Sound Off: Resident Evil 5 Demo Edition
So the Resident Evil 5 demo hit Xbox live recently and since we've all gotten a little bit of time to digest it a little bit I thought that we'd have a short discussion with some impressions from the hotly anticipated title. The demo shows off two of the game's new locations, Public Assembly and Shanty Town. Not-so-creative names aside, each of these short scenarios showcases some incredible visuals, lots of zombie-ish people, and plenty of ways to do them in. While no one should be complaining over the visual or aural presentations since they are both nearly flawless, the most controversial element of the demo for me is the gameplay.
I don't know about you, but I've been a fan of the series for a long time, starting with the release of the second game and have been following the series ever since. Over the course of sequels, movies, books and other assorted media there's a good chunk of narrative history attached to each of the returning characters and it has been an interesting journey to watch these characters change over time. Sadly, it still appears as though the game's design still seems as rigid as ever. This demo clearly shows off "RE 4.5," for better or worse. It plays exactly like RE 4 in every way, with the new only addition being online co-op. Many will see the as a great thing, since RE 4 was such a polished experience, but those looking for more may find themselves a little disappointed. The most disappointing aspect of the demo has to be the fact that in 2009 players still cannot shoot at something and move at the same time. I know that the game is designed this way for a reason, but the lack of progression feels archaic at best and sloppy at worst. After playing games with a similar themes of survival (Dead Space, Left 4 Dead) it's hard to excuse and go back to something most developers left behind in the PS1 era.
After experiencing the demo's offerings I was impressed with the more superficial aspects of the game, but felt myself wanting to play something else. For the first time since I first picked up the series, I'm not sure if I'm going to picking up the latest entry because even though the setting is new, it all feels too familiar. Did you play through the demo? Are you more or less excited for the next chance for over the top headshots? Share your thoughts in the comments section!
Game-Boy
Posted to Video Games on 2 February 2009
· Comments (25)
Other stuff like this: capcom, demo, resident evil, resident evil 5, sound off, xbox live
I played the demo for about 15 minutes and then turned it off.
I don't remember the camera on RE4 being so tight over the shoulder. I understand that the angle is supposed to give the game a feeling of claustrophobia but its horribly annoying.
I'm with you - the inability to move and attack is just a game breaker. I might be able to understand not being able to move while holding an assault rifle.... But a knife!?!?
I dont know about you but if I have a knife, I'm not going to stand there while an army of zombies shuffles its way over to me so that I can slash them. If you do that - you deserve to be eaten.
On the flip side... Its a very attractive game. The graphics and style are quite nice.
My thoughts on the entire being stuck while aiming thing is the exact same. I have a friend that loves the RE franchise but gets motion sick, so she wasn't able to play RE4. I guess something's changed since she can play RE5 fine and thinks it's an amazing experience, but after having played Dead Space and Left 4 Dead, I realized that you can still present the player with fear AND have them be able to move. Also, playing co-op with my friend last night, I realized that both of the bosses are pretty easily defeated if you keep running in circles around the area, since the zombies attack fairly slow, meaning you can normally run right by them if you want. I'll still be picking this up when it comes out, but I'm not expecting it to be the best game ever.
I have no problem with the fact that you can't move and shoot at the same time. Would it be nice if you could in the game? Yes, but it would also turn it into a pure action game, and remove a lot of the tension and urgency in the game. It worked amazingly well in Resident Evil 4 (which nobody complained about) and it works just as well in Resident Evil 5. The controls are deliberate, and are designed to make you think deliberately about your actions in the game. It's one of the staples of the Resident Evil series, and part of why I like it so much.
Although Em does have a point about the knife, but my problem is that it is just too slow to actually be used effectively. But then again, in RE4 I only used the knife for breaking crates, and that only really happens when there is a lull in the action, so the knife really isn't a deal breaker for me.
