Resident Evil 5 Review

More than three years has passed since the release of Resident Evil 4. Now here comes the latest installment of the series, first time on next-gen consoles, also first time on a non-Japanese console.

I just beat the game through. I cannot find a suitable word to describe it, awesome just isn’t enough for the game.

Graphics

It’s amazing how Japanese developers keeps pushing consoles to their limits. There was Dead or Alive 4, Ace Combat 6, Ninja Gaiden 2, and now there is Resident Evil 5. The great graphics makes the game looks just like a movie, and an HD one, XD. Lighting was great, with only minor bugs on enemy shadows.

Audio

Again it’s amazing how much attention Japanese pay to soundtracks in their games. Like every other RE game, RE5 has just the right soundtracks that blended into the gameplay naturally. Sound effects are borrowed from RE4 I think. Again it makes you feel natural, when you hear the menu selection sound, you just know it’s Resident Evil.

Storyline

I don’t wanna be a spoiler so I’ll just say the story’s quite good. Enough background information of new characters or untold past stories were provided in cut scenes. And comparing to RE4, huge amount of documents regarding Umbrella, Biohazard incidents and each characters were added in the new “Library” feature. The RE series has been like a puzzle, and now with RE5, many mysteries are solved.

Gameplay

The basic combat system remains the same as RE4. More weapons are available in this installment. The popular purchase and upgrade system is preserved. Also trivias like figure collecting, hidden costumes and weapons are still there.

In RE5 you play with your partner throughout the game. It’s important and fun to balancing weapons, items and ammos between Chris and Sheva. Also for the first time in history you can enjoy the horror of Resident Evil with your friends by cooping on Xbox Live or Playstation Network. The multiplayer feature already gained popularity with the Xbox Live demo. Now with the full game, there’s more chapters and more fun.

Trivia

The game was released on Mar 5 for Japan and Asia (Hong Kong), prior to North American. Currently there’re four versions in the HK market: Resident Evil 5 and its limited edition (with posters and a 2GB chainsaw flash drive), Biohazard 5 (yup, that’s the Japanese version) and its limited edition (also posters and flash drive, and a making-of DVD). The HK/Asia version is bilingual, based on the language preference of your console, the game automatically switches between English and Japanese. Also the asia version features two box arts, both Resident Evil 5 and Biohazard 5.