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Resident Evil 5 Dev Talks Demo Feedback
MTV's Multiplayer blog sat down with Jun Takeuchi, producer for Capcom's Resident Evil 5, about the feedback they've gotten from the game's demo, which has been downloaded over 4 million times. He comments on the changed control scheme, which has generated a lot of discussion and criticism, by suggesting that their decision will become clear once the full game is out. "We understand that there are many people who want to run and shoot at the same time, but it's not the right alignment for the game." He also says the finished game will have shorter loading times, and he briefly discusses the media-fueled race controversy over the fact that Africa's zombies have dark skin. Takeuchi says, "People will be able to play the game and see what it is for themselves." Kotaku recently ran a preview of Resident Evil 5.
In other words, everyone really hated the control scheme, but we don't really care what the customers think. We know better than them. It's not like they've played FPSs or Zombie games before and know what they like.
I played the demo. The controls were horrid. It -acts- like FPS controls, except that you can only turn very slowly, you can't move and shoot, and basically just can't deal with everything that's going on without a lot of grief.
I am by no means King of FPSs, but I know a good control scheme when I use it.
On the other hand, they're following the same tradition that has prevented me from playing every other RE game: Horrid controls.
As for the decision becoming clear once the game's out... It's already clear! Hubris, ignorance and laziness. Period.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
The demo was so much fun, playing co-op with a friend was really hard. We had to try the scenerio a good 5 times before we finished it.
The game has a sense of urgency, my heart was pounding during the first invasion of zombies into the house. The game requires a level of strategy I hadn't seen before.
To all these people that are whinging about the controls, it's refreshing that a somewhat different approach to game playing has been released. I'm tired of all the Doom wannabes.
Shame on the media for beating up the story regarding "media-fueled race controversy over the fact that Africa's zombies". Here's News! Its in Africa! If the scene was in New York, then you have got a point, but this is just blatant attempt to stir the pot in order to get reviews.
I'm definitely going to buy this game when it comes out.
Of course, nobody cared that the first 4 games featured white zombies.
Also, I'd imagine that if the game, set in Africa, featured exclusively white zombies, there would be just as much "controversy" surrounding it.
I have not seen the trailer, but if the author is correct then this issue isn't as clear cut and it can't be dismissed as a black guy getting excessively defensive. I also wonder whether the reason the pre-zombie people are shown as dangerous is by intention, not due to racial prejudice but instead because it builds tension, or whether the developers thought showing the player character interacting with nice friendly local children and then soon after blowing their heads off wouldn't be taken well by players (sometimes it is nice to have clear good & evil although perhaps a game like RE5 would actually be better with more grey area to make players think?).
Overall I recommend that people who have skipped the race article link thinking it is a load of bollocks have a read, although the guys style annoys me and it is light on details there is more to it than you might think.
Takeuchi's back-handed slagging of the Wii is a cleaver attempt to distract everyone from the obvious answer to why this title will not appear on Nintendo's platform: it's not a family-friendly game that fits their demographic.
although the guys sort of style sort of annoys me
Sort of fixed that, for you...
The one thing I still use my Nintendo Wii for is Resident Evil 4. I couldn't believe the difference the motion control scheme made in terms of offering such refreshing game play for a survival-horror style game. I had played RE4 on the PS2 and enjoyed it but the Wii version shames the previous platform releases overwhelmingly.
Literally pointing and shooting at the screen for Resident Evil 4 on the Wii has spoiled my expectations for what Resident Evil 5 was going to be on the PS3/360.
Even if they improve the control scheme (I've played the demo, hate the controls) it's not going to be as fluid and fun (at least in my opinion) as the Wii version of RE4.
Sony and MS need some better wireless guns and controllers for games like this. If fighting games get arcade sticks, racing games get steering wheels, where are the rail gun controllers?
If it plays like RE4, it is perfect.
I am tired of dumbing down games by making every single one of them play like Quake. It is highly unrealistic.
I love RE4, play it all the time, and have never had a problem with the controls, nor have they impacted my performance or enjoyment of the game.
People complained about Silent Hill's control scheme, then they modernized it for SH4 which left the game unplayable for many veterans as you couldn't pick the old, more intuitive scheme.
The control issue is an issue for a very vocal minority.
There's also the spectre of the old racism debate, hovering the background. That debate is only going to get louder and more urgent once the game is released, and is being covered beyond the cosy world of the specialist gaming press, since there's imagery in here that goes beyond the general air of foreign menace that caused a ruckus in the first trailers.
