in mind.  And if you look at RE4 the enemies are much the same except they are Mexicans infected and all they have done is change the race and regardless of that it shouldn't be considered as racism just because the enemies happen to be black.  But again it does raise just how gaming has changed over the years and that we have moved on from the simple days of Pacman to now where gaming has become more advanced and now even has political leanings to them and other issues in society.

Anyway that all aside Resident Evil 5 is a fine follow up to Resident Evil 4 and its still well worth playing even if its a game that may not please all the fans of the series but it still stands head and shoulders over Resident Evil 6.  So we will just have to wait and see what Resident Evil 7 will have in stall for us (if and when that is!).

So until the next post bye the noow.