Resident Evil 4 was one of my favorite games ever. I still would be if the joy that is Uncharted: Drake Fortune never surfaced. But it did and I fell in love. But that's a post for six months ago if you want to read it again... Now there's a new potential love of my life.
I was very excited about Resident Evil 5. I'd been told that it would be a clone of 4. Just shinier. And with some bloke called Chris instead of the rather ill looking Leon S. Kennedy. And a direct clone of 4 is what I want...
And from playing the demo, it's what we've been given. It's exactly the same, with the odd tweak of the controls and set in sunny Africa rather than a gloomy looking Spain. And all this makes it all the more wonderful. There's just one thing that ruined it all for me.
Her name's Sheva. And she's really bloody annoying. For some reason Capcom decided that Chris needed a partner. Well, I say for some reason, everyone knows that people said a white man killing hordes of black zombies was racist. Apparently giving him a black partner makes that all better. But I'm not here for a debate about racism. So I won't get into one...
The addition of a partner brings the whole game crashing down. The magic of 4 was that Leon was isolated and alone. He had no-one to help him. If he got into trouble, he had to get out alone. In 5, if you start getting in trouble, Sheva will no doubt help you out. It just takes the tense edge off of things. In addition to reducing the quality of the game, she'll also scream for help at exactly the wrong moment. Either when you're surrounded by zombies, or she's nowhere near you.
She also doesn't realise that a man with a bag on his head and a large chainsaw probably isn't her friend and she should run away. But she doesn't. So she dies. And that's game over for both of you which just isn't fair because I was busy being sensible and hiding behind some barrels.
But, I'll still be buying the game. Despite my criticisms and moans, it's still good. It's not as good as 4, but that's like saying Batman's not as good as Superman. He may not be, but he'd still beat you up and look good doing it.
And there's another reason I'm still looking forward to this game. Resident Evil 4 had an unlockable minigame called 'The Mercenaries'. Playing through that was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. And it's returning in this game. Huzzah!
2 comments:
I don't think anything could be much worse than constant "LEON! HELP ME!". I recently re-bought RE4 on the PS2 and had much joy in shooting Ashley in the head several times just as stress relief.
Looking forward to 5 though in a big way..
Now all we need is a Shadow of the Collosus 2... x
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