Resident Evil 5 Is Too Hard

Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 8:15 pm in General Gaming · Comments

Before I begin, I must point out I’ll no longer be doing a video review of Resident Evil 5. Why? Unfortunately my capture card can only capture footage while running in Pal 50. Resident Evil 5 will only run in Pal 60. Poo. The manufacturer of the capture card I’m using weren’t clear about this at all, so I’m pissed. I’ll try and find a way around it, but don’t hold your breath. I’m not very techy.

I’ve been playing Resident Evil 5 for a little over a week now. By default I’ll always dive in on the hardest difficulty available; it doesn’t occur to me to do otherwise. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps it’s a combination of enjoying a challenge, feeling I get more value for money with the notion I can’t blast through it, and maybe because a friend it drilled into me that it’s the best way to play. Since adopting that philosophy, I’ve wholeheartedly agreed with him. Except when it comes to Resident Evil 5.

The only game I’ve played prior to this where I was mere minutes from changing the difficulty was, as I’m sure you can guess, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Everybody knows how brutal Modern Warfare is on Veteran. But I persevered with it, managing to beat the story mode as well as Mile High Club on Veteran. No doubt my most exciting gaming moment, spurring a little dance around the living room of my house. Since my proud Call of Duty conquest, I’ve not had any gaming moments that have come remotely close to being as tough as that, but here I am, finding myself closer to turning down the difficulty than I was with Call of Duty.

So, what is it that’s tempting me to face the Manjini on Normal as opposed to Veteran?

Poor AI
Until my friend buys Resident Evil 5, I’m stuck playing with computer controlled Sheva. Funnily enough, in the early stages of the game I actually thought to myself “Hey, Sheva’s pretty handy for an AI ally”. The additional inventory space is great, as is a helping hand when faced with a barrage of Manjini, but I’ve found as the game progresses and the level of difficulty intensifies, Sheva just can’t hack it.

For example, I was stuck in a train yard with little ammo and a pack of hungry, vicious dogs. As you’d expect from a Resident Evil game, these aren’t ordinary dogs, but ones that can easily pin you to the ground while gripping your head between their mammoth-sized teeth. Fortunately you’re given a fairly generous amount of time before they’ll snap it straight off, but most of the time Sheva shouts “I’m coming!”, yet never does. (That’s what she said). Pretty much every time I was pinned I ended up dying. I must have played that particular part 20+ times.

Limited Ammo
If I had known how sparse ammo would be in Resident Evil, then I would have played more carefully from the beginning, conserving ammo and relying solely on my knife. In fact, I’m tempted to scratch the 2-2 Chapters I’ve played so far, starting from the beginning knowing what I know now.

Invincible Enemies
Yeah, ammo is limited, and enemies are invincible. Great combo! But seriously, Resi 5 is one of those games where a headshot won’t kill an enemy unless it’s a critical one. So you’re looking at using up a lot of your precious ammo to take enemies down. I have no doubt this will get easier as you upgrade your weapons, but in the early stages of the game it definitely puts a tougher spin on things.

Right now I’m in the mines during Chapter 2-2. I have 10 bullets to my name with a partially upgraded handgun. Sheva is pretty much redundant as usual, but even more so as she’s following close by with a massive torch that occupies both her hands. There must be about 12 Manjini in this mine, and when I manage to blast ones head off with a perfect headshot, it grows another head. It takes more than 10 handgun bullets to take one of these guys down, so you do the math.

Accumulate my above points and you have the reason why I am severely struggling with Resident Evil 5. I want to jump back into this tonight, but I’m not sure what to do. Start over on Normal, start over on Veteran and conserve my ammo for crucial moments, or apply my Modern Warfare tactic and persevere?

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27 Responses to “Resident Evil 5 Is Too Hard”

Sam Brown

# March 30th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

Like yourself I started Resi 5 on Veteran like I do most games but I never even got past Chapter 1-1. Partly due to my lack of experience with any of the games in this series but more so the time it would eventually take me to get used to the controller system.

I’m not 100% sure that Resident Evil 5 is supposed to be played on Veteran from the outset, ammo is a massive concern through-out the entire campaign even on Normal difficulty and the AI is at best average.

