Resident Evil 5 Demo Review / Early Impressions of RE5
Resident Evil 5 is probably one of the most anticipated games since Halo 3. Personally I’ve been waiting for it since the day I finished resident Evil 4 way back in early 2005. With the huge leaps and bounds RE4 made, Capcom has had gamers waiting in sever anticipation to see what kind of changes would be made to the next game in the beloved franchise.
The very first detail to emerge in the first teaser trailer than leaked years back was that Chris Redfield had returned to the world of Resident Evil. The next thing everyone noticed was that the game seemed to take place in the day time. A first for the series. Well ok, to be fair a very small portion of Resident Evil 4 took place in the day time, but not like it does in RE5.
Of course the biggest piece of news regarding Resident Evil 5 is that it is entirely Co-op. Well gamers of the modern generation (the generation that screams for Co-op in every game no matter how inappropriate…more on this later) rejoiced at this announcement, hardcore Resident Evil fans like myself remained hesitant. Resident Evil is a long standing Survival Horror franchise, and revolutionized the genre by making horror in games on a level not conceived as possible. My biggest problem with the Co-op announcement was in the issue of Resident Evil being a horror game. I just don’t see how you can put yourself in a moment where you are on the edge of your seat and jumping at shadows when your buddy is yammering on the other end of your headset. Resident Evil was the game you played locked in your bedroom by yourself with all the lights out. It is a franchise that has redefined the idea of immersion in a game. Now I don’t mean to say that co-op games don’t possess the ability to draw a player into the story and into the moment. Gears of War (and GoW2) are perfect examples of this. But even at their best, co-op games suffer from the fact that no matter how hard you try to get into a game, if you are playing with your buddy, there are going to be distractions that keep you from getting into a game on the level you would while playing the game on your own. My view on the concept of Resident Evil going co-op, along with the game taking place outside in the day light, makes me very fearful that the franchise is making a big step away from the survival horror genre, and a big leap into the action shooter category. And that makes me very unhappy. There are certain names, certain franchises that you go to for certain things. When I want to play a fun easy quick in and out platformer, I play Mario, when I want a basic shooter I play Halo. You get the picture. Resident Evil, like Silent Hill, is a guaranteed horror experience. Capcom’s decision to change their game plan this late in the franchise seems like a risky move to me. It seems like something that will alienate a lot of hardcore Resident Evil fans and drive them from the franchise. Of course at the same time, building a one of a kind 3rd person action shooter will draw a lot of new fans. I just wonder if Capcom is trying too hard to gain new fans and customers, and are not worried enough about losing the old ones.
But now is a time when co-op faste paced action games are what the majority of gamers ask for these days. And we really won’t know how Resident Evil 5 plays out until March 13th. That being said, lets get into my few impressions from the xbox live demo.
The game play is almost identical to that of RE4. Which I don’t think is a bad thing, as the game play in Resident Evil 4 was a solid as one can hope for. Strangely enough I still think it plays the best on the Game Cube controller, but maybe that is just me. Level design is pretty much what you would expect after playing Resident Evil 4 and seeing the trailers. Levels consist of a pretty basic design, with your main path laid out pretty obviously, and some shacks and whatnot spread around to explore and use for cover. Ammo is dropped and picked up in the same manner it was in RE4. Kill and enemy, and usually there is a box of ammo for either you or your buddy to take.
The co-op partner in this case is a woman named Sheva. So far she has done nothing but annoy me, and I hope she has a use and purpose in the game other than being the other person. It is Resident Evil, so I expect she will have a rather well drawn and interesting back story. I hope. The AI intelligence is not the best and smartest, but not the worst. Think of something in between Army of Two, and Left 4 Dead. Sheva will heal you, and will call for help, and will help you. However she’ll waste a lot of ammo, use med kits (sorry green herbs) when your health really is not that low, she won’t run from enemies, and tends to take the longest routs possible when following you. Of course you can choose to limit some of her wastefulness by picking up all the ammo and health yourself, but then you have to keep an eye on how much she has and supply her with things when she gets low. The amount of commands you can give to Sheva are pretty limited too, consisting mostly of the ‘stay’ and ‘follow’ commands you could give to Ashley in Resident Evil 4. Then again, you could just play co-op, and get around all of this. I wonder if Capcom chose to make the AI less than they could have to encourage people to play co-op. That would be annoying. But not impossible.
