Valve continues their unorthodox naming convention first explored with Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2, and published a followup to the original Left 4 Dead, almost one year to the day later and called it Left 4 Dead 2. This is a full-priced game, and the screenshots led me to believe that this was basically the same game but with more content, a la the Madden and Tiger Woods games with their annual full-priced updates, however there's enough new twists and reworkings of the original formula to actually make this a worthwhile game, especially if you get in on a four-pack with three other people, which brings the price down to a much more enticing $35.
I was a big fan of the original Left 4 Dead, mainly by association with a strong circle of gaming friends who really dived into it and played it heavily. We had regular weekly matches online set up that started out as co-op campaigns that quickly ran out of free slots, so we graduated to versus play for a several months, occasionally mixing it up with an ad-hoc survival or co-op map during the rest of the week if enough people were online at the time. The game provided I would estimate about 8-9 months of solid entertainment, which is pretty remarkable, considering the relatively small amount of content (4 original campaigns, 2 of which had versus capability for half of that time). The gameplay was compelling, the teamwork was tense and vital to your success, the weapons were sublimely balanced, the levels were cleverly designed with lots of choke points and tricky places to hold during a horde rush, and the enemies were lethal in the right combination. The versus play emphasized all of this even more, with some truly diabolical combination ambushes being possible with just two hunters, a smoker and a boomer.
Needless to say, it was hugely popular online, and because of this I thought that Valve was trying to pull a cash grab by releasing a full-priced sequel instead of incremental DLC packages, as they promised. When the demo, consisting of one half of a campaign, was released, my fears were solidified as we played through two levels of essentially new maps, new weapons, and new bad guys. There was no innovation in the gameplay aside from a couple new powerups, just more of the same.
Thankfully, the demo did not do the game justice. The final version is an evolutionary step, not quite revolutionary, with some very exciting new features and remixes of the old formula. It all begins with the co-op campaigns, which have been heavily rethought and restructured to provide some new compelling gameplay and strategy. The levels are still basically a run-and-gun from the starting point to the safe room, but along the way the developers have added some new twists, such as incorporating some basic scavenging missions like running to get a rooftop sniper some much-needed Coke so he can clear a path for your exit, and a particularly compelling sequence at the end of one campaign that requires you to gather gas cans to fill up your getaway car all while fighting off the last-stand hordes and tanks. Then another campaign requires you to clear and then backtrack through three relatively short levels and ration out your health packs because they don't replenish on your return trip. To add difficulty, the second time through many areas of the levels have been flooded out by heavy rain and are treacherous to pass so you are forced to find alternate routes.
Formula remixes like this are a welcome change, as are some fun new weapons and powerups that add a lot of diversity to the strategic element. In addition to the old tier 1 and 2 weapons, there are now a variety of assault rifles and shotguns with different statistics, such as rate of fire, stopping power, buckshot spread, as well as a grenade launcher. A magnum pistol (my personal favorite) is also available that replaces your standard dual-wielded sidearms with incredible stopping power and accuracy for a pistol. I also enjoy the AK-47, with a slower rate of fire than the M-16 but much more stopping power so conserving ammo with single taps is much easier and you waste far less ammo taking out a throng of zombies. You also have a variety of melee weapons like fireaxes and samurai swords that replace your secondary weapon, and deliver surprisingly damaging blows to the zombies. Then there are defib paddles that can revive fallen teammates, adrenaline shots that increase the speed of everything you do (including healing), incendiary and explosive ammo to ratchet up your weapon effectiveness, and canisters of boomer bile that you can use to lure the horde away or attack a tank. The additional weapons and powerups are lots of fun and add lots of depth to the gameplay, but the sheer number of them can be bewildering at times, and you can only carry one item of a class a time, i.e. ammo powerups and defib paddles take the place of your health kit, adrenaline shots take the place of pills, and boomer bile is another grenade type.
