Gamespotting 004 - Jill Valentine R.I.P

I can say this without any hesitation, I love the Resident Evil franchise and I am a series fanboy. I love the whole series, which sure has had its ups and downs over the years, but overall is one of the best gaming series that Capcom has ever created.But I am worried, I have recently re-downloaded the Resident Evil 5 demo from the Playstation Network to give it another chance.

When I first downloaded the demo, I hated it. Sure it has the over the shoulder gameplay that made Resi 4 such a good title to play and fresh at the time it came out, but it was nothing like that title. One thing that I have always liked about the Resi series is the menu screen which allows the player to heal, combine and change weapons without having to do it on the screen. This also gives the player a bit of time to figure out a stratagy against their current enemy, but is Resi 5 it has been replaced by a on screen inventory screen which was the most annoying thing that I have seen in a Resi game.

Also the enemies in Resi 5 are much harder this time round, this is no to be complained for the die hard fans of the series, but for a six foot giant executioner with blood stained hands and nails in his forarms to completly drain your health in one move with his giant axe is not the Resi that I know and love, even the Tyrant or NEMESIS didn't do that much damage and they are created as war machines with help of the T and G viruses for Umbrella.

So I have dismissed this title and have cancelled my pre-order of the game because I hated it so much, until last night. During the night, I watched Resident Evil: Degeneration and saw the trailers for the game on the disc, the trailers still looked like the same sort of gameplay tha I encountered in the demo, but the storyline that was protrayed within the trailer has blew me away.

The storyline (after researching it a bit further) links a lot of loose ends in the whole series storyline together. The return of Albert Wesker and as you play as Chris Redfield, you finally get to finish the fight that was first started at the end of CODE: Veronica, but can Chris win? The return of Sherry Berkin who was taken away by Wesker at the end Of Resident Evil 2 and has never been seen since. At the end of the trailer, she was seen in a watertank like the one that held the Tyrant in Resident Evil.

Finally, it was announced earlier this week that Jill Valentine (One of the original protagonists from Resident Evil, along with Chris Redfield) has died a few years prior to the games events. Finding all this out makes me to buy this game. Not for the game itself, but for the knowledge that it will provide upon completion.

But why pay fourty pound for a new title, when you can find out the infomation of sites such as GameFAQs or even Wikipedia, will it be the same thing as playing through the game? I never thought I would say that about a game especially a Resi Evil title, but due to the poor demo, I have to say no for now.