The follow up to the critically acclaimed 2005 hit Resident Evil 4 returns with new co-op and totally familiar gameplay to its critically acclaimed prequel. While the shooting and control scheme remains largely unchanged, still as stiff and stubborn (and loveable) as ever, RE5 takes the lean to action even further. Where in my review of RE4 I said that it drastically takes leaps and bounds away from the survival horror aspects of the PS1 classics, RE5 just goes that bit further and we’ve ended up with a game that might as well not be part of the Resident Evil series - whether that's good or not is quite frankly up for debate.

Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay is solid and even on normal difficulty, the ammunition and health are hardly abundant, which is exactly what we love about these games - the feeling of being dangerously low on health and pretty much out of bullets the whole time. RE5 captures this just as well as before, and battles and confrontations with certain enemies are intense. But the horror and science fiction balance has been tipped completely towards science fiction, and with poor execution, the story and progression of events is undoubtedly shallow and uninspiring. Chris Redfield, and new accomplice Sheva, are on a mission in Africa to search for biological weapons, as well as find the supposedly dead Jill Valentine, all while defeating an old nemesis, Albert Wesker.

 To continue, regrettably on a sour note, bosses are just disappointingly bad. There’s practically no variety; I kind of enjoyed RE4’s insectoid approach to creature design and every boss, while not too much of a challenge, was nice to look at, as well as interesting to fight. But everything is made of ‘worms’ in this game, and on top of that they're atrociously boring. There are the zombies/infected inhabitants as common enemies, which seem to borrow more from the previous game’s ‘plagas’, but they serve their purpose well enough. Whereas RE4’s charmingly dull and edgy graphics may have been great for the PS2 era, Resident Evil’s first new-gen console release boasts very nice graphics and vivid lighting. But let’s get one thing straight. If you want a shock and a scare, then you’d seriously better not pick up this game. It has just about as much going for it in terms of horror as any generic action game on the market nowadays. Having said this, the last game didn’t exactly make me jump out of my skin, so I’ll let this one slide. Besides, RE5 is a pure all-out ACTION GAME- nothing more, nothing less. The chance of classic Resident Evil making a comeback is long gone now. 

As for the co-op, I really had mixed opinions about this. While some of the story parts go out of their way to utilise co-operative elements (needlessly, might I add) you’ll spend most of your time going around with your partner shooting foes down. Unless you have a real nice friend or sibling, it’s likely you’ll be doing most of the game by yourself, and this is when stuff goes wrong. The AI is horrendous. If you have any sense, then she’s merely a walking briefcase you can put your unwanted belongings in. Unfortunately, you need to fend for her as well because of course, if she dies its game over. So she’ll have few good weapons, because you will be spending every last penny on your own weapons and upgrades, and if that isn’t enough she is the ultimate ammo waster and cannot use health items sparingly. I have nothing against co-op in video games, but when the single player experience is compromised as a result, I would have preferred it without. So playing without a friend is a nightmare, and I strongly recommend you grab another controller and get stuck in with a fellow human being. If that’s not enough, then play online with a random stranger, because anything is better than having the cumbersome AI at your side. But be warned, if you try and pick up a buddy half way through the game, their character will be left with all the shitty weapons you gave to the AI. So have fun with that.

Okay, now most the negatives are out of the way, we can focus on the core gameplay. Frankly, a lot of it was reminiscent of RE4, a game whose innovative, if slightly backwards, controls complimented the steady pace of the enemies, making a brilliantly crafted and intense combat feel. If there was something to take from that game in this instalment, I’m glad it was the controls and camera. There’s a nice variety of weapons, though, and they’re often available for quick purchasing at the game over screen and the level start screen. There is also a cover system hardly worth mentioning, PS Move support, and the obligatory rail shooter section. But why, oh why, did they omit the virtual-space briefcase? One of the great innovations of RE4, the ability to manage physical space of your inventory items, has been replaced with the classic item grid where a herb vial takes up as much space as a rocket launcher. I was really disappointed about this, because Capcom seem to have fixed something that was not the slightest bit broken. *sigh* Well I did say MOST of the negatives were out the way…

I know it may seem this review is quite bitter, but I genuinely think this is a big step down from RE4. While the brilliant and unique controls are fantastic…ally ripped straight from its predecessor, it offers few new innovations. Lacklustre puzzles, terrible AI, co-op only worth using if you have an equally game-obsessed buddy – these are problems that even the terrific graphics can’t cover up. Admittedly I enjoyed the Mercenaries minigame, and the actual level design is top notch. But any aspect of RE5 just made me wish I was playing RE4, not to mention RE4’s longer game length. So to summarise, it’s not a bad action game, just not nearly as good as the last in the series, which you are actually better off getting instead. I’m not sure why Resident Evil 5 has received so much praise from other websites, but when you start wishing you had Ashley back, you know something’s gone wrong. 

- Alex