Resident Evil 5 Comments by Kristan Reed

Did anyone REALLY expect RE5 to beat RE4?

I mean, i'm looking forward to RE5, but 4 is unbeatable, i've just been hoping for a similar at least half as good as RE4.

I'd like to suggest to the neverending horde of RE Controlz Whinerz(R) that they don't need to buy RE5 if it's not to their tastes and that there are plenty of other games on the market more fitting to their control needs. I'd also like to suggest to the Tearing Whinerz(R) that they are looking at a demo with some technical glitches still left in (notice the flickering blue line at the top of the screen? yeah, and the first message also talks about it I believe), which could very well be gone in the final product.

Me? I stopped having trouble with the controls (setting A/D, haven't tried the others yet) after one, two, three tries and had some good fun in both levels. Of note is the low difficulty setting maintained in the demo, which is comparable to Easy in RE4 - the enemies take a long time to attack and they're very easy to run past. I've observed Mister Axe standing still for a loooooong time before he started moving again. You can also, for example, keep knifing at the windows in the first parts of level 1; you'll hardly ever get in trouble whereas in Normal/Pro RE4 type difficulties, you ought to be clobbered very quickly there.

It is therefore my humble prediction that Easy has been chosen for the demo to give everyone a good time - in the finished product, we'll sample what Normal/Pro (or similar) are all about. Story wise, after consulting the official site for a bit, I'm very curious as to what they will dish out.

I'm a little mixed about the demo.

I gave it my first playthrough the other day and walked away pretty unimpressed. Couldn't get to grips with any of the six dozen (slight exageration on my part) control types. None of them felt "comfortable" to me, i'm happy to think at the moment that this is the first time i've played a Resident Evil title on the 360 controller...i happen to think it'll feel more natural on the PS3 pad when the time comes.

Either way, found myself dying a ton of times and not being impressed in the slightest with the game i was playing. The real time item selection is a huge let down, it doesn't even come close to how good Dead Space managed to make real time item selection. It never worked in Resident Evil: Outbreak, it worked so well in Dead Space, so why are Capcom so intent on pitching their tent on the middleground?

Anyway, went back to it tonight, and i'm much more impressed, but still have my doubts. Sheva's AI is fine, perfectly capable, but is no doubt likely to add fuel to the fire that RE4 begun (yeah, why couldn't that little girl handle herself in such a torrid environment? :).

The control scheme i've stuck with now is the "action" default, just needed to embrace the Gears-esque controls for what is essentially Resi 4 HD, it wasn't a hardship really when i'd gotten in the mood.

So...

Resident Evil 5 to me, looks like it's going to be a very good game. That's it. I personally don't feel the game has evolved enough from Resident Evil 4 to elevate it any higher than it being a very good game. Weapon damage not showing up on enemies, enemy AI disappearing in front of your eyes, these all might've been understandable, and acceptable shortcuts for previous generations, but it just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

At the moment, i see sales being high, but i don't see it receiving a critical reception anything close to likes that Resi 4 received. If anything, i'm sorta hoping that Capcom give the game a few extra months in development once they've taken on some feedback for the demo.

You're trying to scale the tiny bits you've seen in this demo to the entire game. Considering they're about 0.5% of the entire game or less, I wouldn't do that. Also, the "loss of AI" is typical for an Easy setting - in Normal/Pro (if they've implemented it, and considering this is RE4.5 the HD version, that's quite likely), you won't be seeing such forgiveness from Axe or Chainsaw man.

Seeing weapon damage on the enemy's body? Is that an essential game altering element one searches for in a video game these days? Why, in games *with* weapon damage I don't see blood gushing out using fluid physics - oh my, this generation of games just isn't up to snuff! Personally, I'd rather search for depth in a game.

And in those two snippets, there are some interesting challenges to be found. Knife Axe Man to death before Kirk comes down, for example. Just take the demo for what it is - a modest sampler of things to come. If they fix the tearing, install Normal/Pro and keep the oil burning for 20 hours, this will be a blast. And if not, don't buy it, go play something else.

This "if you don't like it play something else" argument is not a strong one, VMerken. If you look at the comments that have criticised elements of the demo, you'll generally find that they're tinged with disappointment: written by fans of the series (or, at least, RE4) who'd been looking forward to an evolution of a major videogame series. I've been keen on RE since the first shots of RE1 appeared in the Official Playstation Magazine - I was hoping for a AAA title. Repeated play has softened my stance on the demo, but it's still not AAA and I feel entirely justified in not being entirely happy.

This "if you don't like it play something else" argument is not a strong one, VMerken.

It's not an argument, it's advice. Got something to whiiiiiiiiinnnnneee about so badly (let's see: controls, tearing in a demo, "it's not Survival Horror!", "They didn't do the thing from *insert game here*!", "They didn't reinvent!", No visible weapon damage, no real physics, essentials like those) that it's making the game unplayable for you? Then don't torture yourself, turn away and go look for your groove elsewhere. As simple as that.

If you look at the comments that have criticised elements of the demo, you'll generally find that they're tinged with disappointment: written by fans of the series (or, at least, RE4) who'd been looking forward to an evolution of a major videogame series.

I think RE4 was a good enough evolution of this series to warrant a closer look at how it can be expanded upon in a sequel. I don't want to re-roll the dice just yet. While playing RE4, I felt there was still a lot of untapped potential in this type of game, so let's see if RE5 can jack into it. Remember RE2? They didn't exactly reinvent the wheel there relative to RE1 (game wise) , yet it was a big success as Capcom tried to expand upon the potential of the original and did so quite well. Considering the changes in RE4, I'd give Capcom a chance to try and get their "second RE2" with RE5.

I've been keen on RE since the first shots of RE1 appeared in the Official Playstation Magazine - I was hoping for a AAA title. Repeated play has softened my stance on the demo, but it's still not AAA and I feel entirely justified in not being entirely happy.

As I wrote earlier, don't base your judgement on something which is only a small fraction of the entire game (with difficulty quite likely set to Easy - if it's cranked up to Normal/Pro in the finished game, things will be a lot more hectic, and it's precisely this pressure for survival which was one of RE4's strong points, so if they're truly carbon copying 4, it will be in there) , but rather enjoy it for what it is: a demo. Get a feel for the controls, try out a few small challenges, break the A.I., look for sweet spots, etc etc. For all we know, the other scenes (we didn't even see a boss battle yet) take everything to another level. Of course, the other scenes may include man sized dice games and replaying every area to double the game length. We'll just have to wait and see as more info and trailers trickle in.

In the article it's commented that the demo build has System Link included but I couldn't find the option anywhere and obviously I couldn't make it work. Does anybody tried this? Or the guy in the article just made a mistake?