Visually the game is great, though Resident Evil has always been at the forefront of the visual experience. The characters are well built, and animations run smooth. There seems to be a slightly larger variation in the appearance of the hostiles than there was in Resident Evil 4. Though you will still find yourself fighting against a set of twins from time to time.
The enemies sound (voice wise) pretty identical to Resident Evil 4, and a few times had me wondering if they just recycled the same sound files. They attack you in the same manner too, running at you in hordes and trying to circle your position. Really nothing new here, disappointingly. Also I have to say, that these guys, the hostile opposition, are very not scary. They don’t look like zombies (ok they aren’t supposed to be zombies), they look like normal people with red eyes. That, coupled with fighting them out in the open in the afternoon…really not scary at all. Actually felt very tepid and uninspired. I know that with RE4 we stopped fighting zombies, but possessed monks with crazy monsters coming out of their heads are much more frightening than random bear foot people in t-shirts. Please Capcom, bring back Zombies. Zombies are inherently scary. The very idea of a dead person coming back to life and trying to kill you is terrifying. And even the slow shambling walk and incoherent moan of a zombie can chill you much more easily than some random guy on the street screaming loudly and running at you. Please, I beg of you, give me zombies. ZOMBIES!!!!!!!!!!
To be honest, based on this demo and this demo alone, I am tempted to call Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 4.2. But I hope that that turns out to be an unfair assessment. Of course the game will ultimately play out very differently I am sure, hopefully with some new innovations and experiences. And the story looks promising to expose some of the franchies’ long time secrets. I just really hope that the Demo presents the very beginning of a game that takes huge leaps very quickly.
I am of course going to hold back until I get my hands on the retail make before I pass final judgement of any kind. But based on what I have seen, I am fearful that Resident Evil 5 will deliver a very boring and standard issue 3rd person shooter experience. And given the time the studio has been working on this game, and the name that it holds, that will be a huge disappointment.
Here is to crossing your fingers.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (updated)
Well. Here it is. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. Some said this day would never come. True it seemed that until you had it in your hand, it was hard to believe that the game was ever going to come out. But it did. And here it is.
So lets dig in. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is like every Christmas morning you’ve had rolled into one, covered in chocolate and sprinkles then served to you but beautiful naked women. I mean, if your into that kind of thing. If not, then it’s a perfect example of what happens when a developer delivers on everything they promised. Or mostly.
Lets start with where the game goes right. Building on the adventure mode from Melee, Brawl features a game mode called The Subspace Emissary, a full blown legit story mode. The ‘game within a game’ averages out a 9 hours, give or take. You play through a story told through beautiful cinematics in between levels, making your way through a variety of levels and Nintendo locations eventually playing as all characters (sans the final 3 unlockables). What makes it even better is that the entire mode can be played with a buddy in full two player co-op. Awesome. It’s a creative and entertaining way to mix things up, and to introduce all the characters, new and old. Did I mention the beautiful cinematics? Brawl finally shows that the Wii is capable of post N64 graphics, as it is by far the best looking game on the system. Also in adventure mode is the new Sticker system. Stickers are power-ups of sort, coming in a variety of A and B list Nintendo characters. They are applied to your character in a strategic fassion to apply resistance and damage bonuses.
In addition to adventure/story mode Classic mode makes it’s return, complete with breaking targets, random giant combatants, and of course Master Hand. Classic mode awards trophy’s in usual fashion for beating the 12 stages with any of the characters. Really nothing has changed here, but there wasn’t really anything that demanded improvement.
Other game modes making an appearance (once unlocked) are the returning All Star Mode (which has you fight through a large number of combatants on a single life), the goal oriented Events (awarding more trophies, songs, levels, etc) and a new one called Boss Battle Mode. Boss Battle Mode is similar to All Star Mode, except that you face all the Bosses from story mode, not the other Nintendo icons. Also of course is practice mode, the stadium (home run derby anyone?) and target break (once unlocked outside of Classic Mode), and create a level. Also are the Masterpieces, 1-3 or so minute trials of the game character’s original Nintendo games. Yes, it seems like a mere plug for the Virtual Console games, but it’s a cool addition nonetheless.
