New Information on Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 Update
Everything we know about the next generation of Resident Evil.
by IGN Staff
July 20, 2005 - The latest issue if Famitsu is home to first details and screens for Resident Evil 5. As we reported earlier, Capcom is bringing this next generation survival horror title to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with veteran developer Jun Takeuchi serving as producer.
Since our initial story, we've learned more details on the game. Takeuchi is somewhat vague in his discussion of what we can expect from the title gameplay wise, revealing only that Resident Evil 4, with the wealth of changes made by director Shinji Mikami, caused excitement amongst Capcom's development staff as a whole, particularly those who had worked on Resident Evil for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Even with the changes, Takeuchi states, there was no mistake that you were playing Resident Evil. We can apparently expect something that, similarly, maintains the taste of Resident Evil while featuring big changes from the traditional play format.
Images shared by the magazine were taken from a two minute high definition video clip in which the game's main character finds himself in the alleys of a desert city, being chased by a mysterious group of enemies. In describing the setting and content of the game, Takeuchi recalls a scene from the film Black Hawk Down, when a US chopper crashes to the ground and is swarmed by natives. The theme of getting out of a tight corner is a staple of the original Resident Evil, and is something that the development staff wants to work on with RE5.
The video does not actually reveal the nature of the enemies that are pursuing the main character. The primary enemy is a new element to the game and it's currently a closely guarded secret. The enemy are meant to come after you in great numbers, conveying the sense of insanity of hoards of natives that Takeuchi took away from Black Hawk Down. We can apparently expect something along the lines of the primary enemy in Resident Evil 4, who spoke a language that you were unable to understand and were more advanced than the zombies that have appeared in previous RE games. Takeuchi and crew are actually working on ways to make the enemy even more expressive this time around.
The development staff is paying extra attention to the game's environments, with Takeuchi stating that one of the tastes of past Resident Evil games was that of the player walking slowly through a dark and damp environment. This time, we can also expect wider, brighter environments, including scenes of intense sunlight.
As expected of a next generation game, RE5 runs in high definition, and one of the things the development staff wanted to do was use the new visual power at its hands to communicate the sense of atmosphere to the player. The images in the trailer clip are meant to convey a sense of high temperature. In fact, heat is a central theme to the game, with Takeuchi suggesting that when it's particularly hot, you'll want to cool down in a cave.
With regards to main character and background setting, Takeuchi states that we should be able to figure out the main character when we consider that members of the development team that created the original Resident Evil are working on this game. This would suggest that the main character pictured in the magazine is Chris (the bearded character in all the screenshots does resemble an older version of Chris).
Takeuchi won't reveal when we'll be able to play Resident Evil 5, only stating that we'll have to wait until the next generation systems are available. He assures us that out of all of Capcom's game projects, this one is getting the most attention, and this is why development will take some time.
A Capcom representative reveals to the magazine that a Tokyo Game Show showing for Resident Evil 5 is not out of the question. IGN is hoping that, with Sony's PlayStation Meeting press conference scheduled for Thursday afternoon and Microsoft's Xbox Summer scheduled for this coming Monday, we'll get a glimpse even sooner than that.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/635/635114p1.html
