Resident Evil 5 Review
Resident Evil 5 has been the most lackluster entry in the franchise that I have played. For all that it is worth, both the gameplay and story were solid. However, I felt that there was a severe lack of horror for me, so it just became a generic action game. You can stop reading further because that is my entire honest thought about it.
Movement and Camera Controls
Resident Evil 5 starts off with Chris Redfield being deployed in Africa with fellow Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) member Sheva Alomar. From the start, we are presented with flashbacks of what seems to be a tombstone with the name of Jill Valentine. This implies that Jill is gone, and Chris is being haunted by it, considering the fact that he pauses when Sheva calls her “partner.”
Together, Chris and Sheva are tasked to find out about some bioweapon smuggling in the specific area they are in, and are met with the locals turning into crazed individuals similar to those infected by the Plaga in Resident Evil 4.
Without moving, I thought the game looked great for the time it was released, in the same year as some of the games I really enjoyed, such as Dragon Age: Origins and Assassin’s Creed 2. But when I started to walk around, I felt incredibly sick to my stomach.
The basic and camera controls were fine, but for some reason, running and moving the camera was incredibly hard. Whenever I moved the camera around then sprinted, the camera would force itself back to center Chris in frame.
It was incredibly annoying, and I had to stop and check the controls in the settings menu.Surprisingly, there were two options for aiming: one was pretty standard, where you control the mouse along with the entire camera, while the other lets you control the aiming icon for shooting, with the camera movements set to other buttons.
This was pretty surprising, and it led me to believe that the controls aren’t as modern as I thought they would be. Of course, a large part of this is just me forgetting how far we have come in technology and game design, that I failed to adjust my expectations accordingly. Still, it seemed that the controls for this game were modified tank controls, as movement and turning around while running were very similar to tank controls, albeit with the camera behind the main character rather than in fixed locations.
It took me quite a while to get used to the controls, but I finally got the hang of it, despite being frustrated most of the time, as I switched to another game and felt things much smoother, then back to Resident Evil 5, where the controls seemed to strangle me every time I tried to move the camera and sprint.
Levels and Combat Design
My assumption is correct: most of the combat mechanics in Resident Evil 5 were mostly lifted off from the original Resident Evil 4. While the controls were stiff, combat was pretty smooth, as enemies tend to react accordingly if they get shot in the head or limbs. Stronger enemies, like those with chainsaws or tall masked ones, were pretty difficult to fight alone, but with a companion, it was fairly easy to juggle moving around, reloading, and shooting the enemy.
Personally, I found the companion system to work in my favor despite a lot of criticisms regarding its AI. Maybe it’s because I didn’t expect Sheva to really do anything special for me, other than shoot and heal whenever she needs to.
Of course, there are occasional frustrations, such as Sheva using heals whenever I am trying to conserve healing items despite being hurt. Still, the companion system works pretty well, and I probably would have been frustrated if I was playing with another player who wasn’t as attentive as I would like them to be with helping each other out.
Certain areas required coordinated actions with the companion, and playing as Chris, I would have liked to see the perspective of certain areas only Sheva could explore.
Exploration is fairly straightforward, as the levels were pretty linear and short.
Honestly, the levels in the game were incredibly boring and uninspired, despite the setting itself being fairly unique, as it was set in Africa. The most bizarre level for me was probably the ruins, which were too Tomb Raider-esque for my liking. Another level I hated was in the lab with the rotating platform, trying to aim and shoot with all the spinning was hurting my brain.
Despite that, I like that the game continues to reuse the ancient origin of the different zombie viruses presented in the game, and I would love to see a spin-off set somewhere in the ancient past, but I understand that is incredibly unlikely to happen.
Another bizarre moment for me as well was the fight on the ship where a satellite laser had to be used. It just does not make sense how the laser would not pierce through the enemy and the ship, sinking it—but I guess that’s Resident Evil logic, or lack thereof.
The boss fights were generally enjoyable, with the fight against Irving being the best for me, as it reminded me of Monster Hunter for some reason. The other bosses seemed to be a mix of new designs and callbacks, such as the Uroboros being similar to Mimicry Marcus and Ndesu with El Gigante.