The game boasts an impressive amount of unlock-ables (enough to supply the fix for any recovering 360 achievement whore like myself) including the secret characters, soundtracks, levels, create a level parts, game modes, missing pieces of the catalogue lists, masterpieces, and stickers.
And of course there is normal brawl. With the normal adjustable rules, game types, and the large selection of maps and characters. The biggest new addition are the Final Smashes. Though a cool concept, I have a feeling that many people, like myself, will eventually turn this item off. It may seem like a cool idea to give everyone the chance to have a super nearly one hit kill massive special move. But it tends to change to focus of the game, as soon as the smash ball shows up on screen its a race to get it, rather than just brawling. And of course, if one person continues to be the lucky brawler to get the Final Smash, the game turns very unbalanced very quickly.
Game play translates nicely to the Wii, and players are given a variety of control options, from new wii controls, to the game cube and classic controllers. The classic controller and the game cube controller use the same commands as Smash Melee used on the GCN, making for a smooth transition. All returning characters play extremely close, if not exactly, to how they played in previous games. The new characters are easy to pick up, and it seems that there will be more character switching in Brawl as opposed to previous installments. That is to say, I think you’ll find yourself playing more characters than you did in the past. The levels are more interactive and exciting; from destroyable terrain, to changing locations, and all sorts of level born hazards. Game play flows smoothly and as of now I have found no problems. The music is wonderful, each stage has a reworked theme song pertaining to it’s game of origin, yes including Sonic’s Green Hill Zone. The sound overall is great, and the visuals are the best we’ve seen on the Wii, and probably the best we will see in a long time. Really the one and only complaint with the game is the load times. Well not a much of an issue in normal brawl, in any of the ‘single’ player modes the load times range form moderate to terribly annoying.
Character selection is strong, and varried. It seems that there is a greater range of character types in Brawl than the previous Smash titles. A good thing becuase there are less of them this time around. And well it is great to see some of the new characters (Pit, Meta Knight, R.O.B.) there are many characters that fans demanded and Nintendo failed to deliver on. It brings up two big questions; are Nintendo just ignorign fan demands, or do they have some sort of surprise lined up for us? It is entirely possible that in a couple of years the Wii becomes the first multi Smash Bros. titled system. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Dissapointments aside, there is no shortage of characters to play, most of whom are strong and very few of whom are down right bad.
After no luck with the online play the first day, I just assumed that there weren’t enough people online as the game hadn’t yet been out 24 hours. I did finally get a chance to play some online Brawl, and although it’s no xboxlive, the experience was not terrible. When playing online you can chose to either play with people on your friends list, or you can play with random nameless people. Finding your initial math ups can take a bit of time. The process starts by picking your character, then a level (I still don’t know how it decides what level is played, it never was any that I picked). You then find your self in the ‘lobby’ on a practice stage beating up sandbag, waiting for other players to join up. Once the game is full, it launches. The first complaint is that it seems that you can only play 2 minute KO fest. An annoyance if, like me, you prefer the ‘stock’ game type. The game ran smoothly, though play did slow a little through out each game I played. Overall though nothing unbearable. The best feature is the continue option. After a round ends, you can choose to continue play. Assuming that other in the game do so, the four players (or however many stayed) pick new characters, and levels, and a new round begins. This is nice because it eliminates the potentially long wait for players. Overall the online experience was not disappointing, but nothing I would consider to be a selling point of the game. it is however a big step in the right direction for Nintendo’s online gaming, something I hope the consider putting a lot more development into.
In the end, I really can’t say much bad about the game. On the first day I had it I played it for 12 hours straight, moving between the various modes, and was up until 6am. Not too many games have been able to motivate that kind of play, at least not since Viva Pinata. Nintendo did deliver on what they promised, which at this point in time, with the rapidly growing amount of dissapointment in the Wii, was crucial for them. Hopefully we will see mroe games of this calibur for the Wii, although with only one first party game lined up for the rest of the year, and games like ‘Project HAMMER; being cancled, the future looks bleak. But for now we have Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and hopefully this will keep the Wii alive and well for the time being.
