This week Capcom threw Xbox 360 owners a treat, a two stage demo of the much anticipated Resident Evil 5. This demo came complete with online and local multiplayer. I had a chance to connect with a friend and play both stages co-operatively. Does Capcom deliver a worthy sequel to last generation’s golden child - Resident Evil 4?

When the story mode is started a menu pops up providing a choice between single player and online or local co-op. When choosing online co-op another choice needs to be made; the player can choose between being randomly assigned a partner, or they can choose to play with a friend. If choosing to play with a friend it becomes necessary to host the game and invite the friend using the friend list or choose join a game and wait to be invited. This all works well, which is refreshing considering that last year’s biggest Xbox 360 title continues to have matchmaking and online multiplayer issues to this day (I’m talking about you, Gears of War 2). Once inside the game there is no noticeable lag.

One of the new features of Resident Evil 5 is co-op play. Capcom didn't add this feature as a second thought or cheap gimmick. Having a second person becomes essential to surviving. Your partner can pass ammo when needed, heal, and save you from zombie attacks. In addition to physical help there are obstacles that can only be crossed by splitting up into a point person and cover position. This demo makes me very excited to see just how far the game designers explore this teamwork aspect in a survival horror game.



Despite the new co-op system, the demo also shows some glaring weaknesses. Resident Evil 5 is very beautiful, but every so often there are some surprisingly muddy and low-resolution textures. Also, it seems that rendering many zombies at one time is technically difficult. Instead of hordes as seen in Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 5 uses the age-old monster closet design. The spawn points are hidden from view by geometry, but as you play the level you will be able to easily recognize them.

Another problem with the Resident Evil 5 experience is not one unique to this game. This is an HD game, and it looks shiny and new, however, a look under the hood shows some old design mechanics and aging gameplay. Most noticeable are the controls. This franchise is notorious for bad controls, but in this instalment it becomes incredibly frustrating. Moving the character is still a chore and they make wide turns that never feel natural. Pulling on the left trigger pulls out the weapon selected, while the right trigger fires the weapon. The left analog stick strafes slowly and holding down A will incite the character to run. These are the default control options, the game has a handful of others, but they looked even more counter-intuitive than the default. Those who have played Resident Evil 4 know how these controls feel, and it still remains cumbersome.

Also, the zombies lumber around with no real indication of intelligence, while boss battles in the demo seem bland and uninteresting. The artificial intelligence is woefully non-existent, which causes problems on multiple levels. Having dumb enemies that lumber forward and take bullets in the face in stride is not fun and hinders gameplay. It also distracts from the scariness of the horror title. Resident Evil 5's zombies are more comical than scary and I didn't encounter one spring-loaded cat. I wanted to be scared and was not.

It seems that Resident Evil 5 is just a tad bit late. Today we have games like Left 4 Dead that feature fast, intelligent zombies and we have recent survival horror games that show off incredible controls, like Dead Space. Resident Evil 5 lacks these things, but most disturbing is the lack of actual horror. This game is not scary and has much more gunplay than a Resident Evil player will be accustomed to.

An impression doesn't give a numerical score, but at the same time I think an impression can still help a potential buyer. I like to imagine a traffic light. A green light would mean you make your reservation for a day one purchase now. Yellow light would encourage you to be cautious; perhaps you should rent the game first. Finally, a red light will indicate that the game has no discernable value. From this demo, I would give Resident Evil 5 a yellow Light. Some fans may be disappointed with the shift away from horror to gunplay, some may become frustrated with yet another game with terrible controls, and others may just love the co-op so much that it’s a deal maker. The game is definitely a mixed bag and what is found inside will ultimately be up to you.

Note to readers: this is an impression of the Xbox 360 demo. I will update this article with any differences I see with the PS3 demo.

Second opinion by BengaBenga:

As a big fan of the Resident Evil series I was very excited to get my hands on the demo of Resident Evil 5, but also a little bit nervous about whether one of my most wanted games for this generation would impress me.

You play as the original Resident Evil protagonist Chris Redfield. The demo doesn’t tell us anything about the story yet, but you start in a town somewhere in Africa right at the moment someone you apparently know gets decapitated by a giant executioner under the cheers of a large, rather multicultural, crowd. It seems Capcom took notice of the racism debates early showings of the game caused, because the crowd, that soon will be coming after you, is no longer mainly black African, but consists of all races. The two playable levels are all in daylight and I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game to explore the darker areas of the game. I also feel that the amount of ammo has decreased in comparison to Resident Evil 4, something that pleases me as an old-school fan of the series.

