Is it as good as RE4? No. Is it still a great and enjoyable game? Absolutley.
Graphics: Aside from Dead Space, the best looking game on the 360. Everything is intricately detailed, and the animation is great. The environments are well done, and have a lot of variety. The art design is as strong as it's ever been in the series. There's no framerate drop and everything looks amazing. The only thing that looks weird is that Chris Redfield got huge arms and ears since we've last seen him. 10/ 10
Sound: The guns in this game sound as they should: handguns are short, and to the point; shotgun blasts are loud obnoxious, and satisfying to listen to; the sniper rifle has a subsonic blast; and the explosive weapons sound great. The sounds make the guns satisfying to shoot, but there are hiccups in other areas. Mainly, many of the sounds from RE4 return. The sound the game makes when you pick up ammo and gold, open doors and a few other things are lifted directly from RE4. And the worst part about it is that there is no merchant to ask you "WHATAYA SELLIN'?" On the plus side, the enemies all have unique war cries, and the voice acting is pretty good. 8/ 10
Story: It wraps up one of the major conflicts in the series rather nicely, and answers most questions. Chris Redfield is a part of an organization that handles in the extermination of BOW's. (Bio organic weapons.) He travels to Africa to find out the truth behind a rumored bio weapon called Urobourus. When he gets there, he meets his partner, Sheva Alomar. Of course, the squad they're sent with dies and it's the 2 of them against an unknown enemy. I won't spoil anything after that, but I will say it's a nice ending to the main storyline, and answers many questions that were left by the Umbrella Chronicles. However, they never explain how the Plagas got to Africa in the first place and how it infected the populace. The overall story is kind of cheesy, in typical Resident Evil fashion, but it works. 8/ 10
Gameplay: It's similar to RE4, but a few changes have been made. For one, you have a partner who is actually armed this time. The AI is awfully inconsistent; there will be times where it clears out a room and you don't need to lift a finger. And then there are times where you will be surrounded by enemies, being strangled, and your partner will be standing there like a statue, despite the fact they have a fully loaded shotgun in their hands. When it works, it's a nice addition, but it can be a great annoyance. Second, there is no Attaché suit case to carry your stuff in. Instead, there are 9 boxes with which you can hold supplies. This isn't as bad as it sounds, but I prefer the Attaché case over this. For instance, if you want to access your inventory, the game keeps playing, and you need to fumble around for items. Also, there is a severely limited space for you to use, and that makes it a pain to pass up on herbs you find lying around. However, to offset this inconvenience, items can be hot keyed to a direction on the D pad, so that's good. However, there is no way to make items switch spots in the middle of a chapter. This is annoying, because you may need health in the middle of the battle, but there is ammo where you want an herb. So you pull up your inventory to find the herb, then you get attacked by something.
Enough about that, though, how is the partner system implemented? Well, there are a few "puzzles" (read: pull 2 switches at once) and sometimes you help your partner leap across a wide gap or up a high ledge. I think the only reason Sheva is even in the game is to quiet people who say this game is racist. (Which it's not, by the way.) They could have brought back the Attaché case, got rid of the partner puzzles, and the game would have been better for it.
Aside from those blemishes, this is pretty much as fun as RE4. There is the same over the shoulder shooting, and enemies are as persistent and plentiful as ever. However, the length is much shorter. Where RE4 took around 15- 20 hours to complete, this takes maybe 10. It does keep the pace fast and frantic, though. Also, there aren't as many exciting sequences as in RE4. Remember the whole sequence in the Mines underneath the castle? There's nothing like it here.
The main campaign may not be as good as RE4, but there is one area it has definitely improved upon. The mode called "The Mercenaries" is back, and has been vastly improved upon. In RE4, I loved this mode, because it was just blasting away aliens for the heck of it. And in RE5, there are many more stages (8, I think) many more characters (again, 8, I think. Maybe more) and the maps are good. This is a mode you will be playing for a while, because it's insanely addictive.
That's not to say the main campaign isn't replayable. Quite the opposite, in fact. It has just as much replayability as RE4, if not more so. There are many, many more weapons to obtain, and you can store them, which makes experimenting to find your favorite much easier. There are also several unlockable guns to get, and everything can be fully upgraded. Plus, there are now 4 (?) different difficulty levels.
RE5 improves upon RE4 in many ways, but there are also a few things that feel out of place. 8/ 10
RE5 is a good game to get if you're a fan of action games, the RE series or RE4. Despite the annoyances, it is a very fun 3rd person shooter (unfortunately, it loses what little horror RE4 had) and has a lot of replay value. And, despite what you may have heard, this game isn't racist. Just because it's set in Africa and the enemies are black doesn't make it so. For one, the people are infected with hostile aliens, so Capcom isn't trying to say Africans are savages. Besides, how is it any different from shooting all the white people in RE4? I really don't see too much of one…
Anyways, this is a good Xbox 360 game, and you can find it for cheap now, so I suggest you do so. So long, thanks for reading, and keep on defending humanity!