Resident Evil 4 is one of the greatest videogames ever made. It is top three, desert island material, the one to play before you die. It is Shinji Mikami’s definitive statement as a creator. It is the best three-dimensional game to ever come out of Capcom across all of their internal teams. It is Dark Side of the Moon to Super Mario 64’s Sgt. Pepper. These are not things that can be argued. These are facts. So when every single person that plays Resident Evil 5, whether as a demo or as a finished, ten hour game say that it is just “gorgeous Resident Evil 4", you know they are not damning it. That is a compliment. And an accurate one.
Producer Jun Takeuchi and his team of toughs followed the recipe precisely: Mix claustrophobic, over-the-shoulder gunplay, careful resource management and a dollop of flip-the-switch puzzling. Add an adventure through a forbidding village of transformed locals, then some marsh land hiding a water-bound monstrosity, then one industrial complex. Slowly blend in one spooky castle/ruin and one evil laboratory. Garnish with final confrontation that culminates in rocket-launchering a monster in the mutated face. Do battle with human, canine, insect, and various oozing grotesques. Let rest occasionally near save point, serve chilled.
It is an expertly-made game, its only serious flaw being the partner AI’s occasionally spastic behavior. Sheva Alomar (or Chris Redfield on a second single-player run) is capable throughout the chapters, but useless in boss fights, especially the last. The addition of a constant partner, whether AI or player controlled, does not change the rules, the flow of Resident Evil as a game. It can, at first, make the game feel quite different, giving combat a refreshed sense of immediacy and panic. Every Resident Evil game has a companion, but they’re typically a cosmetic servant of narrative, a dependent you must protect to proceed, or a pack mule, not an active participant in the fight-and-heal rush of combat. This is misleading in the game’s opening chapters because once the newness of it wears off, RE5 settles into the same ebb and flow of its predecessor. It is, however, made a less lonely game, though not only because of your partner’s presence. This Resident Evil has fewer ponderous moments sandwiched between its gaudy set pieces, a bit less story and, at first, seemingly less exploration. Resident Evil 5 has done away with back tracking entirely, making the game more linear by making its environments less circuitous. This is a necessity for keeping the game palatable to play with another human being — not everyone wants to look in every corner for bullets and gold. But in taking away Resident Evil’s maze structure (even if, as in Resident Evil 4, it’s just the impression of a maze) and removing opportunities to soak in Kijuju’s atmosphere, RE5 loses the series’ je ne sais quoi, its inherent Resident Evil-ness.
That’s the last metric to measure the game and the series’ worth. There isn’t anything left to say about the game you play in Resident Evil 5. These rules are perfect and Capcom has made a version that can be played by two people at once. Its art, its sound, all of its clockwork parts gleam in sync. But how does it hold up as a sequel, as a Resident Evil game? It does okay. The atmosphere and tone have always been the most rewarding aspects of the franchise, and they’ve taken a hit because of the aforementioned structural changes — not terminally but noticeably. It is also steeped in continuity without being forbidding to potential new players. No one’s going to give a damn who Jill Valentine if they’ve never played another Resident Evil, but the game is very conservative with its cutscene melodrama. It even does you the courtesy of including a timeline of the entire series, chunks of which pop up during load times.
Every review, every preview, every mention of Resident Evil 5 says the same thing: this game, no matter what, will live in the shadow of Resident Evil 4. Following up a masterpiece is an impossible task. To look at Super Mario 64 again briefly, Resident Evil 5 took the same approach Super Mario Sunshine did, making a few slight tweaks to a proven formula. Sunshine, however, was rushed out the door, had frustrating level design, and some questionable aesthetics thrown on top of the proven rules of its papa. Capcom was patient with Resident Evil 5 and they produced a game that may not surpass its papa, but at least honors it. What more can you ask?
Grade: B+
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