Charles Desrochers / Asst. Lifestyles Editor
There’s been a recent complaint over “Resident Evil 5”, developed by Capcom for the Xbox 360, and how almost all the zombies are dark skinned and how the protagonist shooting them has the appearance of a Backstreet Boy on steroids.
An all American boy who could easily pass as the quarterback for USC shooting brown natives in the name of justice.
Well, that’s not how it is. As the character Chris Redfield, you shoot people of all ethnic backgrounds indiscriminately. It just so happens that most of the zombies are African because the game is set in Africa and the developers apparently went to a minstrel show to find out about its culture. This is the “Resident Evil” series we’re talking about and it’s never been known for its political correctness.
As far as it’s the apparent racism is concerned, I can’t imagine there being malicious intent on the cartoonish portrayal of any people in this game. As ridiculous as it may be, it still doesn’t hold a candle to the Grand Theft Auto series. Does that make it right? No, it doesn’t. Sadly it’s just how video games are.
It’s hard to believe that “Resident Evil 4” is already three-years-old. When it came out on the Nintendo Gamecube it revitalized the franchise with two simple things; a movable over the shoulder camera and more action oriented game-play.
Capcom’s new addition to the series, Resident Evil 5, is much in this vein. It’s the first of the series to be on any of the next generation consoles, not counting the Wii’s re-release of RE4.
It’s also the first of the series to have online or co-operative features. I can’t afford Xbox Live and I’m the only person in my circle of friends who still plays videogames so this review won’t be on either of those.
But just because you don’t have any friends doesn’t mean you won’t have the pleasure of having to tug along a big breasted, gun toting and more or less useless sidekick for the entire game. While your character will be fighting the hordes of zombies and other stereotypes from Abbot and Costello presents Africa Screams, your partner will be fighting the never-ending battle of “How do I get around the table?”
When she dies in the game you also have to start over from your last checkpoint. At this point that the player starts to wish the game be more realistic by letting your character just get on with his life. Besides this major annoyance, the game plays quite nicely.
Despite missing a reload button for the weapons, whic would come in handy when a man with a sack on his head brazening a chainsaw is running at you, most of the controls make sense and aren’t very counterintuitive. Another big complaint is that when enemies are shot in the head their reactions seem as if you were flicking staples into their eye, but then again this is a game where green herbs heal bullet wounds so I suppose we take the good with the bad on this one.
The game is as aesthetically pleasing as every other first person shooter these days because it’s all stunningly brown and grey. Apparently most game developers never get out of their basement to realize that the world doesn’t look like it has been sprinkled with cinnamon whilst in constant overcast.
“Resident Evil 5” is not a bad game, really it isn’t. For the most part it plays exactly like “Resident Evil 4”. And there’s nothing wrong with being a repackaging of the fourth “Resident Evil”. If there is a game in the zombie genre that is worth copying, that is it. But “RE4” was such a success because it was so different from the first three.
Really, what makes this new game poor is the possibility of the franchise reverting. “Resident Evil 5” retains what made “Resident Evil 4” good, like the movable camera, but it recalls things that made the previous three games lousy. The item inventory is small and forces the player to unnecessarily prioritize and instead of going for an ironic or campy sense of horror it has fallen into its old habit of trying to scare players.
If you have ever been scared by a video game please take the time now to go to a mirror and start yelling emasculating things at yourself.
