Podcast #104 Resident Evil 5 thougts and questions

[Brad]

If you want your thoughts read or specific questions about our take on the game answered, please write them here in a reasonably readable manner.

[sophora]

Jason from Florida [Sofora in chat]

Resident Evil helped establish the genre of survival horror in video games, with memorable scares such as the Dog jumping through the window scene and the "Oven man." What are some of your favorite scares from RE4 and RE5?

[daikenjo]

dai from NY,NY
daikenjo

while you were playing did you ever feel that the original eerie atmosphere of the previous RE games have been lost, such as the feeling of complete isolation, extensive exploration, and other adventure elements? if so, did you mind the shift?

would you like the series to continue with a more frantic action atmosphere like RE5, or would you like the next game to play up the horror elements?

[zekana]

matt from missouri
zekana in chat

Do you guys feel that there is racism in the game or is it people are reading too much into just what they see?

How would you rate this RE game among all the other games in the series? like is it one of the better or worse?

how do you feel about the new dlc content being released later on? multiplayer death match and what not.

lastly, what are your thoughts on the forced co op of the game? meaning you can play it alone with an ai sheva but the ai is not good enough for it to be useful.

--This question applies to those who played re4 on wii--
when playing the game, did you miss the wii mote aiming or do you feel the controls did a good job in aiming?

[AznSenzation]

Gabriel from New Jersey, AznSenzation-

The Resident Evil series has always been steering away from being a scary games as the series keeps going, and Resident Evil 5 is no exception. What do you think of the Resident evil series loss of scariness, and Resident Evil 5 in particular

[tenshibo]

Drew (Tenshibo from chat) from stupid democrat central, Massachussetts.
Hey, with the new inventory system being live action, and smaller than the chache box from RE4, do you feel it is better for Re5 throughout both the single player and co-op, ir somehting else?

[Raiden]

Javi from Chicago raidenmgs in chat

Have you guys considered doing a single player run of RE5 to see the major differences in doing it alone or with a non AI partner. Also what would you guys say or think if the game only had single player.

[Mordiford]

I intend on writing up a full review of Resident Evil 5 once we finish the game but here are my thoughts for now.

Resident Evil 5 doesn't really move the franchise in a new direction, it simply carries on the same formula or RE4 with vastly improved visuals and the addition of co-op. There isn't anything here that we haven't seen in an RE game before, even co-op was included in RE: Outbreak.

While the game doesn't really do a lot that is new, it does the old stuff very well. The presentation, graphics, character models and animation fluidity is some of the best I have seen for this generation of consoles. The addition of more combat button prompts makes hand to hand combat even more fun and satisfying.

The inability to move and shoot in itself does not make the game more tense, it does however add a strategic element of being forced to decide between fighting or fleeing. This does make most fights a repeat of run away, shoot, run away, shoot, but this isn't really a problem since the tension created comes from the fear that when you turn around, what you were running from may be right in your face.

The only real issue I've had so far is that the matchmaking and setting up of a co-op game is very frustrating and riddled with problems. Also, later on in the game there are (This may be a very minor spoiler) gun wielding enemies. These enemies aren't like the J.J from RE4, powerful but rare, they are common and very annoying. The game's mechanics just aren't suited for gunfights like those which are presented and during these fights you'll be wishing you had more mobility during combat.

The cover system is also based on a button prompt and you can't slide along a wall while in cover, you have to come out of cover and move back in to reposition yourself. This can be annoying and makes me wonder why a full cover system wasn't implemented by which one could enter cover anywhere by pressing down the left analog stick (or something along those lines).

Checkpoints are usually quite forgiving which is a plus but there are a few inconsistencies later on. Also this game MUST be played co-op with a committed partner, the AI is awkwardly stupid and will really ruin the experience.


That is all for thoughts on the game up to Chapter 6-1, so I'm assuming my final thoughts won't be very different. I do realize that this post was relatively long for which I apologize.

Edit After Finishing the Game:

I would like to say that the last QTE sequences in the game are bullshit... that is all.

[hydra]

Michael from Scotland (hydra_d in chat)

Without revealing too much of the plot I did feel that the twist was extremely obvious and my co-op partner pointed it out in the first chapter. Mind you I didn't expect anything huge from a Resi plot.

I'm really enjoying the game, but I'm glad to hear they will be changing the format for the next game. I really hope they go back to proper survival horror, but I fear the genre is dying.

[samson3592]

Adam from England (samson3592 - Jtv chat name)

As you have all played a reasonable amount you can see that this game is a lot like Resident Evil 4 in many ways (controls, animations, audio), and that is a good thing.

But since this game is very much an action/adventure type of game and has been quite successful following on from Resident Evil 4.

Do you think Capcom should stick with this direction and continue making action/adventure style games, or would you prefer them going back to their roots and start making them survival horror again with more scares and less action???

Personally I would like them to make the series survival horror again as although Resident Evil's 4 and 5 are good, number 2 is the best.

[Kamui]

Adrian From New York(xxkamuixx in chat)
I thought the game was fun, being a Resident Evil fan, I had no complaints about it. The storyline feed into my speculations and the gameplay was improved abit.
I don't know about 5$ for the versus mode though.

What pisses me off though are the pessimists, and critics, sometimes people should understand that making games takes time and effort to complete.

[PanchoJoshi]

When going into the topic of a Resident Evil game with no "Zombies" please keep in mind that Resident Evil has always been about biological warfare and not about just zombies.

Also about the racism, keep in mind that no one threw out a red flag for RE4 when you were shooting nothing but Spanish infected. Or in other games where it deals with "terrorists" and your shooting nothing but middle eastern people.

I just dont understand why the subject of racism gets 110% more touchy when Africans are involved. Every one should be equal, and by saying that one race should get special treatment is just inviting racism and elitism.

Sorry, but that subject has been irking my nerves forever.

[BlitzKey]

AJ from Florida (Blitzkey in Chat)

For the next RE game which might release in 2011 which duo would you wish to play as?
Return of Chris & Sheva or Leon & Claire or new characters

*Note: Hey Brad, I posted a thread yesterday about 4PP Community playing Killzone 2 online before you mentioned it on the podcast, check it out. ^^

[boringprophet]

Rory, Ireland, not registered to chat on JTV.

I like how an effort seems to have been made to compensate for the lack of tension compared to previous games. In the middle of the fight, you could pause to switch weapons, combine ammo or heal, all in the safety of the inventory menu. Now that it's all done in real-time, an eight foot tall tribal majini rapidly approaching holding a club the size of a small car can tend to make you fuck up and press the wrong button. Suddenly you're left holding a box of shotgun shells or being asked if you really want to drop that magnum. Obviously the game doesn't come even close to the first three in terms of horror and suspense, but I think the inventory revamp goes a small way towards making up for it.

[thecosmicfly]

Jack (thecosmicfly) from the UK

Apart from the topic of racism, the other huge complaint about Resident Evil 5 is it's uncanny similarity to it's predecessor. From the controls to the animations, it's hard not to make cross comparisons about both. Do you feel Capcom didn't put the amount of effort that they should have when developing RE5 and push it beyond its boundaries, much like RE4 did for the series the first time? Would improvements, such as Euphoria/Ragdoll physics animations and Dead Space's freedom of movement controls, have hushed the naysayers or create more hate among fans?

Infact, this post can sort of be related back to the 'What Should A Sequel Be?' thread.

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