Lost: Via Domus
Losties rejoice, there is a Lost video game. And No, it does not suck.
And that is in fact the truth of it. Lost: Via Domus has been under scrutiny simply because it is a game based on a TV show. Given the history of TV and movie based games, skepticism is understandable. ABC took care in investing a solid amount of money into this game, and the writers knew that they had to be involved enough to deliver a product that would not disgust long time devoted Lost fans. And they managed to do just that.
Lost: Via Domus is a straight forward action/adventure game. Game play is straight forward and simple. There really isn’t too much to say on the subject. In game text is a little small, and on occasion the game gives you a lack of direction, but all in all user interaction is solid and flawless. The graphics are not the best we’ve ever seen, but they are nothing to scoff at. The environments and lighting in particular are impressive.
The concept of the game has you playing as a previously unseen survivor of flight 815 named Elliott, a photo journalist who, post crash, can’t remember anything about himself or his life, even his name. Your story takes place through out the first two seasons of the show. This leads the survivors to grow suspicious of you, and eventually lead them to believe you are an Other. As Elliott you search the island for answers to your past, taking pictures and experience all the mysteries of Lost along the way. Elliott seems a little more motivated to find things on the island and sees things long before the main cast does. This includes other Darmah stations, The Smoke monster, and even a run in with Ben and Juliet. Elliott, like any other Character of Lost, experiences flashbacks. Making these flashback playable had to be a challenge, and I was impressed with how they came out. By finding certain items in each flashback you uncover more of Elliott’s past, leaving the depth of the story up to you.
Via Domus is as loyal to it’s source material as possible. The locations are very accurately recreated, and character’s look like their real life counterparts. I was disappointed by the amount of actors who did not supply their voice for the game, but you can’t have everything.
The game is structured into 7 episodes, each complete with its on ‘previously on lost’ segment and flashbacks. The game is not overly difficult, in fact it’s pretty flat out simple. Not that this makes for a bad game experience. The game is, however, disappointingly short. Each episode takes around an hour or so to complete. Average time to beat the game start to finish is between 7 and 10 hours. This includes all 1000 gamer points for the Xbox 360 version.
To sum it all up. Lost: Via Domus is a good game. it is simple, and very short, but if those are your only complaints, that’s not too bad. This is a game made for the fans, I must stress, if you don’t give a damn about Lost, you won’t give a damn about the game. Unless you are looking for a fast 100 gamer points that is. Should you buy this game? No probably not, at least not until the price goes down. This is a solid game to rent though, as you can without a doubt beat it in one rental, and the replay value is pretty much not there. All in all, i give it a 4 out of 5. If you like Lost, that is.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chonicles
As a die hard Resident Evil fan, the prospect of an arcade style on rails Resident Evil shooter made me a little weary. My feelings were that the Wii was capable of so much more, and that they could really have used the Resident Evil name to really do something innovative. But I bought the game anyway.
The over all Plot is that of Resident Evil 0, 1, and 3 in a diet Pepsi kind of way. You play through a few levels for each of the three games, touching on all of the key points and boss battles. But the really meaty juicy part of the game are the ‘bonus’ levels you unlock while playing through the game, and the bonus levels themselves. These new levels take place outside of the main story of the Resident Evil games, and fill in the blanks. How did Rebbecca Chambers get to the mansion? what happened after Wesker died? Why did Wesker turn on Umbrella? Between the story content in these side missions, and the numerous (I mean a lot) items and files you find while playing the game, all of (ok, most of) the missing pieces of the fall of Umbrella, and the story of the first 3 Resident Evil games is explained. This was the real attraction to the game. While Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is not a new Resident Evil game in terms of advancing the story, it does provide a lot of new information. In essence, it had the potential to be a fan boy’s wet dream.
Sadly the prospect of Umbrella was a lot stronger than the game it’s self. While the game is far from great, in all fairness it is also not terrible. Game play is smooth and I found no real problems. Though the amount of control and options you can offer players in a rail shooter is limited, Umbrella does do a good job of pushing it to the limits. The game is not overly difficult, and with a second player you can beat the main game’s levels in an hour or so, though the difficulty is noticeably higher on single player, it is still far from challenging. Players have the option of upgrading weapons and new weapons are awarded based on discovery and level progression, adding a little more flexibility to the game. The game’s visuals leave something to be desired, especially given that it carries the name of a game series known for pushing systems to their limits. We’ve seen games on the Wii that look amazing. It’d be nice if more developers took the time to take full advantage of what the Wii is capable of.
