Resident Evil 5

9 Comments

There is a pause. "So, how do you think it should control?" asks Resident Evil 5 producer Masachika Kawata. It's a good question - the camera may have shifted to an over-the-shoulder perspective in Resident Evil 4, but the traditional Resi control scheme has remained pretty consistent over the years. The franchise's characters control like forklift trucks, turning on the spot and firing with feet rooted to the floor. Back at Leipzig, Capcom were still gathering feedback; still unsure whether to make the leap to a new control system - something more like Gears of War, or this issue's Dead Space...

We were granted the honour of an audience with Kawata to talk about Resident Evil 5, but ended up becoming one of the voices guiding the game's future. Just a week or two later at Microsoft's Japanese Media Briefing, Director Jun Takeuchi confirmed Resi 5's controls had changed to something more "Gears of War like". That means a sidestep, and maybe the ability to shoot while backpedalling or circling foes.
So, how did we think it should control? We spoke to Kawata, told him our ideas, heard some of his...

Resident Evil 4 was among the best games of the last generation; does the legacy intimidate you?

Kawata: We didn't create Resident Evil 4; Shinji Mikami created it. Mr Mikami is pretty much a genius anyway, so Resident Evil 4 was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing. We're under a lot of pressure to live up to expec-tations, but we've done what we wanted to do.

So, would you say that the team feels (Resident Evil creator) Shinji Mikami's absence quite a bit?

Kawata: Yes, we do feel his absence, but he's left and such is life... We have a lot of people among our team who worked on Resident Evil 4 with Mr Mikami, and Mr Takeuchi worked on Resident Evil (the Gamecube remake) and he's a truly incredible individual as well. Like Mr Mikami, he's very hard-working and he makes the team work very hard as well. He gets into big arguments with everyone; Resident Evil 5's development is like wartime, but he's got incredible leadership.

Without Mikami, will your take on Resident Evil tread its own path?

Kawata: Resident Evil 4 broke the boundaries of the franchise. However, there are things we wanted to do in RE4 which we can do now and will be including in 5. It's not going to be a revolution, but it will be an evolution.

Things? Resident Evil 5 looks superficially similar to Resi 4; what's been improved here?

Kawata: First of all, and quite obviously, the graphics. Even the title screen of this couldn't have been done on PS2 or Wii. Online co-op as well; the number of enemies you can have on-screen at one time; destructible scenery, physics - we're using Havok this time. We can do more complex stuff with AI; the concern I had in the very beginning is that sometimes an AI partner can become very frustrating. Now she handles fine and you can play through the game without her becoming a frustration. When you see the new stuff you'll say "Oh my God, I can do this and this and this", but you'll probably get used to it quite quickly and then get into the story.

And you're still pretty excited about the way the lighting can impact on the gameplay?

Kawata: Yes. In the daylight, you can see your opponents very clearly, so the gameplay is very action-oriented. In the dark, you can't see your enemies nearly so clearly, so we utilise the power of the next generation consoles; particularly the sound abilities. The sound effects are quite incredible - if you have a 5.1 stereo system you'll hear your enemies moving around you even if you can't see them. We spent about three to four times more cash on the sound effects in Resident Evil 5 than we did in Resident Evil 4.

Have you or any of your team particularly enjoyed any western games recently? Have any games influenced your ideas for Resi 5?

Kawata: Bioshock. It's a classic game which really utilised the next gen power very well. The world is very strong and very believable, and the whole game was quite inspiring.

What about away from games? What ese has inspired you?

Kawata: The team was inspired by manga and many other modern movies; the obvious one is Black Hawk Down. Having said that, that wasn't our only influence... The inclusion of co-op play was influenced by western gamers. I can't talk about it right at this moment, but we have incorporated some other aspects of western games into Resident Evil 5 during development.

Do you mean a change to the control system? Something less like classic Resident Evil and more like Gears of War?

Kawata: What do you think? Which way do you think it should go?

We do like the current system. It's scarier to be compelled to stand your ground, even if it is harder to navigate...

Kawata: Yes. I've never thought of it as a problem, really. I'm used to the system. However, we have to be open to comments from fans. One thing to remember is that Resident Evil is a horror game, so we're not trying to make a typical game where you can just shoot your way through.

Resident Evil is obviously a very different type of game now to how it was when it started out back in the old Playstation days. Why stick with Mikami's new vision, established in Resident Evil 4?

Kawata: Mr Mikami used to take the movie Jaws as an example of horror. First of all you don't see your opponent, but you know there's something scary out there; then it reveals itself and tension builds up. But at the end of the day, you shoot the huge shark and that's quite a thrill. By making Resident Evil an action game we wanted to increase that thrill and that satisfaction. Obviously, the horror genre doesn't need to follow our path - it's something totally different and something we're continually experimenting with.

Speaking of experiments, do you think Japanese gamers will be as interested in co-op play as their western counterparts?

Kawata: Capcom is dedicated to creating games suitable for the western market, but we didn't include co-op just for western fans. Our take with co-op is that it's an expansion of the action, nd Japanese fans are starting to go online. So, we're hoping it's as well received in Japan (as it willbe in the West).

Lastly, then, the African setting seems to have upset quite a lot of people, and yet you've remained steadfast... What are your thoughts on the controversy?

Kawata: We chose Africa because we're extending the storyline logically. Following the tradition of the Resident Evil franchise, you'll remember from Code Veronica - the Progenitor virus comes from Africa so we wanted to go back to the root of where the virus originated. For the people who think it's racist... well, 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.

We've gone where the story has taken us. There isn't any particular storyline that we have to conclude upon, but in the franchise there are still a few mysteries hanging, and we're going to give you a conclusion to some of them. With Resident Evil 4 we didn't really talk about the storyline before the game's release, and we'll be keeping secrets now too...

Michael Gapper