The BioHazard series has been a rather influential game in the history of survival horror games, most of its iterations have been well received by fans and critics alike but it was Resident Evil 4 that brought about a change in the entire series with a new camera angle and a different theme that addressed the living undead.
Resident Evil 5 carries on this legacy in a much bolder manner by building upon all the mechanics of survival horror the game refined a long time ago. The game takes place in the heartland of Kijuju, a town in Africa, and depicts the events Sheva Alomar and Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine’s partner from the original BioHazard and follows up the story with the return of Albert Wesker. As members of Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), they are sent to investigate the evolution of the deadly Lasplagas virus that surfaced in a mutated form and was exported from Eastern Europe. Tricell Pharmaceutical Company’s African branch is also intertwined in the storyline.
The initial moments of Resident Evil 5 find the squad tracking down a man called Irving who seems to be primarily responsible for the entire village going bonkers. The first bits of Resident Evil 5 showcase the graphical prowess the game is laden with, the hot dry winds of Africa come alive when you see Resident Evil 5 for the first few moments, the universe is rich with detail that you’ll feel like wearing shades to experience alone.
The overall gameplay of Resident Evil 5 is a healthy mix of cutscenes and real time events that are bound to please any Resident Evil fanatic out there. Once Chris is armed with his gun, the horde begins to descend upon him and Sheva, with the power of this generation’s machine Capcom has made it possible to render an unimaginable amount of enemies on screen. If anyone remembers the horrible Resident Evil movies and the plethora of monsters that are showcased running and chasing after the protagonists, players are going to feel right at home when they realize the amount of enemies often outnumber the magazine clips that they have stored and once the flow of bullets stops the only policy that one can adopt is running for their dear lives. This happened within a few minutes in Act I after acquiring my weapon. As Chris staggered around his enemies searching for ammunition, the strongest foe in the crowd chased me with a giant axe tucked under his belt.
Moving onto the second part of the first act involved us being pushed into a dingy warehouse and searching for clues on our darling Irving. It so happens this was the first of many times when we would witness our major boss fight. This creature was an abomination so to speak of, since he was covered with all a disgusting slimy kind of worms that wriggled all around it, the objective was to lure him into an empty furnace and fry his sorry ass into oblivion. The ordeal was not particularly exasperating but was tiresome enough since bullets were the last item that anyone could get past its slim infested body.
As Chris and Sheva rushed to the docks at the beginning of the second act, your enemies were bestowed with the ability to shoot dangerously tipped projectile weapons. In addition to this, there were our beloved undead dogs whose head split into a deadly venus fly trap once their physical bodies fell apart. This was also a rather fearsome trend with some of the human enemies who would look menacing once they sprouted a similar object on their heads.
The game’s thrill becomes expendable since I was playing in normal difficulty and there was no place to find ammunition lying scattered all around. This chase ultimately led our Bioterrorism squad to a mine where the GPS conked off. The player could either carry a potable torch around and ask his partner to assist in the shooting or follow the other way around, since the artificial intelligence of Sheva was not particularly stuff legendary A.I is made of. I took turns with the entire process where I ultimately reached on the top and was granted a second weapon of choice (a sub machine gun and a sniper rifle).
This area was significantly different from the previous areas since it lay on a rather arid mountainous plain. As I hacked and slashed my way through the crowd with my machete, I was to encounter the second beast of burden, which was a humungous mutated bat like creature. The boss fight ended with my victory and I pushed into the final part of the second chapter. A chase through the savanna expanse of Africa and transformed the game into an on rail shooter, with motorbike lunatics and heavily covered trucks trying to tilt out the jeep. This furious chase ended with a bump onto giant troll taken right out of Tolkien’s novels and a fight with him ensued with the mounted armory on the jeep.
This finished chapter two of my RE 5 escapade, the highlights of which include a varying degree of visual flair, a large variety of enemies to encounter and the sense of the unnatural lingering on with every corner. Resident Evil 5 looks to be shaping up in a rather decent proportion, with enough thrills being carried forward from the previous series. Come back on February 5, 2009 to take a peak into Chapter 3 which was another artistic treat in all possible senses.
- By Neelesh Mukherjee