REVIEW: Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (PS3)

I had avoided playing Resident Evil 5 for a long time. As a long time fan of the series, I find my own decision quite puzzling, and I can only put it down to whiny internet blogs and user reviews lamenting the loss of "traditional" survival horror elements and more of a focus on third-person-shooter action. Even though I very much enjoyed Resident Evil 4... well, that's an understatement, it was amazing and one of the best games ever made... I think that for a while I agreed that the survival horror genre had lost its way a bit. So, I rigidly stuck with whatever examples of old-school survival horror I could get my hands on - namely Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Siren: Blood Curse, which are both awesome by the way.

Then, just over a year ago, I decided to give Dead Space a whirl (another series I had avoided) and absolutely loved it! Then the sequel came out and it lost a little of the scary survival horror-ness of the first in exchange for a more action orientated Hollywood approach, but I loved that even more!! What was wrong with me!? Basically, I had come to accept that there is definitely a place for third-person-shooter-survival-horror. About a year after Dead Space 2 and I picked up a Playstation Move controller and decided to finally jump into Resident Evil 5. I found the experience to be extremely, extremely, enjoyable.

Now, be aware that I played this game single-player (even though it is really designed for co-op) and using a Playstation Move and Navigation controller, not a standard Dualshock 3. My first impression was that it controlled a little awkwardly, as you still can't move while aiming and you can't strafe unless using a control pad, but after about an hour or so I was definitely in the zone. The move controls are actually VERY good, and you get a lot of accuracy and speed when aiming at the various grotesque and infected bad guys throughout the game. Also, the quick-time-events translate really well to move and I actually found them much easier to pull off than having to hit certain face buttons (the move usually involves shaking it or swiping it quickly in one direction or another). So yeah, it was really good fun to play.

Story and setting wise, initially we're back in Resident Evil 4 territory, as once again you're fighting hordes of parasite infested villagers; as opposed to the vanilla zombies of the first few games. This time however, Capcom decided to turn survival horror on it's head and have the game set in Africa... in the blazing sunny daytime. The effect this has definitely diminishes the "creepy" factor to zero, but it doesn't take away from the visceral fear of being torn apart by savage possessed people! So yeah, unfortunately not as scary anymore, but still an absolute thrill ride of panic and terror. About two thirds into the game though and the setting changes into something more traditional for the series; namely an underground laboratory complex. This section of the game, and much of what comes afterwards not only feeds back into the story lines of previous (pre-las plagas) games, but it also rekindles the scare factor considerably. Some of those sequences crawling through dimly lit corridors solving obscure puzzles were really fantastic. Also, it's worth noting that boss fights in this game are EPIC!!

The game engine that Resident Evil 5 runs in is the MT Framework, and it is brilliant! Environments in the game are incredibly detailed and feature lots of subtle personal touches that really brings the world to life; this is also helped considerably by the lighting which does a fantastic job of making everything more cinematic. Character models, and enemy models, are also really well rendered with a lot of expression in faces and importantly eyes. There is a lot of soul behind the characters and along with some excellent voice work makes them very believable, and thus easier to invest in. This is especially important for Sheva, if you're playing single-player like me. Sheva could have easily been an irritating dead weight to drag around all game if she had zero personality and an ugly model. However, I really grew attached to her character and enjoyed fighting alongside her during the game, she also looks gorgeous, which helps.

If I have any criticisms of the main campaign it's that the over-reliance on co-op play sometimes makes the difficulty spike in some peculiar ways... if you're playing single-player. This is down the fact that some puzzles and boss encounters are designed to be solved with two people working together and sometimes the AI controlling Sheva really lets you down; no where is this more frustrating that during one of the penultimate boss fights in the game where I felt handicapped somewhat by playing on my own. Aside from this, the game was excellent and incredibly fun, and with the Gold Edition the storyline is really just the icing on a massive gribbley cake.

Now, I've not played through most of the additional content in the game, because there is LOADS!! There's the 'Mercenaries: Reunion' mode, which allows you to play through parts of the game, sectioned off and redesigned into arenas, in a sort of score-attack mode. The other notable extras are the two DLC packs that expand certain parts of the game and provide you with backstories or side-stories for certain characters in the main campaign. One that I haven't played through yet is Desperate Escape, which explains how one of the characters escapes hordes of ravenous monstrosities in order to reappear later in the story; it looks great and I'll play through it at some point in co-op with a friend so I can see what that's like.

However, the highlight of this entire Gold Edition to me is the Lost in Nightmares DLC. I'd read a review somewhere that basically this short four-part episode is better than the entire campaign of Resident Evil 5 and they were absolutely right. That's not to say that the main campaign isn't good, obviously I loved it as described above; but Lost in Nightmares is exceptional and really shows what Capcom could create if they were to send the series back to spooky mansions and T-Virus shenanigans of old. The plot involves Chris and Jill back to creeping around dark antiquated hallways, solving cryptic puzzles and avoiding hideously overpowered monstrosities while being armed with only a pap-pap handgun. This is by far the best survival horror experience I've played in years and really shows that the third-person-shooter camera angles and controls can still dip into "traditional" survival horror territory and provide old-school thrills. Brilliant!!