Why I dislike Resident Evil 5 (PC Version)

[CyberAkuma]

So, RE5 finally released on the PC, and you know what? I played it for about 15 minutes and I encountered so many warning signs of severely flawed game design that I shut down the game and I will most likely not play it again.
The flaws and annoyances that I encountered are a surprise to me because no "professional" reviewers ever mentioned these things that I encountered - which makes me wonder how the ¤%&!# could the game have recieved [http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/adventure/residentevil5/review.html] solid [http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/960/960151p1.html] 8-9 /10s [http://www.gametrailers.com/gamereview.php?id=2036]

Being almost the most anticipatd game of this year; it boggles my mind how people can find the flaws I encountered acceptable, but enough with my rant - lets get to the meaty facts:

* PC version has very few little graphical customization
No anistrophic filter options, no shader options. It's just the standard Low/Medium/High setting and Anti-Aliasing. For spending a great deal ammount of money on a video card the options one gets when running the games are bare bones. Granted this port is nowhere near as shitty as RE4, but there's still a long way to go until the PC gamers are satisfied with it.



* More than 3 mouse buttons are not supported
What?


* Your sidekick is really useless
This is what really pisses me off.
The game - as all RE-games offer little to NO ammo, hence it is imperative that one conserves ammunition and uses it wisely, your sidekick however doesn't. Sheva uses ammo like there is no tomorrow, wasting the little precious ammo you dearly got ahold of - and it doesn't end there - she completely misses her target 66% of the time. I counted myself - it's only every 3rd shot that hits its target, and of course she doesn't go for the headshots either.

Everyone knows that the most conservative way of getting rid of zombies is headshooting them once and then knocking them down with a punch/kick. She doesn't do this either.

For someone being an elite member of a counter-terrorism unit she is a really bad shooter and I would personally never let a person like that near a gun.



* More time is spent looking for ammo than using it
This has to do with the previous complaint. Since ammo is so precious - you spend more time busting up barrels and looting zombies for ammo rather than using it. This wouldn't be much of a problem except for the fact that it breaks the flow, immersion and story completely.
There's a blonde chick screaming help on a balcony? I don't care, first thing I do is run in ther the stairs and look under the two barrels for some ammo or gold.
My commando team is getting slaughtered and they're screaming for help on the com-radio? I don't care I'll be busy busting up these crates for some more ammunition before I even go anywhere. RE5 seems to be more of a hide-and-seek game where the ammo is what you are looking for.


* Main character still moves like a tank
I can strafe with the strafe keys when walking, but I can't RUN and strafe at the same time?
Moving while shooting is completely out of the question and all movements are extremely slow.
Turning around 180° is slow, taking out the knife is slow, reloading is slow (at first).
I remember that people said that in Killzone 2 aiming and moving was jerky, then they haven't seen anything yet because RE5 really brings it to a whole new level

* Inconsistencies
Why is my knife (still)entirely useless against zombies?
Why do I need to ready the knife, AIM with the knife and *THEN* being able to use it?
Why is a punch more effective against zombies than my knife?
Why can I only punch the zombies when they are stunned from a headshot? Why can't I punch them when being stunned from a shot to the gut?
Why can I run straight through a pack of zombies with out getting hurt? Or a boss?
How come Chris is strong enough to launch Sheva 10 feet up in the air when cooperating AND being able to punch a zombie 5 feet away with a single punch but he can barely fend off a zombie munching on his throat? Should I go on, really?


I could go on forever, but fact is that with allt he lovely racism and criticism this game got I have to agree with Yahtzee when he says that Capcom aren't bad people, they're just idiots.

The flaws I've seen has been completely unmentioned in all the reviews I've seen and it is just amazing how reviewers praised this game as Game of the Year Material.

Your thoughts?

 

[ZeroMachine]

* Inconsistencies

Why is my knife (still)entirely useless against zombies?
Why do I need to ready the knife, AIM with the knife and *THEN* being able to use it?
Why is a punch more effective against zombies than my knife?
Why can I only punch the zombies when they are stunned from a headshot? Why can't I punch them when being stunned from a shot to the gut?
Why can I run straight through a pack of zombies with out getting hurt? Or a boss?
How come Chris is strong enough to launch Sheva 10 feet up in the air when cooperating AND being able to punch a zombie 5 feet away with a single punch but he can barely unlock himself when a zombie is munching on his throat? Should I go on, really?

I'll answer these in the same order you asked them.

