Resident Evil 5: Demoview

Ok people I’ll be honest; I’ve played a lot of Resident Evil games but I’ve never beaten one before, not a single one.

Why? Not sure.

I didn’t like the game; I got bored with it, etc. It could be any number of things but it is what it is. And you know what; I don’t feel any lost for not finishing any of the series games. That being said, Resident Evil 5 could be the first of the series I will finish to completion. Thanks to Capcom and whatever geniuses at Microsoft, the masses got a sneak preview of RE5 in a form of a short (but sweet) demo for the Xbox 360. Don’t worry; PS3 owners will get a taste later on. Players start the demo with two stage choices; one in which you fight for your life against a zombie horde, the other is a standard ‘shoot one, turn two, collect one, boss two’. One of the main characters of this adventure is a Zombie killing vet: Chris Redfield he now works for an anti terrorist organization Jack Bower style. The other main character is hot number name Sheva Alomar, who works for her own agency: the B.S.A.A. Whatever fates brought them together, they must combine their skills in order to survive Capcom’s latest sign of the apocalypse.

That’s right! It’s takes two to tango with the dead in RE5, and might I say it’s about freaken time. My favorite of the Resident Evil games (and a ‘very’ crude prototype of Left 4 Dead) was Resident Evil Outbreak. It was a game with no mic support, crazy camera angles and a somewhat random storyline. But it allowed players to work together, pull their talents, and take on the zombie hordes of Raccoon city in a fun and interesting way. RE5 brings back that sense with cooperation, focusing on no man (or woman) left behind because if one of you dies, you both do. I liked what I played, everything looked smooth and there were no graphical glitches. The demo didn’t enlighten me to the story (of course), but as long as I was shooting something I was happy. The CPU partner was spot on, saving me from damnation a couple of times - really though the experience comes alive with another player. My only true compliant is the controls scheme, when you’re being hunted by a pack of pseudo-dead (just as speedy as you are) the ability to run ‘and’ fire your weapon at the same time is not only common sense, but a good idea. Instead Capcom still holds true the ‘turret target’ style of shooting that Resident Evil is so known for; meaning players can’t run-&-gun as the same time. Unfortunately this combat style cannot be changed and in turn does slow down (and cheap-up) the game play somewhat - but in no way, shape, or form is this game breaker. It just takes getting use to.

This demo has already broken record numbers for Xbox live downloads. If people weren’t already foaming at the mouth like some brain obsessed zombie, they will be after playing this. Fortunately the full game’s release date is March 13, 2009; so they won’t be waiting for too much longer.