Fat Bastard Review: Resident Evil 5

This is a review in bullet form for you lazy ass people. My thoughts are expanded after the bullets for the curious.


Positives

• Fun online co-op
  
• Lots of replay value
  
• Amazing graphics and detail
  

Negatives

• Co-op AI
  
• No scares or tension
  
• Offline 2 player co-op split screen has terrible display
  
• Game play didn't feel like a need for a partner
  
• No puzzles... more like tasks
  
• Story felt really random
  

I know I had more negative than positive points, but overall the fun factor and replay value heavily outweighs the negative aspects for me. Just want to let everyone know before judging solely on the bullet points.

I admit I had trouble getting used to the controls at first because I wasn't used to them. What about RE4 you ask? I played about five minutes of and shut it off and never gave it another chance. After playing RE5 I really regret not giving RE4 another chance. I played RE5 on east at first and was able to get used to the controls. Eventually I went to normal once I felt comfortable. The online co-op helped out with me trying to adjust as well because I had noather live person shooting down zombies when I was messing up!

I really don't recommend playing the story by yourself. The partner AI was absolutely terrible. I can't imagine playing this on hard with the AI. Two things I could not stand about the AI was that it would not run away from enemies that would insta-kill and sometimes the AI would give me back ammo I just gave her. Only thing you could count on the AI not screwing up are the context sensitive parts from the scenes.

When I hear Resident Evil, I think of puzzles and the tension you feel during certain parts of the game. The puzzles in this didn't really feel like puzzles. They felt more like tasks. Usually they were consisted of you and your partner pulling ropes, moving objects, or hitting a switch. That's it... lame!

I would have like to have seen you and your partner get forced to split. Then one person has to protect the other from afar. Another scenario could be that person A gets separated and person B has to disable traps or solve a puzzle otherwise person A will perish! I think this would have enhanced the co-op experience with a resident evil touch. Because of the lack some real co-op mechanic, this game really felt like it wouldn't have been any different if it didn't have co-op.

Environmentally wise, I have always know resident evil fpr it's puzzles and tension it builds. The series never really had scares that jumped out at me, but it always developed the feeling of scarcity. Meaning I always had to use my supplies with caution because of the limited supply. Playing through RE5, I never had the problem of running out of bullets or health.

There are some things I felt that was annoying, but I'm being picky at that point. I think they're small negatives so take it with a grain of salt. For example, you can give weapons to the AI partner, but you can't give it to your partner online. I'm pretty sure this was done so you couldn't deck out a newb. No big deal. I didn't really care for the context sensitive parts from the cutscenes either. Leave that stuff for the God of War games.

If you try the offline co-op it felt very strange. It was split screen, but it was like they got two really small screens and staggered them in there. You couldn't really see the game play too well unless you had a really big TV.


Despite the many negatives, I've had so much fun playing with another person. The replay value is very high because of the upgrades to weapons, unlockables, and collectibles you can acquire. There is also a mercenary mode once you beat the game. This allows you to gain mission points quicker so you can buy more bonuses.

I recommend buying this unless you really don't like the replay value it offers.