Resident Evil has been a staple in the horror franchise and holds the title as the measuring stick for making you fudge your skivvies at a moment’s notice. I will never forget when I was playing the original RE on PS1 and my friend started crying and made us turn the lights on when the dogs jumped through the wall. Needless to say, that was the last time that pussy ever got invited to a sleepover. RE5 makes the foray into next gen. It looks like we all thought it would, but at the same time, it does not feel and play like we all thought it would. The game is still great, just not the killer app I was expecting.

Let me preface you with this: RE  is a very, very good game. The FMVs are stunning, the voice acting is great, the detail of the level design, enemies, and bosses are all awesome. Capcom hit a home run in this category. After all the polish, underneath lies a game where the controls are nothing like we expected. The players move like school buses. I know you can sprint, but you need to explore the levels to get all the supplies that you desperately need. Ammo is scarce and I mean scarce. It’s like trying to find a butterscotch krimpet in Soylent Green. Bonus points if you get that reference. The ammo is limited because Capcom wants you to play the game a certain way, which is fine. It works. Yet the game feels like all you do is creep up to many slow moving zombies, pray for a head shot, and keep moving.

The “zombies” here are sometimes crazy and sometimes not. This makes you play the game with a very, very reserved style, which brings the pace to a slow crawl at far too many occasions. The weapons are weighted properly, but the swapping of items is a pain and far too many times you need to drop an herb to make room for those shotguns shells that you sorely need. In a game that relies heavily on exploring, the amount of items you can carry is very limited. The game contradicts itself. It just does not feel like an RE game.

The story is good, not great and confusing at times. The AI of your partner can borderline on the retardation level, though playing with a human friend is absolutely a blast. I refuse to play it by myself. There is multiplayer DLC to add to the already deep game, though many people will not get into it as much as Capcom would have liked. If this game was called anything besides Resident Evil, people would be clamoring, but it carries a heavy burden of expectations and it just does not seem like an RE title. I would definitely rent it because it is fun, but not the second coming of Christ that many of us had expected from all the hype.

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