The new infected types are another welcome addition that really mix up the enemy bestiary, ensuring that you won't easily tire of the same old attack patterns from the boomers, smokers, and hunters. We now have chargers, which will run at you and pin you to a wall, jockeys that will grab a hold of you and steer you away from the team, and spitters that deploy a lethal pool of acid on the ground that quickly eats away your health. The new attack types are interesting and keep the encounters more spontaneous-feeling simply because there's more variety. These transfer well to the versus mode too, and provide even more deadly combinations to ambush the survivors with.. i.e., using a jockey to guide a survivor into a pool of spitter acid while you wait for a charger to build up speed and pummel them.
The alternate play modes versus and survival return, along with two new types, Scavenge and Realism. Scavenge mimicks the gas tank collection scene mentioned earlier and requires the survivors to retrieve a set number of gas tanks and pour them into a generator while fending off waves of zombies. Realism ratchets up the difficult of a standard campaign by removing the glowing outlines of teammates and pickups, while disabling the respawn closets and increasing the zombie resiliency to your weapons. With five campaigns and five different play modes, the sheer amount of gameplay has been drastically increased since the last game.
All of this added up accounts for a significant improvement, in my opinion, and I think justifies the "sequel" worthiness of the title, even though the game mechanics and graphics engine are largely the same. This is definitely not a cash grab, but it's unfortunate that Valve has waited this long to release the first major update to the game, especially since they were promising from day one that there would be regular updates to the original game. I would have much rather had regular monthly or bi-monthly updates to the old game to keep it fresh and interesting throughout its life than one major annual update. Also, considering the amount of content and depth in a game like Fallout 3 or Borderlands, I have a hard time justifying the full $50 for a game like this. If they would have included the original plus L4D2 in a bundle for $50, I think that would more readily justify the cost. Alternatively, if they were to add the five original campaigns from L4D1 to this game as downloadable content, that would instantly add tremendous value.
All in all, I think the game is a must-play for diehard and casual fans alike, because it basically offers more of the same plus a lot of new twists to keep things interesting. The price is a little steep, considering the first game also cost $50, so you could potentially be paying up to $100 for the complete Left 4 Dead experience. But if you get the 1+2 bundle for $70 or a 4 pack for $35 each ($23 each for L4D1), it's a much better deal.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Ghostbusters: The Video Game(s).
The next game on my list to complete is ostensibly "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" (you can probably guess at the length of my gaming backlog, considering this game came out almost six months ago). I say "ostensibly" because the game exists on multiple platforms and is, in fact, two completely different games, depending on what platforms you play them on. At first glance, the two versions appear to be purely cosmetic.. we have a cartoony, brightly-colored version on the Wii and the PS2 and PSP, and a darker, more film-realistic version on the PS3, X360, and the PC. They are, in fact, two completely different games with different play mechanics and even storylines that make both worthy playing separately, especially if you're a big Ghostbusters fan like me.
The two version do share a lot in common, though.. each feature fantastic writing and dialogue written by the original writers themselves, Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis, who also reprise their roles along with Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson in providing the voicework for the game. The performances are mostly great, and hit all the right vibes that they had in the movies. It's great fun to hear them banter on during the gameplay, and it lightens the experience enough to push this from a semi-serious encounter into a more comedic romp, just like the movies. Both also reuse incidental music and cues lifted right from the first movie, and use them to such perfect effect that you swear the music was written for the game specifically. It's details like this, along with the exquisite modeling of the characters and proton packs and Ecto-1 (at least in the PC/X360/PS3 version) that makes the game feel like the real thing, and not a cheap knock-off game like has been done so often in the past.
