Renewing the Resident Evil series.
Like everyone knows, Resident Evil ends when they blow up the entire Raccoon City in RE 3, right? Wrong! In the next titles of the series, like Code Veronica and RE 4, we discover that Umbrella was not only developing, but was selling those bio-weapons that were being developed through its many labs through the entire world. And, finally in the last title of the series, RE 5 dig a little more from the story of Umbrella and about the Progenitor Virus, the virus that made all the others.
In truth, RE 5 is a improved version of RE 4. But, instead of Leon, we have Chris, not alone, but with a new partner: Sheva. He accepted this mission because he hears that his missing old partner could be there: Jill. So, he arrives in a country in the middle of Africa that was transformed in a battlefield through the bio-weapons developed by Umbrella. Then, together with Sheva, Chris starts to discover the true history behind Umbrella and what is behind the miss of Jill.
With a partner means that we will not be alone while we play. In single player, we control Chris and the AI control Sheva. You could think that is a bad deal, but Capcom made a great job working in the AI of Sheva. She knows how to give us proper cover, know how to follow and do the "path finding" in the best way, can use effectively heal items and give the right support in combats. Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to try the Cooperative mode, where two players can play together, one controlling Chris and other controlling Sheva.
Like in all the games of the series, RE 5 presents a new Inventory system, to better fit two chars at the same time. It is very similar to the Outbreak, but here is more efficient, where is easier to access the inventory and exchange items with our partner. Through the game, we can collect gold and some artifacts that we can sell to get more money. With that money, we can buy weapons and other equipments before each mission or when we're loading a save game. We can also make upgrades in the weapons, increasing damage, clip size, reloading speed and, depending of the weapon, we can raise the chance to inflict critical damage (read headshot).
Unfortunately, all that improvements just make a little better against the feel of repetitiveness of RE 5. Spend 15 or 30 minutes in a mission and have to face the same enemy all the time can make things really repetitive. At least, the mini bosses and the special enemies can make things a little more interesting and the bosses can also give us a good amount of hard work to defeat them. For me, one the reasons that made things a little repetitive was the gameplay, that could be better. Kill the same enemies in the same way with the same commands and strategies can be REALLY repetitive.
Also, don't expect the same level of puzzles from before, where RE could take some brain work before we could move on. RE 5, like RE 4, go deeper in the action/adventure type, not the horror survival that was before and that the fans of the series loved.
But that don't mean that combat and gameplay are bad, but they could be more 'diverse'. Good camera, with a nice aim system, with a lot of different weapons, melee attacks, grenades and rocket launcher can do a good job against the many enemies that will usually surround us through the game.
And, thanks to an impressive well made movement capture and the use of a powerful engine, Chris, Sheva and all the other characters and enemies have a great look and movements. Levels full of details, some with great design and others that will not have anything of special. The game could be a little gorier and show a little more of blood, but this is only a personal taste from me. At least, the engine run good, with a lot of special effects and can keep a descent amount of frames.
Resident Evil 5 IS a great addition for the series, showing a lot of what the series are capable of and digging a lot from the plot, closing the many "holes" in the history that was left behind or unanswered in the other games. Also, Chris was remake in a great way and I particularly liked him most than other characters of the series, even most than Jill. RE 5 can also show a good amount of extras and, for the fans, the replay value will be higher than the normal, mainly with the "air" of an arcade game, where we got scores after beat each mission.
So, if you're a fan, you should play this game at all costs. But, if you aren't, this game can be a sincere invitation for the world of RE, for the ones that are not used to the it.