GamesRadar: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries Preview

[Pikminister]

Joystiq has published another preview:

Because The Mercenaries has no story, it places much more emphasis on the quality of the core gameplay. I was expecting a direct translation of the mode as found in Resident Evil 5, but I was surprised to find out that the 3DS game actually features some improvements. Most importantly, you'll be able to move and shoot at the same time. While this is a given in nearly every other franchise out there, this is a revolutionary step for the franchise, making it all the more clear that The Mercenaries is less "horror" and simply "action." Holding the R button lets you aim and shoot, but holding both the L and R button lets you strafe as well. This changes everything.

The touch-screen inventory is a welcome addition to the franchise, allowing you to perform real-time weapons changes rather effortlessly. (Previous versions of Mercenaries demanded some vigorous inventory management.) This may seem like a minor change, but it drastically changes the feel from previous Resident Evil games.

Unfortunately, the demo we played didn't offer The Mercenaries' biggest new feature: online co-op. Resident Evil 5 proved how well the franchise works when you add a friend to the mix, and it's likely this will follow suit. The trailer released yesterday shows the return of classic RE5 co-op combo moves, something I look forward to trying out.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/20/re...es-3d-preview/

[Wrathborne]

Is anyone else getting sick and tired of seeing the RE4 engine?

Nope. But I am sick and tired of seeing the RE4 engine with the RE5 mod's.

CHAINSAW SLASH TO CLAIRE!
To stabilize her Chris grabs and shakes her and screams in her face 'CLAIRE, ARE YOU OK!?'

I really fucked hated that shit in RE5 because it looked ridiculous, it wasted time during boss battles and left you open for an attack, and the screen doing that weird inverted color change flash caused more pain than anything.

Also in the mercenaries mode you have to touch the hourglasses to earn more time, but in RE5 your character now does this ridiculous attack on the hour glass. The problem? the mercenaries is a time based challenge, every second counts, so why in gods name would you have the characters perform a one second attack animation on an hourglass?

It looks like they've actually fixed a little of this and sped up the animation in the 3DS game, but it still eats up time to do this when all you really need to do is touch it.

[Canas Renvall]

^ Perhaps you missed where he's actually injecting her with adrenaline like in RE5.

[Archelon]

To be fair, his hand isn't balled up like he's holding something as it was in RE5. It's placed flat, palm down on her shoulder.

[Canas Renvall]

^ Oh, I just noticed that. My bad!

Also in the mercenaries mode you have to touch the hourglasses to earn more time, but in RE5 your character now does this ridiculous attack on the hour glass. The problem? the mercenaries is a time based challenge, every second counts, so why in gods name would you have the characters perform a one second attack animation on an hourglass?

It looks like they've actually fixed a little of this and sped up the animation in the 3DS game, but it still eats up time to do this when all you really need to do is touch it.

The reason they did that was to streamline the game. Much like picking up items. They didn't want to have a message pop up every single time you grabbed an item or a timer like in RE4 mercs, where all it did was break up the action. So they just made it a melee for the timer.

[Det. Beauregard]

I hope the other modes will include a way to shut off the timer. I hate that "rushing" feeling.

[Humor Tumor]

I hope the other modes will include a way to shut off the timer. I hate that "rushing" feeling.

Agreed. I want a mode where I can play until I die, and it gets more difficult as it goes. The timed is fun, but I want to be able to just hunker down and wreck things for as long as I can with a friend.

[Canas Renvall]

^ The only way that could happen is if the enemies drop less and less ammo and health items and more minibosses/bosses show up... And that sounds awesome.

[Wrathborne]

Thats why RE4 had the giant double bladed chainsaw maniac character in 'the ports' stage.

Big mean son of a bitch that just does 1 hit kills. Loved kicking the shit out of him with Wesker, good times.

[Enetirnel]

Thats why RE4 had the giant double bladed chainsaw maniac character in 'the ports' stage.

Big mean son of a bitch that just does 1 hit kills. Loved kicking the shit out of him with Wesker, good times.

Super Salvador, and it's Waterworld.

And yeah, Thrust Punching him was always great fun. He'd usually glitch out of the stage for me when doing that with Wesker though.

[Humor Tumor]

I'm actually looking forward to this game, it's kind of exactly what I want for a portable game.