Resident Evil: The Third World Connection

One thing that both pleased and dissappointed me about RE5 was how it took place in a third world country. This could have been developed, but unfortunately, the producers had to just go down the route of "z0mg wesker." The portrayal of the Kijuju town, especially the execution scene, really seems to have resonance with real events today. With the whole fear of the proliferation of weapons in the third world, political and social instability, and corporate exploitation of poor countries, placing an RE game in sub-Saharan Africa really made sense to me.
For future games, I would love to see what the fallout from this in neighboring countries, and how the local populace reacts. Like I said before, I think that RE5 could have been consideraly better if they would have gone down this angle rather than ending it the way that they did. It was like all of the evil of Umbrella and Tricell, something that could actually happen in real life, was just made null by the superman Wesker. Don't get me wrong, Wesker's an awesome character, and I believe that he deserved a more epic ending in a longer game. It's just that instead of having some monster man like Wesker or Saddler be the villain, but instead, corporate executives or corrupt politicans who have no special powers. There should still be plenty of monsters, but I think that bringing the story to a truly global scale where the villains are similar to the power players that we see today, it could be an epic story.

Thoughts?

Adam Sessler from X-Play did have issues with the imagery as well in his review of Resident Evil 5. He was saying how the imagery didn't have a message and was for entertainment, which he finds troubling.



...I have to agree with you and him. They could've done something other than Wesker as the evil mastermind. There must've been people who had to approve of all of the money Wesker and Excella spent on the Uroboros project. There's been a lot of instability in the region for the past few years in real life, so it could have helped raise awareness on the issue. That would've also helped mitigate the "RE5 is racist!" claims.

Since the BSAA is supposed to be a good organization, it's rather troubling that the story doesn't elaborate on how Chris and Sheva committed genocide. The Ndipaya, even though they were infected, were all killed during the Kijuju Incident. The women and children were killed by Tricell, since they couldn't handle Type 3 Plagas, but all the males were killed by those two. I want to see them after the end of RE5, getting court-marshaled. They disobeyed direct orders, too, for no readily apparent reason. (Chris looking at the picture of Jill comes across as him acting like Agent Mulder, flying off the handle over something that has a very, very slim chance of being true. Sheva may have joined Chris to look for Josh and out of loyalty, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.)

I don't like Chris for this reason. That, and he's sort of a dick to Rebecca during the REmake, for being human. To elaborate, it's her first mission and everyone dies. She starts crying over Richard, then he just tells her, sort of insensitively, to buck up.

Patronum1121 wrote:

Adam Sessler from X-Play did have issues with the imagery as well in his review of Resident Evil 5. He was saying how the imagery didn't have a message and was for entertainment, which he finds troubling.

Adam Sessler is an idiot. It's best not to take anything coming out of his mouth seriously.

Quote :

Since the BSAA is supposed to be a good organization, it's rather troubling that the story doesn't elaborate on how Chris and Sheva committed genocide.
...
I want to see them after the end of RE5, getting court-marshaled.

Why would they get court martialed? Because they were sent into a hostile environment that boiled down to combat and had to fight their way out? That's not something that any law enforcement or military organization would punish anyone for, regardless of how many or who the OpFor are. Due to the fact that they were in a combat situation where the local population was hostile and trying to kill them, their actions as such do not constitute genocide.

Quote :

I don't like Chris for this reason. That, and he's sort of a dick to Rebecca during the REmake, for being human. To elaborate, it's her first mission and everyone dies. She starts crying over Richard, then he just tells her, sort of insensitively, to buck up.

I would have been a lot harder on her.



Either you fight or you die, plain and simple. There's no middle ground. If little Becca couldn't handle it, she shouldn't have joined the police force.

Like HUNK has said, "This is war. Survival is your responsibility."

Patronum1121 wrote:

Adam Sessler from X-Play did have issues with the imagery as well in his review of Resident Evil 5. He was saying how the imagery didn't have a message and was for entertainment, which he finds troubling.



...I have to agree with you and him. They could've done something other than Wesker as the evil mastermind. There must've been people who had to approve of all of the money Wesker and Excella spent on the Uroboros project. There's been a lot of instability in the region for the past few years in real life, so it could have helped raise awareness on the issue. That would've also helped mitigate the "RE5 is racist!" claims.

Since the BSAA is supposed to be a good organization, it's rather troubling that the story doesn't elaborate on how Chris and Sheva committed genocide. The Ndipaya, even though they were infected, were all killed during the Kijuju Incident. The women and children were killed by Tricell, since they couldn't handle Type 3 Plagas, but all the males were killed by those two. I want to see them after the end of RE5, getting court-marshaled. They disobeyed direct orders, too, for no readily apparent reason. (Chris looking at the picture of Jill comes across as him acting like Agent Mulder, flying off the handle over something that has a very, very slim chance of being true. Sheva may have joined Chris to look for Josh and out of loyalty, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.)

I don't like Chris for this reason. That, and he's sort of a dick to Rebecca during the REmake, for being human. To elaborate, it's her first mission and everyone dies. She starts crying over Richard, then he just tells her, sort of insensitively, to buck up.

I agree with your first paragraph, but not your second. Chris and Sheva did not committ genocide because the Majini were not human. Yes, they looked and acted quite human (albeit very mean humans), but they were simply puppets for the parasites inside them. Did Leon commit genocide in Spain? If anying, Chris and Sheva did the former people a favor since most of them would probably have been horrified at what their bodies were being used for. And even if they were human, they attacked first and did not allow the BSAA agents to explain themselves. Also, Chris did show concern for the people as he tried to help the guy in the beginning and Alyssa; he only shot them when they attacked.

Monster Mash wrote:

I agree with your first paragraph, but not your second. Chris and Sheva did not committ genocide because the Majini were not human. Yes, they looked and acted quite human (albeit very mean humans), but they were simply puppets for the parasites inside them. Did Leon commit genocide in Spain? If anying, Chris and Sheva did the former people a favor since most of them would probably have been horrified at what their bodies were being used for. And even if they were human, they attacked first and did not allow the BSAA agents to explain themselves. Also, Chris did show concern for the people as he tried to help the guy in the beginning and Alyssa; he only shot them when they attacked.

True.

Speaking of them doing the population a favor, I was wondering whether or not Las Plagas infectees are aware of what they're doing and unable to control themselves or if they lose their consciousness completely? Either way is a living hell, but do the games ever confirm which it is, exactly?

About Chris... Something about him creeps me out in RE5. I can't put my finger on it. He doesn't creep me out in any of the other games, so I don't know exactly what it is in 5 that makes me go . Maybe it's the I-think-he-looks-like-he's-on-steroids thing, since anabolic steroid users scare me?

Patronum1121 wrote:

That's a bad review. He's only bitching about the game.

ThomVD wrote:

He's only bitching about the game.

Sessler does a lot of that.