However, there were game-breaking bugs that negated any damage dealt to the enemy bosses that ruined the boss fight experience for me, specifically with the Uroboros Mkono. While I found the fire and flamethrower mechanic against it unique, the bug just ruined everything.
Last but not the least, Quick Time Events are a large part of gameplay in certain scenes. Personally, I did not have any issues with it since I enjoy well-placed QTEs and there were not a lot of QTEs in this game that I found eggregiously placed.
Chris, Sheva, Jill, Wesker, and More
Jill and Wesker also show up in the game and are fought as bosses, with their mechanics mostly revolving around some hide-and-seek gimmick and parrying their attacks. I honestly did not like this, as it just takes away all use of weapons and just focuses on a gimmick and one combat mechanic.
At the start of the game, and somewhere in the middle, it is shown that Jill is dead, but it is later revealed that Jill survived her fall when she and Chris fought Wesker in the Spencer Estate, the events of which can be played in the DLC Lost in Nightmares.
The writers seem to have attempted to end the story of most of the main cast introduced in the first Resident Evil game in this entry and the previous one, with 5 for Jill, Chris, and Wesker, while 4 for Leon. Claire seems to have been left out. Also, Wesker in this game meets his end, and Jill reunites with Chris.
Chris’ complete disillusionment with the BSAA seems to get solidified here, when he and Sheva were tasked to pursue Irving without further backup (aside from the already deployed Delta Team), even after a lot of their members died and unforeseen enemies popped up.
While I haven’t played Resident Evil 6, 7, and 8, there are seeds already placed in the story that prop up the events of the sequels, but I can also see that things could have ended here for some of the characters.
Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape DLCs
Resident Evil 5 had two DLCs: Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape DLCs. The Lost in Nightmares DLC showed the events that happened in Oswell Estate, while Desperate Escape showed how Jill and BSAA agent Josh Stone reached Chris and Sheva at the ending boss fight.
As I have said before, the experience I had with the main story was very mediocre and forgettable. However, the Lost in Nightmares DLC was completely the opposite, as it featured levels very similar to those in Resident Evil 1 with the Arklay Mansion. The Lost in Nightmares DLC also featured the door opening animation that was nostalgic to experience.
This DLC’s story features very minimal combat and focuses more on linear exploration, puzzle solving, and lore dumping. The control scheme of the game also made more sense in this DLC, which featured tight hallways and rooms.
The game really lost a lot of its horror factor with the wide open areas and action-oriented gameplay loop, but the Lost in Nightmares DLC seems to put it on the right tone. The thunder that constantly roars outside the estate and lights up the hallways made me tense up every once in a while.
Unfortunately, the Desperate Escape DLC was not as fun as Lost in Nightmares. The Desperate Escape DLC focused on the same gameplay loop as the main story, where you just fight enemies and get from one end to the other. There is minimal puzzle solving, and its purpose is to simply show Jill and Josh’s escape.
Conceptually, I like these moments where the perspective shifts away from the main cast, but the experience is just far too uninspiring.
I also disliked the last part of this DLC, where I had to defend myself for a certain amount of time against waves of enemies. The gimmick where the escape helicopter gets delayed and the timer went up a few minutes more also made my eyes roll, since the experience was just boring and repetitive.
Is Resident Evil 5 A Good Game? Is Resident Evil 5 Worth It?
A lot of people seem to like Resident Evil 5, and their main issue is the companion system, which was less enjoyable solo than in co-op with a friend.
For me, however, the stiff controls and focus on action were my biggest icks in the game. Inherently, they are not bad design choices, but there was just no tension or horror at all in the experience.
Of course, I could maybe say the same with Resident Evil 4 Remake, but it did have SOME horror for me to experience. There is definitely some disadvantage with the technology used in Resident Evil 5 being 15 years older than the remakes, which makes the comparison unfair in some ways.
So, is Resident Evil 5 a good game? It was okay.
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