Resident Evil 4 was such a masterpiece that the hype was truly massive for this game, so the question is “does it live up to the hype?” The short answer is: “Yes, absolutely.” The other question, “is it as good as Resident Evil 4?” is a little trickier – you see Resident Evil 5 is very different, so it all depends what you would like to get out of it. Those looking for a first rate action game will not be disappointed, but those hoping against hope for any semblance of survival horror will be.

Chris Redfield (he with the huge biceps) has just landed in Kijuju, a fictional territory somewhere in Africa (presumably in East Africa because there is some Swahili spoken in game). He meets up with Sheva Alomar, a local operative who has been trained in fighting bio-weapons in America, and together they are supposed to meet up with a BSAA team. As it turns out, everyone has gone crazy in town and the situation quickly turns from bad to worse. Soon Chris and Sheva are fighting the most formidable B.O.W’s (a technical name for things that are huge and hideous) the world has ever seen. The plot, as is right in a game, is simply a device to propel events that are increasingly intense, and does a good job at this. The stage of the game, the area the events occur in, is huge, far bigger than any Resident Evil game before it, going from a town to old ruins to swamps and more. This alone gives an indication that we are not in survival horror territory any more with the claustrophobic surroundings of a single mansion: this is action adventure with a horror theme.

Co-operative play

The much publicized new gameplay element in Resident Evil 5, other than the action focus, is the co-operative play. I played through the game in single-player as Chris (he’s the only option for your first play-through), so the AI handled Sheva’s actions. You can give her directions as to what you would like her to be doing: to cover you or to attack the enemy are the main behavioural options, but you can also direct her to pick up health, ammo and the like, and you control her inventory. At some points both players need to perform an action to proceed, and she will follow your lead at these points. I found the AI to be near perfect – Sheva would fight well and generally do things that made sense. Of course, you are much better off playing with another human player as that will improve the experience in every way, but failing that the AI makes a good partner.

Other than the co-operative partner-based element, the controls are very similar to Resident Evil 4’s. The camera follows Chris, looking over his shoulder as he walks. When you want to aim at something to shoot it you press L1 and Chris points his gun. The left stick controls his aim while a little red beam shows where the shot would go. Pressing R1 shoots. When you want to move again you have to let go of L1 first, which means you can’t move and shoot at the same time. When you are walking you are able to step sideways (a new addition since RE4), but when you are running (by holding down X) you can’t strafe at all as before. Turning around is a laborious process, although you can do a 180 degrees really quickly by pressing back and X. So in essence the controls are the same as before, and you will like them, or not, as before. I find the controls intuitive to use and I think they suit the gameplay. While the focus might be more on action this time, there is still that horror element that gives the game its uniqueness, and the controls are part of that – part of increasing the sense of fear: you’re thinking “what’s behind me?”, “what’s on my flanks?”, and you’re not able to quickly flip left and right to see.

There is also a cover system introduced in certain places that is similar to Gears of War or Uncharted, allowing you to crouch behind a box and press L1 to pop out and aim. I enjoyed this cover system as it was used fairly sparingly, mostly in places that would be exceptionally difficult without it. There are also enhanced context actions available: when you’ve shot a Majini (the name for the “zombies” in the game) and they’re bent over from the shock you can go up to them and press the square button to perform an uppercut. Chris and Sheva each have three different moves depending on the state of the Majini, and also have a move that finishes off a Majini that’s on the ground. It’s a great way of saving ammo and the moves are quite spectacular.

More subtle action-oriented changes

Another considerable change is the real-time swapping of weapons. Previously when you brought your inventory up the game would pause and allow you to eat some herbs to restore health, and to swap weapons while the action was paused, but now you have to do all that in the heat of battle. Fortunately you can assign weapons to the directions on the D-pad by placing them in a certain slots in your inventory, and fortunately Sheva was much better at managing when to use health than I was so I gave her all the health. The inventory itself sees the old suitcase replaced by a 3x3 grid for each character, each slot of which can hold one item, no matter how big. This means that you don’t get to rearrange your items in your suitcase a la Tetris, and that a bit of handgun ammo takes as much space as a grenade launcher which is a bit odd. I do miss this little puzzle aspect (as I miss all the puzzles from Resident Evil 4, there are none here), but I can understand that with the focus on action these are the things that must fall away. I did, however, find the 9-slot inventory highly constricting, so much so that considerable time was still spent doing inventory management to pass items between Chris and Sheva in order to clear a spot for ammo or a herb.

Finally on the list of changes is the removal of typewriters and merchants. Saving happens automatically at the end of every stage, while a good checkpoint system means that when you die you only go back a little (most likely to just before you died). If you quit and return to your game later you will be at the last auto-save point, and there are usually a number of these scattered through the stage. Merchants are also gone, replaced with a between-stage shop which allows you to sell the jewels you’ve found, buy weapons or herbs, or upgrade your weapons. When you die you also go to this screen, which allows you to rearrange your inventory (there is a sort of suitcase here that can store unlimited items allowing you to save up your grenades, guns or herbs for later). I miss the old typewriter music, that soothing atmospheric sound that used to play while I was saving, and I miss the blue glow of a merchant that signified an area safe from the madness of the world beyond it. Resident Evil 5 makes everything more immediate and rushed with almost no respite until the stage ends.

Variety and production quality

Now allow me to gush a little: once again Capcom have produced an astonishing game. Once again I immediately started my second run-through after completing the first (which took around 12 hours on normal), this time as Sheva. Once again the graphics are some of the best of the generation, and once again the imagination on display in the B.O.W’s and other “things” you fight is phenomenal. The atmosphere created is markedly different from previous Resident Evil games because of the increased amounts of action, but it still grips you intensely and you find after a boss fight at the end of a chapter that you’ve been sitting on the edge of the seat with all your muscles tensed.

The 12 hour adventure is so jam-packed with variety in enemies, weapons, bosses, locations and situations that I cannot fault it for being so much shorter than Resident Evil 4 since it is so much more focused. Resident Evil 5 is also packed with content. There are lots of extras to unlock including a history of each character in the game, a mercenaries mode to play through with lots of stages and characters, and of course there is the main game to play through again and again, with or without a friend as partner. I cannot recommend the game highly enough. The only proviso is for those easily scared – make sure you play with a friend.

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