SephirothX: To be fair, looking at photos of African villages doesn't indicate to me that Capcom misrepresented anything.

@ Jim
I understand, (sorry, I'm just trying to play devils advocate here a little).

people are bitchy
i like the game so screw you ben
ill go have fun while you complain about this amazing game being "old fashioned"

It took me forever to summon up some balls to play Code Veronica for the first time after watching my boyfriend play.

That game scared the piss out of me because I am deathly afraid of zombies, but I love the Resident Evil franchise more now.

1. It's not scary
Truth. RE lost a lot of its scare with each new iteration.
2. It is a mediocre and derivative action game
More truth. RE continues to step away from survival horror and tries to be a more of an action shooter with each new iteration.
3. The co-op doesn't work very well
I'd argue that the co-op functions a lot better than the AI team mate does. Sheva is dumber than a rock if you let the computer control her.
4. It's old fashioned
Old fashioned isn't inherently a bad thing. The control scheme and interface being dated and in need of some streamlining is a pretty valid point, but this has little to do with being old fashioned and is more about just being old.
5. Racial imagery is disturbing
This is a completely hollow point with no real merit.

@Seph: In the more remote locations of Africa, they still live like that.

My dad was born near one of those locations. He moved to a more city-like local before moving to America.

Shit's real son. Shit's really real.

@Otomiruninja

Scripted events are not innovative :-(. Valve is the best at them and take great care in how they are used, but calling scripting innovative is a hard sell when you *really* break it down.

It's racist to show africans living in huts, wear tribal masks, or showing their genitals? And how exactly is this racist? If I flip on the National Geographics Channel, I will no doubt find this to be all true. In fact EVERYBODY knows that Africa is like this. But they still call it racist?

This is the reason why I hate living in America. I can't enjoy commiting black zombie genocide while hearing the PC activists bitching about it.

I agree with the guy at Vanity Fair. He seems to be a little more unswayed by the hype than Jim and most of dtoid.

There's no way that this game is memorable in a few years. Everything in this game was done better somewhere else long before.

That hunky grandma be trippin'!

RE5 is a great game. The co-op works very well, its only racist if you're a sensitive prick, and since when is being "old fashioned" a bad thing?

I honestly cannot fathom how people see this game as "not very good", but still put RE4 on a fucking pedestal.

@ Otomiruninja

You are my new hero.

@Zeroword
I forgot they were Spanish :[ I should know. I'm Hispanic and my girlfriend is Spanish lol...

Simple translation, Ben sucks at RE 5.

@jim are you sure about being able to give a weapon in co-op? I am pretty sure you cannot if your playing with a real person. I guess its to prevent people who have beat it just giving all the upgraded crazy weapons to the other players. pretty stupid but yeah you can't.

I played it for about 2 hours last night, and I from what little I played, the only thing I can agree with is, that its not a scary game.

The pacing of the game is kinda retarded. Either you're in an exploring section, or a section with 900 billion zombies. The transistion between the two is about as smooth as Eward James Olmos' face.

I think it would have been better to have less linear sections populated by less, but harder to kill zombies.

I was flipping through the channels and came across this african guy whipping the females with twigs and leaving lashes on them. It was pretty fucked up shit.

1. Controls suck balls

Nothing is scary when you're in control of a walking armory.

Any complaints about this game are nitpicks. "My AI sucked" - get a friend, or learn how to use the AI (give her the SMG and she'll be better than 1/2 the players you meet online). "It's not RE anymore" - nostalgic much? We've had SO many re-iterations,remakes,and original RE games that enough is enough. I'm glad they made a transition to action, and with a friend, the game is incredibly exciting, and fun. Besides, 6 will be a reboot, and most likely will have run and gun.

Points 1 and 2 can apply loosely to RE4, but the action wasn't "old feeling" because it was released a while ago. It still works now, and the game is great. Honestly all the AI complaints are exaggerated in my opinion; if you give Sheva the right tools she'll work fine. Sure, if you give her the stun rod, she'll be retarded, but why would you do that to yourself, then openly complain about it? Fix it and just have fun!

About the Africa stuff, I love how they worked in an ancient tribe half-way in with the main storyline (read the tribe file), and how Africa "started it all". It's really intriguing, and there's nothing racist or disturbing about it.

*sigh* Yet another article with the word "racism" in it.