Capcom doesn't understand that sharp objects hurt.
Gameplay mechanic.
Capcom doesn't understand that sharp objects hurt more than punches.
Gameplay mechanic.
Capcom doesn't understand how hungry the zombies are (total shot in the dark there).
Gameplay mechanic.

So yeah, I understood that 5 wasn't as good as 4, but at the same time some of the points you brought up were mentioned in reviews. Couple on here, I think.

 

[Legion]

Hell, I only played the demo and I can already agree with pretty much every point you made except the graphics and mouse part.

 

[CyberAkuma]

So yeah, I understood that 5 wasn't as good as 4

Not as good? Not nearly as good.
RE5 is a complete degradation of the entire franchaise rather than an evolution.
It completely throws the survival horror elemen completely out of the window and replaces it with what only suits the mouth-foaming buttonmashing young impatient generation of gamers.

Which brings me to my next complaint I forgot:

* Overblown usage of Save states

Remember when you had to hunt for ink-rolls for the typewriter to save your precious game?
Remember when you had to work and think in order to survive and save your progress?
Also - remember the classical Resident Evil games when the goal of the game was to beat the entire game using as little savestates as possible giving you a higher rank and unlocking more secrets? Back then savestates was a main gameplay mechanic if you wanted to get a good reward.
Capcom said - Fuck that! We're bringing in save checkpoints every 60 seconds for the player instead!

 

[ZeroMachine]

So yeah, I understood that 5 wasn't as good as 4

Not as good? Not nearly as good.
RE5 is a complete degradation of the entire franchaise rather than an evolution.
It completely throws the survival horror elemen completely out of the window and replaces it with what only suits the mouth-foaming buttonmashing young impatient generation of gamers.

Which brings me to my next complaint I forgot:

* Overblown usage of Save states

Remember when you had to hunt for ink-rolls for the typewriter to save your precious game?
Remember when you had to work and think in order to survive and save your progress?
Also - remember the classical Resident Evil games when the goal of the game was to beat the entire game using as little savestates as possible giving you a higher rank and unlocking more secrets? Back then savestates was a main gameplay mechanic if you wanted to get a good reward.
Capcom said - Fuck that! We're bringing in save checkpoints every 60 seconds for the player instead!

Erm...

...no... 4 is the only RE I ever played. But, I do agree. I remember other games of Capcoms that were brutally tough (see: Megaman EVERYTHING). Gaming in general is getting a bit too easy, and all the games advertised as "HARD" either aren't or are just bad games.

 

[Proteus214]

* PC version has very few little graphical customization
No anistrophic filter options, no shader options. It's just the standard Low/Medium/High setting and Anti-Aliasing. For spending a great deal ammount of money on a video card the options one gets when running the games are bare bones. Granted this port is nowhere near as shitty as RE4, but there's still a long way to go until the PC gamers are satisfied with it.

PC porting these days is incredibly easy for most developers since this generation of consoles have hardware that is the closest to what most PCs are today. For many Xbox to PC ports all they need to do (if they coded it right) is swap out a few libraries and recompile the game. I would take fewer graphical customization options for a faster port.

* More than 3 mouse buttons are not supported
What?

The game (as well as any other console to PC port) was meant to be played with a dual analog stick controller. Luckily Microsoft is nice enough to provide easy to use/install controller drivers for the Xbox 360 wired controller and game devs take FULL advantage of that fact. If you are a fan of console to PC ports, you really need to get a 360 controller.

 

[Hitman 43]

I never play games on the PC. Only on consoles.

 

[CustomMagnum]

* Your sidekick is really useless
This is what really pisses me off.
The game - as all RE-games offer little to NO ammo, hence it is imperative that one conserves ammunition and uses it wisely, your sidekick however doesn't. Sheva uses ammo like there is no tomorrow, wasting the little precious ammo you dearly got ahold of - and it doesn't end there - she completely misses her target 66% of the time. I counted myself - it's only every 3rd shot that hits its target, and of course she doesn't go for the headshots either.

Everyone knows that the most conservative way of getting rid of zombies is headshooting them once and then knocking them down with a punch/kick. She doesn't do this either.

For someone being an elite member of a counter-terrorism unit she is a really bad shooter and I would personally never let a person like that near a gun.

Okay, just two things here. While Sheva does use up a lot of ammo, she's not as bad as a lot of people say she is, even if she's nowhere near as good as a very good player of RE4 or RE5. If your so worried about the ammo between the two of you though, fix it by making sure you and her don't use weapons that use the same ammo.

