(Old review – from the original HNTDAAB) Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Year of Release: 2009 Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360 Ports of console games onto the PC are nearly always...

(Old review – from the original HNTDAAB)

Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Ports of console games onto the PC are nearly always terrible. One of the worst was Resident Evil 4 by Capcom. Despite the game being one of the best games of the previous few years, the PC version was ridiculously poor, with worse graphics than the console versions and no mouse support. Capcom has since turned it around and brought out a very good port of Street Fighter IV. Has the new magic worked on the latest game in the Resident Evil franchise?

For those of you who missed this game last year when it came out on 360 and PS3, Resident Evil 5 is the latest in the zombie killing franchise and the last in the main series. Instead of the American or European locations of the previous games, this time the action is in Africa, normally in broad daylight. Chris Redfield (who appears to have been lifting cows between RE5 and his last appearance in RE: Umbrella Chronicles or smuggling melons in his arms) and his new partner Sheva are sent to arrest an arms dealer selling biological weapons (not the usual stuff like anthrax but HUGE TENTACLE MONSTERS!) to people. However, this mission goes belly up in the first few seconds and so they have to escape from a town full of zombies while still thwarting an old friend…

First thing to note is that his game is hardly a survival horror game. RE4 was getting there, but RE5 has truly ditched the whole horror aspect. There are some nasty sections (dogs splitting in half anyone?) but no real horror. Part of this is due to the fact you always have a partner with you (more on that later) and the early section is all done in the daylight. The game does keep an inventory system, but not the Tetris style sorting game that was RE4′s setup. Instead, Capcom swapped it out for a 9 square inventory system, which to be honest is bugged to hell. For example, body armour takes up a slot. So you’re carrying your body armour IN your body armour. It’s like they put Xzibit in charge of the inventory setup.

The main change is the introduction of Sheva, your new partner (or as I think, extra carry space). She will accompany you throughout the game and can use all the same weapons as you can through most of the game. Overall the AI is actually quite good. She moves out of the way of shots, will use health kits we needed to, doesn’t block the way and does push me off a cliff at any point. However, she does have weapon retardedness. If you had a machine gun with 500 rounds and a pistol with 10, which would you use? Well she obviously thinks that a pistol is more effective at close range than bloody machine gun (must have some insight the rest of the world missed out on). But overall she is very useful and if played by a human in co-op the game is a barrel of fun.

The game uses the same basic gameplay we saw in RE4, with over the shoulder view and the inability to shoot while moving. This helps to ratchet up the tension and stops players from simply running and gunning through the levels. In fact, many of the content from RE5 feels like it was brought straight over. The enemies all act in the same way (at least until the AK equipped guys turn up…) and take the same number of shots to down. The game also shares some UI features with the last game. On top of that, the game also has the same upgrade system, mercenaries mode and extra features – it’s just they are updated for the new game.

The first thing that will strike you is the graphics and setting. The game looks just like Blackhawk Down, complete with the high contrast. In fact the entire game is beautiful to look at, with its detailed backgrounds and characters, good effects and really slimy looking slime. Once again the design of the enemies are great, with some of them completely off the wall. The same care also goes into the boss battles. Nearly all of the methods make sense, such as luring a slime monster into a furnace in order to burn it apart. The game feels like a zombie B-Movie complete with dodgy voice acting and a mad plotline that does actually wrap up the story of a very meandering franchise.

The main benefit to buying the game on PC is that it looks a lot better than the console editions. It also has built in support for Nvidia’s 3d glasses, but because I don’t have a set I can’t comment on the ability. The PC edition also has 2 exclusive outfits, 1 each for Chris and Sheva. And finally our old friend Games for Windows Live rears its head again, bringing with it achievements and your gamertag.

Once again, Capcom has proved it has worked out how to do good ports of its console hits onto the PC. First with SFIV, now with Resident Evil 5, both these games are the defenitive versions. Resident Evil 5 is packed with content and is a great cinematic rollercoaster ride. But there is one major downside to the game – the Merchant from Resident Evil 4 has not returned.