Dead Space vs Resident Evil 5.

So having just finished Dead Space last night (finally) it got me thinking. For the record I really loved Dead Space. It is one of the few games that when I think back about things I dislike about it I come up blank. This game does what it does extremely well.. it looks amazing… it plays well..and it sounds fantastic. People classify this as a horror game in the same vein as Resident Evil 5 (RE5) and that's when I started comparing the two in my head. From my previous post you already know that I am disappointed about how some things work in RE5 so I thought it would be interesting to see how those things could have been done better if they borrowed from Dead Space (DS).

1. Controls
This is my biggest gripe with RE5 so I have to mention it first. DS just gets it right. It plays like you would expect it to play.. and that all you really want from a game (control wise at least) isn't it? To pick it up and for the controls to feel intuitive and natural. Hey look.. my guy and move AND shoot at the same time!

2. Inventory Management
Again DS gets it right by making it just that little bit quicker and slicker. The inventory management looks pretty similar on both (grid system) but it just feels simpler and faster to use on DS.

3. Melee
Why cant you just have a one button melee attack in RE5? DS actually has 2. Right trigger to take a swing and RB to stomp and enemy (or a helpless box) on the ground. Having the hold the LB and then use the right trigger just to swing your knife in RE5 just isn’t simple and quick enough.

4. Switching Weapons
Although the inventory management of both games are comparable DS did one simple thing that makes a major difference to the gameplay .. they removed your weapons from your inventory screen and mapped it to the D-pad. Now instead of having to open the inventory, navigate to the weapon, selecting it and then choosing Equip you can just hit one of 4 directions on the D-pad to switch weapons quickly and painlessly.

By changing these few things RE5 would probably have been one of my favourite games of 2009. It’s coop after all! Sadly as it is currently the game is just too frustrating for me to enjoy. I guess I will have to wait for Dead Space 2 for my next good horror fix.