By Kevin "Berserker" Hall
Player(s): 1-4 (online or local [local through System Link])
Extra Features: Online play through PSN or Xbox LIVE, Leaderboards
Resident Evil 5 was the first game in the main Resident Evil series to bring
in online play and it did so quite well with its online partner feature for
co-op play. Even this single player purist was floored at the results of the
online portion in Resident Evil 5. Now that new aspect has been expanded greatly
with the new downloadable mode known as "Versus" that is up on both the
PlayStation Store and Xbox LIVE marketplace for $5.00 or 400 MS points right
now. I never have once considered the idea of a Resident Evil deathmatch to be
much fun, but Versus has caused me to change that anti-online play attitude once
again now that I have given it a shot.
Versus comes complete with four modes of play. The two main modes are Slayers
and Survivors. Each of them can be played with four players that are all
individually against each other or they can be played as a team game with two
players on each team battling it out. So the complete list of modes is Slayers,
Survivors, Team Slayers and Team Survivors. Players can choose from the same
characters that are in the normal Mercenaries mode, though some have to be
unlocked through the Bonus Features menu. All stages are taken directly from the
Mercenaries mode.
Slayers is basically a four player version of The Mercenaries. Players battle
it out individually to see which one can get the highest score based on chaining
enemy kills and fighting off big boss enemies for a high score. All time
extenders and combo bonuses are still in place like in the normal Mercenaries
mini game. As a twist to the normal Mercenaries mode, players can now kill off
each other. Killing off another player will award 1,000 points to the victor and
subtract 1,000 points from the player killed.
Unlike avoiding attacks in The Mercenaries mode, in normal Slayers, there is
no way to seek invincibility from another player's attacks. For instance,
climbing a ladder or reaching down to pick up an item does not grant a player
invincibility from another player's gunshot, but it does grant invincibility
from a normal enemy's attack just like it did in the Mercenaries.
The hits from player to player affect the characters much like having the
attack reaction in the main game of RE5 turned on. The players don't stagger
unless they are about to enter dying status. Once a player enters dying status,
that player can be finished by approaching the player and pressing the action
button for a melee attack. The opposing player can be finished off with a
gunshot also but the sheer power of these melee attacks can take out surrounding
enemies and even send another unlucky nearby player into instant dying status,
so is quite helpful to finish off a player with a melee attack as opposed to a
normal gunshot.
Team Slayers works much like normal Slayers except that the game is played
with two teams of two players. The objective still stands the same: defeat the
enemies and chain kills. The main difference here is that one player can help
out the other in obtaining enemy kills or while fighting against the other team.
When a team member enters dying status the other player on that team can
resuscitate or heal the player much like in duo Mercenaries, but when the player
resuscitates the other player on that team, both player are completely
invincible to all attacks during that resuscitation sequence. I have seen
several games where a resuscitation can be triggered around 7 times in a row
before one team finally kills off a player.
Page 2 »
