Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5 (Baiohazādo Faibu?), is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Polish games publisher CD Projekt stated in an interview that they expect a Windows version of the game in the second half of 2009.

Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in a desert region of Africa.

Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the highest selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of June 1, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling game in the series.

Gameplay
Resident Evil 5 features similar gameplay to Resident Evil 4, with context-sensitive controls and dynamic cut scenes also making a return.

The player(s) control Chris Redfield and/or Sheva Alomar in a similar fashion to Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, with the same over-the-shoulder perspective.[12] Once again, the game's environment plays a significant role. The Mercenaries minigame, featured in previous Resident Evil games, is present in Resident Evil 5. At launch, the multiplayer in the minigame was offline only, but a launch day patch gave the game online multiplayer.

The game features new types of enemies called "Majini", meaning evil spirit in Swahili. Furthermore, they are different from the previous ganados. The number of weapon variations has been greatly increased compared to the previous games in the series; there are now several varieties of the handgun, shotgun, submachine gun and rifle to choose from.

The game features some online elements. Resident Evil 5's main story mode can be played with two players, in a co-operative online mode. The feature will allow players to enter or leave anytime during the game. Players will not always stick together, and can be separated at points during the gameplay. An offline co-op mode is also in the game with the same co-op experience offered by the online co-op mode, only with two local players controlling the action in split screen.

Synopsis

Setting
The setting of Resident Evil 5 has a similar feel to the film Black Hawk Down. Takeuchi added that the development team is composed of staff members who worked on the original Resident Evil. The game is a direct sequel to the Resident Evil series. and continues chronologically after Resident Evil 4. The player characters and protagonists are Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, and the game takes place roughly ten years after the events of the original Resident Evil. The story explores Chris' life during the ten year interval between the two games. During the game's events, he is a member of a group known as Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), and sent to investigate a terrorist bio-organic weapon threat in an African desert area in Kijuju, that serves as the game's setting. The antagonists of the game include Albert Wesker, a returning antagonist to the series, and Excella Gionne, a relative of the founder of the Tricell Pharmaceutical Company who operates the company's African branch. Ozwell E. Spencer, the founder of Umbrella Corp. and a key figure in the background story of the series since the original Resident Evil, is also included in a flashback.

Story
The game begins as Chris Redfield is deployed to Kijuju, Africa, to join Sheva Alomar and apprehend Ricardo Irving, who is attempting to sell a bio-organic weapon on the black market. Along the way, they witness a local being fed a parasite, which quickly takes control of his body, turning him into a Majini. From here on, almost all Kijuju locals seen by Chris and Sheva have been turned into Majini. While moving to the location of Irving's deal, Chris and Sheva find Alpha team dead, except Captain DeChant, who gives them a hard drive containing data about Irving before he dies. As the duo progress, a friendly helicopter is downed, and all nearby BSAA units are ordered to go to the crash site. At the crash site, the duo is ambushed by Majini on motorcycles, but are then saved by Delta team. Among Delta team is Josh Stone, who gives Chris data from a hard drive that contains a picture of Jill Valentine, his old partner, who was presumed dead after a confrontation with Albert Wesker. Chris and Sheva continue, and eventually confront Irving. During this confrontation, a hooded figure arrives to aid Irving's escape. Irving leaves behind files which indicate that an oil field in the Marshlands, which was used to test out bio-organic weapons, is the actual deal location, the previously suspected one having been a hoax to slow the BSAA while the actual deal was taking place. The duo report this to headquarters, then attempts to regroup with Delta team. Upon arriving at the rendezvous point, they find that Delta team has also been defeated by a bio-organic weapon, but Sheva cannot find Josh among them. After defeating the bio-weapon, Sheva suggests reporting back to HQ, being the two sole survivors, but Chris expresses an interest in finding out if Jill is still alive. They continue on to the Marshlands, eventually finding Josh alive, and when he asks what happened to the rest of Delta team, Sheva tells him, "We're the only three left". They pursue Irving on a boat, but he escapes again and the oil field is blown up while the two escape with Josh on a speedboat. The trio locate and catch up to Irving's boat, and Chris and Sheva board it. Irving confronts the duo, and then injects himself with a virus, which causes him to mutate into a gigantic beast. Chris and Sheva defeat the mutated Irving, who is detached from the gigantic beast body, and upon death, he tells Chris that he will find answers to his questions in a nearby cave.

