Chris & Sheva: The Resident Evil 5 Co-op Preview, Part One
Intrepid zombie killers Russ Fischer and Gus Mastrapa team up to tackle Resident Evil 5's two-player vibe.
12/30/2008 5:59 PM | 4 Comments | Page 1 of 2
Read Part Two of this preview.
Survival horror, much like writing about videogames, is often looked upon as a solitary affair. That's all changing. Since
Resident Evil 5 pairs STARS operative Chris Redfield with an able partner, Sheva Alomar, we figured that it's going to take more than one writer to tackle a game that's all about teamwork. That's why we tasked agents Russ Fischer and Gus Mastrapa with playing
Resident Evil 5 side-by-side at a recent Capcom event. Here's part one of their report.
Mickey Rourke's plastic surgeon.
Mastrapa: Our first contact with the enemy was a total clusterf***. We drop into the middle of a village in broad daylight -- the setting of a recent political rally of sorts. A charismatic cat in mirror shades had just riled the locals up by blasting rhetoric at them via megaphone. Worked up and totally pissed, they come gunning for us. I'm playing as Chris Redfield, a slab of Bally's-bred muscle with a solemn pretty-boy gob slapped on top. And the way I handle the guy, he doesn't stand a chance. I spend way too long peering out a barred window, picking off potential attackers from a safe distance. I don't notice their buddies swarming around us. I feel like I have no sense of what's going on in my periphery, let alone behind me. And the agonizingly slow way the guy turns makes it hard for me to react to the shuffling maniacs trying to brain me and my partner with blunt objects. I sustain one crippling attack after another, empty my clip until I'm fresh out of ammo, and the jerks just keep coming. It's not long before I see the game's infamous "You Are Dead!" failure screen. Dead is right. What the hell just happened? And what was Sheva doing all this time?
Fischer: Sheva was trying to get her bearings. The molasses pace of
Resident Evil 5 takes a considerable amount of adjustment. Even after
Gears of War 2, which feels slothful by action standards, every move here seems to take a long time. That's at odds with Chris Redfield's athletic build and Sheva's slight frame. The acclimation period gives me time to appreciate how differently Sheva is modeled and animated, compared to her partner. She's more hesitant but also slightly faster. She pauses with noticeable caution when opening a door, and moves like someone in danger of being ripped to pieces by wildmen ... which is exactly what happens.
It takes two to make a thing go right.
Mastrapa: Color me red. We were doing it wrong. Terribly, horribly, catastrophically wrong. Fischer and I made every novice mistake in the book, starting with our selection of control schemes. A bump to the left in the
Resident Evil 5 demo build gives us a way better handle on our characters. Hell, I can even sidestep now. No more of those god-awful pivot turns for Chris Redfield. And what a difference such a small detail makes. I feel like a changed man. This go-round, I bop into our makeshift shelter (a shack, really) and take the time to assess the situation. I quickly move to the far side of the building and push a wardrobe across a vulnerable door. With a squeeze of the left trigger I whip out my knife and break open a crate or two, stocking up on boxes of ammunition. This time Sheva and I are prepared. And we make a damn good team.
Fischer: As soon as we're back on our feet, the concerns about pacing fade into the background, and skills recently honed in
Left 4 Dead come to the fore. Mastrapa and I are standing right next to each other, so there's no lag as we call targets, stridently note incoming dangers and briefly confer about strategy, which mostly boils down to making sure we've used every possible object to barricade doors and windows. I appreciate the flashing notifications that serve as "partner in trouble" alarms, and we quickly see some of the close combat maneuvers that a tap of the "B" button will unleash when near a pinned teammate. So far the game seems generous with time; more than once Mastrapa and I race to one another's side with time to spare. Then again, we're in pretty tight quarters.
Mastrapa: When the villagers break through our perimeter I'm able to sidle left or right, take in the scenario, and put bullets where they need to go. I'm more aware of my partner as well. I frequently spy the beam from her handgun's laser sight sweeping across the room. When the red dot finds a target, I know better than wasting fire in that direction. Soon the battle is over. With the last shot ringing in my ears, I scrounge the money and ammunition our enemies dropped. Sheva leads the way out of our bunker. I follow her around a corner, taking note of the ramshackle architecture. For some reason my eyes gravitate towards a small dark opening the size of a breadbox at the bottom of the structure -- like the opening to a basement or crawlspace. The hole is purely cosmetic, but for some reason I love that it's there. I turn to see Sheva moving towards a gate. She tentatively, almost delicately, pushes through and we're on to our next encounter.
Fischer: I'm not sure I'd never fire where Mastrapa is shooting. Not that I doubt his skills, but our weapons are weak and the incoming villagers rarely go down after a single shot. Even a seemingly on-target headshot is no guarantee. So while I'm happy to let him take care of his share of the immediate dangers, any free moment is spent scanning the room for a target that might still be moving. Reloading is as slow as Chris and Sheva's other movements, so when one of us pauses to queue up fresh shells, the other needs to be providing more cover than usual. The pace is intense and I'm already feeling a bit frazzled when I realize that splitting up is the best strategy. A ladder leads to high ground on a rooftop; I perch there while Mastrapa winds his way around my building and up to a doorway from which villagers spill forth.
Look up my skirt and you're dead.
Mastrapa: As we push on, we're greeted by a flock of flying monsters. They're black and bulbous and flap menacingly, like the Mynock from "The Empire Strikes Back," but way meaner. Sheva and I pick them out of the air until their corpses drop to the dirt and disintegrate. This is the first point where our paths diverge. With the press of a button I kneel, preparing to give Sheva a boost up to the platform that looms above us. Fisher answers my button-press and Sheva makes a graceful leap up. "I'll cover you from here," my partner calls down to me. The first bunches of bad guys shamble their way towards me. And based on the commotion I'm hearing nearby, I assume that Sheva has her hands full up on her perch as well. I round the final corner to find a stairway leading up to a series of buildings. Above and to my right, I can see Sheva taking aim at the flood of angry enemies surging down the steps. I plant myself at the bottom of the stairs and double her fire until the way is clear. I run inside, hoping that my partner can find me somewhere up ahead.
Fischer: Certain roles seem to be predetermined, since as far as I can tell, Sheva is the only one who can be boosted up to this rooftop. So Chris has to be the one to charge forward and call up, for lack of a better word, the Horde. Up here, I'm wishing that Mastrapa and I had exchanged weapons. He's got the scoped rifle while I have the machine gun. My weapon is fast, as you'd expect, and devastating up close. But the accuracy goes to hell at any sort of range, and from this rooftop Chris is too far away for me to properly cover him. Once the Mynocks are taken care of I jump down and follow Chris up the path. Along the way I pick up a sackful of various ammo that he didn't have time to snag while fighting a chain of villagers. We can exchange when there's a moment to breathe.
Mastrapa: I feel a nagging sense of anxiety when parted from Sheva. Nobody has my back; I'm alone with these mindless monsters and I don't like it. I'm inside a narrow, multi-story building, with a locked gate on the bottom floor and a set of stairs. Before I'm reunited with Sheva, I move cautiously into a sort of bathroom. In the last dirty stall there stands a single villager -- just waiting for me. He lunges and grabs me. I grapple with the fiend, but it's no good. Luckily Sheva has found me. She frees me from my entanglement and we fill the monster with lead. I'm not entirely sure how Sheva found me, but I'm glad she did.
