3.5/5 ★ – MechaniChris's review of Resident Evil 5.

Following up Resident Evil 4 is an unenviable task, and so most of the decisions present within this game are understandable. The problem is that when you come so close to perfection, trying to go bigger almost always results in diminishing returns, as is the case here. Overall, the game is actually pretty good, but there are frustrating aspects that keep it from being truly great. The decision to shift focus back to Chris after sidelining him for the majority of the series makes perfect sense, and the new West African locale provides for vast, yet claustrophobic battlegrounds. Yet, it soon becomes overwhelming to the senses. Armies of enemies assault you from the get go and the layout of the map is winding, narrow, but splitting in so many directions that it feels like you will never be rid of the swarming infected. Surely that’s the intent, and possibly exactly what some gamers are looking for in this game, but for so long there’s no respite, and the game often felt more exhausting than it did fun. Eventually the game does let up, shifting locations to a more remote area and the experience begins to feel more like it did in RE4, with smaller groups of enemies attacking you in waves until the area is cleared. From this point on the game does become more enjoyable, even if the difficulty ramp seems to plummet the further you advance. Even the boss fights, which are normally the most anxiety inducing aspect of these games, are kind of perfunctory in this one. Almost every one allows you to use a nearby super weapon to defeat the monster without having to drain your own ammo. It’s welcome in the moment, but in retrospect, doesn’t require much strategy or skill. You just grab the big gun and go through the motions of killing the monster. I suppose this decision was made so that you could use your heavy weapons on the enemies that have no business being as tough as they are. Remember the chainsaw guy from RE4? Well there’s a new class of chainsaw guy with ten times the amount of health. Encountering enemies like these are far more difficult than any boss encounter in the game, especially if you’re trying to conserve your better weapons for later. Eventually I relented on the last level to using my magnum on two mini gun soldiers who each took a full clip to kill, not realizing that the magnum would be absolutely crucial during the final boss fight. Sure, it always is, but the game had relied so much on alternate weapons for the boss fights, I decided to take a chance. Lucky for me, upgrading a weapon’s capacity reloads its ammo. That’s another big change from RE4. The merchant that we all love, but makes no sense story-wise, is gone. He has been replaced by the option to buy and upgrade items between levels, or anytime you revert to a checkpoint. Obviously this is less fun, but it makes total sense for this (slightly) more grounded game. It also gives the player a new incredible advantage. Basically, you can free up your inventory by keeping almost all your emergency items in storage, and if you encounter a situation where you need those items, you can revert back to the previous checkpoint and add them into your inventory. This also allows you to purchase upgrades and first aid spray at will, depending on your funds. This is all useless in the beginning of the game when the difficulty is disproportionately insane, but makes the latter half of the game child’s play. I don’t know if this makes the game better or worse because I absolutely abused this system, but I do know it’s not nearly as charming as the merchant. Okay, that’s enough complaining, because there’s really good parts of this game too. I’ve always personally found the President’s daughter plot to be a fairly silly upping of stakes in a franchise that largely was about ordinary people. Others might disagree with me here, but I loved the plot of this game. Wesker is such a fun villain and finally letting us take him on after so many games teasing him as the big bad was incredibly satisfying. I also loved how much everything tied into the history of the franchise and the founding of Umbrella. Again, Las Plagus always felt like a pivot away from the lore of the older games, and I was excited to see them tie everything back together. In many ways, this feels like the conclusion of the franchise, bringing everything full circle and finally dealing with the enemy that has loomed since the first game. Another improvement is the partner system. I know a lot of people have trouble with the partner A.I., but I personally never had an issue with it. Yes she uses ammo, but she’s actually a pretty good shot, and if you only give her weapons that you wouldn’t usually use, then its enormously helpful. Besides, as a two player experience, it’s all worth it. I remember renting this game as a kid and playing with my brother. Having a partner drastically improves the game, but even playing solo this time, I largely preferred having the A.I. partner to being a one man mission. I also enjoy Sheva as a new character in this series. Her and Josh were welcome additions, especially considering the racially dubious depiction of the entire continent of Africa in this game. If you were just Chris, the blandest white man in the world exclusively killing the African people who are technically enslaved through this virus by an even whiter man who wants to create a super race– maybe I should stop right there. The game DEFINITELY has some issues on that front, I’ll just say that. Despite its flaws, the overall game is very fun. I’ve seen many people list it as one of the worst in the franchise, and I just think that’s objectively untrue. Admittedly, I do prefer the over-the-shoulder gameplay experience to the fixed angles of the classic games, but I also just think it’s far more engaging than say Resident Evil 0. Even the RE3 remake, which should be head and shoulders above this is lacking the substance and full bodied story that I’ve come to crave in this franchise. Obviously it’s not as good as the original game, RE2, or RE4, but those are all unmitigated masterpieces. I think this one easily ranks in the better half of the games, provided you’re taking in the ENTIRE franchise and not just the numbered entries.