One of the first things you see in the game, seconds after taking control of Chris Redfield, is a gang of African men brutally beating something in a sack. Animal or human, it's never revealed, but these are not infected Majini. There are no red bloodshot eyes. These are ordinary Africans, who stop and stare at you menacingly as you approach. Since the Majini are not undead corpses, and are capable of driving vehicles, handling weapons and even using guns, it makes the line between the infected monsters and African civilians uncomfortably vague. Where Africans are concerned, the game seems to be suggesting, bloodthirsty savagery just comes with the territory.
Later on, there's a cut-scene of a white blonde woman being dragged off, screaming, by black men. When you attempt to rescue her, she's been turned and must be killed. If this has any relevance to the story it's not apparent in the first three chapters, and it plays so blatantly into the old clichés of the dangerous "dark continent" and the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s. That Sheva neatly fits the approved Hollywood model of the light-skinned black heroine, and talks more like Lara Croft than her thickly-accented foes, merely compounds the problem rather than easing it. There are even more outrageous and outdated images to be found later in the game, stuff that I was honestly surprised to see in 2009, but Capcom has specifically asked that details of these scenes remain under wraps for now, whether for these reasons we don't know.
There will be plenty of people who refuse to see anything untoward in this material. "It wasn't racist when the enemies were Spanish in Resident Evil 4," goes the argument, but then the Spanish don't have the baggage of being stereotyped as subhuman animals for the past two hundred years. It's perfectly possible to use Africa as the setting for a powerful and troubling horror story, but when you're applying the concept of people being turned into savage monsters onto an actual ethnic group that has long been misrepresented as savage monsters, it's hard to see how elements of race weren't going to be a factor.
All it will take is for one mainstream media outlet to show the heroic Chris Redfield stamping on the face of a black woman, splattering her skull, and the controversy over Manhunt 2 will seem quaint by comparison. If we're going to accept this sort of imagery in games then questions are going be asked, these questions will have merit, and we're going to need a more convincing answer than "lol it's just a game."
And should be modded up.
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Crisis-4-Guncon-3-Playstation/dp/B000P297IO
I dont see why everyone is always bitching and whining about the control scheme. This is the best control we've ever seen from RE, do you guys remember the old games? Good God. They were damn near unplayable, but those who were able to stick through it thoroughly enjoyed themselves. RE4 had a great redesign for the controls, making the game fun to play. and RE5 has further perfected the controls established in RE4. Theres nothing wrong with the control, in fact its rather nice and smooth; if your pissed about not aiming fast enough change the camera rotation speed. Another thing, its all over the net that RE5 doesnt feel as creepy as the old classic REs, which is true to a degree; however I did find that the RE5 demo kept me in a constant state of "Oh Shit". It wont give nightmares, but it'll keep your heart racing and yelling at your partner to move. So complaints about not being creepy enough, but now you want to make him freely run around and shoot like an FPS? hell you never could in old REs at all, and the idea is to feel vulnerable; which not being able to move when you aim does a great job of. The game gives you great control and abilities, while still keeping fear and vulnerability. Quit whining, this is survival horror, we dont want Marcus Fenix and Solid Snake(though I love him) coming in a ruining the horror.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has a full-on FPS control scheme.
Yet, Attack of the Fishmen from that game is the single most panic-inducing sequence I've ever encountered.
Capcom's argument is complete bollocks.
Hans
Am I the only guy that played Dead Space and thought: "Yes! This is exactly how Resident Evil 5 should work!"
Then I read the RE5 demo reviews and find out about how they're taking the series control system backwards.
What on earth would compel them to take the lessons they learned in Resident Evil 4... and make the problems more glaring?
If the control system issue is still there, I won't buy this.
What if they made Resident Evil 6 a prequel to the rest of the series. It plays out in a world war 2 concentration camp somewhere in germany, and we find out that the T-virus is actually a product of Dr. Mengele's research. He infects some of his human guinea pigs (Jewish detainees) with the virus and your job is to clean up the evidence. Wouldn't that be considered a tiny bit racist? I could see it now - Resident Evil 6: Holocaust
Resident evil has always been about "on the edge nerve racking" gameplay. This added to the tension and was intentional by capcom.
Now we are in 2009. It seems that this style of gameplay is horrific and sub par.
Well go play Gow or halo, if you want "run and gun" action.
RE5 is an amazing addition the the survival horror genre and a continuation of Resident Evil's gameplay, engaging story, shitting dialogue and it has mother f***ing zombies.
So f**k off whingers.
Go F**k your vibrating controllers...