All of the that said once you have completed the story and collected enough gold you are able to massively upgrade your weapons to a deadly degree. A fully upgraded M3 shotgun annihilates anything in close proximity and the fully upgraded S&W M500 dishes out 5000 damage points with every bullet taking down end of level bosses in seconds. Not to mention being able to turn on unlimited ammo for any of the weapons in your inventory once you have collected enough points at the end of the levels or in Mercenaries mode.

The crux of doing all of this though is that now playing through on Veteran it’s a little bit too easy blasting away just about any enemy in a shot or two. More so, once you have completed Veteran mode you will then have unlocked Professional mode and have to do it all over again, again.

Matt Brett

# March 31st, 2009 at 2:35 am

You Resident Evil n00bs are funny! ;)

Seriously though, there should be an intro video for new-comers to the series for this very reason. RE5, like RE4, is meant to be played multiple times. There’s absolutely no way you’ll be able to acquire all the goods and upgrade all your weapons in a single play-through. As such, there’s no way you’re going to get through Veteran on solo on your first play through. Veteran is for your second, or probably more likely, third or fourth solo play-through. Of course, if you can hook-up with a solid co-op partner, it would make things many times easier. But even then, it’s not going to help with the lack of ammo and meager weapons.

I’m on my second play-through and am still on normal. I’m yet to fully upgrade a single weapon and want to unlock a couple of the special variants that can deal a serious amount of damage before I step it up to Veteran.

Don’t give up on the game. Just accept it for what it is and play it on Normal like a … normal person.

Rockers Delight

# March 31st, 2009 at 8:01 am

Sam: Yeah, the controls are still taking me some getting used to. Crazy. I keep trying to pull back while firing. It’s not happening ;) Not sure how I feel about playing a game 3-4 times, simply because there are others vying for my attention. I guess Resi 5 will be sticking around for a long time to come.

Matt: Yeah, self confessed Resi noob here. I had no idea I would be better off playing on Normal for the first couple of playthroughs. The box should come with a warning, hah. I’m definitely not giving up on it. For what I’ve played I’ve really enjoyed. The only downer being those tough parts I just can’t get past, which are obviously preventing me from progressing. I’ll be diving back in on Normal now I know.

Dave

# March 31st, 2009 at 10:25 am

Can I join the noob club?

I’m sticking to normal at moment and getting through it okay so far. I’m finally used to the controls so it has made things a lot easier. I’m looking forward to having the powerful weapons too.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who did a little dance when I got Mile High Club ;)

Ben

# April 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm

I agree with Matt. I’ve been playing RE since the begining, and after a while you learn to pace yourself. I like to play through on each difficulty level. But, of course, I’m a total (PS3) trophy whore, too. I’m currently near the finish on Easy (or whatever it’s called) and with the boss fights as brutal as they have been on this basic difficulty, I’m afraid to see how much worse it gets on the others.

Btw, I just found your blog and I’m really enjoying it. Keep up the good work!

Psyco Kid

# April 13th, 2009 at 5:33 am

Well what gets to me is the mercenaries mode. I played through on easy and normal solo. But was not daring enough to go through on veteran alone, so I waited for my friend to come over for the weekend. then we both managed to beat it on veteran.
But whats pissing me off is the mercs mode because i want to unlock the other characters sense I just downloaded versus mode. But for some reason mercs mode keeps kicking my ass I cannot get higher then a B. it makes me feel like a noob.

but if anyone wants to add me to xbl my name is: psycokid666

pk3r

# April 18th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

i am on professional, i unlocked everything.. its the easiest thing in the world.. people that says its hard.. are just total noobz, i av unlocked every achievment

Spencer

# April 19th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

… I played it through on Veteran my first try. It took me about 10 hours while enjoying the game. It can easily be done on the first playthrough if you’re careful and remotely good at video games.

Shane

# April 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 am

You cant even start the game on veteran? You have to go through HARD, then you can play veteran. Unless all of you are using cheats, you are liers!!!!!!

leo

# April 26th, 2009 at 10:13 pm

No your just an idiot.
You start with amature, normal and veteran, then once your compleated it first time you unlock professional which is the hardest difficulty.
just finished my first play though(veteran, its certainly do-able) about half an hour ago. although i’m going to do it a few more times before i attempt professional.

