Can Resident Evil 5 claim the survival-horror throne?

Simply put, no, no it cannot.

I played the game solo with an AI controlling the chick so here's my grievances, they may differ from those playing with an actual person, but most of the problems will still plague the game. So let's get started. The control scheme is stuck 4 years in the past, with the amount of enemies constantly being thrown at you the control scheme just can't cut it, Capcom went the lazy route and decided not to take a look at games that had come out in the past 4 years and perhaps borrow some of their ideas that makes a character move more fluidly and feel more responsive.

Inventory management in real-time was a pain in the ass because the AI doesn't know how to mix herbs so her inventory gets clogged up very quick and sometimes I would pick up a new weapon and it wouldn't map it to one of the four quick d-pad slots so if it's a weapon you want to use quite a bit for the rest of the level you have to keep equipping it through the inventory screen until the level is done and you can map it to a quick slot.

Sheva's AI has two basic commands, one is to attack in which she runs right up to people and wastes all her ammo as quickly as possible, or cover in which she takes up whatever the weakest weapon in her inventory is and basically stands next to you watching you get your ass handed to you. Every now and then she'll take a swing with the cattle prod and miss or fire a few pistol rounds. With most of the bosses requiring some co-op thinking it becomes a chore and a pain to fight anything that isn't a standard enemy. Speaking of the standard enemies they have 2 basic AI settings, ones with guns obviously stay far away and now and then shoot some rounds off, and as a zombie would, the fire sputters every which way except for when they finally land one shot then all of a sudden their aim becomes crystal clear and they fire a couple round burst into you and knock you down to the ground. The zombies without weapons have three speeds, from far away they just stand there waiting to be sniped if you have the rifle already, at mid-range they hustle themselves to get up close and personal, and finally once reaching an up-close proximity they walk very slowly , I'm guessing because of the control limitations at hand. Capcom decided to give the players a fighting chance even though it seems they wanted zombies that were fast and frantic, like something we'd never seen before. Oh and a quick note the level design seen throughout the sparse 8-9 hours is as average as it gets, barring one chapter where you're on a boat(I'm on a boat! Take a good hard look at the motherf...)and can complete the level in the order you seem fit, the rest of the levels are straight Point A to Point B with hordes standing in your way, it gets old real quick.


Story wise the game takes the whole Raccoon City trilogy of games and the Umbrella name and turns what used to be campy and fun stories into an over the top and stupid one with terrible dialogue and one that finds itself going in the silliest of directions. I won't go further into the details, I'll let you be surprised by all the botching they do with the franchise lore.

It's a bummer to see this happen with Capcom, as of late their track record has been top-notch for a Japanese company, Dead Rising was fun, hopefully the sequel will address the main criticisms but who knows since it seems the American developer will be copying the formula but putting a different character in a different location, and Lost Planet was a refreshing new franchise and the sequel is looking to be shaping up nicely, and then of course Street Fighter IV dropped and was amazing, so it sucks to see the Resident Evil franchise hit the back burner when 4 was such a great game. This game greatly pales in comparison to Resident Evil 4.

As with my reviews, it comes down to whether to buy it, rent it, or pass, and I'm going to have to give this game a pass, but I've got good news for those looking for a fine 3rd person survival horror game, it's called Dead Space. Go play it, it's far superior to what Capcom took 4 years to deliver. Here's hoping the next Resident Evil game is a winner. Also of note, the man behind Resident Evil 4 Shinji Mikami is supposedly working with Suda 51 to bring a survival-horror game to the 360 and PS3 via EA, so look out for that, I think that should turn out to be very interesting.

Final Verdict: Thumbs Down