In the end the game is not terrible. It is easy, and it is short, and the game play is nothing to write home about, but it plays smoothly and is fun to play with a friend. This game wasn’t really made for the casual gamer, but seems really to be Capcom’s attempt at filling in the missing story pieces before Resident Evil 5 comes out. It’s a good pick up for long time dedicated fans of the series. And I guess if you really can’t wait for the remakes of House Of The Dead then this is the game for you.
Super Mario Galaxy
Within the first few minutes of playing this game one thing becomes very clear, Nintendo is not fucking around. Oh, and neither is Bowser. The formula for this game is more or less the same as any other Mario adventure. Mario is going to the castle, Bowser shows up, kidnaps princess (or entire castle), Mario must peruse and defeat Bowser. Only this time Bowser show up with a fleet of Mario Bros. 3 airships, and flying saucers. He kidnaps the entire castle, and flys off to the galaxy that he created. Yes, Bowser has created his own Galaxy. Bad-ass. Throughout the game you’ll also discover he is creating dark matter and black holes. The dude has seriously up’d the ante.
The game is built upon the seemingly invincible foundation of Super Mario 64, and the improvements made by the follow up Super Mario Sunshine. You start off in a central hub (formerly Peach’s Castle, and Del Fino Plaza) and proceed to go into various worlds and find all the stars. This time, the hub is a huge Space Station/observatory, property of one Princess Rosalina. If you ask me, Mario is rescuing the wrong Princess. I mean sure Peach has a castle and those farm girl next door good looks, but Rosalina is a hot blond with the looks of a super model, and she owns her own space ship. Better than a castle if you ask me.
Mario uses the Observatory as a base and hub to travel between the 42 galaxies. Each galaxy is a world, like in the previous games, with multiple stars. Most galaxy’s average 5 stars, some special galaxies only have 1 star. I’ll save you the trouble of math. The game has a total of 120 stars, wit the talks of a secret 121st star. Once all 120 stars are collected, you unlock the ability to play through the game as Luigi, to collect the 120 stars again, and unlock two special stars. This brings the star total to 242/243 depending on the actual number of secret stars. Fortunately you can beat the game with a minimum of 60 stars.
The game plays as near to flawless as any Wii game to date, and is possibly the best game to integrate with the Wii’s unique control options. Like it’s predecessors, Mario Galaxy does suffer from the occasional horrid camera angles, and sometimes getting that fine touch to a jump is difficult, but over all the game play is smooth and there really is nothing you could seriously complain about. The game is not terribly difficult, but it is not annoyingly simple either. It’s easier than Sunshine, and probably on par with 64. The graphics are without a doubt the best the system has seen thus far. Super Mario Galaxy really shows us what this system can do. The sound and music is as good as any Mario game, and there are even many times when you’ll find yourself hearing newly recorded versions of music from Super Mario Bros. 3.
The new additions to the Mario universe are awesome. Nothing new in the way on enemies really. Most of your boss battles are against Bowser Jr, rather than Bowser. Although the final Bowser battle is possibly the most difficult one to date. Mario finds a few new power ups in Galaxy, all of which are awesome to use. Fire Mario makes a return, along with a re-imaged invincible star Mario. Bee Mario is as shown in the trailers, giving the player the ability to hover for a period of time and walk through honey. Boo Mario is amusing and allows you to travel through walls. Flying Mario is probably the coolest looking, giving Mario some new Black and Red overalls. The ability is pretty much exactly the same as the winged cap from Mario 64. My personal favorite is Ice Mario which gives you the ability to walk across water, as it freezes below your feet.
Over all, the game is hands down amazing, and if there was only one reason to own a Wii, this would be it. I beat the game by borrowing it from a friend, and I plan on buying it. It’s that good. If i had a 5 star rating system Mario Galaxy would have earned at least a 6. Yes, out of 5.
The Final Stage 