In both versions you play a new recruit to the team, and you get to live one of my favorite childhood fantasies (and probably one shared by many a Ghostbusters fan), being able to run along with the four Ghostbusters on ghostbusting missions, laying waste to everything in your path with the ridiculously overpowered and unpredictable Ghostbusting equipment like the Proton Pack, boson darts, slime thrower, etc. The feeling of comeraderie between you and your four employers and the hilarious unpredictability and chaotically dangerous nature of your equipment makes this a real "blast" to experience, as you destroy whole rooms in an effort to catch one ghost. As you grab one in your capture stream and slam it all around the room to weaken them down so they can be trapped, the lightshow that entails is over the top, at times incoherent, and violent. You definitely get the "mad scientist" vibe from this experience, that doesn't quite feel like science but more like art. Of course, you get Egon and Stantz constantly spouting off technical jargon and explanations for what's happening and it all sounds very impressive but sufficiently bewildering too. So you and your in-game protagonist are simultaneously mesmerized simply by working with this crew and this equipment.
Whereas both versions hit all the right notes with the texture/characters/props/music/setting/writing, both have wildly different gameplay mechanics and even story differences that accentuate the two different platforms. The Wii version's controls are vastly simplified, and consist mostly of you waving the wiimote at the screen in various motions to mime the motions of blasting and wrangling the ghosts. There are also times where you'll need to use the capture stream on the proton pack to pick up objects and move them around to solve some simple puzzles and item fetching sequences. The story also takes you down a path that involves more lightweight action like this, less intense ghost encounters, and more enclosed interior environments that take better advantage of the Wii's lesser graphics capability.
The PC version, on the other hand, has much more technical controls, including a feature to manually vent the heat from your proton pack, switching between different beam modes, alternating between a blast stream and capture stream, using the infrared goggles in conjunction with the PKE meter to scan ghosts and artifacts, and a more abstract "slamming" command than actually waving the controller in the right directions. The ghost also come more rapidly and in greater numbers, pushing this version into more of a shooter than a puzzle solver. You also have to keep track of your teammates and revive them if they get knocked down and incapacitated by the ghosts too many times, otherwise the game ends and you have to restart from the last checkpoint. So on the PC version there's more emphasis on reflexes and skill and managing your team than the Wii version, which is definitely a lighter weight, less technical, more accessible gameplay, which I think goes nicely hand-in-hand with the more cartooney graphical style.
These are my impressions at maybe a quarter to a third of the way through the game. I'm sure there's more in store before I reach the end, but so far I'm very satisfied and sucked into this game, because it just feels so right, and it's everything that I thought a Ghostbusters game should be, from the writing to the musical cues to the visuals to the chaotic fun of trapping a ghost and holding it indefinitely. It really feels like you're busting some heads, in a spiritual sense of course.
The two version do share a lot in common, though.. each feature fantastic writing and dialogue written by the original writers themselves, Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis, who also reprise their roles along with Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson in providing the voicework for the game. The performances are mostly great, and hit all the right vibes that they had in the movies. It's great fun to hear them banter on during the gameplay, and it lightens the experience enough to push this from a semi-serious encounter into a more comedic romp, just like the movies. Both also reuse incidental music and cues lifted right from the first movie, and use them to such perfect effect that you swear the music was written for the game specifically. It's details like this, along with the exquisite modeling of the characters and proton packs and Ecto-1 (at least in the PC/X360/PS3 version) that makes the game feel like the real thing, and not a cheap knock-off game like has been done so often in the past.
In both versions you play a new recruit to the team, and you get to live one of my favorite childhood fantasies (and probably one shared by many a Ghostbusters fan), being able to run along with the four Ghostbusters on ghostbusting missions, laying waste to everything in your path with the ridiculously overpowered and unpredictable Ghostbusting equipment like the Proton Pack, boson darts, slime thrower, etc. The feeling of comeraderie between you and your four employers and the hilarious unpredictability and chaotically dangerous nature of your equipment makes this a real "blast" to experience, as you destroy whole rooms in an effort to catch one ghost. As you grab one in your capture stream and slam it all around the room to weaken them down so they can be trapped, the lightshow that entails is over the top, at times incoherent, and violent. You definitely get the "mad scientist" vibe from this experience, that doesn't quite feel like science but more like art. Of course, you get Egon and Stantz constantly spouting off technical jargon and explanations for what's happening and it all sounds very impressive but sufficiently bewildering too. So you and your in-game protagonist are simultaneously mesmerized simply by working with this crew and this equipment.