* More time is spent looking for ammo than using it
This has to do with the previous complaint. Since ammo is so precious - you spend more time busting up barrels and looting zombies for ammo rather than using it. This wouldn't be much of a problem except for the fact that it breaks the flow, immersion and story completely.
There's a blonde chick screaming help on a balcony? I don't care, first thing I do is run in ther the stairs and look under the two barrels for some ammo or gold.
My commando team is getting slaughtered and they're screaming for help on the com-radio? I don't care I'll be busy busting up these crates for some more ammunition before I even go anywhere. RE5 seems to be more of a hide-and-seek game where the ammo is what you are looking for.

You do realize that killing enemies usually drops ammo, right? And the knife's not that useless if you know what you're doing. Sure, on standing charging enemies it might not work too well (even though you CAN stun them by slashing them in the head) when the enemy is on the ground? Stabbing away saves ammo.

Of course, the biggest ammo conservation tip of all? Farm it on the earlier chapters. The game lets you go back and replay the previous chapters for a reason.

As for it breaking the flow of the story... I really didn't notice this.

* Main character still moves like a tank
I can strafe with the strafe keys when walking, but I can't RUN and strafe at the same time?
Moving while shooting is completely out of the question and all movements are extremely slow.
Turning around 180° is slow, taking out the knife is slow, reloading is slow (at first).
I remember that people said that in Killzone 2 aiming and moving was jerky, then they haven't seen anything yet because RE5 really brings it to a whole new level

Wait, you're complaining that the main character in RE5... moves like a character in a Resident Evil game? As for the Knife and Reloading being slow? Reloading always seems slower on Halo than in RE5 to me.

 

[Broady Brio]

I have got and played the PS2 version of RE4 and the Xbox360 version of RE5. To be honest they are both good games, but yes RE4 is alot better. The invetory is better in 4 as it is bloody reasonable, unlike the 9-spaced waste of time that is RE5's invetory system.

I can see where your coming from with strange controls and especially with Sheva. She's more stupid than the zombies.(Majini, whatever) seeing as she runs INTO the attacks and I have to save her sorry arse/ass 75% of playtime.

The melee is over-powered here. (Which I use to my advantage ALOT.) 80% of the time I just shoot the face and if head doesn't explode, punch them, if still alive, stomp their head in. 20% I shoot the leg and repeat what I just said. It saves me alot of much needed ammo, so I rarely ran out of ammo. (Also helped me that I'm a good shot at this game, not bragging here, just saying I'm pretty accurate.)

So I see where you are coming from with A.I being shite and controls are equal to "A fat man on a unicycle." (ZP's Crysis review I think. Could be Mass Effect.) I still think that RE5 is a good game, let's face it, it could be worse. I don't know how it could, but I'm sure it's possible.

 

[DazZ.]

I never play games on the PC. Only on consoles.

I played this on PS3 and it's still a shit Resident Evil game, but it is fun for co-op.
But then all games are fun for co-op, just look at Army of Two...

OT: Completly agree, if I bought this for a single player experience I'd be very disappointed.

 

[Zand88]

See, this is why Resident Evil is doomed. People are expecting an action game out of a survival-horror game, and Capcom is pandering to it. The same thing is happening to Silent Hill now. Can't you guys stick to Left 4 Dead or Halo and let us enjoy our niche games?

 

[scotth266]

Your thoughts?

Just two: wrong section, and your preferences gameplay-wise are different than other reviewers (which is not necessarily a bad thing.)

Oh, and the knife is SUPPOSED to be shitty. It's a last ditch weapon, nothing else. Punches are more effective due to blunt force trauma.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Sound like most of the problem is the game design rather than anything in particular about the PC version

 

[Kelbear]

FYI, the knife is trash, but the Stun Baton is OP.

I burned through most of the game with both characters curb-stomping zombies with the stun-baton. Obviously doesn't work for mercenaries mode, but in campaign, pretty much everything but the bosses is toast when they're chain-stunned for huge damage on every hit.

 

[metalmmaniac]

eh, i honestly don't think you missed much. i thought the game was really terrible.

useless sidekick
ridiculous inventory issues
shit story that really doesn't lend anything useful to any of the other games
i think there are multiple endings but seriously any 'next gen' can seriously do better than that ending which was over in less than 3 minutes (and i am being generous)

 

[ohgodalex]

Did they at least give PC owners permission to aim with the mouse in this one?