RE4 chucked most of the RE staples out the window. Instead of avoiding fights to conserve ammo, players are given too much ammo, and are encouraged to blow zombified villagers away with extreme prejudice. Money earned by finding treasure lets you buy new guns and upgrade your old ones. In order to counter the new emphasis on gunplay, RE4 throws tons of bad guys at you, just enough to make players feel overwhelmed. Protecting a surprisingly intelligent AI NPC further stresses you, because it’s not just you the zombies want—they also want the President’s daughter. Instead of cinematic camera switches, the camera is positioned over the shoulder, and you have the ability to aim your gun, resulting in many exploding heads. And instead of zombies, you fight Las Plagas, horrible bug-like parasites that incubate inside human hosts and burst out at the worst possible times. Aside from the return of RE2 stars Leon S. Kennedy and Ada Wong, RE4’s story doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the main RE storyline. But it does set up RE5 very nicely…
RE5 brings back series vet Chris Redfield, who helped bring down Umbrella in the first place (destroyed the Arklay Mansion, the Antarctic research facility, and the Russian branch, including Umbrella’s top-secret T-A.L.O.S. project). He’s a member of the BSAA, a group dedicated to stopping bioterrorism. He travels to Africa after hearing rumors of a new “Uroboros” project, but also because his old partner, Jill Valentine, might be there, too. Chris immediately meets up with his new comrade, Sheva Alomar, and the two quickly discover that a new pharmaceutical company, Tricell, has taken Umbrella’s place in researching bioweapons—and they’ve taken a liking to both the Las Plagas and the original Progenitor virus. And of course, series villain Albert Wesker must be involved somehow. RE5 specializes in throwing tons of enemies at you (more than RE4) in the middle of awe-inspiring setpieces. Most of the larger areas are built with two players in mind; in one area, for instance, Chris takes on a horde of villagers while Sheva snipes arrow-slingers from above.
Most notably, RE5 brings two-player co-op to the series, and this gameplay innovation is incredibly satisfying. You can play with a friend by your side or online, with the former option splitting the screen. The split-screen isn’t distracting, but I actually prefered online play so that I could have the entire screen to myself. Instead of a weird Australian merchant, buying and selling is done between levels (or deaths), and you have more control over how you want to upgrade your weapons and shuffle your inventory. Each player has nine inventory slots and the NWES slots are instantly accessible via the D-pad, so you can switch from your handgun to your Magnum in an instant (which is much nicer than the menu/equip hassle of RE4). It does, however, somewhat limit your inventory options. But let me tell you something: in the heat of battle with two human players, you don’t give two craps. The game was designed around two-player co-op, so much so that Sheva’s AI behavior (when you don’t have a friend to play with) is disappointingly limited by comparison. Sure, she gets the job done on her own, but she tends to waste ammo and relies on her handgun way too much, switching to other weapons only when she runs out of bullets. She’s also not a big help during the game’s final moments, which is very annoying. Whenever possible, play with a friend. What’s nice is that you can start a game session with the AI, but online (or local) comrades can pop in at any time, take the reigns for awhile, and then drop out. Online partners are forced to pick and choose items from their own inventories, so there is no swapping between parties. This can be a drag when your partner picks up a weapon you don’t have yet—the item moves to their game’s inventory, but not yours! Fortunately money and loot is awarded to both players, no matter who picks it up.
As your arsenal increases in terms of both weapon diversity and individual upgrades, your enjoyment increases exponentially. Thank Cthulhu you can revisit completed stages and blow through them so you can experience the thrill that is a fully-upgraded Desert Eagle equivalent. Fully upgrading a gun unlocks the ability to purchase its final feature—infinite ammo. I highly recommend it, because you won’t have to waste inventory space on ammo boxes. Upgrading certain guns unlocks the most powerful gun of that “class,” too (ever seen a triple-barrel shotgun?). The only limiting factor is deciding how often you want to play through the game, as different levels net you different amounts of moolah. Luckily, you can quit a level at any time and save your inventory, so after netting a big haul you don’t necessarily have to finish the mission. But there are other reasons for going back—BSAA emblems are hidden throughout most of the missions, and shooting them all results in some pretty kickass unlockable content. There are also three difficulty settings for each mission, and you are ranked based on how well you did. Ranking determines bonus points awarded, which you can trade in for yet more secret stuff. Achieving an S rank on Veteran mode is a real challenge—I recommend playing through with a buddy who knows what s/he’s doing. Speed runs are also crucial for getting the best rank, as well as the best infinite ammo weapon (speed run through the whole game in less than 5 hours¹).
