First Impressions: Resident Evil 5
Recently the RE5 demo was released for download. It is still a trial and not the finished version of the levels that are included, so with that in mind if you encounter problems they should be fixed by launch. For any long time RE fans, 5 follows 4 in regard to the different types of zombies and the view. Traditionally RE was always a fixed camera so it made peering around corners and looking in general a chore. However with the addition of RE4 they changed all that, the camera now follows your character in more of a second person view. If you played RE4 than jumping into 5 shouldn’t be that different. However they did away with the static menu system, in which you would hit the pause button and you could heal yourself, combine herbs and whatever else tickled your fancy. While the menu in 5 is similar to the previous installments it’s in game only, so if you are getting attacked by say 50+ zombies and your health is low you can’t just pause the game and fix yourself. Battles take some for thought which is why you have a companion. The addition of co-op is excellent, it can create some very epic and tense moments while remaining fun. Also the sound and graphics are incredible, playing with surround sound all the way up can really creep you out. The graphics are some of the cleanest I have seen in a long time, environments were clean and open and didn’t feel muddy with too many textures. The demo includes 2 levels which are fun and challenging, I would suggest playing them co-op to get your bearings. This installment should garner many hours of play and a lot of replay-ability, should be a blast when it drops 3/13/2009.
-mikey