Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 305: Resident Evil 5

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Todays game is Resident Evil 5. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name> <rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them. Games need at least four votes to count for the list.

Previous Results:
Clannad - 9.75 (4 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers - 9.68 (11 votes)
Omori - 9.67 (6 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.61 (22 votes)
Silent Hill 2 - 9.5 (20 votes)
Planescape: Torment - 9.5 (13 votes)
Higurashi When They Cry - 9.5 (9 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker - 9.33 (10 votes)
Deus Ex - 9.32 (12 votes)
428: Shibuya Scramble - 9.27 (9 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - 9.2 (20 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.19 (35 votes)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West - 9.15 (10 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.1 (14 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.06 (11 votes)
Yakuza 0 - 9.03 (13 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV (overall) - 8.98 (11 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 8.95 (31 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Mother 3 - 8.91 (15 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.89 (14 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.88 (21 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Suikoden II - 8.8 (11 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.76 (22 votes)
Nier - 8.75 (18 votes)
Grim Fandango - 8.75 (14 votes)
Xenogears - 8.73 (24 votes)
Tales of Berseria - 8.71 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.67 (27 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (28 votes)
Pyre - 8.64 (7 votes)
Portal 2 - 8.64 (19 votes)
Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - 8.64 (11 votes)
Bastion - 8.63 (12 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.63 (32 votes)
AI: The Somnium Files - 8.59 (13 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.58 (6 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.57 (28 votes)
Persona 4 - 8.56 (32 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (17 votes)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 8.53 (18 votes)
SOMA - 8.5 (6 votes)
Fate/Stay Night - 8.48 (12 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.47 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
Dragon Quest V - 8.44 (16 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.44 (29 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 8.43 (12 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice - 8.42 (17 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.4 (41 votes)
Shenmue II - 8.38 (4 votes)
Snatcher - 8.33 (6 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.31 (56 votes)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - 8.31 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.29 (38 votes)
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 8.25 (18 votes)
Dead Space - 8.25 (8 votes)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - 8.23 (6 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - 8.21 (19 votes)
Parasite Eve - 8.19 (9 votes)
Dragon Quest XI - 8.19 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VI - 8.19 (43 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.19 (43 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.16 (22 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - 8.15 (17 votes)
Wolfenstein: The New Order - 8.14 (7 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - 8.12 (14 votes)
Conkers Bad Fur Day - 8.11 (9 votes)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - 8.11 (9 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.11 (15 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
Silent Hill - 8.04 (14 votes)
Portal - 8 (26 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 8 (18 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.98 (28 votes)
Hades - 7.96 (22 votes)
Tsukihime - 7.94 (7 votes)
God of War (2018) - 7.93 (14 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - 7.92 (13 votes)
Persona 5 - 7.92 (27 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.92 (32 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Kid Icarus: Uprising - 7.86 (13 votes)
Psychonauts - 7.79 (7 votes)
Deadly Premonition - 7.77 (11 votes)
Final Fantasy IX - 7.77 (26 votes)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - 7.75 (14 votes)
Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story - 7.75 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 3 - 7.75 (8 votes)
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - 7.75 (6 votes)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 7.75 (4 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.73 (32 votes)
The Last of Us: Left Behind - 7.73 (11 votes)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - 7.73 (11 votes)
The Sexy Brutale - 7.7 (5 votes)
Bioshock - 7.65 (24 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.63 (15 votes)
Suikoden - 7.63 (15 votes)
Paper Mario: The Origami King - 7.63 (6 votes)
Radiant Historia - 7.62 (13 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.61 (28 votes)
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - 7.57 (6 votes)
Celeste - 7.56 (26 votes)
Half-Life 2 - 7.55 (10 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.51 (31 votes)
The Last Story - 7.47 (6 votes)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - 7.46 (13 votes)
Marvels Spider-Man - 7.43 (16 votes)
Tales of Symphonia - 7.42 (30 votes)
Dragon Age: Origins - 7.4 (10 votes)
Phantasy Star IV - 7.37 (6 votes)
Earthbound - 7.37 (20 votes)
Ghost of Tsushima - 7.36 (7 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.33 (29 votes)
Batman: Arkham Asylum - 7.33 (23 votes)
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - 7.27 (20 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.25 (29 votes)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - 7.25 (12 votes)
Red Dead Redemption - 7.23 (11 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.21 (30 votes)
Devil May Cry 3: Dantes Awakening - 7.21 (12 votes)
Resident Evil 4 - 7.19 (25 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (25 votes)
Mass Effect 3 - 7.16 (21 votes)
Resident Evil 2 - 7.13 (16 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - 7.11 (23 votes)
The Stanley Parable - 7.11 (14 votes)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 7.1 (30 votes)
Broken Age - 7.1 (5 votes)
The Last of Us Part II - 7.09 (16 votes)
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - 7.08 (6 votes)
To the Moon - 7.07 (7 votes)
INSIDE - 7.06 (16 votes)
Warcraft III (overall) - 7.06 (8 votes)
Assassins Creed II - 7.04 (13 votes)
Final Fantasy VIII - 7.01 (31 votes)
The Last Guardian - 7 (6 votes)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 7 (6 votes)

4

3

Nominate Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Yikes. RE5 gets a lot of hate, but I don't remember hating the story. Don't remember liking it much either. And I couldn't appreciate the Jill/Wesker twists because I had only played RE4 prior to RE5.

