I now have a shiny weekly video games column on my university paper’s online edition, which can be found at http://www.redbrickonline.co.uk here, reproduced in screen-o-vision is my first contribution.
The Resident Evil 5 demo came out on Playstation Network this week. (and the week before on Xbox Live, but they were charging for the download, so you get the PS3 version) The Resident Evil series needs no introduction – you wander around, you learn to cope with a baffling control system, you eat herbs to regenerate health and you save your game at typewriters. It’s a series that has wormed its way into our hearts, and despite no single game getting it quite right, it’s all jolly good fun.. Except that’s not quite true, because Resident Evil 4 did get it exactly right. It was brilliant in every important respect, and that’s what makes this sneak-peek at the follow-up particularly disappointing. (There you go, cards on the table – we can both relax now)
The flaws in this game have the appearance of being niggling little nit-picky problems, but when you start picking away you’ll soon see these little things actually cover every aspect of the demo. This is an exercise in weaving a hundred tiny flaws into one huge unplayable blanket. (note to self, brilliant analogy) Enough small talk, let’s dive straight into what’s wrong with this demo. First off – corpses disappear. I thought we had left this annoying mechanic behind in the N64-era. Back then it was a technical limitation – littering the place with corpses put undue strain on olden-times processors. What’s the excuse now? I can only assume it’s the same problem, but I would willingly sacrifice my female team mate’s accurately flopping ponytail for the chance to keep killing enemies after they’re dead. (actually I would just willingly sacrifice her, no reward necessary) I mean, it’s a zombie game! No dismemberment?! Outrageous. They don’t fade away, they bubble unspectacularly, something to do with the plaga virus I can only assume, but damned if Capcom are going to bother explaining the science behind a corpse-bubbling virus.
I can only assume a focus group of thirteen year olds led the decision to ditch Leon Kennedy, the protagonist of all the best Resident Evil games so far, and the recent movie. Presumably they struggled to relate to his ridiculous hair, and demanded a newer, sexier lead male. Well they have one, in the form of Chris Redfield, who fans of the series will remember as the protagonist from the very first game. (and he pops up throughout the series) Chris, or as I prefer to call him, Douche Flexington, (I know that’s petty, I just miss Leon) is “assisted” by Sheva Alomar. I will now subdivide this list of flaws into lists of ways in which Sheva manages to ruin everything about this game. One of the few criticisms levelled at RE4 was that far too much of the game was basically an escort mission. Ashley, the president’s daughter, was to be escorted by you out of the deadly land they call “Europe” and back to all-American safety. Ashley was pretty useless – she couldn’t hold weapons, could only run away and was frequently attacked if you left her alone, but essentially it worked out because it was very clear from the outset that you were in charge. She was totally powerless, and was programmed to follow nervously behind you, and duck instantly if you needed to shoot something in her direction.
Sheva, conversely, is not the weakling you have to protect, rather she’s your supposed equal. What this means in practice is that she runs into you all the time or at least pushes up against you, forcing you into walls. This wouldn’t be so bad if you could just pop her in the head at the start of every level, but she dodges every bullet. She doesn’t duck, as Ashley obligingly would have, she strafes instantly to the left or right and stands resolutely in your field of vision. Needless to say, when a hoard of undead villagers are running for you, and you’re trying to conserve precious bullets by going for headshots, Sheva’s ramming determinedly into you and knocking your aim is less than helpful. Actually, it’s controller-smashingly frustrating. Oh yeah, and if you dally too long picking up ammo and health, Sheva will greedily gobble it up herself! Give that back! Douche and Sheva work as a team. That means if she takes a hit and needs some stirring words to get her back on her feet, it’s up to you to wrestle through the swarm of murderous villagers to whisper whatever secret words of courage magically fix a ruptured spleen.
Conversely if you suffer an axe to the face, you’ll be relying on her to come save you. She will fail. Oh yeah, and if she dies you die. These mechanics, whilst a little ill-conceived would be bearable if the game made allowances for your partner’s small failings, and left things squarely up to you to fix. However this is not the case. Let me give an example from the ‘shanty town’ level presented in the demo: Sheva and I are hanging out on top of a roof, when it becomes clear that it would be advantageous to get across to a different roof. The gap, alas, is too great for either of us to jump. Upon closer inspection I am given the option to ‘press X to assist jump.’ Excellent – a chance to ditch miss Alomar and forge a path ahead. Look out world, Captain Flexington is going solo! I press X, and with acrobatic aplomb I manage to flip Sheva onto the other roof. As soon as she lands her roof is flooded with zombies. She starts yelling for help. As far as I can tell I am powerless to help. My screen flashes dramatically to indicate she is being wounded. She runs down some stairs, hindering any assistance I could have given. Weeping, I cradle my little plastic Leon doll as the controller slips from my shaking hands. Ok, so it’s not a total disaster, but relying on an AI character is never going to be a good idea.
The only time this kind of system has been effective was Half-Life 2, in which you and Alyx Vance fought through many levels of combine-tastic mayhem. It worked because she was immortal, had infinite ammo and was generally way cooler than you. Another minor gripe is the control system. I know it’s a sort of tradition that the Resident Evil games have awkward controls, but they feel unusually out of place here. Survival horror is unique because it’s the only genre that can get away with really inconveniencing the player, and still have those annoyances count towards the game’s quality. In this case however the only clues to indicate that this is a survival horror game are the ammo conservation and the fiddly control system. Both imbue a sense of urgency and panic that would work well in a game that had some atmosphere, but you wont find any of that here. You’re not going to be alone, so forget any feeling of isolation, and the levels I played were in bright sunlight. Sure you could get a few frights from crazed villagers jumping out of cupboards (or something that would actually be frightening) but a good survival horror game will make you dread every new area, and will leave you emotionally drained after every encounter. For this game Capcom have stated they were going for a ‘Black Hawk Down’ kind of feel, which says it all really. You might say that judging the whole game on the strength of the demo is unfair, but this is supposed to be Capcom putting it’s best foot forward, out to impress, and doing their level best to separate me from my money. What reason is there to suppose that the whole game is going to be any more impressive?
I mentioned before that the Resident Evil games were never perfect, but they always seemed to me like a child with a macaroni picture. It’s not great but we smile and nod along, because we’re fond, they’re trying their hardest and it’s pretty good really. But this time the macaroni picture is bad, the child is whining and I’ve had enough. Resident Evil 5 is going to live with grandma for a while.
Posted by Luke 
Posted by Luke 
Posted by Luke 