All games are products of their time, even ones which "bucked trends" or "were ahead of their time" are only so in comparison with their contemporaries. RE5 is interesting historically because it definitely screams 7th gen : the color grading pejoratively described as the "piss filter" of brown environments assaulted with bloom, the co-op multiplayer focus of the days where such things were starting to become mainstream in the console market, the mowing down of hundreds of racist caricatures by a buff white guy, the fact that Albert Wesker's tailor discovered normal maps and is really excited to absolutely plaster them on his jacket etc.

Its hard to avoid noticing the main two things which jump at you when playing re5, namely that its RE4 but not as good and more racist. Asset reuse is fine, honestly, even mechanics recycled from re4 arent unwelcome but its the rehashing of re4 set pieces whilst doing them worse that lets re5 down. Similarly, the ingenious inventory management mechanic of the RE4 attache case : equal parts survival horror resource management and tetris space allocation is replaced by a dull 3×3 grid whose ultimate depth involves exchanging shit to your ai partner to reload a weapon before exchanging it right back.

The multiplayer aspect makes re5 have kind of an absurd difficulty curve based on your luck in finding partners. Some sections with the Ai partner were a bit patience testing, given their passive nature and limited commands, but then Id get randomly paired up with a god on their fifth playthrough who'd hand me 300 bullets for the machine gun and absolutely tear mfers up with endgame weapons. Very funny to me as well, how certain doors and weights and stuff require the cooperation of chris and sheva because of course its too heavy for a guy whos built like a brick shithouse, he needs help from a small framed spinning instructor to move it.

That being said, its got its bright moments and thankfully the multiplayer aspect made the use of QTEs for custcenes impossible so it does have that over RE4. In all honesty, its not an AWFUL game gameplay wise. There are a few levels which are quite striking visually, namely the temple areas and the faster arcadey nature of it all makes it not better but different to the pace of RE4. The implementation of a cover system and gun wielding zombies is as stupid and unwelcome as you'd expect, and the smoking gun for me that the island in RE4 is not only the worst part of that game but an incredibly ill omen of things to come for the franchise.

I suppose I should mention the elephant in the room : the game is set in "Africa". Not very specific where in Africa except the locals speak French so theres about 20 countries that could apply to. The spectre of the war on terror looms large as the intro depicts an american leading a counter terrorism operation and soon we see Akihiko from Persona 3 doing an arab accent get executed by frenzied locals riled up by a preacher. And sure, like in re4 the reason for it all is a parasitic infestation but the visual language of the game borrows a lot from contemporary wars that its hard to miss. There are heroic black characters like Sheva and her captain buddy but they seem there more as a pre emptive defense at criticism.
Admittedly, considering the state of AAA games at the time, RE5 is not THAT much more racist that the other shooters about doing imperialism in thr global south; that is until you get to the chapter where the enemies are all black people wearing grass skirts and chucking spears at you. And im sorry but zombie or no zombie, that sequence made me surprised to find out that Rudyard Kipling's ghost didnt have a writing credit in the game.

Smarter and more personally invested people than me have already talked about this aspect so I won't go much deeper into it except to say that its an odd obsession with studios who thrive on schlock and silliness to try to delve into more serious or thorny subjects that they are not equipped to handle.

Why did they do this? Why did they do any of this? Where is the residence, where is the evil? What is anyone talking about?

This game starts you off in Africa. Every moment you have in this game is the theoretical peak, because it's never gonna get better. From the first 6 seconds you spend figuring out how to control your character (the answer is you do not) it's all downhill from there. 10 hours of straight downwards spiral until the survival horror game eventually is completely lost in a sea of call of duty action slop. I don't know when you leave Africa. The sequence of events that occurred in this game both imply that you are no longer in Africa, but also never implies that you left Africa. At some point you go to a fuel factory that produces fuel, puts it in canisters, then promptly incinerates them. If you looked at this story with serious analytical eyes, you might be honestly inclined to believe it's genuinely meant to be presented as a dream sequence.