Let's go with 5/10.

7/10

I will have words later

complete

global

seven-ration

mostly for not following up on any of the ada/Wesker storyline from 4 and ushering in the age of chrrrrrrrrrrris

game is good

7

Wesker being absolutely ridiculous makes up most of that score

7

DC Douglas' Wesker carries it.

4

basically ruins Jill (and Chris to a lesser extent). Wesker going full supervillain is fine.

4.5

Honestly the cutscenes are really good in a hollywood cliche kind of way. Not in the RE4 campy way, but in a "takes itself too seriously" kind of way that I really love for RE with high production value.

I was always disappointed this is how Wesker was used, but in the moment he's a great villain.

7

4

5

It's still hard for me to separate my hype for this game and the final release even after all these years.

I had never been as excited to see a story unfold as I was with RE5. Here it was - the culmination of near 15 years worth of bioweapons, Wesker machinations, viruses, and the survivors of Raccoon City and beyond. It was a final showdown of sorts, an end of an era. Trailers promised life-shattering revelations and the ultimate showdown between Chris and Wesker. I WISH I could stand here today and say RE5 was everything I wanted it to be. The truth is different.

RE5 is perhaps the most dramatic entry in the main franchise, the most self-serious. And that sounds weird in a game with the literal line "COMPLETE GLOBAL SATURATION" shouted at the top of Wesker's lungs like the ultimate Saturday morning cartoon villain, but this is STILL Resident Evil we're talking about. You can tell from the game's opening frames, with dramatic score and voice over narration from Chris, that this will be a more serious affair, especially when compared to the opening of RE4, which had a sarcastic, humorous flair from the very start. I personally like something a bit more serious, if the shoe fits. In my bias as a life-long RE fan, I think it does. Chris vs. Wesker is a legit rivalry brewing since the original game, while years of death and horror have built up Chris into someone, if not quite cold and distant, than at least weary and ready to pack up and leave his baggage in the dust. Again, in my shoes as a die-hard RE fan, I feel ready to take this challenge on my shoulders and go with it. The tone works.

The problem is - the game struggles to hold this tone for very long. The game fails at balancing the bleak horror of its premise with its gameplay and villains. The setting is used in a particularly poor manner - this is a war-torn Africa, and struggles with xenophobia and militia rule. The game's attempts (or lack of) at commentating on any of this is at best an afterthought and at worst disrespectful and in poor taste. It never uses horror to make any points, it's all just action, and the goofy side villains, like Irvin in Act 1 complete with sniveling, whiny voice have always irked me with very little personality or motivation to make them compelling.

Things get a little better mid-way however; everything with Wesker is pretty good. It's disappointing to not see any sign of Ada, and there's little payoff to Wesker's years of virus collecting, but in isolation, Wesker is an excellent villain, a perfect foil to Chris. Here, RE5 definitely leans into its corny RE credentials, and hell I can't complain, by this point I'm thoroughly entertained and pretty much over what ever the game was trying to accomplish in the first act.

Now there's Sheva, a rather forgettable side character in an already long list of one-off side characters. She's FINE, but I just love to imagine if we got Chris and Jill together all game instead. I have nothing else to say on her, she services the game and that's it.

On the game's conclusion - killing Wesker was a mistake; NOT having Jill help kill Wesker HURTS. She's on the helicopter for god's sake! Just let her do it! Narratively, however, I do understand the need for closure, but the RE series has always struggled to find its next main antagonist since, and you can see in future games that strain to keep Wesker at least a little relevant even if he's dead. Ah well.

On the game's DLC - LIN is an awesome stand-alone, one of the singular best pieces of content in the whole RE series, the story is good and feels like what RE5 should've been and the Alex Wesker stuff always intrigued me a lot. (I'd give this an 8/10 honestly, storywise). Desperate Escape is nothing to bring up though, it's fun but it's just to explain some gaps.

Overall, it's a fun but typically messy plot, I enjoy it despite its many flaws, just because I love this world and lore and the conspiracies behind the viruses and all that jazz, and it may not have been what I wanted it to be, but it was a solid attempt nonetheless.

3

The story has not aged well at all but at least the gameplay has.

Nominate Resident Evil 1

I agree with a lot of that snake, including that LiN is the single best chunk of RE in the series.

But I will say that no game with Ricardo Irving is taking itself seriously

Snake5555555555 posted...

but in isolation, Wesker is an excellent villain, a perfect foil to Chris.

Would love to hear your analysis on their dynamic.

Great insight, as always.

While sitting here at work I think I figured it out -- It's Chris that takes himself too seriously, wherever he is.

