There's some fun to be had but all in all Resident Evil 5 is a mediocre game that suffers from a serious identity crisis
This game utilizes the same formula as Resident Evil, in that it's a third person shooter/action game. However Resident Evil 5 doesn't add anything to the franchise. It has all the flaws of Resident Evil 4 and more, it even managed to break some things that were done correctly in Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 5 also threw all atmosphere of previous games out the window setting it more apart from previous installments as Resident Evil 4.
The story was as cliched as can be and felt rushed. The main game is actually pretty short and can be beaten in like 6 hours. Of course there is also the unlockable bonus materials, extra weapons and mercenary mode but it gets repetitive real quick and there's no real reason to play this game once you finished the campaign and played a couple of rounds on mercenary mode.
The main problem with Resident Evil 5 is that it's a mediocre game no matter how you review it. If you review it as a survival horror game it fails, but if you review it as a third person action game it also fails. The controls have the same restrictons as in Resident Evil 4, you still can't shoot while walking and this can really be a pain if you're surrounded by enemies (which WILL happen). The actualy shooting an feel satisfying but there's still the "shaky aim" like in Resident Evil 4 that is supposed to make the game more realistic but on the PC with mouse and keyboard controls it literally serves no purpose other than to look silly. I don't blame Capcom for going taking a more acton oriented approach with the series, but if you're going to do that then at least do it good and don't half ass it.
The whole co-op aspect feels forced and the friendly AI is terrible as your partner will normally rush into enemies getting him/herself into trouble. Especially on harder difficulties this can be a pain as the game ends when one of the two players die. The inventory system is just awful. You basically have nine slots and each item takes one slot, there is no way to unlock more slots. Later on in the game you'll also have access to body armor which consists of two pieces which take up space in your inventory limiting you to only 7 slots. Bullets also take an inventory slot but do that in certain amounts. So let's say you have 150 pistol bullets and you pick up another ammo box, it will use another item slot. You'll always have just enough space to carry what you want so most of the time you'll be using your partner as a packing mule (especially in single player). This can lead to some moments in which you have to trade an item with your partner to get a healing item, use the healing item and then get back the item you gave to your partner. This is unecessarily clunky and can break the game's pacing at times. In multiplayer both players are pretty much forced to sacrifice certain equipment to free slots for healing items which normally. restricts you to using 1 weapon.
On the bright side I do have to add however that the game looks really good, both on consoles and PC but this is the only aspect in which the game excells.
All in all Resident Evil 5 is a game with a serious identity crisis that doesn't know to what genre it wants to belong. As a result it is mediocre at everything it does and is filled with annoyances that will stack up while playing. This calls for an appropriate score, a game that isn't necessarily bad but it's also not good by any means.
Final verdict: 5/10 (mediocre)