After 15 years someone from Capcom came back to this game on Steam and randomly removed all the quick time events, but all the cutscenes still look like they have them. This is very funny. I don't even know how they did that. It is the videogame equivalent of watching a sitcom with the laugh track removed. I laugh and I laugh. I stop laughing soon. It's not funny.

It genuinely feels like someone read a 1 page summary of Resident Evil 4, looked at the sales numbers and said WOW! WE GOTTA DO THAT AGAIN! MAKE EL GIGANTE AGAIN!!!! Then they gave it to the developers who were so excited that they could use the PS3's 1 trillion cores to render reflections in sunglasses that they forgot to code a videogame. It's absolutely everything I didn't like in 4 turned up to 11 and the rest of the game left behind in brackish swampwater to rot and fester for eternity. It's kinda RE tradition to have the last act be dogwater but this is even more piss than usual.

My friend and co-op partner played this many times before. I asked him why. He started staring at his hands, repeating the question. Why? Why? He stared at the sky. Why did he play it? I still don't know. He won't speak to me anymore. Just keeps replaying it. He spends 6 hours a day on the boss that only dies to the RPG, but he refuses to use the RPG. I hope he gets better soon.

While placing a giant spoonful of delicious cereal in my mouth I proudly declare that this series will never go back to its roots and become good again.

played this with the wonderful @LenaRosalie and it was a delightful time. resident evil 5 is essentially re4's less cool brother who wants to be just like them but ultimately doesn't have the sauce. it starts out promising with the african setting being fairly unique, but after that it quickly takes a dive into boring sepia and brownish mush. probably the biggest difference in the design ethos of 4 and 5 is that 4 defined every action game that would follow, while 5 simply followed the trend of seventh generation blockbuster gaming, complete with clunky cover mechanics and the glorious Piss Filter. even despite this, it's still a good time, even if it feels like a remarkably safe follow up to re4, but then again, what wouldn't be?

also this game is so racist lol

Story and Characters
-The story of Resident Evil 5 revolves around Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) agents Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they try to track down a bioterrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional region of West Africa. As you can probably guess from that description, this is not your typical Resident Evil game as it feels far more like an action movie in both its story and gameplay, even more so than the previous game, Resident Evil 4. The story is fairly simplistic, but it works well enough even if it does lean heavily into the cheesiness of a B action movie. The villains are very over the top and the story lacks the tension of some of the previous games, but it works well as a fun action game.
-Chris and Sheva are both fairly generic characters that don’t get a ton of development, but they have good banter together and I liked seeing them work together as a team throughout the game. They are both highly trained operatives at this point, so the focus on action makes sense narratively as well. It would be hard to believe that someone who has been through as much as Chris Redfield would still be scared by the virus so the lack of horror works, although I do wish the game had a bit more of it.