RE6 Chris might be the worst offender, but literally every Chris experience is like a damp rag over everything. Absolutely zero levity, even when everything around him is ridiculous.

2/10. Its ridiculous in a bad way (aside from some amusing Wesker stuff and the boulder) and loaded with flagrant racism. Its not just the setting which is arguably aesthetic rather than story, but its in the games narrative as well. The stuff in the jungle is really inexcusable and was that at the time.

5/10. And Wesker is what makes it even worth that.

FFDragon posted...

I agree with a lot of that snake, including that LiN is the single best chunk of RE in the series.

But I will say that no game with Ricardo Irving is taking itself seriously

"Wow, perceptive, aren't 'cha?"

plasmabeam posted...

Would love to hear your analysis on their dynamic.

I think every good rivalry is built on both parties needing each other in a way. Chris needs Wesker to have a mission, a purpose, to him Wesker is the symbol of the BOWs, the worldwide chaos, the mounting causalities. Wesker, on the other hand, is the type to enjoy having that thrill of Chris hunting him down, being able to toy with him and his family, someone to test and challenge. That really is the basis of RE1 after all - Wesker calls Chris his "best man", he saves Chris from the Cerberus at the start because deep down he respects Chris and his greater purpose wasn't done yet, and provides Chris with ammo and support to keep him going while probably gloating to himself at his perfect charade. Wesker always knew deep down things weren't going to go totally his way, but having Chris take him down ultimately gave him new fuel for his motivations and thus their intense rivalry was born. Wesker makes things personal in CVX by attacking Claire, and notably lets her go to fight mano-a-mano with Chris showing a bit of respect (Wesker also calls Chris his best man again in CVX, it's so good!). Now unfortunately, I do think the characterization is much weaker on Chris' side, since he's just so bland, but seeing Claire and later Jill fall victim to Wesker does push him to become the boulder-puncher in RE5. It's just so cool to see the push-pull of these two over the course of the series and honestly, looking back on it again, and how they influenced each other, RE5 did a pretty good job at pitting the two together again.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Forgot to mention this is the first game I remember SJWs actively ruining. The game takes place in Africa and these people freaked out that black people were the zombies. In a game that takes place in West Africa. The developers added a ton of white (and I think also Latino?) zombies and lightened the skin of the black ones.

Black people being zombies in Africa in a Resident Evil game doesn't make racism worse, guys. Literally no one cares.

Black zombies in Africa: fine.

Zombies in stereotypical tribal dress that attack you with spears in Africa: not fine.

Among other issues with the game but thats the one that REALLY jumps out. Its not the setting its how its used. There are some decent depictions and some really awful ones.

To be more clear on a point of mine, I would say I'm more disappointed with how the game DOESN'T tackle any racism. Not that it has to, but I think it was a theme going into game development that just sort of went to the background after some backlash. There's this promotional material called the BSAA Remote Desktop which details the background of Kijuju, its political turmoil under former British rule, and the eventual xenophobia against outsiders, with a first-hand account written in the blog "Experience Kijuju". It's interesting context that I just feel wasn't presented well in the game.

Ceremonially maybe but certainly not like that and the game knows it which is why theres a note justifying it. The issues with portrayals like that is that it perpetuates images of people from Africa as savages without civilisation or technology designed to make them seem lesser during colonialism, which was of course absurd even at the time, Africans bought and used rifles like everybody else, had cities, etc. In the case of Black Panther its combining some traditional elements with sci-fi technology to create something cool, in RE5 its largely used to create less human enemies, its bad. The thing is, as Snake notes there are lore elements which clearly show that one of the writers was trying to address this stuff, but it didnt work well at all.

Something came up so Im delaying the next topic until tomorrow.

Snake5555555555 posted...

I think every good rivalry is built on both parties needing each other in a way. Chris needs Wesker to have a mission, a purpose, to him Wesker is the symbol of the BOWs, the worldwide chaos, the mounting causalities. Wesker, on the other hand, is the type to enjoy having that thrill of Chris hunting him down, being able to toy with him and his family, someone to test and challenge. That really is the basis of RE1 after all - Wesker calls Chris his "best man", he saves Chris from the Cerberus at the start because deep down he respects Chris and his greater purpose wasn't done yet, and provides Chris with ammo and support to keep him going while probably gloating to himself at his perfect charade. Wesker always knew deep down things weren't going to go totally his way, but having Chris take him down ultimately gave him new fuel for his motivations and thus their intense rivalry was born. Wesker makes things personal in CVX by attacking Claire, and notably lets her go to fight mano-a-mano with Chris showing a bit of respect (Wesker also calls Chris his best man again in CVX, it's so good!). Now unfortunately, I do think the characterization is much weaker on Chris' side, since he's just so bland, but seeing Claire and later Jill fall victim to Wesker does push him to become the boulder-puncher in RE5. It's just so cool to see the push-pull of these two over the course of the series and honestly, looking back on it again, and how they influenced each other, RE5 did a pretty good job at pitting the two together again.

Great points all around. In a way they're like a B-movie version of Batman and the Joker.