The graphics are gorgeous, there’s no other word for it. The character models look great and the environments are very detailed. In the first level there’s a yellowish haze hanging over the town. There are still some glitches, like being able to walk through enemies, that no doubt will be solved for the final release. Still it must be noted that a lot of assets from Resident Evil 4 have been used, for example on the ammo and barrel animations. But Spain is not too far away from Africa, so I guess it makes some sense.

Resident Evil 5 re-introduces the partner system from Zero, albeit very differently of course. The whole demo is played with a girl named Sheva on your side. She’ll be AI controlled, or in co-op mode by a friend. Co-op is available both off and online, which is nice. Personally I didn’t like the partner system too much, but it isn’t bad either. Sheva will sometimes get in your way (but you can’t shoot her…) and you’ll have to save her sometimes, which results in a cool melee attack by pressing the B button. But she also grabs ammo from boxes and killed enemies, and she’ll heal you when you die. Some good things and some bad things, but nothing game breaking. In the second level of the demo you have to cover Sheva with a sniper-rifle, but it doesn’t really matter if you actually do that. She’s man enough to kill all the baddies on her own. I hope that the full game will deliver moments where it actually does matter what you do to help your partner, like the panic inducing moments in Resident Evil 4 where you have to save Ashley by snipering the monks from high above in the castle.

In general the game controls just like its Gamecube/PS2 predecessor. You still have to stand still to shoot, which might annoy shooter fans, but this creates tension and fear that wouldn’t have been possible if you were able to run and gun through the levels. The suitcase is no longer a feature, instead you’ll have to choose your weapon or healing item in real time from an in-game inventory grid. This is done to add extra pressure on you but also to make the experience more lifelike.



Shooting is done in the default setting like most Xbox360 shooters. Left Trigger for pulling the gun, Right Stick for aiming and Right Trigger to shoot. The aiming speed can be adjusted, but even on “Fastest” it’s still a bit slow. Overall this control system works well, at least if you liked the fourth game in the series. Again, real shooter fans will probably hate these restrictive controls, but as a fan of horror games that’s good news. However, not all is rosy in control-land. Running is done by pushing the A button. The problem is that you can’t control the camera this way, so if you’re running around a corner you often won’t have the view you’d actually want, resulting in a zombie being only a few feet away. This isn’t much of an issue, but pressure sensitive analogue stick controls would have been better in my opinion.

The only case where the controls are actually broken is the knife controls. The knife is mapped to Left Button + Right Trigger, which in itself is already cumbersome. But where not being able to move and shoot is the right choice for the game, it’s absolutely frustrating to have the same system for the knife. Not being able to move and use the knife is terrible. You have to walk to an enemy, stand still and pull the knife, hope you’re at the right distance, strike. This is really something Capcom has to change for the final game, especially for the fanatics that want to use the knife as much as possible. In its current form the knife is really not viable for melee combat.

Resident Evil 4 marked a change in the series where the horror aspect became less important, yet the game had a lot of tension due to the enormous amount of enemies. Resident Evil 5 seems to be doing the same. In the Public Assembly level you’ll be surrounded by hordes of “zombies”. The AI of the enemies is not brilliant, you’ll often notice them wandering around the level with no clear goal, but I expect that the level is somewhere in the beginning of the game. And besides this, the sheer amount of enemies will force you to often run away to a quieter place to reload or catch some breath, only to find they’ll climb up the buildings to chase you. This really brings back good memories of the old Resident Evil spirit. The giant executioner also follows you around the “Public Assembly” level, armed with a giant axe. While the normal enemies won’t do much damage (unless you’re caught for longer than 5 seconds after which octopus-like tentacles will sprout from their mouths and kill you), this guy can kill you with a single hit. He won’t die easily either. The second level will bring you to a meeting with an old friend from Spain. He also brought his chainsaw.

One thing is for sure; my pre-order definitely won’t get cancelled based on the demo. On the contrary, whilst beforehand I was afraid the game had become too much of a shooter, my worries have now subsided slightly. Yes, the game has issues, but the most important thing about a Resident Evil game is the suspense, the fear, and the panic. And all these things seem to be very much in place. Even in the broad daylight…