Basically on the controls though, if you want to play Dead Space, then play Dead Space. Resident Evil 5 has the same winning gameplay that the series had previously, and to expect Capcom to change things to appease twitch shooter fans is unreasonable. Even so, Capcom did include a control scheme to appease those fans with dual analog control and the ability to strafe (which I say is ridiculous. People don't strafe in real life, and shouldn't in games) and they're still unhappy because they want the gameplay to be fundamentally changed. If you could move while shooting it would change the game from its deliberate and methodical pacing, which I believe would hurt the game overall.
This whole "lack of innovation" from 4 to 5 argument is absurd. The original Resident Evil's gameplay mechanics didn't change once up until Nemesis. Same awkward camera angels, same visual style, and same game mechanics. Even the remakes relied on those very aspects when bringing those games to life. But now we have a bunch of next-gen spoiled baby bitches who NEED more. Well guess what? Capcom doesn't want or have to give you more. Why did they keep the same mechanics from 1-3? Well because they worked. They worked well and kept people interested in playing their games. It's business, not fan service. Im very glad that they improved slightly upon 4's mechanics while stilling updating and expanding upon what they know worked WONDERFULLY for that game. It's the smartest way to cross the rapid for Capcom's dev team. As far as not being able to move and shoot, if you're a complete vagina then you will of course hate it. Probably because you can't handle being in close quarters with enemies. Welcome to survival horror at its best. IF you cannot handle it, put a tampon in and go play Viva Pinata.
I agree whole-heartedly with NaviFairy.
While I understand that there are some who want a purely action-oriented game....that's not what Resident Evil is. It never has been. And I understand that RE4 brought new people into the fold with an entirely new gameplay setup, but I think the Johnny-Come-Latelies had some misconceptions about the Resident Evil series overall since they dove into 4 without having waded around in the kiddie pools of the originals.
Run & gun setups mean little to me. Since I tend to stay stationary in games where I CAN move and fire anyway, it's not that big an issue. But I understand the complaints that people have about the series not having evolved past this. It's a valid objection, but again, it isn't what this series is about. Resident Evil is labeled as Survival Horror, with very little emphasis on the horror (Your first encounter with dogs in the original not withstanding). Where Resident Evil tends to nab scares is with their uncanny ability to make you panic. Not being able to move while shooting definitely adds to this. As does the in-game inventory, which has received numerous complaints as well (But I still love it).
I guess this rant is simply to state that I think RE5 will be perfect as is, even though it borrows heavily from it's predecessor. RE4 received critical acclaim because it was pretty damn phenomenal. Why fix what ain't broke?
I dislike the controls greatly....they completely screwed up the controls that have been the same or pretty much the same for years. I couldn't play through it really.
@Matt: I would argue that post-RE4, the series is no longer "survival horror", but an action game first and foremost.
My point is that while I enjoyed each of the RE entries for what they are, they are by no means sacred, holy, or perfect. Each installment showed improvements with the most noticeable gap being RE3 to RE4. With that in mind, the lack of improvements to RE5 displayed (so far) feel very lacking to me.
I agree with Navi that the strafe option is absolute nonsense and does nothing to address the design issue that many gamers will face with RE5. But to say that adding movement while firing would "fundamentally" change the gameplay while ignoring other (and more drastic) significant changes the series has made is just plain silly. "But it's survival horror" isn't a valid excuse for bad controls when other games in the genre have made successful attempts at addressing an issue that has been so prevalent for so long. Even the RE team has made great strides in the area recently with the Wii version of RE4. It's just personally disappointing to see the team get so much right, yet continually fail in one aspect they have the most control over.
Also, screw the haters. Viva Pinata rules.
Ya'll should stop hating on the game and focus on how BEAUTIFUL Chris looks. The definition on his biceps are CRAZY!! And sheva is a great side character! Strong women FTWWWWW
@Game-boy
I would actually say that Resident Evil 4 was more of a "survival horror" game, in a very literal sense, than past Resident Evil's. Whereas past RE games had relied on typical surprise scares, RE4 really emphasized surviving, which implies a certain level of powerlessness, and the panic and fear that comes from surviving. Resident Evil has always been a horror series, but RE4 is the first one that I think should be considered "survival horror."