TJ`

# April 28th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

i just picked up the game yesterday, made it to stage 3.1 so far but i am stuck in the viallage with the giant maj. however this is the most difficult RE game ever, and i am including ones from PSone with really bad controls. I feel the controls are solid like RE4, however you are not able to shoot on the move, and as for AI sheva, she waste ammo more often then taking sure shots but comes through once in awhile. So at this point, RE4 is still superior in my book

DEANO

# April 30th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

I have unlimited ammo on everygun on the game including rocket launcher ….
this makes it incredibly easy to complete the game even on proffessional..
especailly if u are online with your mates….
EASIEST RESIDENT EVIL EVER MADE WHO AGRES WITH ME????

Mega

# May 31st, 2009 at 5:05 pm

Yeah the game on veteran wasn’t so bad until i got the bloody quick time events i’d always be too slow (cause i suck at teh buttan mashing). But ammo wasn’t really a problem for me, mostly ’cause i’d shoot them in the leg then run up and punch them and stomp on thier head and the majini tend to drop ammo when you need it. As for the ai on sheva she tends to run over and help me if i hit the B button, but she would do stupid stuff like run away to grab ammo or heal me with a faid spray when i was hardly hurt.

For veteran on your first playthrough i would reccomend co-op with a friend, means you have to share all the weapons you find and you can’t swap weapons if needs be but you can at least use tactics, where as with the ai you have 2 options run in and get killed or Follow Me.

Resident Evil 5 Isn’t Too Hard

# July 19th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

[...] my site by searching for Resident Evil 5 and how tough the Veteran difficulty is. I wrote about the frustrating challenge I faced with attempting Resident Evil on Veteran, but I’ve since completed this mode in just over 5 [...]

Chris

# July 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 pm

Agree w/the RE4 folks - RE4 is far superior to RE5. RE5 is just too freaking hard, and the severely limited ammo/weapons is too much. I’m pretty let down - especially after plunking down 60 #$@%! bucks to buy it.

Rockers Delight

# July 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Chris, you should try a quick run through in under 5 hours to unlock the rocket launcher, and in the meantime upgrade your shotgun so you have unlimited ammo. Suddenly the game becomes a breeze.

Edward

# July 31st, 2009 at 5:34 am

I can’t even get past 1-1 - I’m getting zerged by these zombies that won’t die and I just get killed everytime. Everything takes a ton of hits to go down and it’s just ridiculous.

Rockers Delight

# July 31st, 2009 at 9:48 am

Hey Edward, I wrote another post about how easy Resident Evil 5 can be if you follow a particular order. You’ll definitely need a co-op partner. The AI in this game leaves much to be desired.

thomas

# August 11th, 2009 at 10:04 am

The trick to resident evil 5 , is to never get scared and pretty much use all of the melee moves to their full potential e.g shooting a zombie in the knee-cap then breaking his neck or hitting him. Doing so at the start should allow you to build up enough ammunition, on one of the first levels with the executioner guy, if you are finding that too difficult.. simply run outside of the house knife every zombie who climbs the gauze fence then shoot the others until the executioner comes then just run around for the timer.
After enjoying RE4 I waited for RE5 , clocked it on my first try on veteran .. then professional.

Hatebreeder`

# November 16th, 2009 at 9:02 pm

LOL. RE5 is by far the easiest RE game of all time, by the time I completed veteran mode (first play through - 6 hours) I had 700+ machine gun, 200+ shotgun, 500+ handgun (pretty good seeing as how much Sheva likes to waste it) and 30 or so magnum rounds in my main inventory.

