Resident Evil 5 Story Suggestions
October 21st, 2008
While obviously I am no famed video game writer, I did have a few ideas which I think would work well with Resident Evil 5 that I decided to leave out of my previous article. Here’s what I have:
Length of Crisis
Resident Evil 4 had a great narrative for two core reasons. The first one being that it was conscious of its ‘lost in the woods’ horror pretense and hence avoided cliché while feeling fresh. Secondly was the gameplay itself. For one, Leon’s journey to reach that ‘just out of reach’ goal felt like an enduing one that left you hanging and the game paced itself perfectly making your experience feel instrumental to the narrative. Capcom also managed to enhance the complicated relationship going on between Leon and Eva which was well executed.
I’m hoping that Resident Evil 5 draws on these same techniques as they synergize the non-playable cut scenes and in game exploration. Along with this I hope they expand on these techniques. For example there is a lot of possibility for good ideas to be implemented in the village scene with the executioner boss and chainsaw man .
Exploitation
There was originally a bit of concern over the racial profiling of enemy characters. Capcom later confirmed that there was no bias regarding this selection, I’d be surprised if they didn’t make something out of this controversy though. The latest trailer hints at exploitation of poverty stricken countries, I think that Capcom should try to make use out of this potential to write a meaningful narrative.
Some guesses
Along with those ideas, I just wanted to add a some suggestions at clues in the last trailer. You may have noticed the Tricell logos, I’m going to chalk them up as a combination of the T-Virus, T-Veronica Virus and Las Plagas; the previous viruses in the series. I suspect that Wesker is working with this terrorist organization in which there is the guy with the bird like mask, the exotic, open chested lady and the “fireworks show” maniac.
Also at the end of the extended trailer there is the gravestone of Jill Valentine. I guess she could be related to the eyes of the person in the incubation tank at the end of another trailer from last year. I also get the feeling that she is probably some sort of virus infected monster since Wesker says “but now that your partner has arrived, I’ll leave you two to catch up” . This kinda hints at it a little right?
So Far Away…
October 20th, 2008
Last week I saw the Tokyo Game Show trailer of Resident Evil 5. If you haven’t seen it then I suggest that you take a look, only for the graphical onslaught though.
In terms of graphical prowess this game looks mind blowing, a huge leap up from previous video which already looked incredible. I didn’t expect to be saying this -for maybe for another 2-3 years – but if that was all running on in game specifications then RE5 will may even have a graphic leg up over..dare I say it..Metal Gear Solid 4 which had me confusing reality and video game far too often.
The complements end there though, and they end abruptly. No doubt you’ve already looked at the trailer after the above assertion so let’s talk about those uncomfortable issues….
Glorious Gameplay Unveiling (Metal Gear and Resident Evil)
July 28th, 2007
The past 5 days have been excellent for those PS3 owners out there as the first gameplay footage has been revealed for arguably the two most anticipated titles for the system. That is Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resident Evil 5.
What, more Resident Evil 5?! I hear you pout. Well, it seems like Capcom has been extremely generous(once again). They where so kind to even include some nice high res. shots. Now I’m not going to do a complete analysis of this new RE trailer(it’s actually an extended version of the MS press conference) as there is only a few things to point out.
What you can’t miss:
Resident Evil 5 Extended Trailer
Resident Evil 5 Extended Trailer HD
Resident Evil 5 Screenshots
Metal Gear Solid 4 Demonstration
Metal Gear Solid 4 Demonstration HD
Metal Gear Solid 4 Screenshots
Metal Gear Solid Online
Metal Gear Solid Mobile
Resident Evil Analysis
Firstly a lovely panning scene over a large part of the village is shown which gives us quite a bit more perspective of the introductory environment. Shortly after we see the strange man(guy who gets infected with the virus, in case you forgot ;)) being eyed down by one of the villagers.
In the scene with the two blokes chatting away we notice that there is some sort of scarring around the green shirt guy’s right eye. In the crowd scene, we the villagers throwing rocks at the person hung upside down(Chris?). This was difficult to decipher in the previous trailer.
Chris then says the following lines:
“Casualties continue to mount, for the long years I’ve struggled”
“More and More I find myself wondering if its all worth fighting for”
“Who knows?”
He is obviously referring to his fight against the Umbrella corporation/Wesker/The Viruses. Also admire the buffness of Chris, he looks like his in an entirely different league compared to Leon.
Two quick points that I previously brought up are clarified after his speech, firstly this is Chris Redfield and secondly he has the headset. The villagers all disappear after Chris is overwhelmed by the bright light. Mysterious. This could be part of a possible gameplay mechanic or just highlighting the hot/cold or light/dark mechanics that where previous talked about?
Chris then enters the warehouse where we see the previous snippets of the ‘strange man’s evolution all grouped together. It doesn’t look as though he has changed much from his previous self. Perhaps the virus is just ‘possesive’ like the plague in RE4(don’t worry the similarities don’t stop there). We are thrown into an orgy of gameplay clips which look remarkably similar to that of RE4. Although we do notice two new additions; that Chris gets rugby tackled by a villager and he can dodge a horizontal slice by ducking.
The trailer then repeats the clip of the announcer talking thru the megaphone, we have better definition of the guard to his right. It looks like it has no eyeballs….ewww. We hear him call “see for these creatures” or so it sounds. Its quite hard to tell if he is speaking english or a native local language. I’d go with the local language, although the next part up ahead can contradict my hypothesis.
The proceeding gameplay clip shows Chris shooting a villager in the leg who then rolls to the floor. The other villagers are throwing axes at him(Resident Evil 4 alert!). Just as Leon does/did we see Chris elbowing an attacking villager trying to grab him from behind. The lead villager running out from the shed then calls “free them”. Could he be referring to the guard with no eyeballs with the giant flyswat?
This is followed by Chris equipped with a shotgun and some awfully similar vertical slashing action from a villager.
The next interesting part is the dank room where Chris is totally surrounded by villagers. I’ll get to why this is so important later. We then see Chris with a fast firing rifle, another standard weapon for the game. Afterwards Chris pushes a villager and then fists him in the face, it looks like a context sensitive action to me.
More speech:
“If there’s one thing I’ll do, I have a job to do and I’m gonna see it through”
One key part right at the end of the trailer is the quick scene with the girl in the water tank, this is obviously the girl that … was talking about from the previous interview, get a good look as she’ll be playing an important part in the game.
Round up
There is a consistent theme with this trailer that provides some insight to how the developers are trying to redirect the RE series back to its roots while using the RE4 gameplay model. Producer Jun Takeuchi stated this a while back. The theme is being overwhelmed by enemies, we saw this throughout the trailer. This element of a non stop frenzy ensure that you are fighting for your survival(hence survival horror). The enemies also move faster than zombies or gandos which adds to this point.
Metal Gear Solid 4
What a way to celebrate MGS’ 20th B-day then announce a slew of new franchise games and show the first gameplay footage of MGS4; the final game in the series. Well…make that in the timeline. 🙂 Kojima showed off a full 15 minute gameplay demonstration of the new title which was very impressive.
We got to see how Snake’s new suit works with the environment, some new weapons, hiding places and just how awesome this game looks. The one thing that I couldn’t stop thinking about throughout the trailer was how equipped Snake was. You can do almost anything with Snake; throw grenades while climbing ladders, roll on your back, front while shooting in 1st or 3rd person perspective and then there is the new suit. It seems that Konami has tweaked Snake into the ultimate stealth warrior.
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