Whereas both versions hit all the right notes with the texture/characters/props/music/setting/writing, both have wildly different gameplay mechanics and even story differences that accentuate the two different platforms. The Wii version's controls are vastly simplified, and consist mostly of you waving the wiimote at the screen in various motions to mime the motions of blasting and wrangling the ghosts. There are also times where you'll need to use the capture stream on the proton pack to pick up objects and move them around to solve some simple puzzles and item fetching sequences. The story also takes you down a path that involves more lightweight action like this, less intense ghost encounters, and more enclosed interior environments that take better advantage of the Wii's lesser graphics capability.
The PC version, on the other hand, has much more technical controls, including a feature to manually vent the heat from your proton pack, switching between different beam modes, alternating between a blast stream and capture stream, using the infrared goggles in conjunction with the PKE meter to scan ghosts and artifacts, and a more abstract "slamming" command than actually waving the controller in the right directions. The ghost also come more rapidly and in greater numbers, pushing this version into more of a shooter than a puzzle solver. You also have to keep track of your teammates and revive them if they get knocked down and incapacitated by the ghosts too many times, otherwise the game ends and you have to restart from the last checkpoint. So on the PC version there's more emphasis on reflexes and skill and managing your team than the Wii version, which is definitely a lighter weight, less technical, more accessible gameplay, which I think goes nicely hand-in-hand with the more cartooney graphical style.
These are my impressions at maybe a quarter to a third of the way through the game. I'm sure there's more in store before I reach the end, but so far I'm very satisfied and sucked into this game, because it just feels so right, and it's everything that I thought a Ghostbusters game should be, from the writing to the musical cues to the visuals to the chaotic fun of trapping a ghost and holding it indefinitely. It really feels like you're busting some heads, in a spiritual sense of course.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
MW2 on the PC doesn't bode well.
There's lots of buzz lately about the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, and how the developer has hamstrung a lot of the features that make PC games superior to console games. A lot of this came out of a Q&A session with the developers hosted by Best Buy earlier this week.
Essentially it sounds like they're dumbing down the PC version to the point where it's essentially a port from the consoles. The big one that jumps out at me is the lack of developer console, which prevents you from tweaking stuff like field of view (FOV), something that I've done with most games ever since the Quake 3 days. I like to have more peripheral vision, but it looks like MW2 is going to lock you in at 65 degrees, which makes games feel molasses-slow. Sure this may have an effect of unbalancing the game in favor of enthusiasts as they tweak the game to their preferences, but knowledge is power... and it teaches people to be resourceful. This stuff is not difficult to figure out and accomplish. And the timid can always just stick to the single player campaign.
The other point of contention is the lack of dedicated servers, and in its place they've implemented a dubious peer-to-peer hosting system where PC's are chosen to host the game in progress. Coming from a background of administering my share of private game servers, this sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, as systems with poor asymmetric internet connections and misconfigured firewalls try to host a multiplayer game. I guess that's why they're limiting game sizes to 9v9 only. My question is, is the typical client-server model that every other game uses so unusably broken that they have to reinvent it? Or is this another way for them to control the experience end to end, by quashing the ability to run your own server?
The rest of the features present in COD4 that were seemingly axed from the PC version of MW2 are listed in a pretty concise spreadsheet... and they include such surprises as not being able to kick misbehaving players, no mods, no custom maps, no recording, etc... basically all the reasons why PC games are usually more feature-rich than their console counterparts. In most cases extra maps and similar add-ons are considered DLC on console games and Microsoft/Sony see fit to charge you for such niceties, whereas they're usually free on the PC version. Not any more, they're simply not present in MW2. And other stuff like recording and kicking players have always been boons for more enthusiastic gamers that want to push the gaming experience above and beyond.
