That's right folks, Capcom has once again released yet another game in the survival horror series we all know and love (or not). Resident Evil 5 is now out on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. I picked it up for Xbox and have been playing it quite a bit.
First off it plays like RE4, so if you were a fan of that one you will surely enjoy this one. The graphics are definitely improved over RE4. The biggest change is that you now work with a partner this time around (which can be controlled either game AI or a 2nd player). The game's AI is actually pretty good and its shots are damn accurate. Its pretty good at getting items you don't have space for and if it grabs ammo your weapon uses, its good at handing it over to you.
Also, as stated, a 2nd player can control your partner by a number of methods. There is a two-player, split-screen system link. You can also have friends or random players join into your game via Xbox Live or PS3 network.
Onto controls and game play. Once again your character movement is just like Resident Evil 4. They still move and turn like a tank (thank God for quick turn!) and there is still no ability to move and gun even though most RE vets are fine with this. Enemy AI is slightly improved from RE4 but they made some changes to make it a lil harder on you - like armor wearing baddies where you have to shoot at certain spots to even hit them. I didn't really find the bosses all that hard this time though, which was a lil disappointing but I still did enjoy fighting them so it was all good in the end.
As for game length, I probably spent about 7 hours total playing this on my first run through, which is about normal nowadays with these type of games. The unlocks are pretty nice. When you fully upgrade certain starting weapons, you unlock its ultimate version to purchase. Also fully upgrading weapons gives you the ability to purchase infinite ammo for that gun via exchange points at the bonus features menu (these points are earned via playing through the game or Mercenaries mode which is unlocked after beating the game once). There are other unlockables as well but I don't want to give it all away now do I? =p
If you're a fan of the RE series then this game will not disappoint, though people who were not into RE4 may not be into this one so much, but still worth a rent at least. Good gaming all. Runex out. =)