As for the controls again, I don't see the lack of movement while aiming as an issue in need of addressing. Isn't there room for faster survival horror games like Dead Space, and more deliberate ones like Resident Evil 5? I guess it comes down to different people having different tastes, but I like the tension in RE4 and RE5 and I didn't get that same sense from Dead Space where I could move and shoot.
Besides, Resident Evil enemies are pretty slow, how much mobility do you really need?
hmmm what the video i saw on the OXM report online one of the guys said that the game will have 2 modes of control either classic resident evil which i presume is the stop and shot motion or new type of control along the lines of games like "gears of war 2" his lines not mine lol
idk we'll see when the game comes out i guess, i had fun playing the demo but the tight camera right behind the player and stop and shoot will becoming annoying esp. in the heat of the moment...
which i'd wanna be in with chris haha
ok so i'm totally late in reading all of this i'm sorry lol, strafing my ass
but i'll still play the game :)
"Besides, Resident Evil enemies are pretty slow, how much mobility do you really need?"
I think that is the problem. If these were unintelligent zombies we were dealing with then I wouldn't have an issue and the game play would be ideal but we're dealing with infected humans here who are supposed to be intelligent but they seem to slow down to allow the player to react with the slower controls when they get within a few feet away.
I guess I don't have a problem with the controls per se, its the believeability of the villagers and I'm just not buying it. The speed and reactions increased when the Wii edition of 4 was released in reaction to the new controls, but now we've seen them slowed again.
I don't hate the game, I'm just a little dissapointed.
you can strafe? lol
While I haven't played the demo, the comments back and forth about whether RE is survival horror have gotten me wanting to chime in. I agree with Game Boy that RE hasn't been survival horror since RE3. It's entirely shifted, with RE4, to a horror-themed action game, and RE5 looks to be no different.
What made the first 3 REs so great were the cinematic effects of the horror experience: the awkward camera angles may have angered some, but it created a great cinematic aesthetic, and the "awkward" angles in fact just twinged the game's difficulty--they were part of the game. On top of that, those games were more about exploration with little resources, which could be a truly scary experience--1/2 of the enemies you killed didn't drop useful ammo and cannabis like they do in RE4 and RE5, but players had to discover it. In addition, the puzzle aspect of RE4 was HORRENDOUS. Not that it was ever all that great in the previous incarnations, but seriously, I loved how you could get through any situation by shooting at the right place at the right time. RE4 was fun, and I'm sure RE5 is as well, but they're not survival horror, and that was what attracts me to the series.
Oh, and who didn't use the knife in RE4? You could OWN anything in that game with the knife.
My only real complaint thus far with RE5 is the real time menu system. I can already tell that's going to get me killed a LOT and will piss me off to no end. Otherwise I thought the demo was fantastic and (crappy menu system aside) can't wait to play the full game.
Is there a reason why an action game can't be survival horror? In resident evil 1 you are surviving against zombies. In resident evil 4 you are surviving against zombies. You can call RE 1-3 survival horror games, but to base the entire idea of survival horror around those games is very closed minded.
What struck me was the wussy sound effects for the weapons, the pistol in particular.
Very muted. RE4 had realistic-ish pistol sounds compared to many games, so they didn't sound like shotguns or anything, but the loud snap-cough sound was satisfying.
Here the pistol just gets buried in the mix. If I am only going to get two clips at any given moment, at least let them sound more dangerous than BB gun.
Gameplay-wise, it would be nice to be able to hear if your co-op partner was shooting in the next room, y'know.
"Ya'll should stop hating on the game and focus on how BEAUTIFUL Chris looks. The definition on his biceps are CRAZY!!" ... well... um... maybe we are more mature and know this is just another polygonal somwhat unnatural charakter.
Anyways, I do agree with the RE4,5-part. That`s what I was thinking the whole time. The boxes and the barrels look even like they were just portet. The animations are somewhat the same, hell, even the locations are similar to RE4. A village, some caverns, a powerplant/factory-thingie, some ship (at least it looked like that). I just don´t know, I am missing the whole "you have to survive" part, ´cause you get almost unlimited ammo.