Upon arriving in the cave, Josh leaves the pair in order to report to HQ. The cavern leads Chris and Sheva to the underground kingdom of the Ndipaya tribe. Upon exploration, the duo find an underground base, one of the first to be set up by Umbrella, but currently operated by Tricell. Chris and Sheva find evidence and documentation that the Progenitor virus, which is the component in both the T- and G-virus that controls a subject's body, was found and manufactured here. The Progenitor virus was manufactured from a plant residing in the Ndipaya kingdom, called the Stairway to the Sun. The plant was used in Ndipayan ceremonies, but Ozwell Spencer took interest in it, and drove the Ndipaya out to build a base and study the plant, which eventually yielded the Progenitor virus. Chris and Sheva progress through the underground laboratory, and find a massive chamber with thousands of capsules containing human test subjects. The facility is documented in one of the hard drives, so Chris searches the computer database for an entry about Jill. The elevator takes them to the capsule in which Jill was being held, while they defeat the bio-organic weapon, U-8. The capsule opens, but it is empty. Excella Gionne then appears on a computer screen and warns them to leave. The duo later intercepts a radio transmission of Excella talking to Wesker, indicating Wesker's survival. Sheva and Chris confront Excella, but she infects a test subject with the Uroboros virus, which turns him into a bio-weapon. After defeating it, the two press on to find Excella. They do so, but are attacked by the hooded figure who aided Irving's escape. Wesker then reveals himself and unmasks the hooded figure, Jill, who is hostile and fights alongside Wesker. After a short fight, Wesker escapes and the duo are left to battle Jill. They spot a device on Jill's chest, which they remove. Jill then regains control of her body, and urges Chris and Sheva to pursue Wesker.

Chris and Sheva leave Jill, and emerge on the surface. They spot Wesker and Excella boarding a cargo ship, and follow. On the ship, the two find Excella, but she escapes, dropping a case of full syringes, which Sheva collects. Meanwhile, Wesker reminisces about a confrontation with Spencer, who tells Wesker that he is the only surviving subject from the "Wesker Plan," which was an attempt to create the ideal human being for Spencer's envisioned utopia. Spencer fantasizes about being the god of this utopia and Wesker impales him, declaring, "The right to be a god? That right is now mine."

Meanwhile, Chris and Sheva progress, and find a pile of corpses, Excella amidst them in pain. Wesker implies over an intercom system that Excella has been infected with Uroboros. Suddenly, Uroboros erupts from Excella's mouth, consuming her body and absorbing the others. Chris and Sheva escape, regroup, and use a satellite laser on the cargo ship to defeat the giant Uroboros monster. They continue to pursue Wesker, whom they spot over a surveillance monitor about to board a bomber that, if shot down, would infect the entire world with the Uroboros virus. Jill then calls Chris and tells him that Wesker's strength is the result of a potentially unstable virus and that he must regularly inject a serum in precise amounts to maintain his power. Before losing connection, Jill implies that an overdose of this drug, which Excella always carried in a suitcase by her, would likely act as a poison. Sheva then discovers that the serum is in one of the syringes she collected from Excella. The two find Wesker, restrain him, and inject him with the serum. He escapes onto the bomber, and the duo pursue him. After a short confrontation with Wesker, Chris deactivates the bomber, which plummets into a volcano. Before they crash, however, Sheva shoots Wesker off the bomber, into the volcano below. Chris and Sheva, now in the volcano, discover that Wesker survived and he infects himself with Uroboros. They defeat the infected Wesker, who falls into the lava. A helicopter appears over the horizon, manned by Josh and Jill, and Chris and Sheva board it. As the helicopter attempts to fly away, Wesker attempts to pull it down into the lava with him. Sheva and Chris shoot Wesker with two rocket-propelled grenades, and the helicopter is freed. In the helicopter, Chris ponders whether it is worth fighting to preserve humanity. He looks at Sheva and Jill and then decides it is worth it, "for a future without fear."

Controversy
Resident Evil 5's 2007 E3 trailer was questioned for its depiction of a Caucasian protagonist killing black enemies in an African village. Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal began the criticism, stating, "There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery." He acknowledged that only the preview had been released.

The second trailer for the game, released on May 31, 2008, revealed a more racially diverse group of enemies, as well as Sheva, an African agent who assists the protagonist. However, designer Jun Takeuchi denied that complaints about racism had any effect in altering the design of Resident Evil 5. Takeuchi commented that the game's producers were surprised by the controversy. In an interview with MTV, he explained that Capcom's staff is racially diverse, and acknowledged that various cultures may have had different opinions on the trailer. In an interview with Computer and Video Games, producer Masachika Kawata also commented on the issue, stating, "We can't please everyone. We're in the entertainment business - we're not here to state our political opinion or anything like that. It's unfortunate that some people felt that way."

In Eurogamer's February 2009 preview of Resident Evil 5, Dan Whitehead expressed concerns about the controversy the game may generate, stating that "it plays so blatantly into the old clichés of the dangerous 'dark continent' and the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s" and "there are even more outrageous and outdated images to be found later in the game, stuff that I was honestly surprised to see in 2009." The article also states that the addition of the light-skinned Sheva "compounds the problem rather than easing it."

Glenn Bowman, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, has stated that he does not believe Resident Evil 5 is racist. Bowman added that the game presents an anti-colonial theme.

One particular scene in the game, said to show black men dragging off a screaming white woman, was submitted for evaluation to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which deemed it not to be racist. Sue Clark, Head of Communications at the BBFC, stated, "We do take racism very seriously, but in this case there is no issue around racism."