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- See also: Rejected content from Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 was developed from 2004 to 2008 as an ambitious Capcom project reliant on international outsourcing for high-quality motion capture, cinematics and music. The game was produced by Jun Takeuchi and Keiji Inafune as their first next-gen Resident Evil title as the Sixth Generation came to an end. Many of the recurring development leads of the Fifth and Sixth generation, such as Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, and Masami Ueda, left for Clover Studio. Noboru Sugimura, the franchise's head writer until that point, also died shortly after retirement in early 2005.
The core theme was conceived as fighting a horde of enemies in a bright African environment with enemies jumping out of the shadows, with gaming mechanics adapted from Resident Evil 4 as it was positively received.[1] Over the course of the game's belated development, a number of rewrites were made to the script and various ideas were replaced or condensed. With the announcement of Clover's closure in 2006, the game's development crew was expanded, with others going on to develop Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.[2][3]
Programming[]
During pre-production, Takeuchi considered that there would be a big leap in technology over the Seventh Generation, and if the development team studied emerging technologies they would be the industry standard by the time of release rather than outdated.[4][excerpt 1]
Writing[]
When planning out the general story, it was decided by 2005 to include certain elements such as Dr. Albert Wesker and the Progenitor Virus. As it had been established over time that the Progenitor was discovered in Africa, different from the initial "Castle" game of 2002, this naturally meant placing Africa within the game. An early element decided was partnership being the theme of the story. This was explored not only with both Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar and Chris and Jill Valentine, but also Wesker and Excella Gionne.
It was also decided that the game convey the duality of Chris and Wesker's relationship, locked in a battle between light and dark.[5] The development team found that the backstory of Jill apparently sacrificing her life, and Wesker's discovery of his origins, would ultimately give them varied outlooks on the same issues in life. Chris would become a nihilist, seeing the War on Terror as an impossible and meaningless burden and questioning if he should continue to serve in the BSAA. Wesker, meanwhile, would come to see the War on Terror in the same light, but instead begin the Uroboros Project to destroy mankind himself.
The story, nonetheless, went through several re-drafts between 2005 and 2007. One such draft involved Jill stabbing Wesker's eye, causing him to have a glass eye as a replacement which would function as his true weakness. There was also the idea of branching story arcs; for example, Jill could die if the player made the wrong choices. Another change was that the player had to assist uninfected town's people fend off zombies with Chris' partner being either Jill or Barry Burton.[6]
Design[]
Character and creature designs were led by Yoshinori Matsushita and Makoto Fukui.
Character[]
To maintain visual continuity with earlier games, it was decided Albert Wesker, Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield retain colours deemed to be associative to them, being black, blue and green, respectively. Face models for the three were based on their GameCube versions with some alteration.[7]
The new character, Sheva Alomar, went through considerable alteration during development to present both the sense of strength and a feminine attraction.[7] Alongside this, various CG models were made based on who exactly her background would be, whether as a civilian partner to Chris, an allied guerrilla fighter or soldier in the local army.[7] Delays in the character's design meant a CGI model was not ready to appear in the E3 2007 trailer, giving the appearance she was created later, though actress and mocap performer Karen Dyer disputes this.[8]
Creature[]
Creature designs were made by using Resident Evil 4 was a reference point, as it was decided Plaga-based enemies would appear. Two new species of Plagas were created - the Type-2 and Type-3 - so they could be given new abilities they did not have in the previous game.[9] What these mutants would look like was determined based on new ways to force co-op to help one another, or an AI partner to help the player, with their general appearance being an after-thought.[9] For example, the idea of Bui Kichwa started from the proposal of a free-roaming Plaga that grabs the player. How the enemy would look and how it would spawn in the game (e.g. spawn independently, or leave a Majini body) was decided on later.[10] Another example of gameplay-focused enemy designs was that of the Licker β, which was intended to only grab a player with its tongue to give the other player or AI partner time to save them.[10]
One notable enemy which was scrapped was that of the Zombies, resulting from a B.O.W. shipment escaping from the train yards and distinct from the Majini. Fukui wanted the Zombies to have a desiccated look on them due to the hotter African climate.[11][excerpt 2]
Environment[]
Other[]
Military equipment used by the BSAA and Kijujuan militia were designed based on photographs taken of soldiers and PMC workers. Body armour, holsters, night vision goggles, gas masks and other equipment were taken from a Japanese military store to get real objects to use as reference points.[7]
Music[]
- Main article: BIOHAZARD 5 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
The music for the video game was composed by Kota Suzuki. His score was electronic, but includes 15 minutes of orchestral underscore, which was recorded in Los Angeles at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox Studios with a 103-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Additional orchestral arrangements were composed by Wataru Hokoyama, who conducted the orchestra.