This is all being done in the name of "balancing the game" as the developers see fit. I guess we'll just need to wait for the hacking community to step in and restore the proper balance. And as typically happens, the hacked version will be superior to the official version, and not just because of lack of DRM this time... it will most likely have the features that PC gamers actually want.
Essentially it sounds like they're dumbing down the PC version to the point where it's essentially a port from the consoles. The big one that jumps out at me is the lack of developer console, which prevents you from tweaking stuff like field of view (FOV), something that I've done with most games ever since the Quake 3 days. I like to have more peripheral vision, but it looks like MW2 is going to lock you in at 65 degrees, which makes games feel molasses-slow. Sure this may have an effect of unbalancing the game in favor of enthusiasts as they tweak the game to their preferences, but knowledge is power... and it teaches people to be resourceful. This stuff is not difficult to figure out and accomplish. And the timid can always just stick to the single player campaign.
The other point of contention is the lack of dedicated servers, and in its place they've implemented a dubious peer-to-peer hosting system where PC's are chosen to host the game in progress. Coming from a background of administering my share of private game servers, this sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, as systems with poor asymmetric internet connections and misconfigured firewalls try to host a multiplayer game. I guess that's why they're limiting game sizes to 9v9 only. My question is, is the typical client-server model that every other game uses so unusably broken that they have to reinvent it? Or is this another way for them to control the experience end to end, by quashing the ability to run your own server?
The rest of the features present in COD4 that were seemingly axed from the PC version of MW2 are listed in a pretty concise spreadsheet... and they include such surprises as not being able to kick misbehaving players, no mods, no custom maps, no recording, etc... basically all the reasons why PC games are usually more feature-rich than their console counterparts. In most cases extra maps and similar add-ons are considered DLC on console games and Microsoft/Sony see fit to charge you for such niceties, whereas they're usually free on the PC version. Not any more, they're simply not present in MW2. And other stuff like recording and kicking players have always been boons for more enthusiastic gamers that want to push the gaming experience above and beyond.
This is all being done in the name of "balancing the game" as the developers see fit. I guess we'll just need to wait for the hacking community to step in and restore the proper balance. And as typically happens, the hacked version will be superior to the official version, and not just because of lack of DRM this time... it will most likely have the features that PC gamers actually want.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Resident Evil 5.
I'm just pouring through the games lately. Seriously, I have a to-do list of games to finish sitting on my desktop. And just in time for the November glut of new games to descend on us (although honestly, besides Modern Warfare 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wii, there's not much that's appealing to me right now. BioShock 2 is due out after the first of the year, I think that's the next big one for me)... I just can't seem to get ahead.
But Resident Evil 5 is easily worth spending some time on, and thankfully it's a pretty short game with lots of replay value and unlockables to chip away at. Which means I can run through it fast and get it off my list and still enjoy probably 75% of what the game has to offer, and then come back to it as the mood strikes.
And that's where pretty much all the Resident Evil games shine, is the replay value and the unlockables. Starting even with RE1 and expanded greatly upon with RE2 (oh, the amount of time spent with the dreaded Third Survivor minigame, playing as Tofu, unlocking all the weapons, etc... such a great game. Such great memories), there has always been a plethora of weapons, characters, special play modes, outfits, difficulty levels, etc to open up. RE5 is no different, but this time with a huge array of weapons with different attributes each, different costumes, backstories, even alternate animation filters to uncover, all unlockable based on the number of medallions you find in the various levels, the ratings you achieve, etc etc etc. It's a great game purely on storyline and production quality and overall fun, but to have these little extras that motivate you to play through the game again while retaining all your weapons you've amassed and upgraded, is a real treat.
