GOONL!NE

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Also on: PLAYSTATION 3
Console Played on: Xbox 360
Release Date: Friday March 13th 2009
Rating: BBFC 18

Its our 2nd hands on with Resident Evil 5 – our first being last month with the Japanese demo -and well, we couldnt wait to get nitty and gritty with Chris and Sheva again after last month, even if it was the same demo as last time.

Just to repeat what we know about the story thus far.

Chris Redfield is in Kijuju, a part of Africa to investigate a bio-terrorism incident for his new employers the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance or BSAA for short. During the game, he meets up with Sheva Alomar who will become his partner throughout the game.

You then discover that the person behind all this is… well someone we all know who would do something like this. We wont reveal who but if you’ve played the Resident Evil series from start to finish, you’ll know exactly I mean, that and the fact it’s answered in trailers.

In the demo, you try out two levels from the game itself, Shanty Town and Public Assembly. You can play by yourself or do co-op in the game, either locally on an Xbox 360 or on Xbox Live and having tried the co-op, we can say that the co-op isn’t gonna be a gamebreaker.

Be that as an AI or through an actual person on your 360 or Live, Sheva works well with the game alongside Chris. For example, in Shanty Town, Sheva needs to leap from one rooftop to the other so that she can get you out from the locked part of the building your trying to get out from but while there she runs into a firm resistance of zombies so its up to Chris to go down onto the second floor and help Sheva kill them by using a sniper riffle.

Playing through that level with Sheva, either as an AI or human, it made me realise that this is a co-op put to some great use here. Another example of it is not just in the shooting oh no. When the zombies are attacking you up and close with you, Sheva will come to your rescue by pressing B right away, either that or if Sheva is in human hands, B will only shout to the other player to respond. The same also for Chris, when Sheva is being attacked, you can get to her by taking out the enemy that is attacking her.

And as well as that, Sheva responds to you perfectly as an NPC, looking for things that could be useful like ammo, plants and other things as well as looking after you, giving you ammo when you need it as well as healing you when you are badly wounded plus the fact that she cant help you defend certain places like stacking the bookcases towards doors and windows in one of the two demo levels, Public Assembly. As an AI, Sheva is manageable but with another human, it’s alot more comfortable.

Resident Evil 5 has been branded Resident Evil 4 HD and well it’s not even close to being RE4. Graphics are well done and the controls are refined to give it an action feel to them. You still stand still while aiming while in Resident Evil 4 but it does add to the panic of the game. Although if you dont feel at home with the controls for RE5, you can revert to the classic layout for Resident Evil 4.

The demo is only availabe on Xbox Live Marketplace right now for a week and a half but not to panic PLAYSTATION 3 owners, you’ll get your demo next Thursday, February 5th so you dont have long to wait till you get your fix of RE5 before Friday the 13th.

Overall Impressions: Consider us impressed.

Resident Evil 5 works fine in Single Player and co-op. It is one hell of a game from what we have played from the demo and come March 13th, we cant wait to get our grubby hands on this. And the addition of Sheva, as an AI or human, works absolutely well.

Resident Evil 5 – it’s gonna be amazing.