Resident Evil is far from dead...
Graphically the game is easily one of the best looking games to date on any console and even more so in HD. Characters look fantastic and in the cut-scenes you will be forgiven if you forget these are not real people. Africa looks very real too and the entire game offers jaw dropping visuals no matter what part of the story you are in. My only gripes are that Africa looks so beautiful but Resident Evil works best when you have dark, decaying old places in the game and too many bosses look the same by being just giant spider type creatures or black oily monsters, which lacks variety and fails to take advantage of the powerful engine.
Resident Evil offers a decent enough soundtrack which can add to certain elements in the game and the rest of the sounds from the African infected to any gun/explosion noises are done to a very high standard. However the game lacks the ability to create a tense atmosphere due to the more action orientated path that the game follows, which is something that helped make previous installments the kings of the horror genre. Voice acting is done much better than in any of the previous games but its more the writing rather than the delivery, which will make some lines feel cheesy and cringe-worthy.
Gameplay is solid by adding some new elements to the franchise and getting rid of some older ones that aren't needed anymore but its not all perfect as some of the old annoyances from the franchise's past are still around to haunt you. Shooting is improved with the addition of lasers on most guns and the new 3rd person camera helps greatly but there is still tweaking to be done in both areas. The cover system does help with the game's more action approach and the action moves are the funniest to use, plus they have been expanded from Resident Evil 4. The co-op moves have been implemented into the game well, like the ability to help your partner though a few like chucking each other up to high places just to separate you for like 30 seconds feel tacked on as you are never really alone, which is what made Resident Evil so hard and scary.
Resident Evil offers a decent AI system for the most part and the enemies act very similar to its counterparts of Resident Evil 4 but for some tweaks. However the AI has the habit of sometimes not responding to you sniping a fellow AI friend next to it and sometimes they can be a little predictable to the point of becoming tedious, which is a problem mainly found in boss fights. Your AI partner can hold there own but can be a little annoying at times, mainly with picking up anything they see on ground even if its pointless to take and the game is just generally more fun when you play with a human partner to avoid such things.
The game offers a solid length campaign though its much shorter than previous Resident Evil games, especially Resident Evil 4 which was closer to 18-20 hours minimum. The game does offer some replay value due to the 4 different difficulty modes, Mercenaries mode and the achievements are fun to go for but the non linear nature and shortness of the game does hamper any replay value. CO-OP is a fresh take on the franchise and works really well though I do suspect that is the main culprit for why the game is shorter and maybe they should work on a non CO-OP story next time with the option to play the mode if you want by a drop in system used quite successfully in the past by the likes of Perfect Dark & Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Overall Resident Evil 5 is a success and while some die-hard fans will not like the new direction of the franchise, it will please most and bring in new fans to keep the demand for future Resident Evil games though hopefully with slightly better scripts.