As if the story mode doesn’t provide enough content, the Mercenaries mode from RE4 makes a triumphant return. The only real difference is that the maps are flooded at all times with baddies and you have the option to play with a partner (locally). The difficulty has been ramped up significantly since RE4, though, and it’s much tougher to unlock new maps and characters. The most important factor in getting a good score appears to be keeping a good combo going (the shotgun helps). The new maps are especially cool; one is even filled with liquid hot mag-ma. But like I said, Mercenaries is tough and definitely takes some practice. What’s more, I consistently got better scores while playing with a friend, so keep that in mind.
And then, just when you thought you could put the controller down, Capcom goes and releases a downloadable Versus mode. They’re asking five bucks, and honestly, I’d pay double that. Versus is basically Mercenaries online, with the added bonus of being able to kill the other players. There are two modes, each of which has a team modifier. Survivors challenges you to hunt down other players on the map and focus on killing them. Zombies also roam the map, but killing them doesn’t net you any points or bonuses. They do add a certain amount of chaos to the battle, and it’s fun to take advantage of a zombie hold by killing the player they’re grappling with.Slayers focuses on zombie-killing, but you can kill other players if you want. Slayers is more like straight-up Mercenaries in that your focus is killing zombies and getting a good combo going.
You can choose from a wide variety of characters in both modes (after unlocking them with bonus points), and each comes with a set item inventory. You can pick up additional weapons in Survivors, but not Slayers. Both modes, like Mercenaries, feature sand statues that you can destroy for additional time. Aside from being great fun on its own, Versus awards players with bonus points upon winning (or losing) a match, which makes unlocking additional characters a lot easier. But aside from that, it makes nabbing those expensive infinite ammo options more viable. As you might guess, the stop-to-aim control scheme hinders Player vs. Player attacks somewhat, as they become standoffs with two players shooting each other at point-blank range until one of them dies. Personally, I prefer Slayers to Survivors, and Team Slayers at that, but both are fun and will keep fans playing long into the night.
Also, Jill Valentine’s never looked sexier!
All in all, RE5 is the ultimate RE experience. If you liked (or loved) RE4, you’ll have an absolute blast with RE5. The story mode has more replay value than you can possibly realize, and the addition of co-op is beyond awesome. I daresay that it’s more fun to play the story mode online than it is to play co-op (split-screen) or solo. And when you’ve had your fill of blasting Wesker’s cronies, Mercenaries is a fantastic, surprisingly deep mode that keeps you on your toes and improves your skills. And finally, online Versus is just icing on the cake. Yeah, you’ve gotta pay a little extra, but to me it’s worth every penny. If you want value for your gaming dollar, RE5 has you covered. ²
¹PROTIP: Upgrade your best Magnum all the way, then unlock its infinite ammo option. This is your new handgun. Play through the first Marshlands mission a few times, and stock up on Rocket Launchers (and cash). Bring a rocket launcher to every boss fight, and always aim for the head with your magnum. Fully upgrade and unlock infinite ammo for your favorite sniper rifle (I recommend the Drugnov), which makes the final few chapters much easier. Ignore all boxes and barrels—this will save you a LOT of time. Bring five flash grenades on every mission—they will instantly kill any Plagas mutants, including the annoying crab things.
²You might be inclined to buy the Special Edition, which costs an extra $30. I did, and I can’t really say I’ve utilized its special features too much. The box includes a little Chris Redfield figurine (kinda cool), a Tricell tote bag (meh), a BSAA patch (what am I gonna sew it to?), a necklace with a pewter Africa on it (yay?) and a Special Features disk, which includes the sort of bells and whistles you’d find on a DVD (making of, still images, etc.). It’s okay, but the asking price is a little hard to swallow.
