JackDaniels624 has 121 chronicles

1. My personal, and I suppose controversial review of Resident Evil 5
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Mar 19 2009

   First of all, yes I have beat the game, tonight actually so it's fresh in my mind. I also played a lot of co-op AND single player (for credentials). And yes there must and will be a controversial part of this review. Also this was played on the Xbox 360 ONLY. One final note I ONLY played as Chris so far!
   
   Okay where to start. Resident Evil 5 was awesome, pretty similar to 4, but really I truly think that 4 was ahead of it's time. There's a few changes from here and their gameplay wise (I'll get to co-op later) such as a couple of new enemies, and new melee moves. The weapons are similar, but with different stats and now their is a stun rod (which is pretty awesome!) that works much like the knive, except with slightly longer range and does 666 damage (or so I've heard). Other then that the animations are similar, and the enemies react the same depending on where you shoot them (It's still amazing to me!). For those who don't know, this means you shootem in the knee, they'll fall onto their knees, take a leg out, they fall on the ground, you can shoot the dynamite in their hand they go boom, you can also disarm enemies. It's a great system more games need to add.
   
   Okay next is the co-op! Co-op is extremely fun with another player, and learning from personal experience. Stick together and watch eachothers backs, share ammo, COMMUNICATE! And you should do fine. Panic, split up, don't communicate, hog ammo...Yeah I've been through all that. Pointless deaths is what you get. Not to mention a distrust with the other player...After dying and realizing my partner was on the other side of the map really made me realize we needed to plan things better...And we did. Of course the tactic of one person going ahead and the other sniping is always helpful too, but make sure the person on the ground has their weaps upgraded, and plenty of ammo! Also the game has a thank you feature, so don't be a jerk and thank eachoher when your partner helps you out (On the 360 version theirs an achievement for it!)
   
   Now with the AI, you can't really communicate, just ordering them to go passive or aggressive really. I can't really decide weather or not the AI is good or bad, probobly a strong neutral. At first it seemed like my partner was just burning up ammo like crazy, and that cut into my stash...Which of course led to problems. However once I got the AI a rifle, she used that more often and really started helping me out! But again, on boss battles or armored enemies say good bye to that machine gun ammo! Not to mention their was a part with enemies with a one hit kill that Sheva refused to dodge a few times...Very frustrating. Overall the AI seemed like an good attempt, could use improvement that's obvious, but still completely tolerable after learning ways to use the AI to your advantage. It just seems that sometimes the AI's good or terrible, but still worth the add.
   
   Now comes the controversy...The setting. It takes place in...well I hesitate to say Africa but that's supposedly where. Before I go any deeper, no I'm not racist. I've always thought that race doesn't matter, it's about how that individual acts, although I won't lie and claim I've never made or laughed at a racist joke ever in my life. But again, hating or generalizing a group of people based on race just seems like a completely stupid ideology in my opinion, but if your one of those people that is a racist, well, that's fine everyone can has the right to believe in whatever they want, I'd just prefer not to be around you!
   
   Okay so I'm not racist, and now I'll continue what I was getting at. When I heard this game was in Africa because they wanted to make it where life started, I was excited at the usual change of scenery! Finally we got some of that change we were promised! The first few levels did a good job at making me feel like I was in Africa. I'll put it bluntly, their were mainly black people, and black enemies. Obviously I heard about the controversy about the game and knew it would have other races of infected in the game. No problem, I remember learning about Africa in high school and know that theirs a lot of caucasian people living in South Africa.
   
   Now, that being said...There were times when I had four enemies around me...I got to say hello to one black guy, a mexican, an Eminem look alike, and of course, the middle Eastern guy. I laughed at first, but then I realized that, well, most of the enemies were black yes, but only when divided by race. When I think of Africa I think of most of the continent being occupied by native Africans don't you? Not just half black, the other half being filled by Asians (I think the guy looked Korean), Mexican, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern.
   
   Now this has nothing to do with what race I'm killing, solely that I did NOT feel like I was in Africa anymore...I actually felt like it was some strange twist of the Mall of America. Okay, let me give you an example. If you watch a movie about Africa, and half of the extras in town aren't black don't you kinda get taken out of it? It really just doesn't artistically work for me...
   
   And why did this happen? Because Capcom didn't want the game to be "racist". Now I've listened to the people who said the game was racist, and they said it wouldn't be as bad if the main character was black. That's understandable, but I personally feel Sheva makes up for that...I mean really, the story would NOT work out with a new character trust me. However most (actually I think I've only talked to one person who found the game racist) black people I've talked to don't find it offensive, but for that small minority Capcom made a decision that took me totally out of the scenery. I just can't get over that and I just have to vent it off. I absolutely cannot stand everyone just bending over when something get's a bit controversial...ITS IN AFRICA! OF COURSE IT'S GONNA BE INHABITED MAINLY BY AFRICANS!!!
   
   Okay, that's enough ranting for now...The game (like other Resi games) has excellent replayability and tons of unlockables. I just got infinate ammo with my magnum! There's also a Mercenaries mode (which is where you try to kill as many infected within a certain time limit trying to get a high score), and many upgrades, and weapons for you to buy! Also using infinate ammo is optional and does NOT disable achievements. My only other point to add is that the story is okay, but the plot twist is extremely obvious, even to my friend who never played any other Resi game besides 4.
   
   So my overall rating is an 8.5. It could have gotten a 9 if Capcom would have taken a stand and made it okay for a game set in Africa to have a population of black people!

   
   

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JackDaniels624 has 3 comment s on this chronicle.

1. BigNeen004
   Posted On Mar 20 2009

   This review seem exactly on par with what I've heard elsewhere about the game, all around good game but best with a friend.
   
   Usually any controversy surrounding video games (racism or not) starts with uniformed people. In this particular case, Capcom released the first trailer with nothing but gunning down black characters in a game they so proudly stated being based in Africa. To someone looking for a reason to a start trouble in the VG industry, that's all they saw. The rest of us saw an amazing work of digital art, that we could wait to see more of!

2. BEN
   Posted On Mar 19 2009

   Nice video game review! I know a lot of people have previewed this game, but I think this is the first full review of Resident Evil 5 after it was completed, so thanks
   
   I wonder if it would be fun to play all of the Resident Evil titles in a row, or if it would be annoying and kill the excitement of the game?! You'd have to have a few consoles I know, which may make it difficult to achieve, but who knows.
   
   I've only played one RE on the Gamecube of all consoles, so I'm a noob when it comes to Resident Evil. I did play the RE5 demo though on XBL and enjoyed that a lot, so I might need to play this game someday.

3. Dynafire
   Posted On Mar 19 2009

   Nice review, and about that little controversy: people need to get the f*** over trivial bullcrap like the whole "racist" thing associated with RE5. Like Jack said, it's a fact that Africa is mostly populated by black people! It makes sense that the majority of enemies will be black!
   
   Besides, games aren't racist. People are. Would I take offense if it were a black main character walking through a city full of white people and gunning them town? Nope. Like I said before, people just need to chill out.
   
   I'm still not sure if I'll end up getting the game. A lot of the story is lost on me anymore, and if I want to get my fix, I can just pop in RE4.