Beat it. Incredible.
Pros:
+ Some of the best looking graphics this gen
+ Amazing sense of atmosphere
+ Great action
+ When it gets good, it gets REALLY good
+ Best story in the main series, along with the best Files. So if you're a Files whore you'll be happy.
+/- Sheva coming along with Chris means the cutscenes don't feel so lonely. The tradeoff is that a part of the Resident Evil experience is isolation and being by yourself at almost all times. Always having a partner ruins this.
+ Excellent fanservice. Wesker. The best enemy in the series reappear (no, not Nemesis).
+ Chapters 4-1, 4-2, and 5-1 feel like a marriage between old style RE and new style. It's really wonderful, and when the horror ramps it up it feels like true action horror, and not like a full on action game like the rest of the game, kinda like Aliens.
+ One of the things it took from RE4 was its pacing and variety. Each new chapter and subchapter has a different goal, a different look, with new enemies and situations thrown at you. It's ridiculously well paced, one of the best paced games ever (like RE4). And the amount of weapon variety, enemy variety, and visual variety borders on insane.
+ It's RE4 style gameplay. That should be enough.
+ Lots of incentives to replay. Tons of unlockables.
Negatives:
- Game is too easy, the game is broken in general. Developing the game to be made around co-op ruins the single player experience at times. The last two or so chapters of the game on sp, Sheva is useless. On top of this, veteran mode is too hard on sp because Sheva's not competent enough of a partner by herself, normal is too easy but it works. You can exploit the game using the new chapter select system as well. It's pretty much Devil May Cry 3 meets RE4 in that regard, but DMC3 doesn't allow you to get unlimited ammo in weapons in the easiest difficulty and the transfer those weapons on to Veteran. You can just farm for cash on Amateur and then make an unlimited ammo gun if you want.
- Sense of subtley is completely gone. It makes me wonder if the developers ever played Resident Evil game. When you encounter dogs early on, Sheva says,"Dogs! Oh no!" rather than letting the player figure out what's going on by visual or audio clues. It completely ruins the surprise. Imagine if you're playing RE1, and the dogs pop out of the window and Chris/Jill say,"OH GOD DOG!" or when the chainsaw guy in RE4 pops out and Leon says,"HOLY SHIT A CHAINSAW!". No, you have dogs just randomly popping out of windows or you hear the buzzing of a chainsaw all of sudden. The games let the players figure everything out. The game has to have a cutscene for EVERY enemy, show you EVERY enemy. There are no surprises in the game with the exception of 5-1 which is amazing.
- The game relies far too much on action. They probably forgot this is a horror title. Which is the game's biggest failing; this game doesn't know what the mango it is. It's an identity crisis. Sometimes it wants to be a horror action title and sometimes it's far too action packed to be something with the RE name on it. There's far too many kill rooms (as in, kill x amount of enemies to get out of this room or situations) for an RE game.
- Co-op ruins single player.
- Some of the bosses are really not creative at all, which is disappointing since RE4 is like, the bible of videogame bosses. Fighting an El Gigante while on a turret? What were they thinking? In RE4, you use the entire environment to kill those things. Each scenario against a El Gigante is different. In RE5 you're on a turret just firing lead into it. Boring. Final boss sucks. There's only a few memorable bosses period.
- The lack of gore is disheartening. RE4 had the best game over screens in a game. Period. I died on purpose to see the gore, it was that amazing. RE5 doesn't even have decapitations, something even RE1 on the psx had. Rarely any disembowels. I never saw Chris or Sheva get cut in half either. Even in RE1, you're cut in half or swallowed whole by a friggin huge snake. Ridiculous.
- Sheva's AI. It works, sometimes. When it doesn't it makes me want to kill things.
- Inventory system.
- QTE's aren't as good as RE4's, nor as plentiful. Most of the time when a QTE popped up I missed it. Like, I'd just move an inch and it'd disappear. Also, the QTE's lack impact. I'll press the button configurations and nothing happens.
Overall, while not as good as RE4 it's still excellent. Easily an early contender for game of the year cuz when it comes down to it most of the problems are nitpicks from people who like RE. With all of its problems it's still more satisfying than 99% of the games this gen on sp and it can only get BETTER on co-op.
