Why the hate for Resident Evil 5?

[ten.to.ten]

I love RE4, hate RE5.

Unlike a lot of people, it's not RE5's setting that bothers me exactly, I mean I don't like it particularly but it's far from game breaking. What is game breaking is being forced to play with Sheva. From what I've played of RE5 (I've far from completed it), RE4 plays like a proper game with a path and a story and all that whereas RE5 just throws you into these giant shoot-em-up brawls over and over again with nothing but an exceptionally stupid AI to "help". RE4 downplayed the puzzle elements of the original games in the series and RE5 dumbs it down even further. And the inventory system is utterly horrible.

I've heard people say that you have to play the game with someone else for it to be the most enjoyable, which is bullshit because I want to play Resident Evil by myself. I tried playing it with my partner and that sucked anyway, even though he completed RE4 he just couldn't get the hang of RE5 and organising the inventory was nothing but a pain for both of us.

 

[Linkassassin360]

Its not bad, but its just a strange direction for the series. Your not alone,which cripples it as a horror game. The scariest part is worrying about how the AI partner will mess you up next.
But some argue that it is turning into an action game, which I can kind of see. The dont have zombies anymore (Atleast in the traditional sense) and theres alot less horror elements, but that seems like a wrong turn. Just my personal opinion, but I prefer the heated life and death struggle in Dead space than the two against the world style of RE5. Just my preference.
One thing I CAN condemn it for is simplifying the gameplay to the point of simplicity. RE4 had a deep inventory system, an in-game reasource management rather than between levels, and just as many mechanics (if not more) than RE5. Also, the plot was.... Crazy.
Nonetheless, it was pretty enjoyable. Just play with a friend.

 

[Free Thinker]

I was 50/50 on it. It was great fun with a friend and Xbox Live Party Chat. But sadly, fun died when I tried solo play and Sheva was being a twat like Ashley in RE 4. But most of all, they ruined my favorite villain. "CHRISSSSSSSSS!!!!!!" They took a calm, collected, evil mastermind, and made him batshit crazy.

 

[EzraPound]

I am one of those few who hated RE4. While it was a step up in control scheme, it didnt really work imo. It wasnt good enough to be action and it wasnt bad enough to be horror. Plus the setting was just awful.

RE4 was not not "good enough to be action", it was action. I'm not sure to what degree the audience of conventional shooters and survival-horror titles overlap, but everything about RE4--the constant tension, the meticulous rationing of ammo, the herd or be herded dynamic--conspired to make near-perfect action game; one far tighter than Half-Life 2 or Halo.

My opinion of Resident Evil 5 is the same as my opinion of Resident Evil 4. Good games, but they are resident evil in name only. Gone are the days when ammo was scarce. When the each bullet was to precious to waste. Now ammo is a dime a dozen and each upgrade of a weapons ammo capacity comes with a free full reload.

I would argue that a similar radical departure from source material characterizes a lot of the greatest sequels--Super Mario 64, Grand Theft Auto III, Ocarina of Time--and that, at a certain point, it can be fairly petty to lament the lack of servitude developers have to nostalgia when they're doing progress so well. Of course, while Resident Evil 4 was able to subdue at least some disgruntled fans of its prequels just by being so good, it seems like RE5 revealed a tincture in the armor of the series' reboot, and now the knives are out.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

The AI partner was a survival horror game nightmare. She had access to half your items. Herbs were used at inappropriate times. Ammo was wasted. She was a pack mule except she periodically fucked up your entire inventory. To make matters worse every item took up the same amount of space, even the armor you were wearing took up space in the inventory. Then you added in two different armor pieces. It was a mess, and I felt the force co-op was intrusive for it. All she ending up as was a burden on an already broken inventory system.

The game wasn't frightening at all. We've long since moved away from zombies. The only remotely frightening parts of the game were rip offs from the old games: near invincible zombie with chainsaw and lickers. Lickers were only frightening because when I realized they had them in the game, I remembered being hunted by them in RE2. They actually managed to build some tension with the section where you were trying to not disturb the lickers, then they went and blew it. This game just plopped them down in a long hallway with low ceilings. I remember feeling frightened by RE2 because things felt hopeless. This game lacked any of that. Chris was a zombie expert going in to kill zombies. Except they're no longer zombies who happen to have been made by a virus. They're strictly biological weapons used by terrorists. It's mundane. Maybe other people get more frightened when a work of fiction uses realistic scenarios for scares, but knowing it's just a work of fiction, I feel no fear. It's the stuff we can't explain which are more frightening.

Whesker is now officially a loony tune. Seriously, why don't people see how constant worship of one character turns them into a joke? There's a line between serious and parody, and it's obviously been crossed.

 

[burgbrand22]

Yes, I did want to buy RE5 but after playing the demo, it felt like your usual action game, blasting things here and there. RE4 had something special about it- the atmosphere, music, that merchant (the "What are you buying?", "What are you selling?" guy), and the cheesy humor.

Not sure exactly what makes RE5 special to those who enjoyed it.