Resident Evil 5

Title: Resident Evil 5
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: March 13, 2009
Date Played: March 2009
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Ive always enjoyed the Resident Evil series, although the only game in the franchise that I have ever finished was Resident Evil 2 in 1998 on the PS1. The characters and the convoluted premise always appealed to me.

I was pretty excited about the prospect of playing through Resident Evil 5 co-op with my buddy Gavin. We have played through several games over Xbox Live (Army of Two for example) and it has always been a very enjoyable experience. So as soon as RE5 hit the shelves we each grabbed a copy and jumped in. I played as Chris, and he played as Sheva.  It took us a few weeks (5-7 sessions total) of playing a few hours at a time to finish the campaign.

Even though I havent played a Resident Evil game in over a decade I was immediately reminded of what it was like to play one.  The inability to shoot while moving, familiar characters and even the UI was reminiscent of my late 90's experience with the franchise.  While most people seemed to hate on the fact that RE5 failed to evolve along with the rest of the third person shooter genre (main gripe being the inability to move while shooting), I found these design decisions to be completely fine and fitting for the type of game Resident Evil 5 was trying to be. And although it did take a mission or two to get used to the controls, once I did, they felt as natural as in any other game.

I am going to go out on a limb and state that Resident Evil 5 was best co-op experience I have ever had (at least on the consoles). The game was of a perfect length, the level layout and enemy patterns were laid out in such a way that it was enjoyable to fight through them with a buddy. The boss fights were somewhat creative and different from each other. And the overarching story kept me interested throughout.

I have absolutely no complains about RE5. I feel that Capcom (developer) accomplished everything they set out to do with this title, and as I already mentioned I feel that it is one of the best co-op experiences this generation. I loved every minute of it and am hoping to find Resident Evil 6 (whenever that comes) to be just as enjoyable. Props to Capcom for sticking to the roots of the franchise and developing an excellent third person zombie (virus or whatever) action game. I had so much fun with it that I am thinking about playing through it again split-screen with my girlfriend (thank you Capcom for including NewGame+ mechanic).