GC08 - Resident Evil 5 Hands On Preview

It's been well over three years since Resident Evil 4 was released on the GameCube. Since then, the game's otaku-ridden fan base has been frothing at the mouth for more like the game's virus infected enemies. With Resi 5 not scheduled until March 2009, it'll be a while yet before their lusts are sated, but perhaps our recent first look and brief hands on with the game at Leipzig GC might ease the pain a little.

We've all seen the trailers (over and over in some cases) and experienced Capcom drip-feeding game details like a drug dealer keeping their customers desperate, but has all the hype been worth it? Has Resident Evil moved with the times to provide a fully fledged, next-gen action/horror game worthy of the series' illustrious history? In a word, yes.

Sheva's Electric

This is not just because it's gorier than ever, or that it's scarier than we remembered, or even because we're just glad to be playing more Resi with better graphics. We expected all of these things, but for the game to be really special it had to do something that other games don't - it had to push the boundaries of game design - and that's what Capcom has managed with Resi 5.

Let us introduce to you the next big thing in game heroins, Sheva. She will accompany Chris Redfield as an AI partner in the single-player game and will be a playable character in the 2 player online co-op (Capcom has wisely opted against split-screen as it would ruin the game's suspense). Where she differs from almost every other AI partner in videogame history is that she's actually useful. But more than that, you'll actually come to rely on her like a best friend. She's the Starsky to your Hutch; the Tango to your Cash; the Shaggy to your Scooby.

When you're low on ammo she'll be right there to offer supplies, without you even asking for it. This is one of the aspects of her character that allowed us to instantly bond with Sheva. As with any other survival horror game, ammo is always scarce in Resi 5, but Sheva always seemed to be there at the critical moment with a top-up. Likewise with the combat, whenever we were pinned down by the infected she had our back. It made us genuinely thankful to something that's little more than computer code.

If asked, she'll also perform actions like blocking doors with wardrobes or giving you her machine gun, but most of the time she'll actually use her own initiative in combat. And then there are her character specific melee attacks, such as acrobatic hurricane and spinning kicks, which made us look on longingly as if she was our first crush. This turns quickly from a crush to the love of a boy for their nursing mother as she patched up our cuts and bruises with the new health spray. Replacing the herbs of previous Resi games, this spray is derived from said plants although it will now heal any players in the vicinity of its mist.

At the same time, Sheva is much more than a mere maid to your killing of the infected. At one point we performed an assisted vault that flung her across an otherwise insurmountable gap. On the other side she was set upon by a load of the infected, which we had to take out with a sniper rifle before she came back around to open a door for us on the ground floor. The tension of this section is made all the more potent by the fact that if she dies, so do you. She won't just kneel on the floor for half a minute waiting for you to come and pull her up - she'll just die straight up.

The way that Capcom has clearly worked incredibly hard on Sheva is testament to the fact that it still sees Resi as a single-player game first and foremost. Sheva is not just a half empty AI seat waiting for a drop-in, drop-out player to fill the gap (Gears of War's Cole, we're looking in your direction). She's an AI ally that actually enhances the tension of Resi's brand of suspense, as well as a character with substance that you can depend on when things get tough, which is unlike anything we've ever seen from game AI before.

As far as the controls are concerned, it's a similar setup to what we're used to. On the Xbox 360, the right trigger prompts Chris to take the gun from his holster. The A and X buttons then shoot and reload respectively while the trigger button is held down. The left trigger unfurls Chris' dagger and he'll also have a number of hand-to-hand combat options as well. Once enemies are stunned with a couple of shots to the chest and Chris is close enough to them, he's able to perform stamps and neck snaps, as well as jabs, hooks, and uppercuts depending on how he approaches the enemy (Sheva's acrobatic combat style will be accessible to co-op players).

With the inventory, on the other hand, you can now shortcut specific weapons and items for near death moments. The inventory menu is a 3x3 grid that obviously has nine spaces in total, although four weapons can be stored as shortcuts on the d-pad to the corresponding squares on the grid. It's possible that gold will be filling some of these spaces as we caught a glimpse of some during our demonstration. We assume that it will form some sort of economy in the game, although we're at a loss for what you might be buying (deep fried zombie drumsticks perhaps?). When we asked Capcom reps what the gold was there for they were pretty tight-lipped on the matter, which suggests that we were on to something juicy.

Run And Hide

As with previous Resident Evil games, you'll often spend your time running from half a dozen of the infected to give yourself some breathing space. This is easily performed by holding down the left trigger and A button, which was pretty crucial for the two bosses we came across in the demonstration. One was a Wringwraith looking, axe-wielding ghoul that had us running across the African shanty town's rooftops and firing at suspended electricity boxes so that they fell on the Death wannabe and bought it to a frazzled end.

The other was a tall guy with a sack on his head that one eye peeped through, complete with a mean looking chainsaw and rusty sound effects to boot. Your best bet with him was zeroing in for the head shot before giving him a good kicking while he was dazed. Do this a few times and you're golden, but get too close and he'll slice you in two. Other than that, the infected were a mixture of north and central African zombies who lurch along at a fair pace and always seem to catch you unawares or come in large enough numbers to make you backtrack for respite. There was a brief moment where we were attacked by a swarm of oversized mosquitoes, but apart from that it was it was your usual virus infected zombie. We didn't see any of them running (other than the sack man boss), although that's not to say that they won't gather pace in later levels.

As you probably already know, Resi 5 will be set in a fictional African nation, taking the series back to the supposed origin of the virus. What you may not know is that there's a good chance there will be flashback sections in the game that detail what Chris has been up to over the years. Capcom did tell us that Resi 5 is "Chris' story", and that "perhaps some of Chris' memories from the past" may play a part in the game. However, our hands on was about a third of the way through the story and all we saw were poverty stricken African environments.

Nevertheless, these environments are visually superb and the style is very similar to Resi 4. Interiors are littered with the usual assortment of beaten down cupboards and crumpled staircases, while the exterior environments are derelict but also rancid enough that the infected always feel close. The African shanty town was also a perfect setting, with its tight dusty alleys that reek of claustrophobia. You'll also find the housing pretty disorientating as well, with the limited building materials of rotting wood and corrugated iron making everything look quite similar in a labyrinthine kind of way.