Resident Evil 5 Review
With the upcoming release of Resident Evil 7, an apparent reimagining of the Resident Evil franchise, I decided to go back and try to finish Resident Evil 5. I'd played it quite a while back, but never finished it. So with the remastering of it on PS4 I decided to give it a good shot.
So how was it? Well, to answer that we need to break the game into 2 parts. We have the first part, which is the first half of the game. I class the first half as anything before the Irving boss fight. So, the Africa stages pretty much. This half of the game is great. It's paced well, the set pieces are cool and overall there's certainly a resemblance, if not a blatant reattempt at creating that Resident Evil 4 magic. Not that you can blame Capcom for trying, RE4 is a damn great game.
Then, you have post Irving Resident Evil 5. From this point on, there's a large chunk of the game spent in a cave and underground. This part is awful. I absolutely hated it the first time around several years ago, and it was why I gave up on the damn game. Seriously, screw the temples and shit. They were just poorly designed and really tedious in my opinion. Then, after that you have a few missions on a boat that are overall not too bad, and a final boss. For a final boss, it isn't too terrible. There are quite a few stages to it which is nice. The first has you moving around in the dark with a rocket launcher. (Yes, I know, sounds quite conflicting but I suppose it works.) Then you get a short but sweet Quick Time Event section which is a nice little change of pace. Finally, you get a final showdown which is honestly not too bad. A little tedious at times but that could just be due to my play style.
On the topic of Bosses, they're all actually not too bad. My only major grudges would have to be one boss you fight in the back of a truck on a turret. Other than that, the bosses are quite fun. Some are a little too short for my liking, but they all have unique elements to them that make them refreshing. (Side note, there is one boss you can kill with what I THINK was a sky laser? I really don't know, but if you can kill it without that I would recommend it. Using the "sky laser" seems rushed and cheap. Just my opinion.)
As for things like the controls and gameplay, they're pretty solid. Virtually identical to Resident Evil 4 so nothing new there, and the Quick Time Events aren't too over used, and actually fit in quite nicely to the game in my opinion. The guns handle well, though I personally only found myself using a small handful of them due to how much I had invested in upgrades by the time something better had finally come along, so I either threw them to my AI partner or sold them at the end of the mission.
Speaking of AI, I personally had a few issues with enemies just standing there, but only a dozen or so out of the hundreds you're gonna see. Along with that, your companion, Sheva, gets the job done just fine. Other than some inventory issues here and there, she was fine. However, a word of advice. The AI prioritises using a handgun if they have ammo for it, so let them pick up most of the Handgun ammo and be sure to only really upgrade the AIs Handgun.
All of this is well a good, but how about the story to the game? Well, honestly, at first it seemed completely unrelated to the other Resident Evil games. New Continent, new story, I guess. However, as you progress and if you decide to read notes scattered around, you can put together pieces of all the games. It's a really good addition to the Resident Evil lore. It ties together some of the side games like Code Veronica as well as adding some new elements to the older games, with references galore to Raccoon City and the Las Plagas incident. (Resident Evil 4) which is really nice to see. As well as a very strongly hammered point about Partners and teamwork covering the whole game, it's all quite well done. No Award Winning writing or anything, but did you expect otherwise?
And as always in Resident Evil, the voice acting isn't perfect. It's no Troy Baker or Nolan North level performances, and a few lines are either too poorly written to sound real, or just poorly delivered. Although, don't be surprised if it's sometimes both.
So, all Bolder Punching jokes aside (Google it if you didn't get that, it's pretty funny.) Resident Evil 5 isn't at all a terrible game. Unlike Resident Evil 6, it actually has a Resident Evil 4 level of quality for the most part, minus the cave segment, seriously that bit was awful. As well as enjoyable bosses, solid gun play, a great upgrade system, good atmosphere and music at times and competent AI. Resident Evil 5 seems like it tried to recreate the Fourth games magic but got lost along the way. Which is fine. I'd say give it a shot if you're a Resident Evil fan and haven't tried it yet because it's certainly worth it, especially if it's on sale, it's a good 10-15 hours of gameplay with a fantastic open few hours.
I give Resident Evil 5 a 7 out of 10. With the Cave segments really weighing the game down as well as a few tedious bits and bosses through out, Resident Evil 5 definitely isn't the worst the series has to offer, but it's easy to see why people say this is where Resident Evil began to die. So let's see if the new Seventh game can revive the series.