Now that I've had a chance to play through both levels of the Resident Evil 5 demo, I think I share some of the concerns you guys expressed, but after a while the whole thing started to make a little more sense. The controls still are slow, but cranked up to the "fastest" setting, they seem adequate. I mean, Resident Evil games have always been slow. This one's at least on par with the fourth. I'm wondering if the transition from Left 4 Dead to Resident Evil 5 is to blame. They seem similar on the surface, but play so differently.
So far, I like the ammo allocation. It seems like you can only find enough ammo to last if you keep moving. It's all over the place, in crates, drawers, and barrels, but you have to overcome your natural tendency to bunker down when threats are coming from all angles. And it really does change the whole dynamic when you have to divide resources between teammates. The essence of survival horror is feeling like you don't have what you need to survive, and then finding that you just barely do.
In the first level, the AI partner seemed great: always watching my back, always quick with the ammo re-up. But not much was asked of her there. Against the chainsaw guy in the second level, you need a plan of attack. That's much easier with a live partner. Our strategy was simple but effective: we leapfrogged one another past the barrels, shooting them in turn as our enemy pursued us. After that, it didn't take too many headshots and frag grenades to put him down. Although I hope the full game has more of these kinds of mildly tactical scenarios for co-op play, my concern is that the single-player will suffer for it. We'll see. Put me down as optimistic, but not excited.
But the point of the post is this: Do you think the mustachioed zombie looks like Freddie Mercury, or Saddam Hussein? We argued this point for quite awhile.
7 comments:
I've never played an RE before, and from what I've played of the demo, I'd said that will remain true for the forseeable future. Although characters look and control like they are attached to springs or maybe puppet strings, the combat and graphics are good. I get the impression it won't change over the course of the game, and I can't say what is there is worth $60. I might play the demo more than once though...
I honestly couldn't get on with the controls at all, I think it's due to being spoilt in this modern age of super slick controls in other games.
My thoughts are already up on WLIG:
http://weliveingames.blogspot.com/2009/01/its-that-friend-who-never-grew-up.html
It is really hard to go from RE4 Wii back to analog controls. I like the mechanic of having to stop and shoot, but the swiftness of the Wii remote was a major asset.
I agree. I can't imagine playing RE5 without a human companion. The strategy involved in defeating the chainsaw guy in shanty town was super fun. Item management is also a ton of fun in this game.
Matt (MWG)
I've never had that much trouble with the controls, and I've played pretty much all of the series. RE4 was a massive improvment but then again, it was a fairly different game (no zombies!). Although I never played the Wii version of 4 so I'm not sure how that was, what were the main differences?
RE5 is just next-gen RE4 with coop. Playing with a human partner will be much better, and so many people are going to buy it on release I doubt there'll be a shortage of online gamers.
He looks like Stalin to me.
I like where your head's at.
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