The weapon upgrades are another boon for inventory hoarding junkies like myself, and allows you to buy a huge array of pistols, shotguns, magnums, SMG's, rifles, and other implements of zombie destruction. The upgrade system on each, which lets you boost firepower, magazine size, reload speed, and other special attributes, is tantalyzing and sufficiently expensive that it makes choosing what weapon to upgrade agonizing at times, yet so satisfying when you get to try out your purchases on a hoard of zombies in the next level.
But all of this is just an end to itself, an indulgence for RE junkies.. it starts with a great looking game with a very decent story and voice acting that is sufficiently over the top at times that it breaks that suspension of disbelief just enough to be fun. The storyline is typical RE fare, with lots of callbacks to characters and events in the lore, a really great supervillain in a returning Albert Wesker, the typical doublecrosses and surprise reveals, and a fantastic partnership between the two protagonists, Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. Sheva is a newcomer to the Resident Evil story, and she holds her own as a strong character and an ally that you begin to rely on. The story sufficiently builds tension throughout with lots of good set pieces and tense showdowns, nice backstory elements that tie the plot to previous events in RE lore and ends with a final sequence that is one of the more preposterous settings I've seen in a video game for a while, but it sort of hearkens back to simpler games that frequently hyperbolized the endgame and pays service to the genre as a whole.
The setting is a little controversial, and takes a cue from movies like Blood Diamond and takes you on a tour of Africa to various villages, towns, quasi-industrial areas, and finally to the standard end-game biology lab/fortress conglomeration that every RE game has had. The enemies are mostly carryovers from RE4, namely not-exactly-zombies that tend to morph into grotesque creatures after taking damage, some heavy weapons characters that require more lead to take down, and a couple biohazard monsters. The controversial bit involves a trek through a native village, complete with villagers wearing loincloths and tribal masks that harkens a bit too much to Dark Africa movies from the 50's, but thankfully it doesn't last long.
Along the way we have a few nostalgic puzzles that involve hitting the right switches or pulling levers or evading traps in a very nicely done Ruins level, some sharply drawn gunplay sequences using a servicable cover-and-fire system, more than a fair share of team-based puzzles requiring your partner to perform one action while you do another, a couple fantastic on-rails shooting sections, and some great boss battles.
The graphics themselves are beautiful and the character models are wonderfully detailed and animated, especially facial expressions. Lip sync is perfect, expressions are believable, and movement is mostly natural and realistic (except for Wesker, who seems to be a bit too stiff and mechanical at times). If you run it on a PC at 1080p or higher, it's truly a beautiful looking game.
And the PC is definitely the platform to play this game on. I'm sure it handles perfectly well on the 360 and the PS3, but I've never been a fan of playing a shooter with thumbsticks because it feels like I'm controlling a tank instead of a person, but on the PC it's a beautiful playing experience. Mouse and Keyboard work great for aiming, and the frequent quicktime events make good use of awkward and alternating keyboard combinations to keep you guessing and more involved in the cutscenes. I just can't get enough of the aiming though.. using the mouse to aim the gun feels so fast and so accurate, I'm sure it takes a lot of the burden out of playing the game on a console.
So overall, great graphics and sound coupled with a good story that keeps you intrigued throughout, fun characters to play and satisfying enemies to conquer, unlocks galore and addicting weapons to purchase and upgrade, and typical Resident Evil bombast, this is a great game that's lots of fun to play. I highly recommend it.
But Resident Evil 5 is easily worth spending some time on, and thankfully it's a pretty short game with lots of replay value and unlockables to chip away at. Which means I can run through it fast and get it off my list and still enjoy probably 75% of what the game has to offer, and then come back to it as the mood strikes.
