Resident Evil 5 -- gameplay report (page 3 of 3)

By Chris Morell & Travis Moses
June 03, 2008 13:46 PM PST
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Resident Evil 4 (left), Resident Evil 5 (right).

Let the Mutha Burn

On a visual level, the fire effects in Resident Evil 5 are a striking feature. If you 're a fan of the incendiary grenades from RE4, you're going to pyro your pants when you see zombies light up in RE5. The same goes for the electricity effects. You can shoot telephone pole conductors, which fall to the ground and emit an electric-shock wave. Incendiary or electricity, either way you're going to end up with burnt zombie toast.

Any damage Chris takes is reflected on his character model. Blood builds up behind his ears and splotches his uniform if, say, the executioner's axe comes crashing down on Chris' head. This happened multiple times during the demo; getting away from the executioner was no easy task. Takeuchi-san reminded us that "god mode" was turned on, but that in the final game, a single blow from the executioner's axe will spell death for Chris, much like the chainsaw beheadings in RE4.

"There are lots of elements and enemies you haven't seen yet," teased Takeuchi-san when the demo concluded. There will be a "new in-game system announcement at E3," which I predict to be a co-op mode of sorts based on two things: Chris' new "partner" revealed at the end of the latest trailer and an online rumor-mill leak from a couple weeks ago. We're hoping for a cooperative play remix of RE4's Mercenaries mode, but we'll have to wait and see.

Aside from a few framerate issues and minor bugs, Resident Evil 5 was looking sharp. The team at Capcom also has plenty of time to polish the game before its release in "fiscal year 2008," which potentially means January or February 2009. The final version can't come soon enough for me: I can't wait to try out Chris' bulging biceps and uppercut some zombies.