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A new horror game... for the Dreamcast? That don't sound right. Initially, yes, that will be your initial reaction to this. What the? They put the game on the Dreamcast? How am I supposed to play it then? Well, for fifteen months, that question was on everyone's mind as the game absolutely tore it up on the review end. Now, looking back, I still find REC:V to be a truly wonderful experience. The gameplay returned to the right balance and it had all the right mechanics and bells and whistles that the opus, RE2, had. With a very twisted story and fascinating environments taking place over two continents, the basics were set in stone.
The story has Claire Redfield being shipped off to an Umbrella prison for breaking into a Europe HQ. However, as soon as she arrives, the T-Virus gets an outbreak and the entire island turns into a group of zombies almost right off the bat. Claire manages to escape with a little help and finds an unlikely ally in a guy named Steve, who is a guard at the place. They get deeper and learn that Alfred and Alexia Ashford are behind the scheme. Now, they need to stop them and get off the island alive, if they can...
The graphics are up to RE standards with very detailed environments and backgrounds. The characters look a little cleaner, and the FMV's are quite good. You won't really be mistaking a door for something else, and that is fortunate. Not the DC's best, but it is certainly up there.
The controls are a little tricky on the DC, but they can be managed in due time. It is nothing like the Dual Shock, but with time, you will be moving around easily. You will be cussing at the TV screen in the early goings for some alleged cheap kills, but then you will have to blame your own stupidity and carelessness later on in the game once you have gotten used to the controls completely.
The music is, by far, the best in this series. It is very haunting matches the environments flawlessly, giving you a couple more shivers than you might have expected. The voice-overs are about average, but are better than the original, at least. Wesker's voice has zero personality. A little help here?
The gameplay is so much better than it was in RE3. There is more of an emphasis on puzzles. Action is still slightly ahead of puzzles, but not the way it was in RE3, when you fired your assault rifle a lot more than you used your noggin. There are several ingenious boss battles that show your true skill as an RE player and the scare tactics will force you to make your move much more quickly.
Now, for the minor quibbles with this fantastic game. The controls are not quite perfect. They do all right for the most part, but you will wish you had the Dual Shock on you. You will manage, but you will hope for something more. The love story sub-plot is really lame and cheesy. The plot twist at around halftime almost makes up for it, giving you one of the ten best surprises ever, but the plot with Claire and Steve should not be there. Chris Redfield's story plot is about par with Claire's most of the way.
Overall, one of Capcom's finest games ever and a truly worthy successor to the previous installments. My only other question is why Dreamcast? -- Chris Vavra, PGNx Media
---- Mar 24, 2003
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