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