Game Review #2: Resident Evil 5 & History of the Series (Part 1)

Since the very beginning, the Resident Evil franchise has revolutionized the way gamers experience fear and suspense through a video game. But what happens when the games turn to the action genre? You get an action/survival horror mix called Resident Evil 4 & 5. Before we get into too much detail, let's go over the history of the games.

 

Does this feel familiar to you Resident Evil fanboys? This is Resident Evil: Director's Cut for the Playstation. You are part of the STARS Bravo team, and your chopper had crash landed near the mansion. You have the option to play as either Chris Redfield (Yes, the same one from Resident Evil 5) or Jill Valentine (Resident Evil 3). I remember when I was younger, this scene depicted above especially scared the crap out of me. The setting for the older games were: you had been investigating an incident in the Arklay Mountains (Raccoon City), and get split up inside the mansion. Soon after you are on your own with limited health and ammo deciding when to fight or flight against zombies. This is the true definition of survival horror.

Resident Evil 2: The police aren't always friendly

Remember what it was like to be trapped in a police station, going into narrow locker rooms filled with zombies? That was Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 2 takes place immediately after the incident in the Arklay Mountains mansion. The series didn't fail to impress when they included the option to play as two different characters, giving a lot of alternate endings and reasons to play through the game again. Not to mention the better you played through the game, the more unlockable goodies you had. This was also the first *true* game to feature that bad-boy Leon Kennedy, who would prove to have one of the best games in the series later on.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, where hearing "STARS!!!" Meant OH GOD RUN

Now as for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, the first half of the game takes place 24 hours before Resident Evil 2, and the later half takes place 2 days after those incidents. You are playing as Jill Valentine, trapped in Raccoon City. Jill and others are now on the run, because Umbrella knows the STARS team has found out that Umbrella was behind the prior incidents in the last games. But what are they running from exactly? 

Is there something in my teeth?

 That's right, the Nemesis. He was created by the Umbrella Corporation in order to exterminate the STARS members in Raccoon City. This was their way of "cleaning up the city" prior to the events that would...change the city forever. Nemesis was a super creation and was nothing to mess with, guns or not. As for Resident Evil 3, it was pretty much the game to get the series on the map for most newcomers. It also was the storyline that would create the Resident Evil: Apocalypse movies... even though they tried to be artsy and goofed it up, but anyway... now for the dramatic turn of the series, which was for, mostly the good.

Resident Evil 4, the game that drastically changed the way the future games would be played. Action style. But was it for the best? Let's look at how the game plays now. 

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!

Now, a lot of things have changed. For one, you are no longer confined to a single camera view per area you visit. And as you can see, it's a fairly good looking game (Sorry I cannot find any pictures of the Wii or updated PC version's graphics, which are superior). The aiming system now is... FANTASTIC! Especially if you're playing on a Wii, the controls are smooth and precise for the most part. No more auto-aim at zombies and shoot bullets and hope they die, now you take aim and shoot specific body parts to make the biggest impact. The A.I. for this game was also increased by a lot. Most zombies will try to surround and attack you while moving quickly, whereas the older games featured zombies that sluggishly came at you slowly. Not that that was a bad thing, since it provided a sense of impending doom if you had no ammo. A lot of new types of enemies have appeared too, such as zombies with chainsaws and crossbows. The boss fights are also something you won't forget. Now, let's get back to the story of it, shall we?

"A VOYA MATAR"

 Leon Kennedy is more than pleased that Umbrella has now been brought to Justice in court, and Umbrella's stocks have plummeted, effectively ending their reign of biological terror. But a new terror has arrived. Leon is dispatched to a small village in Europe, where the president's daughter Ashley Graham has been kidnapped by a cult called the "Los Illuminados" (Leon has since moved on to working for the U.S. government's secret service in this game). The cult is using parasites known as the Las Plagas, an ancient virus brought to light, and also found to be partial evolution of the T-Virus (T-veronica virus). I definitely do not want to move into spoiler region, so if this sounds appealing, I'll be writing a full on review of the game in a later blog. 

"This is a mammoth of a problem, sir!"

Don't worry, I didn't forget about the other games, such as Resident Evil: Outbreak, Survival, Zero and Resident Evil: Code Veronica (which I may review one day). I haven't played through most of the above myself, but I'll definitely get around to them someday soon. I hope you enjoyed this brief history of the Resident Evil franchise, and stay tuned for my review of Resident Evil 5, where surviving is just as hard in Africa in the sunlight as it is in a dark mansion in the middle of mountains.