Thoughts of a Random Gamer

For all of us Xbox Live users, Capcom dropped the Resident Evil 5 demo on us this week.  I took the opportunity to get my grubby little hands on it and it looks like I’ll have yet another shooter with zombies to add to my collection come March 5.

Let me be clear; I haven’t ever played any of the RE series, so my experience is quite limited.  As such, I won’t be giving you any comparisons to other games in the series, but rather my experience as a fan of games in general.

In the demo, you have three different options for game modes; single player, coop online and coop split screen.  As soon as I got done with the download, I called my buddy up and we started a coop game.  At first, the game was dazzling.  The graphics and visuals were stellar and the sound was crisp.  However, I was a bit conflicted because the controls were a little difficult to master.  I went in to the settings and set them up for something I would be a bit more accustomed to and was able to make great improvements.  Then I learned that you can’t walk and aim/shoot at the same time.

Ok, I had heard already heard that this was going to be the case, so it wasn’t a big surprise to me that I would have to stand still to shoot.  From what I understand, this has been the case in each game in the series.  Two gripes about it: 1: my buddy I was playing with is not only a cop, but is on his department’s SWAT team and he says it is indeed humanly possible to walk and shoot at the same time </end sarcasm>, and 2: Chris and Sheva are shown walking and aiming in one of the cutscenes.

That complaint about the stationary shooting aside, the game’s mechanics do really work well.  The demo has two maps and each has a pretty big, scary boss.  One issue that my mate and I found was that, if you die, you go back to the title screen and have to recreate the server and reinvite your co-op partner.  This seems a bit ridiculous and is something that Capcom will hopefully adjust for the actual game.  However, playing in coop mode requires both to play as a team, and if you do it well, this won’t be an issue.

The demo’s single player mode still gives Sheva as a teammate, which is good because some maps can only be completed as you work together.  For example, the second map in the demo has an area where Chris has to throw Sheva across a street to another building so she can go and unlock the door.  The ability to toss around Sheva like a rag doll also allows you to access areas that otherwise would not be accessible to get items that will definitely come in handy.  There isn’t a huge supply of ammo, so making every shot count is extremely important.  Utilizing the knife to back enemies away is a good strategy on the basic bad guys.

When some of the first previews for RE5 came out, there was a huge uproar about having a white man protagonist walking around Africa and killing black citizens.  Though there isn’t any story in the demo, I did find it amusing that there are subtitles for the guy speaking English and not the guy with the loudspeaker – not very helpful.  Regardless, the game is about zombies.  Hopefully when the game comes out, the race issue will be resolved with a story that shows how they are zombies and not people.

I’ll have to let you know.

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