Review of RE5 (October Expo Edition)

[Enrico Marini]

Today I had the opportunity of playing RE5 at the EuroGamer Expo. Unfortunately it left me both excited and disappointed about RE5.

This version of RE5 had two Scenario's to play through, 1. Assembly Point, which appeared in the early released videos and 2. Shanty Town which is the bit with the ChainSaw Guy. I queued twice to play both.

Controls:

LTrigger+X Knife
LButton Locate Partner
RTrigger+X Fire Gun
RButton Map (appears top right of screen)
A Run
B Partner Assist
Y Inventory
X General Action

Why they don't have X as run and A as Action I do not know. I kept walking instead of running because of it.

Overall the games graphics and effects are really stunning, more so on the PS3 version which was displayed on HD TVs 40"+ opposed to the 26~32" the 360's got. The enviroments were amazing though always felt a little too similar.

Now for the disappointing part, Game Play. As much as this pains me to say, the game is still Resident Evil 4. The mechanics are the same as well as the AI. I happily tricked the new ganados with the same tactics as I did on 4 and knifed away like a madman. Walk towards them, make them swing/grab for you and back away works a treat, the odd one will do the charge at you and the ganados with shovels or pipes with wire will do the pitchfork attack. I found that very disappointing. Also they have crossbows.

The ganados have the same weaknesses, hit them in the head and Chris will do his lovely Thrust Punch or make them drop to their knees and Chris will do a neat Uppercut. Though when Chris is grabbed and escapes he does not hit or knock the Ganados back.

Luckily Chris does not do as many faffy action hero jumps or manoevers.

Sheva is a handy little gimmick. She's basically Ashley with ability to use guns and you can't hit her. She has two modes, Cover or Attack. I never found out what Attack did but cover she would follow you and shoot any near you. Unfortunately she consumes bullets and will happily pick up items. Say good bye to your ammo. Though she does use bullets, I found the Ganados would go for her more, ignoring you as you walked up to one and knifed them. If she starts shooting one, again just walk up and knife. If she has healing items in her inventory, she will use them to heal you/her (healing items heal both if they are next to each other).

Inventory is no longer the same. Chris has a 9 slot inventory which is accessed by Y and does not pause the game, making changing weapons and healing yourself a pain. I can't remember how many slots Sheva had but I think it was 3 or 6. Basically think Outbreak for the inventory. You can request or give items to each other.

Dying Status. RE5 has a status called dying. Most of the time I saw this occur when you recieved a massive hit taking you below 1/7 health. Your screen goes reddish, you limp and can't run/fight and you health drains slowly. This is cured by your partner assisting you. kind of like the crawling on the floor of Outbreak. Sheva can suffer from this too.

Being grabbed. Same old quick time twiddle the stick though you can call Sheva for assistance and she'll kick the ganados. If she is grabbed, you can press B to downward punch her asailent.

A lot of places you can do assist manoevers to for example help Sheva reach an out of reach ladder or to jump to another building so she can decend it to open a door form another side.

During the scenarios, if you head popped the ganados, they tried to do the whole plagas sprouting out as in the movies but instead just fell on the floor and died. I guess Capcom want to keep their attacks a secret.

I saw no Female Ganados though there were a mix male ganados, both black and white.

First Aid Sprays and Herbs are still about though Yellows I did not see. Ammo is dropped by Ganados along with Gold instead of Pesetas and "boss's" drop treasure which can also be found. If 4's merchant is not around I'll be really unhappy.

Overall I enjoyed playing it and veteran 4 players will take like ducks to water and those who Knife run will be a little dissapointed that the same tricks work. I look forward to its release. Chris isn't half as faffy or annoying as Leon was.

Storywise.

Hidden in the spoiler is what I gathered from the two scenario's.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

The first scenario starts with Chris and Sheva jumping off a small ledge and running into a shanty house. Out of the window they can see a rowdy crowd with a microphone man, a prisoner and an enemy I'll call Sackamid Head (Basically he looks like the breeding of Super Salvador, Garrador and Pyramid Head with rail road spikes all over his body, he also drags a large executioners axe PH style). Sheva comments that that guy is ..... (interrupted by Chris stopping Sheva running outside to save the guy). Prisoner says he knows nothing and Mic Guy orders Sackamid Head to decapitate the prisoner. The crowd chants and Mic Guy notices Chris and Sheva in the window. You now can play again. This scenario has you in the hut and plays like the house in RE4. you can barracade the doors/open windows with bookshelves, whilst the ganados jump over walls and break in. After a while they start coming in through the roof. Finally Sackamid Head smashes one of the walls in. At any point you can leave the hut and run around (like El Puebo) a small compound which has a metal door trapping you in with the ganados/sackamid head. As time progresses, Chris calls in support, and after a bit more time, a helicopter comes to help by a passanger using a Rocket Launcer to take out the Metal Doors. That is the end of that scenario. Sackamid Head is killable (Drops a ring) and Chris can counter his axe swing.

Shanty Town starts off with you passing through a few buildings, then the helicopter from Assembley flying in being attacked by BatPlagas. The helicopter crashes and you are informed to head to the crashsite. The BatPlagas fly around and one actually rips itself out of a ganados, Las Plagas Style. You enter a building and head to the roof. You then Assist Sheva across to the other building where you are seperated and she is attacked by a group. You can shoot them from the roof or jump down to the next level and have better aim. Some of the Ganados have Crossbows. Once they are dead, she'll decend that building, run across and unlock a door at the bottom of your building so you can proceed outside (the shop opposite is called Ken's Store). If you turn right and follow around its a dead end. Turn left and head up to a bolted gate where Black Salvador from the video cuts through the bolt and attacks you. He can one hit finish you like Leon but Chris actually struggles but still fails. Other ganados join in by jumping over walls. You need to kill Black Salvador for his key as if you just run past him there is a locked door behind. once defeated and you open the door, you can open a chest for some gold and treasures. You then proceed to a red door where this scenario ends.

