Game Spotlight: Resident Evil 5 demo

For the second Game Spotlight, I thought I’d try something different. Instead of putting the spotlight on a game that’s already been around for awhile, why not preview a game that hasn’t even been released yet? The game I’ve chosen is the Resident Evil 5 demo which was just released on Xbox Live a few days ago.

As has been much publicised, Resident Evil 5 is heavily focused on co-operative gameplay, so I thought, “Why not have a co-op article to go with it.” When the full version of RE5 is finally released on March 13, Jeff and I are going to be playing it together in online co-op mode all the way through to the very end.

But for now, Jeff and I are going to share our thoughts about our experience with the Resident Evil 5 demo…

Lynk Former says:

I can say for sure that I’m definitely not caught up in any of the hype with Resident Evil 5. While I am a fan of the series and can’t wait to get my hands on the full version, I am completely aware that it really is pretty much Resident Evil 4 in HD with added co-op. Going into the demo, I knew this and was greeted with exactly what I expected. However, while it is heavily based off of the elements that made up RE4, it does have some differences that I noticed immediately in terms of its gameplay style.

Firstly, I’m so glad we’re offered a number of control schemes to choose from. However, I feel that Capcom didn’t go far enough… I hope that in the full version they add an option for the player to fully customise their control scheme. After going through quite a few playthroughs in single player and co-op with Jeff, I’ve decided that the type B controls work best for me. I can understand why strafing was added to the game since quite a lot of people seem to demand it… though, personally I find that turning is still a lot more important in a Resident Evil game than strafing ever will be. If I’m really worried about what’s around the corner, I’ll tilt the camera left or right as I walk forward, I don’t need to strafe.

As with most demo’s, there is a message at the start warning the player that this is a work in progress version of the game and to excuse any bugs we may find… I’m trying to keep that in mind, but I’m still worried about some of what I experienced the game. For example, the zombies/ganados hesitate at key moments in a very strange way, as if to purposefully give you and your partner a chance to get to safety. It happens both in single and co-op play and I kind of wonder if this is due to some glitchy AI. Also, there was this one zombie/ganado that must’ve been a genome soldier in Metal Gear Solid in his past life. I stood right in front of him in two different instances and he didn’t even see me… he just stood there looking straight at me. Not only that, but I’ve even noticed that the groups of zombies/ganados have trouble with which character they have their attention on. There was a very funny moment where a large group of zombies/ganados completely ignored me as walked right by and even bumped into me because they were all after Jeff.

Now, I could overlook all of those problems like the demo asks me to, however the obvious reuse of RE4 assets including the motion captured character animations of the ganados from RE4 are too much. I know games of this generation are said to be extremely expensive, however I think a lot of people expected Capcom to put a little more effort and not cut some very obvious corners as they seem to have done.

With the complaints aside, I had fun… though, I think, purely because it’s a co-op game and that in itself makes a game 10 times better than playing by yourself. After playing through the demo, I’m even more convinced that RE5 won’t surpass RE4 for the simple fact that it’s only a natural progression and not something completely new like RE4 was. I know I’ll have fun playing the full game and I can’t wait to see what the story will bring. One thing I’m completely sure of though is the fact that this series is DEFINITELY not survival horror from this point on… it’s more along the lines of survival action now.

Jeff Moeller says:

Unlike Lynk I can say that Resident Evil 5 has definitely sucked me in. It is definitely the game I am looking forward to most in 2009 and leading up to the demo’s release I had watched every possible gameplay video to get as much of the game as I could. Now that the demo is out and I’ve had a chance to play through it more than several times, I have a few first impressions. Overall the game plays just as I expected with a few interesting surprised. It is definitely Resident Evil 4 in HD but I don’t see that as a negative as RE4 is widely regarded as one of the greatest games of the previous generation.

There are definitely some key differences between Resident Evil 4 and 5. The demo probably had more enemies in one area than RE4 ever did throughout the entire game. I would say overall they take a similar number of shots to take down, but this is offset by playing with a partner. So far the enemies did not seem as smart as they were in RE4 though. It is almost like when an enemy is on their own they barely react, but when they are in a large group they can be very aggressive. I noticed I had to beat the enemies off of me when they’d grab on much more frequently than I remember doing in RE4. Also, the two mini-bosses, the executioner and the chainsaw-wielding villager were much harder and took much longer to kill than any of the chainsaw enemies in RE4.

For the control schemes, I stuck with the classic RE4 controls. As the series goes further away from its survival horror roots I’d like to see it not go any further than it has and for me the RE4 controls gave it a more classic feel. I also did not particularly care for some of the other new control styles. For me strafing is pointless in Resident Evil so I do not need a control scheme with that functionality.

Overall the demo was a ton of fun as I expected because of its co-op functionality. I do not expect the game to surpass Resident Evil 4 in terms of story or how the game plays overall but I am expecting a great experience because of co-op as I find playing with friends almost always makes a game more enjoyable. That along with stunning graphics and lighting effects and of course seeing the story play out should prove to make Resident Evil 5 worth the wait.