Brad: RE5 takes place in Africa, with longtime protagonist Chris Redfield trying to stop the spread of the virus first seen in Resident Evil 4. Instead of the more traditional zombies we saw in the earliest RE installments, this version of virus turns its victims into fast, aggressive monsters who attack you on sight. Here’s the thing though: while this provides a perfectly reasonable explanation plot-wise for why RE5 is set up the way it is, it’s still a game where mobs of black people are constantly trying to murder you without provocation, and you shoot them in the face. I wouldn’t call it intentional racism on Capcom’s part (we still have Street Fighter for that), but all the same, this feels like a game about the LA riots as designed by Michael Richards and Fuzzy Zoeller.
Stryker: RE5 is a decent game, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend the entire time I played it wishing it was more like Mass Effect. Oh, and for what it’s worth, Quick Time Events (ie – “press the button we just put up on the screen right now or DIE!”) are horrible. If I had wanted to see a revival of the gameplay from Dragon’s Lair… well, it’s pointless to even finish that sentence since no one would ever want that.
