Resident Evil Five Demo

I’ve long been salivating to play Resident Evil 5. I was a huge fan of the RE4, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this new iteration. This morning, my RE5 demo download finished and that meant only one thing – it’s on zombie-bitches! (Wait, they aren’t zombies anymore are they?)

Sheva

Truth be told, I was half expecting this game to be a RE4 clone. But being the fanboy that I am for the series, I found this to be more of a good thing than bad. To my surprise and delight, I was wrong. As far as I could tell from the demo, Resident Evil 5 manages to retain the appeal of RE4 while still adding a little (or a lot) here and there to make it feel fresh and innovative. I won’t be going into much detail about the demo itself. I’ll just give some general impressions. But before the obligatory hyping of the game begins, some flaws have to be mentioned.

The Achilles’ heel of the Resident Evil series has always been its controls, and it has returned to RE5 in full force. I don’t know why, but it seems as though the controls too a step-back in this iteration. I have not heard anybody complain about the controls from articles I’ve read, so this took me by surprise. But then again, it might simply be because the controls are different, and they always are when it comes to Resident Evil.

Chris Redfield

I noticed the controls for the knife first. You use the L2 trigger to ready the knife, and use the R1 trigger to swipe. While that doesn’t sound too bad, it becomes problematic when you note that L1 readies your gun and R1 fires it. While it does make sense conceptually, you have to note that hardly any other game (at least those known to me) uses this kind of control scheme. Developers usually don’t map the “ready kind of weapon” to two different buttons. It’s the “fire kind of weapon” buttons that are separated. To my point, take game such as Call of Duty 4, Dead Space and Metal Gear 4 just to name a few. One button readies your weapon, then you choose between two buttons that fires your primary or secondary weapon depending on your preference. You have to admit that this makes much more sense than what RE5 does, because pressing two different buttons and switching between them is much easier than holding two different buttons and switching.

The pain doesn’t end there. The running is also broken. While the fixed camera controls of yesteryear’s Resident Evils has come and gone, it still doesn’t make the mistake they’ve done forgivable. For some reason, they’ve decided to map the run function to the “X” button. Again, at face value that doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. But remember, you move with the left-stick and dolly your camera around with the right-stick. How the hell will you be able to control both sticks (which you usually do in third-person games) and still be able to press the “X” button? Grow a second thumb on your right hand?! Granted, the camera in the game is indeed very well done. Turning sharp corners while running was very smooth. However, when there is a horde of crazed zombie-like creatures charging you, it would be nice to have more control over what you’re actually seeing in the game. Oftentimes I found that my peripheral vision in the game was lacking, and true enough since I often get axed by a zombie that’s right at my side.

These two glaring control problems are exacerbated by the fact that there is no way to change your controls to anything more intuitive. Why can’t they just allow you to customize the controls? I have no idea.

But, as I am a self proclaimed Resident Evil fanboy, the benefit of the doubt has to be given. Perhaps Capcom really wanted to heighten the sense of fear and suspense by intentionally impeding your movements within the game. Yeah, that sounds about right. Right? (Man, that’s exactly what I said after playing the original RE.)

As bad as those problems are (to me personally at least) the game still manages to be a worthy successor to RE4, a game widely regarded by critics (and myself) as one of the best games of all time. That’s saying a mouthful right there. It takes what RE4 did well, and adds to it. Thankfully the additions are not just cosmetic or tacked-on. They truly do affect the gameplay and make it much richer and more panic-ridden.

The first thing I noticed is the absence of the beloved menu screen. Now all your reloading and item usage must be done in real time, ala Dead Space. This adds to that sense or urgency a survival horror game really needs and it also allows you to “stay in the game” creating a very seamless and cohesive experience.

Next, and far more note-worthy is the addition of co-op play with Sheva. We’ve seen pseudo-co-op play from RE before. However in previous installments it was more like you used one of two characters at a time in two different places. With the addition of Sheva however, you have a walking and talking companion to help you plow through the endless waves of zombies. (I know they’re not zombies, but it’s shorted than saying virus-infested-villagers.) Good thing too, because as far as I can tell, the zombies never do run out. (Think Left 4 Dead with a lot less bullets and with two less companions.) This addition it itself makes the game feel very modern and innovative. It creates a combat dynamic similar in appeal to what RE4 did but is so different and deep that it truly makes for a new experience.

So fine, I talked about the negatives in more length than the positive. However, I will say this. It looks like Resident Evil 5 is well on its way to living up, if not surpassing, Resident Evil 4. Enough said.

F.E.A.R 2 Project Origin Demo Available

Alma is back again. And so is the horror she bring as you play F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon). The first installment was released about 3 years ago. The game’s story revolves around a supernatural phenomenon where in you, play as a member of the special operative group called F.E.A.R. The horror factor that the first game has done was to combine the Japanese horror formula and adopt it to the American market. Now the game is up to its second installment simply entitled F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin. Recently, the game has gone gold as of January 27, 2009 and will be released on February 2009. Meanwhile, for those of you who want to try the demo, you are in luck.

Fear 2

The demo is out now on PS3, XBOX360 and PC. You can get the PC demo here