As over almost 2 million others have done within the past week, I downloaded the free Resident Evil 5 demo from Xbox Live! the other night. Since this game is slotted to really be this year’s first multi-platform blockbuster, it deserves some love.

First impression was a good one – and its probably not what you think. It was the download size. I probably got a good hour or two of enjoyment out of the demo with solo and co-op play and it was only slightly over half a gig in size. Looking at other games that game that much content like Mirror’s Edge or LOTR: Conquest which are both over a gig and really didn’t have that much more to show for it. The download over my puny “hi-speed” connection was over before I knew it and I jumped right in.

More After the jump…

I was a bit surprised at no intro video, however that probably helped a good bit in the file size. I went into the first scenario playable in the demo, and was happy to see something that hopefully gives me an idea what the game is about, other than killing infected. What I got, which was a bunch of foreign language and an English speaking character getting executed, actually left me more confused than when I started. It was at that point that I really thought the story is either unfinished or irrelevant at this point. Basically it was time to blow up things!

First thing notice is the graphics and how good they look. The character models are very smooth and well created, however what really drew my eye was the environment. During moments when I was not being attacked I would just look around and I could really feel the oppression and danger. I could sense that this place had been to hell and was still there.

Moving on, the control scheme is somewhat similar to RE4 on Gamecube. D-pad is for quick item-selection with Y as a more in-depth 9-slot inventory. Your basic move speed is at a walk and pretty directional. Meaning up is forward, down is back, left turns you left, and right turns you right. This is a pretty common control scheme, however I always would rather control all head/gun movement independently from the rest of the body. I am a frequent FPS player and this was an irk I had as I sometimes could not make it around a small bend on the first try. The next thing I immediately noticed was that, run-n-gun was missing from this game as well. I was resolved to this gameplay choice as an attempt at realism, but could never quite convince myself. Capcom later made a statement that this was intentional, and meant to force players to focus on cooperating. I take issue with this statement as we have just been shown a very good horror co-op game in Left4Dead that has this exact feature. I can understand having a slow move speed, this isn’t Counterstrike. But there is zero movement when aiming. I found myself getting hit a LOT and rescued by my partner within the first 10 minutes of the first stage. If they said that it made the player focus on strategy, such as gaining the high ground, or focus on using your environment for cover opportunities. I believe this to be a justification for why they really made this choice – Capcom likes this and they’re not going to change it because it obviously works. Look at the sales for RE4; people didn’t really have a problem with it then and will put up with it now because the rest of the game is top-notch.

The enemies are legion in number and come from everywhere. In the first scenario my partner and I fought to get to the raised platform so that we could at least only have two places to cover rather than everywhere. The variety in the infected is nice – they’ve previously been a bit cookie-cutter and it was nice to see a large variety. I love shooting the weapons from the hands of the infected, which saves precious life. The one-button assist system is also very cool. With only one button you can assist your partner if they get in trouble, knocking infected off them.

Another beautiful addition was that of the soundtrack. The tense music tells you that you’re about to get attacked most of the time. Every once in a while it psyches you out and I found myself listening for the tense music and cringing every time it came on. It was more than just your run-of-the-mill drama hits and shocks. The eerie melodies that crept in and out reminded me quite a bit of how Heroes uses their music not just to set up a delivery, but to really round out a scene.

The gameplay? I was a bit torn on it due to my FPS background but to give RE5 full credit where it deserves, it was pretty polished. Collision detection was a bit of a problem with doors, but as any programmer can tell you, that is a near impossible battle to win completely. Since the animations really do not take into account other geometry other than things to hit and kill, you take what you can get. I did find myself wishing for an aim assist at times. I ran out of ammo once in the second scenario right before getting to Mister Chainsaw and it was a quick death for me because I wasted so much ammo previously on attempting headshots and missing. I give it an E for effort but only a B in execution. I’m sure some more polish will hit when retail becomes available.

So to really give it a recommendation, I will most likely rent this one. If you’re a RE fanboy then you don’t really care what I’m going to say and have already pre-ordered it. If you’re on the fence, wait for it to drop in price or rent it first to see if you’re going to like it. If you liked/loved RE4, then you will almost certainly like this prettier, co-op available version. It didn’t change anything major, but it did shine it up a good bit. Final ratings below:

Gameplay: 85/100

Graphics: 90/100

Control: 70/100

Sound/Music: 95/100

Overall: 85

With the second installment of the Chronicles of Riddick games coming out sometime (spring, according to Wikipedia) this year from Starbreeze studios, it seemed prudent to play through the first game, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for the Original XBox. I heard good things about it, however it was met with very lukewarm reception by the public. I don’t know if its people holding some sort of grudge against Vin Diesel or if the marketing for the game was really that bad. To fully answer the question I looked at how the movies were received.

