Finally available this time next week is the long teased fifth installment of the Resident Evil series. Remember that first teaser trailer back in 2007? A demo has long been in circulation, popping up at trade fairs the world over, and currently available for download on whichever this-gen online platform you prefer. The demo is comprised of two short scenarios, Public Assembly and Shanty Town, each seemingly designed as an invisible tutorial sequence for the full game.
Public Assembly initially recalls the fantastic Resident Evil 4 demo issued with Famitsu's 2004 Capcom Special. Players hole up for as long as possible in a decrepit shack before a tank enemy puts in an appearance. Yikes! Unlike the Famitsu demo, this hut is bungalow and tactically unsound. Double yikes! There's no roof traversing or ladder kicking here. Players are inched out into the open where the must hustle between shacks and machine refuse, dodging the doggedly insistent executioner zombie. Public Assembly's emphasis on constant move and bait means it plays like more a post-campaign Mercenaries stage than an elegant part of the main game. Players are left scrambling about for too long, with too weak weaponry, desperately waiting for a chopper to arrive and end the assault. The Axe enemy has a tendency to gravitate towards one player character, and exclude the other, too. If it's your Chris monopolising the attention, AI Sheva can be at least relied upon to patch you up after any hits. If it's Sheva that catches his eye, it's worth sticking close, as her death spells game over. Capcom wants you to take care of your buddy!
Much less action packed is Shanty Town, a brief mid-level explore excerpt capped with a Boss encounter. The lesson learned here is: steal all of Sheva's decent armoury, and pack mule her with unwanted, but useful, items. Take that MP5 and leave her with just a pistol! Flirty Capcom then deliberately places Sheva in calamitous danger as part of a sniping set piece. Confound it! The rifle you are assigned holds a pathetic number of shots, and can't even one-shot eliminate basic foes. You can try using your pistol, but it's difficult to get accurate hits on the flesh cascade enveloping Sheva. Is this the end for our intrepid colonialists? You needn't have worried. Thankfully, AI Sheva is adept at staying out of trouble. As long as you can at least aim at the advancing hordes, she's able to nimble away and open your advance barrier. Similarly, when the emaciated chainsaw chap puts in an appearance at chapter's end, Sheva traverses the tiny winding alleyways you're funnelled into with ease. Although again hamstrung by pitifully weak guns, it's reassuring to see that the AI character can keep itself out of game ending trouble. Phew!
As a taster of Resident Evil 5, it's difficult to see why Capcom elected to issue these two stages in this condition. They do teach you some presumably useful tactics, but the levels selected often end up a bit of a chore. The short shrift on weapon set doesn't help matters - your shotgun evaporating between stages - who wants to scrape through a demo? Doesn't that send difficulty alarm bells ringing in casual ears? The default control system is a bit of a muddle too, it attempts to ape a Western third-person action set-up, which ends up further exposing Resident Evil 5's control eccentricities. In Capcom's defence, the series is billed as survival horror, not cover-dash action. A more flexible move-set invites faster, better armed enemies, dissolving the whole enterprise into yet another round of entrenched space marine battling. I found it best to instantly junk defaults and head straight for control setup A - the same button mapping as Resident Evil 4.
Some trepidation then, but who can resist a HD Remix of Resident Evil 4? Roll on next week's spooky Friday!
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