Resident Evil 5 tells the story of Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar who have to investigate some strange happenings related to THE virus, black markets and ugly mutated humans and monsters. The game throws in into action pretty fast, but not after it gets you in the mood for slaughter with an awesome intro.
One of the most important aspects in Resident Evil 5, at least gameplay-wise, is your new partner Sheva, since she can be controlled by a human player in a great co-op mode that simply takes the game to a new level (and, honestly, if you don’t play Resi5 in co-op, you miss a lot!). Still, if you simply don’t want to bring a friend in and follow the story together, Sheva will be controlled by the AI and, unlike what you might expect, she does a great job, never stays in your way and will soon become a really useful companion. Of course, she is not perfect, she tends to waste ammo and she doesn’t really seem to understand boss fights perfectly, but I wouldn’t like an AI character to drag me after her through the game, either. So she is quite OK.
However, the biggest problem with the game is the moving-and-shooting thing which is not possible, for whatever reason. It’s artificial, unnatural and completely pointless to be unable to move and aim at the same time, but this was probably a trick Capcom used to add some extra difficulty to the game and, why not, even slow us down a little. There’s not too much horror a human being can take, right? Still, I would’ve preferred some more freedom in moving and aiming, especially in the later stages of the game when the action gets very, very intense. But we have to deal with that and say “thanks” for the other improvements.
One of which is the inventory system. Except for the fact that, in single player, you can use Sheva to carry some of the items (nine at most) you don’t really, really need, the object themselves no longer have different sizes, which means that anytime one item will take just one spot, no matter how big or small it is.
Visually, Resident Evil 5 is one of the best looking Xbox 360 games I have ever played, with great lighting effects, rich and detailed animations and some great designs. The sound also rises up to the standards of the game, providing a great voice acting and a pretty good soundtrack. However, I kind of felt the need for “more” from the music, even though I can’t really define “more” in this case. Strange, I know.
As I said in the intro, Resident Evil 5 manages to meet the expectations and deliver quality gameplay, intense action and, overall, an almost flawless Resident Evil experience. I consider the game evolution compared to the highly appreciated Resident Evil 4, and I guess that sums things up pretty well. It’s a must play title nevertheless with only one problem that keeps it away from being perfect: the rather strange controls.
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