Gameplay
-The gameplay in many ways really works, but there are also many frustrations I found with the game as well. The movement uses a somewhat modified version of the tank controls from the previous Resident Evil games and while I found myself getting used to it as I played, it still doesn’t feel as good as regular modern games’ movement like the movement in the remakes. Not being able to aim and shoot while moving can be a bit frustrating as can not being able to reload while moving. The gunplay itself feels pretty good however, and I like the various weapons that the game gives you to allow you to change up your playstyle.
-The main point of contention I have with the gameplay is the inclusion of the AI companion and the inventory system in place. To be clear, I like Sheva as a character and I like the idea of having a co-op action game. I did not play this game with another person which may be why certain aspects of this game really didn’t work for me because the AI can be very frustrating. Sheva was actually decent in most combat situations as she was a decent shot and I liked being able to customize her weapons. The issues would arise at certain times when we had to separate and she had to fend off enemies by herself and would get killed fairly quickly. She also would occasionally shoot at enemies for no reason that couldn’t be damaged and would waste all of her ammo. The biggest frustration for me though was the inventory management. Each player gets 9 slots for their inventory at the beginning and you never have a chance to expand that. That may seem like a lot, but because the game gives you so many weapons and ammo types to carry, it fills up very quickly. You are unable to drop items on the ground and so I would have many times when I really wanted a health item, but I would need to discard ammo or grenades to pick it up. Sheva would also pick things up on her own which at times can be helpful and other times, can be frustrating. During one of the boss fights, I had almost no health and was trying to pick up a green herb, but my inventory was totally full with weapons and ammo I needed for the fight. So I tried to bring Sheva over to grab it, and instead she grabbed some grenades off the ground. You cannot discard items directly from her inventory, instead you have to swap items with her, discard the items from your inventory, get your items back and then have her pick up the new item. The game doesn’t pause when you are in your inventory so as you can imagine, trying to do all of this while having to do QTEs to dodge the boss’s attacks was very aggravating and I ended up dying and having to restart. That isn’t the only frustration with the inventory either as you can’t combine items from the ground with items already in your inventory except for ammo. So if there was a green herb on the ground when my inventory was full, I couldn’t just combine it right there with a red herb that I already had. Again, this means if I really wanted the health item, I was having to discard something to get it. Usually though, the red herbs were useless anyways because I would have Sheva hold the herbs because I was low on space and she would always use the green herbs as soon as she got them. Essentially, the AI companion and the poor inventory management systems make this game far more frustrating than it otherwise should be. Playing with another actual person definitely would’ve helped with some of those problems, but the inventory would still be annoying to deal with.
-Another aspect of the game that I found to be rather frustrating at times were the boss fights. In the first half of the game, they really weren’t too bad and while they could sometimes be a bit challenging, they were never overly annoying. That changed with the second half of the game and there were a couple fights that really annoyed me. The main issue that I had with them is that they simply go on for too long at times. There is one particular one in a lab where it felt like you had to do the exact same thing eight times in a row. Then if Sheva or you die, you have to restart all over again and you likely don’t have many health items because they get used so quickly. The bosses can also feel inconsistent with their QTEs where sometimes I would get a prompt to dodge an attack and other times I wouldn’t and I would just get hit. The only saving grace is the rocket launcher which you can spend a bunch of money on but it essentially one shots any boss.
-This isn’t really a gameplay point, but the game does not have skippable cutscenes and so if you die to a boss, you will have to watch that same scene over and over again with no way to skip it.

Side Content
-The main game doesn’t really have any side content as it is a linear game. After you beat the main game, you unlock a new game mode called Mercenaries, but I didn’t play it at all, so I cannot comment on whether or not it is any fun.

World/Level Design
-The level design is very different from any of the previous Resident Evil games as the game is set in Africa and takes place predominantly during the day. Having the game set in a city and exploring the surrounding countryside does make the game far less scary and the atmosphere certainly isn’t as creepy as most of the other RE games, but again, this mostly works as the game is far more action oriented. I really liked a lot of the locations, especially the town and the marshlands and they were fun to explore and felt very unique. There is a part of the game where you are exploring these ancient ruins and it feels almost like a Tomb Raider game which I enjoyed. The game does have far less backtracking than its predecessors and you are always moving forward with the story instead of going back to explore old areas. I kinda missed the backtracking as I think that it can be fun and help you really become familiar with a location, but I did also like how many different places you go in RE5.
-Now I should address this topic as it is usually at the forefront of any discussion about RE5, but the game is set in Africa and there have been many people who feel it is racist for one reason or another with certain depictions. Naturally, with the game being set in Africa, you are going to be fighting a lot of black people who have been infected. This may rub some people the wrong way and I could see how someone may feel the “white savior” trope is at play here, but I personally was not too bothered by this. The part of the game that does feel a bit more problematic is when you leave the main city and go through the marshes where you encounter many enemies in grass skirts and using spears while being incredibly tribal. Again, you could argue that narratively, it is the virus infection that is causing the people to act this way, but it does feel like an outdated depiction of Africa and one that was a stereotype for a very long time. How much this will bother someone will differ depending on the individual, but it is worth mentioning that there are some questionable choices here, although I don’t think the intent was ever to be overtly racist.