Not to mention the dark mood is almost gne as well as puzzlesolving and the same. RE5 sure looks good and I know I will buy it since I wanna know about what happens, but for me it is already another RE-failure.
I guess my biggest issue with the RE4/RE5 control scheme and lack of movement is that it did turn into more of an action game when 4 came out, and people totally can dodge at the very least in real life when someone's attacking them. The more I accepted the fact that I was playing RE5 and not Dead Space kind of made me accept the slower pace of movement and aiming, and I'll admit I'll be picking this up on release day, but I'm still not 100% comfortable with it. I've also heard some of the indoor environments or something lack the same feeling as the levels in the demo from different podcasts, but hopefully there will be too much going on to notice.
Having never had the opportunity to play Resident Evil 4, I was really excited to play the demo. Then I proceeded to get my ass kicked by big guys with axes. A lot. Then I decided that Left 4 Dead had a far less irksome learning curve and went back to playing that.
Well... first of all Dead Space is just a Resident Evil 4 rip off. An awesome, fun and gory one, but a rip off: They even got a shooting gallery for christ sake!And Left 4 Dead is a first person shooter with zombies.I love that game but, it´s shallow as Barry remarks... with all the action that the resi series got now, being able to move while shooting just will make that another 3rd person shooter... the only terror that the series has now is when you surrounded by Infected people (and please, let´s stop calling them ZOMBIES!Even IGN didn´t get over it...official magazines calling them zombies...Jesus!) and it´s too late to reload before being cut in half...
Everyone is calling them zombies since we don't really know what to call them. I know the things in RE4 were ganados or whatever, but I hear they do things different in Africa.
I loved RE4. My friend and I played it together through twice so I was excited to play the new RE5 demo. However, barring the fantastic graphics, the controls left me cold. Maybe it's because it's been four years but after playing many games in that time and using new control schemes, RE5's controls feel dated. I'm also one of those people that hate's escort mission type games. I'm concerned that the whole game will be me watching out for Sheva and handing her ammo. I can't always have a friend playing all the time so if it turns out that I'm babysitting this other NPC then I doubt I'll finish this game even once much the less twice like RE4...
I started out thinking why the hell can't I shot/knife and move? I didn't understand why this was bothering me so when I realized that not too long ago, I was playing Dead Space which gave you that opportunity.
I didn't feel like being able to move while having a weapon engaged decreased the sense of urgency or tension. In fact it increased it because the monsters were moving so fast so I had to as well.
These enemies are slow compared to that so I get that moving and shooting aren't really a heavy issue but still, it would be nice to feel like I'm doing something more than just standing there like a dumb ass trying to aim. It felt more action than it did suspense.
The camera was horrible. I couldn't run and move the camera like I wanted to. I'm sure you could change the button configuration but still. I wanted to demo it as is. And the turning is so incredibly slow because again. If I wanted slow and clunky I would have played Silent Hill. At least those characters have a reason to act inept. Plus they have the atmosphere to go with it.
I love resident evil games, so much, and there is nothing wrong with it, and if what they say about changing to controls to action controls, they there is no issue, besides getting fucked when you are in the menu screne, but that will all be part of the fun of the game! now stop your bitching u wannabe critics and buy/preorder the next installment of one of the two best game franchises ever made (other being MGS).
I have to chime in here. After playing the demo tonight, the very first thing I noticed was that you can't move while shooting. The second thing I noticed was that you can't move while swinging the knife. With games trying to become more realistic with graphics, scenarios, blood, sound effects, etc. you'd think that character movement and mannerisms would be near the top of their to-do list. It's ridiculous to think how much more fluid the game could be with the ability to move while attacking, even if it is restricted to just walking/strafing.
That being said, I'm sure I'll get used to the controls in time, just like I do with every other game I pick up. RE4 was a great game, but difficult to master at first because you were so used to RE1-3. We all eventually got used to playing it, and it seems like 99% of people feel it was a great game. RE5 will be no different.
I'll be picking it up when it finally hits stores.