Re5ident Evilllll..... What, a blonde Jill?

Well, that took longer than expected. 

I would like to point out this took a while for 1 very simple reason. I was watching a Spiffing Brit video about Skyrim and happened to notice that the default Breton class looks exactly like one of my cousins. So I decided I needed to make a new character with his name, and take him to 100 in every skill before talking to Balgruuf, because why not. No neurodiverse folks here. No you're obsessing.

Watch Spiff, he's great, especially as a fellow Brit and me being from the land of Yorkshire Tea, he has my love and support.

He his however a poncy southerner, who drinks Yorkshire Tea Gold, cos the normal stuff is too common for him, so needs to stay darn sarf.

Anyway, 40 hours later

So there are some spoilers in here, all be it minor, but this is a 17 year old game. Let's not act surprised or outraged here. I will try and remember to hide them if possible.

Also, this is quite a long one, sorry. This game was so close to being amazing that I feel like being quite vocal about it. 

I have never played any part of RE5 before doing this backlog clear down. It is the only pre Village main line numbered RE game I have yet to even open. And I was pleasantly surprised, and somewhat annoyed.

Firstly the good...

The combat was considerably better than 4, I mean in nearly every way. While it is still not as polished as what we see in 7 and onwards, or as fast paced as in 6, it is effective. If RE4 had this combat, it would have been flawless.

Gameplay in general was fun for the majority of the game, as usual there were some hidden items to hunt for, and the close combat melee QTE attacks were a nice touch.

The environment and story seems to have struck a more linear mission based approach that will carry on until 7 brings us back into the large mansions and labs of original Resident Evil fame. Constantly moving forward and no backtracking, which does seem to go well with the story, and while not Resident Evil, is a pleasant break from constantly wondering when to turn it off for a rest, I'm an old man, I need a rest.

The bad...

The field of vision when aiming is still jarring, although nowhere near as bad as RE4 and the reticle when aiming with anything other than a rifle makes it difficult to aim at anything more than a few feet away,,

Far, far too many cutscenes where there should have been actual fighting. The first time I noticed it was at as part of 2-1, specifically Crash Site. After all that fighting through the port, I come to a safe area, with some ammo, heals, and the helicopter is in the middle of a massive open space through a gate.. ooh boss fight. Nope, a 2 1/2 minute cutscene introducing the local BSAA and a new minor enemy you do not get to fight for a few hours yet. I was truly disappointed, and this happens repeatedly, then every now and then it will throw a QTE into one of them, for no real reason.

The ugly...

The writers, and actors seem to have taken direction directly from the "Jill Sandwich" scene in RE1 in pretty much everything. Cutscenes are almost comical. It probably didn't help that I kitted out Chris in the Warrior outfit for the entire game, but I doubt that changed his line delivery.

Some of the QTEs, especially against Wesker really could have done with a bit more notice, especially when they can lead to an insta kill. Some I only saw it flash on screen for less than a second before being yeeted into a volcano.

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey. The colour palette leaves a lot to be desired, all the yellows and browns gave me flashbacks to Far Cry 2. An outdated stylistic choice for 2013. With Chris adorning the Warrior outfit, it definitely felt more Mad Max than Resident Evil.

Playing this solo, the entire game felt like an escort mission, and I hate escort missions. I imagine playing this as co-op is a pleasant experience, but having to manage 2 lots of inventory, but then being unable to pick something up because Sheva has decided to just wait in place for no reason, especially when you need her to pick up some of her ammo, standing right in front of the box/door/enemy/button you want to smash, open or press. Constantly spamming heals the moment you get remotely injured. It is like all the bad parts of having a Bethesda companion.

Now the Jill issue and where this game sits in the franchise

Hands up who was surprised when it turn out that the bird woman was Jill? No, no-one You guessed the mysterious woman helping the bad guys was the same person you were looking for but being controlled by them? M. Night Shyamalan plot, this was not. But That is not my issue, it was an obvious but common plot device...

Now, who was surprised to find out that years ago apparently Jill jumped out of a window with Wesker and was presumed dead? Oh yeah, there are the hands.

Why, oh why create a completely new narrative, complete with cutscenes and flashbacks briefly trying to explain something that had never been hinted at in any other RE media? 

The way it was presented, it looked like it had been covered in prior media, maybe one of the comics, a game not available to most, anything? Nope, just completely made up for this game.

It could have actually being explained in some sort of prelude. Maybe a short mission with Chris and Jill chasing after Wesker with intel from Leon after the end of RE4. That could have been the tutorial. But no, you just get Chris moaning for half the game about Jill going missing before starting to get fragments of about 10 seconds of flashback cutscenes that barely make narrative sense on their own. 

Resident Evil 5 does nothing for the series

Most of the story plots in RE5 are quite interesting, but do not realistically move the lore on as much as the other main line games:

• RE1 sets the scene and plants the seed for the outbreak
• RE2 shows the impact of the outbreak on the surrounding area
• RE3 introduces the idea of the Nemesis parasite
• RE4 introduces the Plagas parasite as well as emphasising the global reach of Umbrella.
• And after 5, RE6 covers the global impact of Umbrellas actions and their influence on world politics.
• RE7 shows the world is recovering from the global outbreak but remnants still exist, just bubbling away under the surface. The BSAA is still hunting and fighting.
• RE8 illustrates just how well hidden under the surface everything lies, it also uncovers even more lore around the ancient source of the infection.
• RE9 I have not played or researched, but seems to cover a period long after 8 showing the infection is still being handled, those still driving the research and more lore on the research and legacy of Spencer.

RE5 is an isolated incident in a small fictional African country centered around a plot by Wesker to infect the world that ended up being destroyed in a volcano.

The only outcome of RE5 was that Wesker is now dead, and Old Man Spencer is now dead which was happening anyway.

Oh, and Jill was technically a BOW but only shows up again in Revelations.

Rather than being a main line numbered game, this should have just been another part of Revelations.