Resident Evil 5 is an action packed horror game, delivering a whole fully enjoyable experience.
Resident Evil 5, as anyone with a brain would know, is the next installment of the main storyline games. It sees the return of veteran Chris Redfield, who must travel to Africa and locate a terrorist selling B.O.W's (Bio-Organic-Weapon, or zombie creatures of all different varieties). Upon arrival he meets up with local, Sheva, who assists him on his mission.
Knowing full well they hit the hammer on the head, Capcom have opted to take the gameplay elements from RE4 and use them again here. There are slight tweaks made to the overall play of the game, such as inventory occurring in-game. No longer will you have to pause the game in order to pull out that shotgun to take out that rapid zombie/thing running at you, no, instead it all happens in real time. Even though this a very simple upgrade, it gives the game a feeling of urgency, an element which I feel replaces the 'survival' aspect of past games.
The way you move and interact within the game world is basically the same, and personally I didn't notice any such tweaks.
The AI is greatly advanced. Not only are your enemies faster, smarter than before, but your partners AI (the lovely Sheva) is actually more or less the best I've seen. Since RE5 focuses a lot more on co-op than previous titles, understandably Capcom have tried to implement something that plays competently beside you, because face it, not everyone will want to play with someone else.
Sheva's AI abilities are quite limited. She'll respond to your orders, and at times take it upon herself to collect ammo/health/money. In terms of shooting and engaging the enemy, she's more or less useless, depending on the situation, since she'll simply aim for the body, firing off everything she has. A handy tip is to arm her only with a hand-gun, and steal her ammo until you start unlocking the more powerful weapons for yourself.
Speaking of enemies, RE5 returns to the Las Plagas school of thought, with the attentional new creepy thrown in for good measure. Run of the pill baddies function the same as those in RE5, though a bit more advanced. In later sections, said enemies are armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, which pose a real threat if your not careful.
Resident Evil has always had larger than life bosses, and it doesn't let up here. Progressively you'll face bigger bosses, some of which are variants of earlier ones (yet doesn't mean there entirely 'easy')
The pace at which you play through this linear-mapped game is even, and well thought out. Logically you move from a village, to a swap, to oil field and so on and so forth. The action is fast, and set pieces inject are real anxious feeling, putting you onto the edge of your seat.
Visually this game is stunning. Lately every major release seems to set a new standard in HD graphics, but for money RE5 takes the cake. Lighting is an amazing thing in this game, creating a tense atmosphere, and making everything looking stunning.
Sound again, is amazing, as always in RE games
I can't think of much negative's to say about this game, except that sometimes frame rate drops, and the AI does a complete turn around and aspires to stupid.
Resident Evil 5 isn't perfect, no, that title is reserved for Resident Evil 4. This game simply takes perfection and strays just a little too far from what Resident Evil is all about.
Being said, bottom line is, Resident Evil 5 is a fantastic game. If you don't like stop and gun gameplay, then look somewhere else. It could had possibly have done without the co-op mode, and perhaps a little more terror than action, but Resident Evil 5 is a fantastic action/horror game that further cements this franchise as a AAA material