Resident Evil has long been considered the premiere survival horror series. The zombie blasting, puzzle solving horror fest became immediately popular, so much that the series has spanned several sequels over nearly every system since it's premiere. Five games into the series (including Resident Evil 0 and Code Veronica) Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, sensed that people were getting bored with the way the games were set up. With Resident Evil 4 he completely revamped the series by making it faster paced and more focused on action, and though I loved the game I secretly hoped with the fifth installment the series would go back to it's survival horror roots. Unfortunately I was wrong, but like the previous game Resident Evil 5 is still quite fun.

Resident Evil 5

Chris Redfield (one of the main characters from the original game) is back in the saddle again, but this time he's on a whole new continent. The setting for part 5 is an undeveloped country in Africa in which a branch of the pharmaceuticals company Tri-cell is based. Chris along with his new partner Sheva Alomar must track down a mysterious man named Irving in hopes of shedding some light on the local infestation a new version of the parasite introduced in Resident Evil 4; Las Plagas. Things aren't going to be so easy for the two partners - they've got to work their way through entire villages of infected villagers before reaching the man with the plan.

It's best not to take the Resident Evil storyline too seriously. The original games' stories were pure unadultered b-movie bliss, and that's one of the things I found most charming about them. Resident Evil 4 was a more serious affair but it worked surprisingly well. Part 5 attempts to follow the same direction, but in my opinion it fails. The story takes itself quite seriously but this does not work well because so many aspects of it are embarrassingly cheesy. It's no secret that an old villain from earlier in the series makes his triumphant return, but the way the development team handled him is a bad joke. Seems to me someone was a big fan of the Matrix. It feels like the spirit of Resident Evil has died a little with this new installment.

Resident Evil 5 employs the same over the shoulder view made famous by it's prequel. You run through the various environments which include African villages, laboratories etc blasting away oncoming infected natives, super sized Alligators, deformed bats, and every other twisted creature the game throws at you. Unfortunately you can't run and shoot at the same time - in order to pull out your weapon you must be standing still. Aiming is done via an on-screen laser sight and you can adjust your target by moving the right trigger button. Unfortunately you have to hold down the left trigger to enter aim mode, but for fans of part 4 this is nothing new.

What is new however is the co-operative design RE5 is based around. Naturally you can't control both Chris and Sheva at the same time, but you're given a few different options here. You can either let the secondary character be controlled via online or system link by a human player, or you can simply let the artificial intelligence take over. When the A.I. is in control of the other character you can give them two options for what they do - cover or attack. On my first playthrough I kept Sheva on cover the entire time because the computer tends to get itself into trouble more often than not, and if your partner dies it's an instant game over. What's interesting is that if an enemy grabs on to your ally you can run over and release them from their grasp - the game even warns you when this happens by flashing the 'help' icon.

This brings me to the overall theme of partnership prevalent in this game. In nearly every chapter you'll be forced to pass a barrier requiring the co-operation of both characters. This can be anything simple from switches that need to be pressed at the same time, to different areas where only one person can go. The set up gets a little old at times, especially when you've got the A.I. controlling your partner because this often results in the character taking their time getting to your location and/or getting stuck on certain environmental hazards. Furthermore the ideals of partnership come in to play during the storyline several time in a terribly corny fashion that feels out of place in the game's stark atmosphere.

With a partner comes added responsibility. Each character has their own separate inventory. This allows each of them to carry nine items with them at a time including weapons, medicine, etc. Ammunition takes it's own slot so you'll need to plan things through - I found it best to focus different weapons on each character in order to save room by not forcing both to carry the same types of ammo. When the partners are near each other you are able to exchange items between the two which is a useful feature. Unfortunately I really miss Re4's inventory system (which required much more planning due and was almost a game in itself) and I'm surprised that they dumbed down this aspect for the sequel. The store makes it's triumphant return and sells everything from new guns to body armor.

Zombies were once the main enemy and defining enemy of this series, but much like RE4, this installment features something entirely different. Replacing the Ganados from the last game, Resident Evil 5's once human foes are known as the Majini. They're basically Ganados with a different name with a few negligible differences. Unlike zombies these creatures are intelligent, fast moving, use tools, and can work together to bring you down. They like to travel in swarms and can definitely be pesky in these situations. Their major weakness is in that they tend to run at you and slow down in their final approach - thus rendering them easy targets. Some of the more advanced infected gain super human size and strength. This game marks the triumphant return of the chainsaw guy who can kill you in one well placed hit. There seems to be no major A.I. update to the enemies but they're still worthy adversaries.

The gameplay is quite fun, but Resident Evil 5 is not without it's problems. While there are minor issues here and there the one that bugs me most is the upsetting direction Capcom is taking the series, most notably in the last parts of the game. Resident Evil 5 becomes more generic in the later areas as enemies begin resorting to using advanced weaponry such as guns and rocket launchers. It's here that the game takes a 'me too' approach to it's gameplay by throwing you into situations where you'll take cover and exchange gunfire with the enemies. The thing that urks me is that these situations aren't nearly as fun as the battles against the mobs in the beginning of the game. It feels more like Gears of War than it does Resident Evil, and that to me is disappointing.

The most clear upgrade since Resident Evil 4 is the graphics. The character models are among the best this generation has seen with insane textures and extremely detailed animations. The game's lighting is also really nice and unlike many next gen games doesn't suffer from an over use of bloom effects. Resident Evil 5 is a brighter and more colorful game than the previous entry in the series and it has an atmosphere all it's own. The game gets even more intense when you battle the several huge boss characters - all of the big ones look absolutely amazing. One of the more interesting aspects of the visual style is that several of the enemies are dressed up in tribal garb and use befitting weapons. This makes them more memorable from the typical onslaught of enemies. Overall this is a fantastic looking game.

Audio-wise Resident Evil 5 fares pretty well. The music serves an interesting purpose of alerting you to the presence of the enemies. Once you kill all enemies in a given area the music goes silent which is a surprisingly eerie effect. Considerable effort was put into the boss battle orchestrations which are quite epic and give these battles a feeling of vast scale. The sound effects are incredibly immersive and for the most part they all seem to be real recordings. Voice overs are quite well done and I found myself particularly fond of the cut scenes because of this. Sheva's voice actor in particular does a great job.

Another area of this game that raises concerns are the controls. Maybe I've been spoiled by Resident Evil 4's control system on the Wii (the pointer worked amazingly in that game) but it's really hard to go back to the dual analog set up. It just plain feels clunky now and aiming takes a little time to get used to. In situations where you've only got a few seconds to hit an enemy before they close the distance the aiming system simply isn't good enough. Resident Evil 5 also makes use of quick time events in which you must press buttons during cut scenes to avoid dying. These aren't a big problem but because of them you really can't drop your guard at any time. There are several control schemes to choose from but I didn't venture too much from the C option. The controls are the most difficult hurdle to overcome, and even once you get used to them they still have their problems.

Final Recommendation
While Resident Evil 5 isn't quite as good as the last one it's still a great game that falls just short of being amazing. The game continues the style of gameplay introduced in Resident Evil 4 with good results, but this entry has made me feel that Capcom may be wearing it out a bit. Here's to hoping that the next RE game is done classic style, but even if it isn't I'm sure it'll still be great. As far as I'm concerned Dead Rising is still Capcom's premiere 'zombie' game this generation, but Resident Evil 5 is no slouch.

Recommended: Yes