Graphics, Music and Glitches
-The game was released 15 years ago now, so naturally the graphics are dated, but they still hold up pretty well and for a 2009 game, it all looks fairly good.
-The music in the game was good and it added to the tension of the action scenes when it needed to.
-I did not encounter any major glitches while playing the game.

Main Positives of the Game
-The characters of Chris and Sheva are likable and they have good chemistry with one another.
-The game has some cool locations like the city, the mine, the marshlands and the ruins you explore and I like how different the areas all felt. Driving around the boat in the marshes to explore new areas was really fun and was the most open the game ever felt.
-The combat actually holds up pretty well and the shooting all feels good. I also like that they have the different melee attacks you can do when enemies are stunned.
-The visuals hold up pretty well despite this being a 15 year old game.

Main Negatives of the Game
-The movement can be frustrating, especially by not giving you the ability to move and shoot or reload. Running can also feel a bit clunky at times.
-Unskippable cutscenes were very annoying as you had to rewatch them every time you died.
-The AI partner is very hit and miss and will often do things you don’t want them to do. They will waste your resources and will get killed fairly easily if you aren’t careful.
-The inventory system is awful and lacks so many simple quality of life changes that would make it so much better. Being able to drop items on the ground, combine items between inventories, and being able to upgrade the size of the inventory would all be very welcome additions. In an action game like this one, I don’t even know why they felt the need to limit your inventory so much in the first place as the survival horror element of the previous games is not really in play here.
-Some stereotypical African depictions that could be seen as problematic. I don’t think this is as big of an issue as some other people do, but it is something that should probably be handled a bit differently if they were ever to remake this game.
-The story is so over the top that it comes off as pretty cheesy, especially towards the end. The Resident Evil games have always had outlandish stories, but this one feels like it still managed to go a bit too far.
-Chris Redfield does in fact punch a boulder while in the middle of an active volcano and whether or not that is a positive or a negative is up to you, but that summarizes just how outlandish this game can truly be.

Overall Score: 6/10

The one word I associated with this game was desperation. After my replay it will be - hilarious.

Resident Evil 5 is a coop-game through and through. Just don’t even try to play it alone! 
I asked my old friend Nick, with whom I finished this game more than 10 years ago in sheer endless night sessions. And he agreed to be in for this adventure!

RE5 is a drama queen: Overacting voice actors, over-the-top, unrealistic action and head-shaking dialogue. It is loaded with what the fuck - moments and you can not stop to giggle and burst out laughing. But you just can not deny, that it is flawed to its core. And not only, because it is 15 years old, using outdated mechanics like rail-roaded level design, cannon fodder boss battles and stupid quick time events. No, it is simply frustrating and unfair, because it is hard to read and unpredictable: The hitboxes of the enemies vary and are always designed in your disadvantage. The placement of ammo drops is so unpredictable, as you are sometimes shit-loaded with shots and sometimes cornered with only a knife as your last chance for survival. The weapons are so badly balanced, that you always go for the grenade launcher and the shotgun. And it happens far more than once, that you feel stuck and stupid, as the solution to a puzzle or the weak spot of an enemy is so hidden, you just don’t get it.



That is why you need a coop-buddy: To cope this frustration-enducing and flawed design and turn it upside down by tag-team roundhouse kicking the shit out of a chainsaw-swinging zombie. Or solving puzzles in an indiana jones-like crypt filled with mutated naked mole rats. Resident Evil 5 is packed with moments like this, where you can goof around and escape just a breath away from the next Game Over.

What I was surprised of, was the difficulty, because in our first playthrough, we were frequently rage-quitting and now, we were stunned, whenever a battle-winning cut-scene was triggered earlier than expected. I can not pinpoint it, if this is based on a noticeable re-work of the controls in the remastered version, we played. The growth of skill in the last ten years of both our gaming careers. Or the sheer growth patience based on adulthood and trained frustration tolerance. Likely a mixture of all of this factors, which ultimately result in the updated conclusion: hilarious!