I have not even jumped ONCE while playing Resident Evil 5, shits just not scary at all and being out during the day doesn't andd ANYTHING to the "atmosphere"

Where are the dogs jumping through windows making me crap my pants at? The left some of the good stuff behind. Guess I'll still have to wait for SH: Homecoming to drop a few bucks to get some chills.

Hell even Dead Space got me to jump a few times!

It's funny that people say "4 years ago!" like it's a lifetime. How old are you guys? 4 years ain't shit.

Finally, an honest, non-fanboy review. Really, this game has the worst control scheme in the last decade next to maybe Alone in the Dark.

"1. It's not scary" - It's not scary, I agree. Then again, the scary thing about RE games has always been "What's around the corner", "will I run out of ammo" and "Man these controls are going to get me killed". They made the controls better, they give you lots of ammo now, and most of the game is in broad daylight or well lit settings. So they axed anything that even made you think about being scared.

"2. It is a mediocre and derivative action game" - I agree also, I think it's a major step down from RE4. They opted to streamline the game and make it more pick-up-and-play-arcade-style game. RE4 already made the Survival Horror more action and less horror, trimmed puzzles to a bare minimum. This just gutted puzzles all together.

"3. The co-op doesn't work very well" - With a computer AI, that shit is terrible. With a player, it feels great. The controls are good, inventory management works pretty well. They made inventory easy to deal with in a two player game, no suitcase to deal with. It's good for multi-player, but bad for game play overall in my opinion.

"4. It's old fashioned" - Old fashioned? I'm not quite sure I get that statement. It's the same controls (95%) as RE4, and looks more like Gears of War than Resident Evil though. But, old fashioned?

"5. Racial imagery is disturbing" - I have a black friend who's jaw opens up and tries to bite my neck off every time I see him, this game depicts Africans so accurately. *cough* It's not racist because they're black. Unless your secret weapon was a bottle of malt liquor and a bucket of fried chicken, or you could capture a black zombie and make him harvest cotton for you, I think this is a poor statement.

[SPOILER] You notice the game also shows black people helping you? Not just your side kick, but Bravo team. He saves your life time and time again, he's not African American, he's just African. He's not wearing war paint and a loin cloth is he? [/SPOILERS]

For those of you who say "Africa is not like this", you know what, a lot of it isn't like this anymore. Some of it still is. Just like there are still people in the United States that live in shacks with shotguns and are inbreeding and living like it's the 1800's. It's not the standard but it still exists. Likewise, there are people who still live in huts in Africa.

[SPOILERS] And if you played the game, (and read the notes), it explains that they started acting wild and wearing war paint and war masks and stuff only after they were injected with a 'cure' to a disease or something. In fact, the start of the game shows people in t-shirts and pants, and that they are reverting to their aggressive and chaotic tribal roots. [/SPOILERS]

Anyways, how else do I feel about this game?

It's ok, a step in a direction that I don't like. Not a bad game, but not what I would have liked to have seen done. It tries to appeal to the casual pick up and play crowd than the normal time commited Survival Horror crowd.

The fights are not as thrilling, it feels the same as RE4. However, epic boss fights were cut out and replaced with boring grind fights. The new enemies were not that great either, and I didn't care for any of the characters introduced in the game. RE4 had a castle, RE5 had this secret underground ruins. One feels unbelievable, one feels just ridiculous. RE4 had you retracing your steps, but RE5 never looked back.

Any seemingly potentially interesting things in RE5 were quick to end. Flashlight in the cave? Split the team up? Fighting on the back of the truck? They were all for one scene, and they were short (except the back of the truck, it was just uninteresting). Anytime you were divided, you were back together extremely quick. Boss Fights were not fun. At all. Not hard, not interesting, just bland.

Oh, and inventory between scenes is interesting but as wirid as the mysterious vendor was in RE4, at least it made some sense. You got a bigger suitcase, you could buy things from him, sell things to him. Not some magical pawn shop that lives between the chapter worlds.

Playing RE4 only makes me want to play RE5 more. RE5 felt like it was RE4 light. Boat scenes, walking through water, finding emblems, dealing with natives. They gut the story, character development, and what little puzzles they had left. I will still be talking about RE4 with friends next year, I doubt I will be talking about RE5 with friends next month. Sad because I really wanted to like this game.