More after the Jump…

Pitch Black had (and still has) what can only be considered a cult-following. Its story about the anti-hero, a con named Riddick, hit people from a new and fresh angle in the action/hero drama flick. It is one in a long line of movies that doesn’t just wow you, but it is solid. The premise is semi-believable and Riddick having night-vision (yeah that’s what its called) on a planet that’s all-night wasn’t too much of a coincidence for me to swallow.

Fast forward to the sequel, Chronicle of Riddick. It is met with abysmal reviews and far too many references to the fact that Vin Diesel does not have any hair. Every one of them thinks its original, too I bet. Most of them also refer to comic-book style action and storytelling. Many directors will tell you that comic books are about as good a reference on framing and “show don’t tell” as there is. Some reviewers use this as a good point, but most use it as a knock against not only the movie, but comic book action in a flick as well. With the huge success of comic book movies for the most part this baffles me, but I haven’t been impressed by all too many movie snobs in a long time.

Escape from Butcher bay was released in tandem with Chronicles of Riddick – and received great praise from both online and print outlets such as Gamespot and many others. The story takes you back to before the events of both Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. The game starts out with Riddick in confinement on a ship being held by “Johns” and about to be dropped off at Butcher Bay. Beginning the game with a bit of a tutorial-style help system, you quickly take out Johns start to make for safety. After learning the basics of the game, it turns out it was all just a tutorial level and you are dropped right back at the beginning for the real game to begin.

Now let’s start with the bad news. I’m not a huge fan of first-person shooter games on a console. I’m a PC gamer through and through when it comes to FPS. I’ve been playing Counter-Strike and Half-Life far too long to be happy with the slow and clumsy control schematics, and Butcher Bay does nothing to make me happier in regards to the shooting accuracy. It has a tendency to slow when you’re over an enemy to “help” you shoot better. It doesn’t help – many times I end up overshooting the enemy entirely and wasing nearly a whole clip killing them. It gets a little easier as the game goes on, but nearing the end every shot counts and it got very frustrating when I would die due to the clumsy controls. Comparing apples to apples, it is probably on part with Halo 2/3, if a little less refined. Also, and this is more of a minor gripe; I sincerely found the interactions between the characters good if not for the bugs that riddled the camera. When I would approach someone from the back near a wall and speak to them, they would not turn towards me and sometimes the camera would go into the wall. Not a game breaking bug, but something testers probably should have caught.

Now on to the good stuff! The voice acting is about as top notch as I’ve seen in a game. There are a couple exceptions, and sometimes it was due to over-selling, but overall it was good. The use of shadows in the game allows for a marginal level of stealth but I found myself getting caught far too often for it to be effective. To give you a frame of reference I have beaten all of the splinter cell games and found them challenging only on the hardest levels. I’m a very patient person. Sometimes the innovation of shading the screen blue when you’re concealed makes it even harder to see before you get your “shined eyes.” It is an interesting twist to find out that Riddick’s eyes were not shined by a doctor for “twenty menthol cools” as Riddick claims in Pitch black. It bring in his Furyan ancestry much sooner and its actually due to this that his eyes change. The moment is almost gone before you realize what happened but it was a neat tie-in to the overall story.

The music and sounds were amazing. I got a bit jumpy in the pit, where the light on your shotgun has only 6 minutes and you have to find your way through a maze with the inhabitants (read: zombies) trying to kill you. I jumped a couple times when they got my from behind, I admit. The ominous and hunted feel of the game is very good. I had quite a few moments where I genuinely felt harassed and just wanted to unload on some guys. I had plenty of opportunities to “release the fury.”

Graphics were as close to photo-real as they got on the original Xbox. The use of “real shading” and soft shadows was done very well. The AI of the enemies was good as well. To sum it all up, Butcher Bay was a surprise treat and I look forward to finishing it within a day or so. Pulling together the feel and action of the movies was something that not even big blockbuster movie games achieve with anything nearing consistency.

So to answer my earlier question of why the game didn’t get the attention it deserved, I believe that it was Chronicles of Riddick that held it back. Not because the movie was truly that bad, but because of the movie snobs that took pleasure in ripping it because of Vin Diesel’s muscle-head image. Reading the reviews I still don’t know what it was that they saw that made them hate it so much, but the game deserved a much better shake.

It is rumored that a re-mastered (lol) version is going to come packaged with Dark Athena, however I do not know if that is still happening since they had to find a new publisher (Atari) after the Activision crap-fest.

Final Verdict: Find it and buy it for PC if you can. I was unable to find it at any of my local stores but you can still get it online. I found a copy for Xbox for $3.00 before I became desperate enough to pay more online and am very happy with the game. With my gaming dollars having to be much more selective, I feel that I have gotten much more than $3.00 enjoyment out of this game. Its a bargain at ten times the price.