Capcom recorded in Los Angeles because they wanted a Hollywood-caliber soundtrack that would increase the game's cinematic value and global interest. The game's soundtrack will feature an original theme song as well as live orchestral music compositions. The theme song, entitled "Pray", is composed by Kota Suzuki and sung by Oulimata Niang.[12]
Later releases[]
Gold Edition[]
An updated version of the game, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, was put on shelves (in the case of the PS3) or offered for download (the Xbox 360) on the first anniversary of the game's release. It featured two new levels intended to better flesh-out the main game's storyline. The pack also came with an alternative Mercenaries mode, "Reunion", which featured S.T.A.R.S. officers Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton.
It was released in Japan on 17 and 18 February 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 respectively, and released on March 9 in North America and Europe. It was released as a disc and DLC for the PlayStation 3, and as a downloadable update for the Xbox 360. The Gold Edition would become the base for all later ports of Resident Evil 5.
Gold Edition PC "Steam" Version[]
In 2015, as Resident Evil 5 moved from GFWL (Games for Windows Live) to SteamWorks servers for online play on Steam (Microsoft Windows), the game was ported over from the Xbox 360 version.[13] Achievements and the additional DLCs which were previously console exclusive were released as paid content for this version as the Untold Stories Bundle. The game is available for purchase separately or as Gold Edition. Additionally, the DLC can be bought separately for those who already owned the game. A GFWL Save transfer feature was added in a following update to allow players of the previous version to restore their save data and progress.
At launch, there were several issues relating to textures, gameplay, and misplaced character voices. While these were eventually fixed, some problems remain (such as losing weapons in versus after dying). There is also a region lock for online play.
As a consequence of the new PC port, the split screen fan-modification no longer works (the code has been removed by the developers). A beta code which allowed users to download the old original GFWL version was provided.
Nvidia Shield Android TV[]
The game was re-released on Shield Android TV in May 2016 on the Google Play Store, weighing around 5 GB of download size. The game includes all Gold Edition contents but the multiplayer options are disabled.[14][15][16]
PS4/Xbox One[]
As part of the 20th Anniversary, Resident Evil 5 was ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One along with all previously released Gold Edition content, adding the PC Exclusive No Mercy mode, along with a whole new combination of both Mercenaries modes titled The Mercenaries United. The resolution and the frame rate were also improved to match the technical specs of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[17]
Sources[]
- excerpts
- ↑ BIOHAZARD 5 OFFICIAL ART WORKS, p.169: "２００４年の開発当初から、 発売までに時間を大きく費やすことは想定されていたので、 なるべくまだ使われていない技術を率先して取り入れていこうと進めていきました。 特に現場は、 数年後にはスタンダードになるんじゃないかということを想定しながらの作業でしたので。 大変な苦労だったと思います。 かなり大規模な構想から開発がスタートしましたので、 現場で縮小しながらも、 良い部分を残してまとめていきました。 それにより現在の処理でもだいぶバリエーションに富んだステージ構成になっています。".
- ↑ Excerpt from BIOHAZARD 5 OFFICIAL ARTWORKS, p.193: "敵がゾンビと設定されていた時期のものです。 ゾンビだけどアグレシブに走ってくる敵でした。 アフリカということで、ぬめっとしていたもひび割れた乾いたイメージを反映しています。 次世代機でモデルを作るのが初めてで、 嬉々としていろいろと作っていた頃です。"
- references
- ↑ Iino, Masa, Resident Evil 5 Xbox 360 Preview (July 20, 2005), 1UP, Retrieved on May 13, 2007.
- ↑ Bramwell, Tom, Clover vets helping on Resi 5 and Inafune Wii title (February 20, 2007), Eurogamer.net, Retrieved March 15, 2007.
- ↑ Caron, Frank, Capcom reincorporates ex-Clover developers; victory assured (February 20, 2007), Ars Technica, Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
- ↑ BIOHAZARD 5 OFFICIAL ART WORKS, p.169.
- ↑ The Making of Resident Evil 5.
- ↑ Resident Evil 5 Beta analysis. Unseen64.net. Retrieved on 2012-02-15.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 PiggyBack Strategy Guide, p.195.
- ↑ Karen Dyer interview. techcrunch. Retrieved on 2019-09-26.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 PiggyBack Strategy Guide, p.197.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 PiggyBack Strategy Guide, p.199.
- ↑ BIOHAZARD 5 OFFICIAL ARTWORKS, p.193.
- ↑ Music4Games.Net Interview with Resident Evil 5 Music Team (August 20, 2008), Music4Games.Net, Retrieved on August 25, 2008.
- ↑ There was a file included initially in the release that described the progress of the port with time stamps and the whole process, it was explicitly stated that the DLC is a port of the Xbox 360 version, this is due to the nature of both systems being the closest in architecture and system nature.
- ↑ https://www.androidpolice.com/2016/05/19/resident-evil-5-lands-on-the-shield-tv-but-youll-need-ten-bucks-and-5-5gb-of-free-space-to-play-it/
- ↑ https://shield.nvidia.com/games/android/resevil5
- ↑ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nvidia.residentevil5
- ↑ Resident Evil 5(PS4®・Xbox one) - CAPCOM (May 2016).