Resident Evil 5 Demo Impressions

From the Vault — originally published December 7, 2008. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.

The Resident Evil 5 demo was very recently released in Japan on the Xbox 360 and I was able to get my mits on it yesterday. I played it for about two hours going through singleplayer, split screen co-op, and online multiplayer modes. The fact that I spent that much time with a demo says a lot in of itself. I think Resident Evil fans will be very happy with what Capcom is developing. The game looks GREAT from a graphical detail standpoint and the game is clearly a Resident Evil game. It moves and is paced very much like resident Evil 4 for the most part.

There are two stages or locale’s in the demo. You get to choose from “Public Assembly” and “Shanty Town”.

The first thing you notice is that it is not a Halo, Call of Duty, or Gears of War game. Just like Resident Evil 4 there is NO running and gunning. You walk or run, stop, aim and then fire. The one thing that seemed off was the melee combat. Resident Evil 4 seemed to have better melee combat in that it seemed easier to execute the melee attacks. Perhaps this is being tweaked in the final version or maybe I was just not approaching it right. Also in regards to the combat the walk/run to attack animations are not as seamless as they could be. Going from a walk to fire animation seemed a bit jerky and not as smooth as Dead Space for example. But in all that’s a very minor complaint in what is an otherwise great demo.

Right off the bat you can tell that there is a lot of strategy involved. The slower pacing of the game is the first indication. Just like in Resident Evil 4 in this game even when you are running you are not moving fast. You have to think about when to use which weapon and conserving ammo is usually a concern. Ammo boxes, herbs for health, first aid spays, and gold are all still here and help keep the Resident Evil feel intact. There are many “hidden” pickups and thinking is rewarded all through out the demo.

The game revolves around teamwork and it works well in the demo due to the level design. When in single player mode, your partner Sheva does not miss a beat and does not suck. She helps you out and the AI in that department seemed spot on. The level design forces you into situations that in multiplayer co-op mode you must work together with a game plan to conquer. That consists of making sure that you each have enough of the right type of ammo and giving each other what they need (such as rifle bullets in the demo on Shanty Town) and helping each other when attacked. The co-op play is done well and separates the game from Resident Evil 4. This is important because the game fell a lot like Resident Evil 4 for the most part. For many that will be fine but some may not in fact like this fact. Hopefully it will have a campaign length similar to Resident Evil 4. The netcode for the most part from my experience was flawless. In all the demo is great and I am very much looking forward to this game. I dont think fans will be disappointed at all.