Resident Evil 5

Did You Know?

• A demo released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was downloaded over four million times worldwide.
• A competitive multiplayer mode called Versus was released as downloadable content in April 2009.
• The Windows version originally did not support downloadable content.

Plot

In 2009, five years after Resident Evil 4, BSAA agent Chris Redfield and his new partner Sheva Alomar are sent to Kijuju, West Africa, to apprehend Ricardo Irving before he sells a bio-organic weapon. They find locals infected with the Las Plagas parasite, called Majini, and the BSAA Alpha Team dead. Delta Team, including Sheva's mentor Captain Josh Stone, rescues them. In Stone's data, Chris sees a photograph of his presumed-dead former partner Jill Valentine.

Irving escapes with help from a hooded figure, leaving documents that lead Chris and Sheva to marsh oilfields, but these are a diversion. Delta Team is slaughtered by a mutating troll-like BOW; Sheva cannot find Stone among the dead. Determined to learn if Jill is alive, Chris proceeds without reporting. They reunite with Stone and track Irving's boat.

Irving injects himself with a Las Plagas variant and mutates into an octopus-like beast; they defeat him, and his dying words lead them to a cave. The cave is the source of a flower used for Umbrella Corporation viruses and a new strain called Uroboros. They find evidence that Tricell, funding the BSAA, took over an Umbrella laboratory. They discover thousands of capsules with human test subjects; Jill's capsule is empty.

Tricell CEO Excella Gionne plots with Albert Wesker to launch Uroboros missiles globally. Wesker hopes to rule a chosen few from the chaos. Chris and Sheva pursue Gionne but are stopped by Wesker and the hooded figure, revealed to be a brainwashed Jill. They subdue Jill, remove her mind-control device, and she urges Chris to follow Wesker.

Development

Resident Evil 5 came from Capcom, with Jun Takeuchi—known for directing Onimusha: Warlords and producing Lost Planet: Extreme Condition—serving as producer. Keiji Inafune, who had been promotional producer for Resident Evil 2 and executive producer of the PlayStation 2 version of Resident Evil 4, oversaw the project. Development kicked off in 2005, and when the team was largest, more than one hundred people were involved. By February 2007, some members of Capcom’s Clover Studio had shifted to this game, while others worked on Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii.

Yasuhiro Anpo, a programmer on the very first Resident Evil, took the director’s chair; he was one of several veterans from that original title to join the project. The story came from concept director Kenichi Ueda, with a script by Haruo Murata and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi. Takeuchi stated that the gameplay would stick with the model from Resident Evil 4, blending thematic elements from both that game and the original Resident Evil. Unlike earlier entries, which mostly take place at night, this game unfolds almost entirely in daylight.

That choice was driven by the African setting and better hardware allowing more detailed visuals. On character redesigns, Anpo said the team aimed to keep Jill and Chris recognizable while showing how they might have aged; their signature colors—green for Chris, blue for Jill—stayed. Sheva went through multiple redesigns, each trying to balance feminine appeal with the toughness of a fighter. The Majini enemies were made more vicious than Resident Evil 4’s Ganado.

Reception

Resident Evil 5 received generally favourable reviews on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the visuals and content; Corey Cohen of Official Xbox Magazine complimented the fast pace and called the graphics gorgeous. Joe Juba and Matt Miller of Game Informer said it had the best graphics of any game to date and that music and voice acting brought characters to life. Brian Crecente of Kotaku called it one of the most visually stunning games he had played.

Adam Sessler of X-Play said the graphics were exceptional, and Edge praised the gameplay as exhilarating and frantic. Ryan Geddes of IGN wrote that the game had surprisingly high replay value, and GameZone's Louis Bedigian said it was worth playing through twice in one weekend. Several reviewers considered it a departure from survival horror, a decision they lamented. Chris Hudak of GameRevolution called it a full-on action blockbuster, and Brian Crecente said it dropped all pretense of survival horror about halfway through.

Kristan Reed of Eurogamer said it morphed survival horror adventure into a survival horror shooter and believed this would upset some fans. The control scheme was criticized. James Mielke of 1UP.com criticized inconsistencies such as only being able to take cover in specific areas, slow aiming, and inability to strafe. Kristan Reed criticized the speed of 180-degree turns and difficulty accessing inventory.

Joe Juba said the inability to move and shoot seemed like a cheap way to increase difficulty. Ryan Geddes noted annoyances in Sheva's AI, such as reckless use of ammunition and health supplies.