Resident Evil 5 Versus Mode [360]

20 Apr 2009 at 13:21:29 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (360)

Poor old Capcom’s had a bit of a rough ride with Resident Evil 5 hasn’t it? Firstly it’s accused of being a big fat racist, then it manages to irk some corners of the Resi community by making the game too action-heavy and finally it has nerve to charge for competitive multiplayer modes less than a month after launch. This led many to ask just how brassy Capcom’s neck is. When a publisher charges for DLC so soon after the release of a game you have to question why it wasn’t included for free at launch, like in so many other games. So, we’re compelled to ask the question “is the DLC worth the money?” The answer, unfortunately, is no. 

The DLC adds four new game modes to Resi’s arsenal: Slayer, Team Slayer, Survivor and Team Survivor. Slayer games play out like Mercenaries mode, but with a twist. Like in Mercenaries you’re placed in one of the eight standard Mercs maps and bombarded with hordes of Majini until the time limit is up and you are rescued. The difference between Slayer and Mercenaries, however, is that you have three other human players to worry about. Hence the “Versus.” Shooting the Majini will score you points and if you chain together kills, you’ll increase your combo allowing you to achieve the higher scores. However, there are three other humans on the map with exactly the same objective so you also have the choice to take them out, ruining their multiplier in the process.  Weapons, ammo and health pick-ups are scattered around the maps and they can have the power to shift the round in your favour. Find a cache of hand grenades or an RPG and you can pull in the big points while simultaneously annoying the hell out of your opponents.

Survivor mode, however, is a different prospect altogether. In Survivor you only receive points for taking out human opponents and this mode, unfortunately, highlights the weaknesses of the Versus DLC. Firstly, you always know where your opponents are via on-screen icons, which were presumably added to make sure you don’t spend all your time searching the maps. However, none of the maps are really big enough to justify this, the player characters (more on these later) are all easily identifiable and it removes the fun of being surprised by your enemies. However, this isn’t the biggest problem with Survivor.

The game& lechanics just embihgestsprwbledon’t lend themselves well to player vs. player combat. While no other multiplayer game on the market offers stop and shoot combat, there’s a good reason for that – it’s just not much fun. As you stand five feet away from another human opponent, both rooted to the spot, firing shot after shot into each other hoping you won’t be the first to fall, you find yourself wondering why you’re playing. Even when you're successful, there’s little satisfaction as you know you haven’t really killed them because you’re a skilful shot, it’s because you started shooting first, or they ran out of bullets.  It doesn’t help that it takes a lot of shots to put down a human opponent. Now, obviously realism isn’t going to play a huge part in a zombie game, but when you can kill your average Majini with a couple of well-aimed shots, it’s seems strange that it takes so many to kill the uninfected.

The stop and shoot mechanic isn’t helped by the way you aim and move in Resi 5. While the sluggish aiming speed is fine for taking on the Majini (who rarely move at much of a pace), you’ll find yourself struggling when a human opponent runs across your screen. Add this to the fact that aiming at anything more than 15 feet away with the laser sight is pretty awkward (often you can’t tell if your red-dot is actually aimed at an enemy) and that changing weapons takes far too long and you have a recipe for frustration.  Speaking of frustration, the Vs mode also has a woefully poor matchmaking interface – you’ll be kicked back to the main Vs menu after every game finishes (meaning you can’t play a new level with the same group of people without restarting) and even if you try to join a game which is no longer available or full. This means you can often spend a good five to ten minutes simply trying to join a game, which, let’s face it, isn’t really much fun.

However, it’s not all bad news. For one, the presentation in the competitive multiplayer modes is just as good as elsewhere in the game. The MP game has not taken a visual hit and looks just as impressive as the single player campaign – for example, you’ll be treated to stylised melee moments and some pretty cool death sequences. The unlockable characters also add some depth to the new modes. Initially you’ll only have the choice of Chris or Sheva, but high scores will unlock new characters who all offer different weapon options. Without wanting to give too much away, the new characters sport better firepower than the standard pistol/shotgun and pistol/machine gun combinations.  Unfortunately, the unlockable character feature also means that in your first few games you’re likely to find yourself up against players with a vastly better loadout than you, which can lead to some frequent dying. But, if you’re not playing as a lone wolf this is less of a problem.

Indeed, the 2v2 team modes are the best the Versus DLC has to offer. Having a human partner with half a brain (apparently they do exist on LIVE) makes the competitive modes much more interesting and throws up a number of tactical implications. You’ll need to watch each other’s back and co-ordinate to achieve success and a little team work goes a long way.  Fighting back to back when surrounded by Majini and the other team is where the appeal lies in the Versus modes, but is it enough?

There are just too many negative factors to justify the price tag for versus. While the free co-op Mercenaries mode works very well indeed, Resident Evil’s basic game mechanics just aren’t suited to a competitive multiplayer game and, while Versus certainly offers a unique multiplayer experience, it’s not a particularly good one and it’s unlikely to draw players away from the big online shooters.

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