Resident Evil 5 in race storm

Set in a fictional African country, the latest in the critically-acclaimed Resident Evil series is sparking racial controversy over its choice of enemies.

Famed for their zombie-packed gameplay, the Resident Evil games form one of gaming's longest-running horror stories. But recent episodes have adopted more modern premises, and the fifth title eschews the undead altogether, leaving the apple-pie hero to gun down armies of what the Wall Street Journal calls "poor and shirtless" African villagers. It's not surprising that it's aroused some interest.

Read MTV interview with Ex-Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal on Resident Evil

One of those shocked by the game's content was respected industry commentator N'Gai Croal, who described his initial reaction to Resident Evil 5 as, "Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game." (You can read Croal's full analysis in this MTV interview.) It's not an unreasonable assumption: as the WSJ observes, the video games industry is dominated by white and Asian males. In games, black protagonists are a comparatively rare sight.

Resident Evil's designer, Jun Takeuchi, told MTV in an interview that he was suprised at the reaction many observers had to the game, and commented that racial issues in his native Japan are different from those in Western countries. (Incidentally, he also confirmed that several of Resident Evil 5's development team are black.)

The game doesn't confront the race issue head-on: the protagonist, Chris Redfield, has a female sidekick who's from the region (although she's light-skinned), and the WSJ notes the game is careful to identify why his opponents are so violent. "The game suggests that the barbarism depicted in the game is a result of your enemies' zombieness, not their African identity. In short, Africans don't beat you to death with their hands -- zombies do," it says. But there's still little Chris can do about it except shoot them.

Watch Playback: Resident Evil 5 Sparks Controversy

Is it racist? Taken purely in isolation, the sight of a white male gunning down hordes of semi-mindless African opponents has provoked many reactions. But although only a few reviews have sneaked out so far, they largely brush off the racism allegations: it's currently scoring 87% at review aggregation site metacritic.com. Even the BBFC, the group responsible for issuing age certifications in Britain, publicly declared the race controversy a non-issue.

Other commentators have been less charitable. One preview on Eurogamer.net slammed the game as playing "so blatantly into the old cliches of the dangerous dark continent and the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s".

But most video game critics seem to have ignored the race controversy. "For my money, fun is fun, and RE5 has near infinite ammo in that department," said IGN in this review, which goes on to award it a top score. In fact, it's turning in top scores almost across the board.

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