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Friday the 13th see’s the long awaited 5th instalment to the Resident Evil series of games to hit the shelves, it’s the second Capcom game in as many months to cause gamers round the world to rejoice, but after a change in direction in the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4, just what does this new game in the survival horror genre bring to the series?
Well for starters we’ve got one of the first characters from the original game making a come back, Chris Redfield is back in action and the game will explore what’s been happening to Chris since we last saw him. In terms of the story, it’s been 10 year’s since the events at Racoon City took place and we will learn what’s happened to Chris in that time. Of course we last saw Chris with Jill Valentine in the Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles game on the Nintendo Wii which fleshed out the story of the Umbrella Corporation and the other major players in the Resident Evil universe so we can expect to find out a bit more about that and what happened to Jill Valentine.
No longer a member of S.T.A.R.S. Chris has now joined up with a group calling themselves B.S.A.A. (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) and is investigating the origins of the T-Virus in a made up town in Africa, called Kijuju… And he’s not on his own...
After losing his original B.S.A.A. partner, a grieving Chris is partnered with another B.S.A.A. agent named Sheva Alomar. The new to the series character isn’t playable in the single player mode at first but does help Chris out in certain situations and she is able to provide him with ammo and to help heal his wounds. Of course should you choose to play the game in co-op mode, offline or online then the other player takes control of the Sheva character. Sheva know’s the town Chris is investigating and is assigned to help Chris find his way round Kijuju as he doesn’t know the area. It’s also been said that a lot of the gameplay in the game revolves around her story.
Rather interestingly Sheva is left handed; this was done so that the player could look over her left shoulder in the split screen mode, quite a clever little touch.
Bringing us to the split screen mode, this is not going to be quite like anything you’ve seen before from a game with this option, instead of the usual horizontal or vertical split, Capcom have gone with the option of reducing the screen size so that one player’s screen is in the top left of the TV screen and the other player plays the game from the bottom right. It will be interesting to see how that works, I can imagine it will be quite odd at first.
Albert Wesker is also a returning character to the franchise, little is known about his activities in Kijuju but the one thing you can be sure of, he’s not there to give Chris a helping hand. Wesker’s character is normally one that plots behind the scenes, it’s more the outcome of his work you deal with in the Resident Evil games than he himself, so it’s going to be interesting to see where he fit’s into the grand scheme of things.
The game play itself borrows it’s style more from Resident Evil 4 than the games that led before it, if you’re looking for a ‘classic’ Resident Evil game then you’re going to be disappointed, the over the shoulder view that was used in the fourth game make’s it’s return in this one as well. The combat is pretty much the same as the fourth one, and the developers have also remained firm on their stance that characters should not be able to run and gun. The isolated feeling you got with the other games has also been removed mainly down to the Sheva character, no longer will you be left in a dark corridor scared to go round the next corner. You’re never truly alone in the game, where as the other games you met up with your partner(s) and they went one direction while you went in another, Sheva follows you round like a faithful companion.
The end result is a game that’s less survival horror and more of an action game, it’s odd that in a series that helped, if not create the survival horror genre, that this new version for the next generation consoles should choose to stray even farther from the path that the first game made. Some would argue that the first games concentrated mainly on cheap scares rather than actual ‘horror’ and that Capcom is instead approaching the subject with a more adult audience in mind, but, I for one, miss knowing that at any moment something could jump out from behind a wall or through a window and my heart would be in my mouth.
Of course, one of the main staples of Resident Evil has been it’s boss characters, and this looks to be no exception, you’ve probably already seen the tentacle boss if you’ve been paying any attention to the teasers released by Capcom. As mentioned, we also know that Albert Wesker is making a come back to this game, perhaps a fight against him along the way? Other than that, little is known about what kind of monsters you’re going to be up against in this game, I’m sure we can look forward to some under-equipped battles against a huge bad guy at more than one point in the game.
For those still not sure about the title then there is a demo available to download for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on there respective online areas. I for one can’t wait to get my hands on this one… Provided they don’t get bitten off by zombies!