It is for sure, that if Resident Evil 5 would launch today, it would be crushed by fans and press alike and simply vanish. But this game was released a while ago now and still holds a rare and memorable coop-campaign within a c-movie zombie/virus-scenario. It is a hybrid that is hilariously bad and good at the same time.

Normally, thinking about a sequel to Resident Evil 4 is thinking it to be as simple as copying the system again and being done, how could a bad game come out of there? Even better, smooth the system to focus on combat: more melee options and dynamic inventory management limited on what's important without stopping the action.

Turns out that it was also important to know how to design and place enemies and scenarios, to be put against the ropes depended not only on the system but in always feeling surrounded and having to reposition constantly. Because of this, Resident Evil 5 starts by looking at some of the best ideas of 4, the moment inspired by the first raid at the village appears shortly in an open survival arena where enemies will keep appearing. Obviously, it's a highlight, nothing more is needed to feel constantly cornered.

The way is lost at every other moment. Whether it's trying to take advantage of splitting up and covering your backs in co-op, fighting in a cramped incinerator against a monster almost immune to gunfire, or navigating the dark of the mines, the game doesn't come even close to the tension of its predecessor. On top of that, the slapstick tone is much more blurred, seeming almost accidental, as in the possibility to melee combo some enemies together with your partner. Casual exceptions aside, the hits have lost impact and the cinematography style, there is an identity crisis due to a mishmash of trends of the period between military shooter, giant aliens from Gears of War and Matrix scenes that do not fit at all with what Resident Evil 4 was. It seems that it wasn't as simple as replicating a system and hoping that everything else could hold up.

It's no surprise then that the best part is the mercenaries mode. If Resident Evil 5 looks at the village raid to build its best moment right out of the gate, it can also look at the mercenaries mode derived from that sequence. Here disappears the clumsiness of trying to confusingly replicate without understanding and without genius. It goes the roughest way, to survive enemy waves in the system that could not fail, even with the Frankenstein erratic mashups still well in sight.

I have beaten this game 4 times in my life.
Every time I play this game, I feel dread.

I say to myself "Chapter 1-1 was good. I like the Africa setting".
I make it to chapter 1-3. "It's all downhill from here" I say to my friend.
Chapter 3-1 appears. "This is the worst chapter in the game" I say.
Chapter 5-3 appears - "This is the worst chapter in the game - I hate this chapter".
I beat the game. "This game sucks" I say to myself.

3 years pass.

"resident evil 5 is good" I proclaim.
"Aside from a few shit chapters, this game is awesome. It's shittier than 4 but it's still fun!"
I relaunch the game to play with my friend.

"this game is so clunky it's fucking awesome".
Chapter 2-1 appears. "The swamp is the last good part of the game".
I spend the next 5 chapters saying that we're at the worst part of the game.
The game ends.
"Wow I hate the entire ending sequence of this game - I never want to play this game again".

5 more years pass.

"Yeah I'll play resident evil 5 with you"

I have Stockholm syndrome. I am dying.

It’s really fun until the guys with guns start showing up. The quality of the game dips pretty hard at that point. Additionally, as fun as it is, it’s very similar to 4, for better or worse. I find the writing to be disappointing after 4 as well. Gone is the goofiness of 4; it’s replaced by a much flatter script overall.

I wanna shout out how beautiful this game still is, though. I genuinely like the green filter. It adds a lot of character. It’s clearly made with it in mind. And I also think this has some of the best motion blur in a game. It looks awesome. Things like this draw a lot of ire from gamers, but they can be used well, and I think the implementation here is proof of that.

It’s a great romp, particularly with a friend. Definitely recommend.

I love when game journalists called out the game for being racist even though white people live in Africa.










Also Sheva is underrated