As mentioned in a previous post, I recently had the chance to play Resident Evil 5 and Bionic Commando at an event hosted by Capcom in San Francisco. I decided to separate my blog into two parts to allow my impressions of the game to have their own spotlight. And thus, I present to you part 2 of the Capcom RE5/BC event coverage….My Tactix-pressions.

(BTW… For more “professional” coverage of Resident Evil 5, check out CTZ’s post here)

Resident Evil 5


I will start these impressions with the following statement. I LOVE Resident Evil games. There may be some fanboy creeping out in these next paragraphs, and therefore, I warn you in advance. Playable at the event were two levels, which I assume were the ones that many people have already given impressions on, plus a third boss level that I didn’t play. The first consisted of basically surviving the onslaught of enemies while watiting for the helicopter to come and save you. (Not piloted by Brad “Chicken Shit” Vickers”) This first area was very reminiscent of the first area of RE4. Where you are basically running and gunning for your life (minus the ability to actually run and gun). What is really cool about this area is the fact that many of the rooftops can be traversed from one to the next. The feel of this area harkens back to the old Resident Evil of “ammo conservation”. I often found myself out of ammo and had to resort to either running away or taking out zombies with my knife. However, another name of this game could be “Stick together or die”. As it turns out in co-op, the death in your partner means a “You Are Dead” screen for BOTH of you. This adds the need for lots of communication between partners (admittedly hard to do in a bar, with DJ spinning mad beats in the background).

Luckily, the co-op play is SO MUCH FUN to do. In a very Left 4 Dead feel, if your partner is in danger, you will have an alert on the screen and an arrow guiding you to help them out with a quick press of the B button. You reward for doing so is not only staying alive as a team, but also a sweet take down maneuver. I was playing as Sheva for the most part, and I secretly wished for my partner to be in danger so I could save them (I didn’t have to wait that long when Topgear was playing :P <3 <3 <3). Not only can you save your partner from sticky situations, but when they are very low on health you can actually spray your partner with the First Aid Spray to heal them…..again a quick press of the B button. Being able to save and heal your partner while sticking together as a team are ESSENTIAL to surviving this first level, and presumably the game. And in my opinion that’s not half bad. In a day when co-op is all the rage, its cool to see Resident Evil rising to the challenge and incorporating this mode in the game.



[Personal Rant time]
Anyway, the biggest complaint I see that people have with this game is the controls. As I’ve stated before, many times in IRC and in comments, I’m very happy that they kept the controls the way they are. Not only is there some added tension to the games, but veterans who have grown up with RE games can apply the skills learned all the way from the original Resident Evil here. Are the controls too hard for you to enjoy the game? Tough shit. Resident Evil games were never meant to be, and still aren’t, about the action. You need to strategically place yourself in a position to shoot zombies (say with your back against the wall). If there is a horde of zombies moving towards you, you have to know when is the right time to run to either higher ground or pull a [insert football term here] and run around them to not get cornered. Learn when its appropriate to use your knife and learn that even a couple of steps back is plenty to put yourself out of the grasp of the zombies. And most importantly, quit your bitching- play or don’t play.
[Personal Rant end]



The inventory system in this game is also really cool…a la Dead Space, pushing a button brings up the inventory screen without really removing you from the action. There were 9 slots arranged in a tic-tac-toe format (not sure if you get more), and the cool thing was that the directions corresponded to directions on the d-pad. I discovered that pressing up on the D-pad equipped whatever item was in that slot of your inventory. That definitely added to the ease of switching weapons in the middle of combat, no longer having to go to the pause screen when you discovered your shotgun was out of ammo.

All in all, I will most definitely be buying Resident Evil 5 when it comes out. Everything from the improved graphics, to the new co-op mode, to finding out happens next in the Resident Evil story has me pumped.

Also, Jill Valentine (?)



Stay tuned for my Tactix-pressions of my time with Bionic Commando!