RE1/2/3/CV on the other hand NEVER gave you enough ammo to kill everything, you were always low on ink ribbons, herbs were like finding the holy grail and the final bosses were insane until you got the rocket launcher where as the final bosses in RE4/5 were a joke

Raab90

# December 14th, 2009 at 12:51 am

There’s two ways to beat the game, run like pussy, and shoot a little so it gives you time to run like a pussy, but you’ll have lots of ammo for the bosses. Or kill everything that moves like I did, and going from lacking ammo to having just the right number of bullets. And when u get cool bullets, u use them rightaway for some big motherfucker.
The great thing about the number 2, is that you find a lot to money to upgrade everything, and also get points.

The fisrt time I played it and beat it was on veteran.
I know, ammo really is scarce, but the hardness, in my opinion, is only the fisrt chapters.
The things is, It’s not too hard if you don’t get desperate.
Remeber the never ending dogs just before the mines at the train station?
Try to search every where, u’ll find grenades and stuff and shotgun ammo (You got the shotgun and rifle right?), that’s how I dealt with those friggin dogs, big bastards and all that shit.
Don’t think you’ll beat it standing in the same position facing a huge crowd of angry bastards praying for some ammo to fall from the sky.
When there’s lot of guys, just run till you get somewhere you can fight them better.
At the mines, wtry to amke your way to the top, there’s a cave where you can face them head on, then run and find more ammo to keep on.

And use meele as much as you can.
And about the impossible monsters, yeah, the final bosses are a joke except for that one pice of shit tough bastard (The hardest one IMHO) at the facility uroboros shitload of dildoes that u gotta burn with the flamethrower.

Raab90

# December 14th, 2009 at 12:53 am

If ur calm, after chapter 2, it gets pretty much easy ;)

OzBoz

# February 14th, 2010 at 10:44 pm

RE5 and RE4 are similar in difficulty curve terms. Both are really hard at the beginning while your finding your feet then arbitrary later on when you’re ready for a challenge. That f**ker with the chainsaw in the village in 4 killed me so many times but after that didn’t die. Same with 5 and the axe guy.

pieizgoodja

# April 3rd, 2010 at 10:02 am

sorry but no RE game is as easy as RE4

nickinik

# June 8th, 2010 at 4:47 am

i think RE5 is pretty easy as u have only 1 llimited ammo weapon i chose a machine gun cus u cud just spray but i noticed its even easier if u have unlimited ammo in magnum (if u have problmems with exchange points i suggest mercendary mode in 5 rounds i got 5,000 exchange points) although im having trouble beating it under 5 hours i have the ps3 anny suggesstion will be really apreciated

RadioactiveMicrobe

# June 14th, 2010 at 5:53 am

Okay, this game is not nearly as hard as some make it out to be. This game needs to be played on Amateur or Normal the first time. No matter how good you are, you just won’t have the ammo capacity on anything like Veteran. This is a SUVIVAL HORROR game, you know, like you need to survive!

I recommend an Amateur playthrough while leaving the option to let anyone come in via online. You can usually run into some advanced players whom of which you can ride on their coattails. Play through on amatuer. Save ALL gold, and ALL exchange points, and max the hell out of the L. Hawk magnum pistol. Then take all your hard-earned exchange points and get unlimited ammo for it.

You can do the Rotten Egg exploit and get 1.7 million gold in about an hour if you want. It really does help a lot.

NOW. Take your shiny new Pistol of Doom and replay on Amateur, focusing on getting an S rank on all missions. Try to focus on BSAA emblems and treasure as well. While attempting “S” rank, (which should come very easily, as even the toughest Majini can be taken out with 2 hits) completing the game under 5 hours won’t even be an obsticle. I realized I did when the message saying “Unlocked Unlimited ammo for Rocket Launcher” popped up. In the end, after getting “S” on all misssions, my total cmpaign time was 3 hours and 30 minutes, WELL under the necessary time.

GER B

# July 30th, 2010 at 12:24 am

COOL SITE ASH REALLY LIKE IT, IVE JUST STARTED PLAYING CO-OP WITH A MATE. IVE PLAYED THROUGH ALL THE RESIS BUT HE HAS NEVER PLAYED ANY AND WE PLAYING ON VETERAN DOING OK TOO ON CHAPTER 3-1 AFTER BUT 4 HOURS. YOU PROBABLY FINISHED GAME BY NOW JOKE HA HA. SO HOPE YA ENJOYED IY.

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