And that's where pretty much all the Resident Evil games shine, is the replay value and the unlockables. Starting even with RE1 and expanded greatly upon with RE2 (oh, the amount of time spent with the dreaded Third Survivor minigame, playing as Tofu, unlocking all the weapons, etc... such a great game. Such great memories), there has always been a plethora of weapons, characters, special play modes, outfits, difficulty levels, etc to open up. RE5 is no different, but this time with a huge array of weapons with different attributes each, different costumes, backstories, even alternate animation filters to uncover, all unlockable based on the number of medallions you find in the various levels, the ratings you achieve, etc etc etc. It's a great game purely on storyline and production quality and overall fun, but to have these little extras that motivate you to play through the game again while retaining all your weapons you've amassed and upgraded, is a real treat.
The weapon upgrades are another boon for inventory hoarding junkies like myself, and allows you to buy a huge array of pistols, shotguns, magnums, SMG's, rifles, and other implements of zombie destruction. The upgrade system on each, which lets you boost firepower, magazine size, reload speed, and other special attributes, is tantalyzing and sufficiently expensive that it makes choosing what weapon to upgrade agonizing at times, yet so satisfying when you get to try out your purchases on a hoard of zombies in the next level.
But all of this is just an end to itself, an indulgence for RE junkies.. it starts with a great looking game with a very decent story and voice acting that is sufficiently over the top at times that it breaks that suspension of disbelief just enough to be fun. The storyline is typical RE fare, with lots of callbacks to characters and events in the lore, a really great supervillain in a returning Albert Wesker, the typical doublecrosses and surprise reveals, and a fantastic partnership between the two protagonists, Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar. Sheva is a newcomer to the Resident Evil story, and she holds her own as a strong character and an ally that you begin to rely on. The story sufficiently builds tension throughout with lots of good set pieces and tense showdowns, nice backstory elements that tie the plot to previous events in RE lore and ends with a final sequence that is one of the more preposterous settings I've seen in a video game for a while, but it sort of hearkens back to simpler games that frequently hyperbolized the endgame and pays service to the genre as a whole.
The setting is a little controversial, and takes a cue from movies like Blood Diamond and takes you on a tour of Africa to various villages, towns, quasi-industrial areas, and finally to the standard end-game biology lab/fortress conglomeration that every RE game has had. The enemies are mostly carryovers from RE4, namely not-exactly-zombies that tend to morph into grotesque creatures after taking damage, some heavy weapons characters that require more lead to take down, and a couple biohazard monsters. The controversial bit involves a trek through a native village, complete with villagers wearing loincloths and tribal masks that harkens a bit too much to Dark Africa movies from the 50's, but thankfully it doesn't last long.
Along the way we have a few nostalgic puzzles that involve hitting the right switches or pulling levers or evading traps in a very nicely done Ruins level, some sharply drawn gunplay sequences using a servicable cover-and-fire system, more than a fair share of team-based puzzles requiring your partner to perform one action while you do another, a couple fantastic on-rails shooting sections, and some great boss battles.
The graphics themselves are beautiful and the character models are wonderfully detailed and animated, especially facial expressions. Lip sync is perfect, expressions are believable, and movement is mostly natural and realistic (except for Wesker, who seems to be a bit too stiff and mechanical at times). If you run it on a PC at 1080p or higher, it's truly a beautiful looking game.
And the PC is definitely the platform to play this game on. I'm sure it handles perfectly well on the 360 and the PS3, but I've never been a fan of playing a shooter with thumbsticks because it feels like I'm controlling a tank instead of a person, but on the PC it's a beautiful playing experience. Mouse and Keyboard work great for aiming, and the frequent quicktime events make good use of awkward and alternating keyboard combinations to keep you guessing and more involved in the cutscenes. I just can't get enough of the aiming though.. using the mouse to aim the gun feels so fast and so accurate, I'm sure it takes a lot of the burden out of playing the game on a console.
So overall, great graphics and sound coupled with a good story that keeps you intrigued throughout, fun characters to play and satisfying enemies to conquer, unlocks galore and addicting weapons to purchase and upgrade, and typical Resident Evil bombast, this is a great game that's lots of fun to play. I highly recommend it.
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