Author's Note:I originally posted this blog over the weekend but quickly took it down. I don't know why. Whatever

OK, before I start talking, let me just say one thing: It is undeniable that I am a Resident Evil 4 fanboy. If you read my blog regularly or even check my profile, you'll find evidence that I am in love with that game. It's one of my favorites of all time. And although I don't put them on a pedestal like RE4, I am a fan of the entire Resident Evil series as a whole. I've played all of the main entries throughout the years, and I absolutely love the campy yet fascinating bio-terrorism themed story. So keep that in mind while I talk about RE5.



My story begins on Thursday, March 12th at about 8 PM EST. I was at a local 7-11 getting myself 4 16-something ounce cans of Red Bull as part of my preparations for the night ahead. As I got the to register, something caught my eye amongst the fuckton of calling cards, cigarettes, and crappy DVDs. Something wonderful, something precious: A copy of Resident Evil 5, a game I had waited more than 3 years for and was 4 hours away from owning, due to me paying for the game about a year ago at GameStop.

I asked the old Indian man behind the register if it was for sale, to which he replied "Yes, but you must promise not to post picture on the internet!" or something of that sort. He also told me no receipt and no debit or credit. He also said it would be 65 bucks straight up, instead of the usual $64.19 it is in NJ. No receipt and a special 80 cent tax? No problem. I gladly handed over my cash as I said fuck GameStop, and took my shiny new game over to my friends house, who had planned on seeing me around 11pm.

I burst into his house, excitedly pushing his ugly mixed breed dog-thing out of the fucking way, ready to bust a cap in some Majinis or whatever the fuck they were called. My friend seemed equally excited, but then he said to me "Open it up and we'll play it as soon as this episode of The A-Team is over". At this point, I was about as pumped up as is physically possible. I was overflowing with adrenaline. My friend is lucky to be alive. But I let him finish watching the show first, cause I'm a nice guy.


Then at 9PM, we started playing. We finished at 10:15 AM on Friday, March 13th.

So that right there should give you a good indicator of where this mediocre and unsatisfying blog is going.

In all seriousness, the game isn't actually perfect like I'd thought it would be. It's a hell of a lot of fun, but something was lost in between RE4 and RE5. I think it's primarily the WOW factor. It truly is nothing new, and so it wasn't exactly the religious experience I was hoping for. But it is an excellent entry in the series, and hopefully next time Capcom will come up with something better or different. I'd hope for something more akin to RE4 in terms of tone and style, along with no co-op next time.

But as it is, the co-op is actually one of the game's greatest strengths. While it takes away from the fear aspect, it's a hell of a lot of fun racing across a room to save your friend from the clutches of an enemy or working together to take down one of the game's awesome bosses. Speaking of the bosses, they are not nearly as memorable as RE4's were, although a few are certainly exceptional. Quite a few require serious teamwork, and they stand out as the most well done aspect of the co-op experience. Otherwise, much of the experience is pretty much RE4 with a partner who shoots instead of hides. This takes away from the tension quite a bit, but it doesn't ruin the experience in the slightest, unless your only reason for playing RE titles is to be scared, in which case I hear they're porting the original game to the Wii soon. Have fun.



All in all, the game isn't really all it could have and should have been, mainly because of the one real new thing it tries, which is of course Co-Op mode. I think I would have been happier with a more tense single player game, with slightly better pacing to go along with it. But on the other hand, I'm really, truly glad that Capcom tried Co-Op out. We both had an incredible time, and we plan on going through it again and again to unlock everything. I'm already in chapter 5-3 of my second playthrough and loving every moment, this time by myself.

So, yeah, the game was worth the wait. If you're a fan of the series you'll love it, whether it be the great story and campy dialogue and voice acting, or the visceral, tense gunplay.

If anybody needs me I'll be playing Resident Evil 5.

Probably for the next 3 months or so.