[Vector]

LTrigger+X Knife
LButton Locate Partner
RTrigger+X Fire Gun
RButton Map (appears top right of screen)
A Run
B Partner Assist
Y Inventory
X General Action

Mapping the 360's controls to the DualShock3, translation for those of us with PS3's only...

L1 + Square(?) = Knife
L2(?) - Locate Partner
R1 + Square - Fire Gun
R2(?) Map (appears top right of screen)
X = Run
O = Partner Assist
Triangle = Inventory
Square = General Action

...is this right? Not sure.

[Enrico Marini]

Yeah, thats how it looked. I watched the PS3 version for ages. The queues were too long for it.

[News Bot]

Sheva is a handy little gimmick. She's basically Ashley with ability to use guns and you can't hit her. She has two modes, Cover or Attack. I never found out what Attack did but cover she would follow you and shoot any near you. Unfortunately she consumes bullets and will happily pick up items. Say good bye to your ammo. Though she does use bullets

That just bumped the game down alot on my hype list.

Please have a "gtfo Sheva" option somehow. I don't want to be stuck with her forever. And small intervals of being alone just isn't enough.

And the AI business doesn't sound good either. I can let it being a HD RE4 pass, but if there isn't some improvement to RE4's shitty AI system then that's just ...ugh.

[Skunky]

Thanks for your review!
It was a lot more technical and insightful than most I've read.

Sounds pretty cool to me (I liked RE4).
I think I would have preferred if you could shoot Sheva, causing major damage. The game would have been more challenging and realistic that way. Like how you had to be careful using a shotgun around Ashley in RE4.

@ChrisRedfield29, there's a thread around here somewhere with the PS3 control layouts pictured.

[CODE_umb87]

I don't care either about how similar it is to RE4, it looks great and the games story seems very interesting.

[Enrico Marini]

I don't care either about how similar it is to RE4, it looks great and the games story seems very interesting.

That is a fair point. RE2 was a great game even though it played like RE1.

After playing 5, I have a strong feeling that its T-Plagas unless Capcom have a new biohazard they are releasing onto us.

[Chris_Redfield8]

i just hope tha it isnt too much like RE 4 dont get me wrong it was good but there was something missing from it (besides the story and horror)

[Stars1356]

I think now I am just thinking about the story of the game but know that the new controls will need some time to get use to. If not I will just go back to the old style.

[sogar]

Is the melee attack as effective as it was in RE 4?

[Darkmoon]

Oh, great. The one thing I thought was make or break would be Sheva and the enemy AI. The RE4 enemy AI simply doesn't cut the mustard. Throwing more of them at you at once isn't scary it's just irritating. RE4 was a good game but one of my big complaints was the supposedly smarter ganados acting dumber than the brain dead zombies. Having some pre-programmed tricks such as putting up a ladder doesn't make up for all the times where I trapped a pack of them against a wall because there Pathfinding AI isn't up for the job.

As for Sheva...if all she is in single player mode is a walking gun platform that just gobbles ammo and healing items, well, that's not gonna be great either. I assume you can switch items between the two so she can't just use all your items before you get a chance to see them but still...they keep going on about how great her AI is. And from the sound of it the AI is really, really not so hot.

Enrico, please tell me this was an older build?

[Enrico Marini]

Nope. The title screen had "October 2008 Release" on it.

You can just take the guns away from her, and then she can't gobble ammo. She just seems to be a blood hound for items. I was killing the Ganados and not finding any ammo.

The AI is about the same as 4. They get stuck around corners for a second, and the "salvador" doesn't decapitate you if you run past him really close, which you'd think he'd be able to do with a chainsaw. The BatPlagas I don't know their attacks, had one over my head for 3~4 seconds and it didn't bother me.

Is the melee attack as effective as it was in RE 4?

I started the first scenario using mainly gun and some knife (as dying ment I had a 40min wait) but the second scenario, apart from the "salvador" and assist part, I just knifed happily. It seems as effective as 4's melee. I'm not a master of melee in RE4 but I can kill most things without too much problem. With the addition of abusing Sheva to distract them as well, melee looks like the way to go.

I think now I am just thinking about the story of the game but know that the new controls will need some time to get use to. If not I will just go back to the old style.

The Controls are practically the same as 4, just run and action swapped. This just could be because the build is a japanese one and I've noticed with other PSX REs they did this too. There is an alternate "Shooter" control system but I didn't have time to try it out. It looked rather wierd.

The gore was also toned down. When Chris was decapitated you only got a body shot then his headless body falls down. Though oddly the Ganados happily head exploded. The blood wasn't too great, though it looked more congealed than fresh.

[Helegad]

Damn, stupid Capcom toning down the gore! Gore was the best part of RE

[Dot50Cal]

I heard the 360 version had framerate issues and screen tearing. I suppose this echo's Hunk's statements when he previewed both versions of the game a few weeks ago. So perhaps the PS3 will be the superior version (until PC that is ).

[kevstah2004]

I noticed in one of the gameplay footage videos the bullet hole textures floated in the air at certain points away from the walls