Doesn't come close to surpassing its predecessor--but that doesn't make it any less of a good game.
+ Fun third-person-shooting action
+ Good graphics, well animated
+ Cooperative play is great
+ Mercenaries mode is fun
The Bad:
- Poor friendly AI
- Versus mode costs extra
- Not scary
With the masterpiece Resident Evil 4 was, expectations were high for the sequel. Resident Evil 4 took many risks when it completely overhauled the previous gameplay mechanics in the Resident Evil series. Resident Evil 5 plays it safe and sticks to the award-winning predecessor in many aspects, but the one major addition to the series is multiplayer--most importantly the co-op.
The game's third person shooting is identical to RE4's, which basically means the controls are sharp and the shooting is great fun. RE5 also looks great, with well animated character models across the board, fantastic lighting effects, and high quality textures in general. Adding a friend into the mix adds a lot of fun, and fighting massive hordes of infected together is great. RE5 also substantially improves over RE4's mercenaries mode in which you try to achieve the highest score by killing numerous enemies. The addition of the option of playing with friends makes things quite a bit more entertaining.
However, the game of course has it faults--albeit some pretty significant ones. Your partner's AI (in the absence of a friend to play with) ranges from sufficient, to questionable, to downright awful. Your partner will waste ammo or be reluctant to shoot, and often pick up items they have no business picking up. This adds the chore of sorting through each others inventory quite often, which detracts from the fun. In versus mode you try to get the highest score by killing other players while surviving AI-controlled enemies. This sounds and is fun, but that fact that it costs extra is disappointing. Versus mode ultimately feels a lot like something that should have shipped with the game.
However, the worst offense this game makes to the Resident Evil franchise is that it's just not scary. You may become a bit nervous when trying to avoid being killed by skulking crocodiles, or fleeing from chainsaw-wielding maniacs, but rarely, if ever, are you genuinely scary. Resident Evil 5 claims to be a horror game, but it definitely feels a lot more like a 3rd person shooter--a damn good one, at that.
7.5/10
Good