Okay class, choose a partner and get to work!, Resident Evil 5 Options

[AC9breaker]

Resident Evil 5 drops tomorrow. Got my special Edition on hold but won't be able to pick it up till monday due to bills and shiz. Can i expect to get some games going with my fellow AT'ers? Who else is getting the Special Edition?

[Crushinator]

OK so Donkey and I busted this mode out for about an hour last night. First off, clear the air because YES all the content is on disc. Its just a ~2mb unlock code basically. I don't know why capcom was blowing smoke up our asses about it not being finished by the time the game shipped, but whatever. Whats done is done.

Anyhoo, the gameplay itself is actually quite fun, mainly because regardless of which mutliplayer mode you choose, the zombies are still there! All games are played on the same maps as mercenaries, although on some stages the enemy layout and waves are changed up a bit.

In "Survivor" players compete to see who can get the most points from killing enemies (and other players), its essentially a competitive 4 player mercs mode, which is alright in my book . You can kill other players to sabotage them and steal their kills, but if you focus on killng other players excusively in this mode, you will lose. You only get 1000 points for killing another player, and although it does contribute to your combo, they are a shitload harder to kill than a zombie. Its more prudent to keep your combo going and make sure you are the one who finishes off the "boss" enemies for massive points.

The other mode is "Slayer" where you get points based on how much damage you do to other players. This mode shakes things up a bit because regardless of which character you choose, you only start with a pistol, bullet, first aid spray, and some frag grenades. You need find chests (which normally contain BONUS TIME) or kill the Boss enemies to obtain more powerful weapons. Or kill another player who has already obtained these weapons for you You only seem to drop the weapon you're currently equipped with if you die, so if you have an arsenal stockpiled you aren't completely screwed.

On the issue of character selection: This mode uses the same 10 characters available in mercs, BUT you need to unlock them call again. They are now purchased using the "Bonus Features" points you get from completing various game modes, and now from placing in versus mode as well. Some of the characters cost a shitload, 50k points for STARS Wesker, for example. This would be cool if the characters weren't totally unbalanced against each other. Fighting zombies, I would say all the characters have their advantages and disadvantages, but when you're going head to head against another player, the dude with the magnum or sniper rifle will always win. Because of the stop-n-pop controls you can't easily blast them with a few handgun/shotgun rounds and make a hasty retreat, and unlike fighting a zombie, there's no "stun points" on a human to set them up for a CQC move. (However if you get them into "dying" health, you can perform CQCs on them.)

The biggest problem this mode has, though, is the lack of a party system. It has a team version of both game modes, but there is no way to keep the same partner in ranked matches. That means if you wanna play a ranked team mode you will ALWAYS get partnered with a random noob. Creating a custom game gives you private slots and lets you keep playing with the same people if they choose to stay, or you can wait for someone else to jump in to fill out the ranks, but it seems less populated than the ranked matches.

I think this is a decent DLC to add some lifespan to RE5. If anything, if you're the OCD type that has to unlock everything then you get a shitload more stuff to spend points on, and more achievements to unlock . If other people in our circle get it, we'll definitely have a blast because the game does get crazy and fun as hell with 4 players going at it.