Joystiq hands-on: New Resident Evil 5 levels

by Randy Nelson { Dec 18th 2008 at 12:30PM }

click to enlarge

Capcom held an event in San Francisco on Tuesday to showcase the two-player co-op mode in Resident Evil 5. When we arrived, we were greeted by ... the demo version of the game released a week ago in Japan, which was more or less what we'd already played at Tokyo Game Show. Still, there was a promise of "new never-before-seen levels!" to be played, somewhere amid the couple dozen PS3 and 360 kiosks crammed into the venue.

As it turned out, there were four stations showcasing small snippets of two areas we'd caught glimpses of in trailers for the game. The first was a fairly linear cliff-side run through a desert setting, with a couple of opportunities for one co-op player to cover the other from higher ground. (We snuck a peek at an on-rails vehicle segment where Chris and Sheva had to take out red-eyed non-zombie-zombies on dirt bikes, before a Capcom staffer quickly skipped past it.)

Gallery: Resident Evil 5 (12-18-2008)

The highlight of the desert level – which, we have to admit, had us flashing back to Army of Two – was a boss fight against a giant, flying bat/hornet/cow creature that would have been impossible to defeat in this build if infinite ammo hadn't been enabled from the debug menu. We were concerned that there was no way to tell how damaged it was, and that the optimal strategy for defeating it – attacking from behind while our AI partner distracted it – wasn't working because our AI partner ... wasn't working.

We were able to simply run past most of the enemies in our path unscathed.

Nevertheless, we eventually did away with the beastie (though we're pretty sure it will return) and were plopped into the second new scenario, which took place inside an oil refinery. This section featured some light puzzle solving in the form of valves that had to be closed in order to extinguish flames blocking the exit route.

These valves were guarded by chainsaw-wielding enemies, familiar to anyone who has played Resident Evil 4. For whatever reason, this particular build had their health ratcheted up to an ungodly degree, meaning they wouldn't die until we pumped 30-40 shotgun rounds into them. It was in this stage that we also met up with an NPC named Josh, a fellow BSAA member.

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We were tasked with protecting him from more non-zombie-zombies and chainsaw goons while he hacked door terminals. Once outside, we had to beat a two-minute countdown to board an escape boat, which was pretty easy – we were able to simply run past most of the many enemies in our path unscathed.

We couldn't spot any appreciable graphical differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

From what we played of both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game – which were running on identical LCD displays – we couldn't spot any appreciable graphical differences between the two. RE5 is unquestionably a gorgeous, big-budget game; we're just a bit stymied by some of the design shortcomings we've encountered thus far.

In addition to the ability to simply rush past enemies we mentioned, we found the act of actually running through levels rather jarring, as we'd have to briefly pause every few feet to "re-aim" our character down the path, or they'd get hung up on the environment. Holding down a button to locate our AI (or human) companion was also troubling, since it left us with little to no ability to see enemies about to sneak up behind us at crucial moments. That said, Capcom still has until early March to work on these areas, which are hopefully where a majority of the dev team's "home stretch" resources have been assigned.

Gallery: Resident Evil 5

Tags: capcom, hands-on, joystiqfeatures, resident-evil, resident-evil-5

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

tmacairjordan87 @ Dec 18th 2008 11:54AM

It seems like RE 4.5, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can't innovate like that with every sequel.

This will be a great game to play while taking breaks from Killzone 2.

ravishi @ Dec 18th 2008 12:18PM

ohhh killzone 2. can't february 27 come any sooner.

WRE @ Dec 18th 2008 12:22PM

Exactly. You can't always innovate huge with every new entry in a franchise, and most people don't want you to anyway...until it starts to feel a little stale or just sucked in the first place.

But why are games the only medium that get the bad-rap-incremental-upgrade treatment? Nobody ever says, "Well, it was more like Harry Potter 6.5, lol!" or "Yeah, it was okay if you were expecting James Bond 23.6." or "Meh, you might as well call it the Simpsons season 11.3."

Haggard @ Dec 18th 2008 3:15PM

Innovation in gaming = jumping the shark in TV.

Erik Stroud @ Dec 18th 2008 5:56PM

I want RE5 and Killzone 2 so much. Can't wait for Feb.

xFenixKnightx @ Dec 18th 2008 12:16PM

"That said, Capcom still has until early March to work on these areas, which are hopefully where a majority of the dev team's "home stretch" resources have been assigned."

We all know darn well that its not going to be fixed and we'll have the complainers come out on every single story to gripe about it after RE5 releases. That stuff shouldn't bother me. Hasn't before.

Goku (aka Ska Chips Ahoy!) @ Dec 18th 2008 1:16PM

It baffles me how the RE franchise gets away with so many things. Bad voice acting is the first. I could never get into the damn story because of it. The only one who had somewhat decent voice acting was RE4.

And then there is the controls. How the hell did RE2 for playstation got good reviews? I mean you have to HOLD a button to change the direction you wanted to move. Up until RE4 the controls for the resident evil series were god awful. And even in RE4 the controls were still clunky.

And please don't give me that BS "it adds to the atmosphere", if you need awkward control to make a good game then you shouldn't be making them at all.

kaws1986 @ Dec 18th 2008 2:12PM

RE4 was the shit no doubt and it's the reason for all these games using the over the shoulder 3rd person view now, but it's going to be hard playing RE5 after experiencing the dead on controls of Dead Space. I love how you can run in any direction on Dead Space instead of only being able to run forward in RE. I hate having to turn around completely and run when an enemy gets close in RE. RE5 plus Dead Space controls would of been genius.

DangerMouse @ Dec 18th 2008 3:45PM

Damn, now that's a knoife.

Malkmus @ Dec 18th 2008 4:18PM

My biggest disappointment with RE5 so far isn't what most others are complaining. Sure, I think it's getting away from its horror roots, but not because of controls or the fact that they aren't technically zombies. It's the location. I loved RE4, and a major part of that love was due to the atmosphere of the game being like an old Hammer horror movie. I mean you had the Gothic European setting, the castles, the villagers wielding pitchforks like an old Frankenstein movie, the 18th century garb and constant rain and dark forests. The list goes on. Now it's in Africa. And from what I've seen there's not much to differentiate it from something like Far Cry 2, except that creatures burst out of the villagers' bodies. And the fact that the above article mentions Army of Two is the last nail int he coffin. I'm hoping come March I'll be surprised. I mean I'm playing it either way. But it seems like the classic horror elements are gone.

Optimus @ Dec 18th 2008 5:29PM

Call me weird or whatever....but I loved the past RE's clunky tank controls. No single player game since RE2 had so much replay ability what with all the different scenario's.

I also disliked RE4....a lot.

I suppose I'm just an old school RE gamer. I didn't think the game was broke before...so...

t_m @ Dec 19th 2008 1:48AM

The game seems fun, and i like the co-op ideas.

Anyone seen anything remotely scary yet though? Its more like a desert combat game than a horror game...