Game review: Resident Evil 5 (Demo)

One of the more anticipated games right now is Resident Evil 5. After how well the last Resident Evil game did it's no surprise that the next one has a lot of hype around it. Not only was Resident Evil 4 one of the best games of the series it's one of the better games made in recent memory. So now the demo for the game is here.

Well to say it's here is not the most accurate thing to say. Right now the demo is only available in Japan. Some people had figured out a way of using a Japanese Hotmail account and some free Xbox Live time to trick the system into thinking you are in Japan so you can download the demo. Well Capcom and Microsoft figured this out and blocked anyone from downloading it that isn't using a Japanese 360. But thanks to many people there is still a way to play this demo.

All you need to do is go on a torrent site like The Pirate Bay and download the demo, it should run about 420mb. Then you follow the instructions and burn it to a DVD or a CD. Then you just pop that disc in your system and play the demo. The only thing you need to make sure of is to not be signed onto Xbox Live because it won't work otherwise.

Now you might ask why go through all this just to play the demo? Well first off it's the demo of the newest Resident Evil game, need I say more? Plus the US demo won't hit until sometime around March 13. So you can either download it now or wait 3 months to play it otherwise.

When you load up this version you will find that you can't play the co-op online. But you do have the option to play single or co-op on the same system.

This Resident Evil game will be different than the previous ones because there is the option of doing co-op. There are two characters in the game, first there is Chris Redfield who you would know from the first Resident Evil game and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The other one is a new character named Sheva Alomar who will accompany you as you shoot up hoards of the undead.

The demo gives you two levels to play in. The first one throws you in right as a demonstration and public execution is going on. It's not long before you are being swarmed by hordes of psycho zombies. These zombies are similar to the ones found in RE4 as they are fairly intelligent and fast moving. They will throw things at you, flank you and dodge your shots if they see your gun's laser sight. Thankfully they aren't like the ones in the early games where it took two entire clips to take them down but it still takes 5 or so shots if you aren't pulling off headshots.

Basically the goal of the first level is to just stay alive. You get a message from a helicopter pilot that he's on his way and he'll help you out. So you just need to go around staying alive and avoiding the zombies as long as you can. This is easier said than done especially when this huge guy with a bloody axe comes after you. Granted he is pretty slow but he takes a lot of punishment and can do a lot of damage with his weapon. But as soon as you survive long enough the pilot shows up and blows open the gate so you can continue and that's the end of that level.

The other level is in a shanty town. You start off and your goal is to get to the end through a locked gate. In this level you get to do an interesting section where your partner separates from you and you have to help her out with the aid of your sniper rifle. The end of the level is where it gets tough. If you remember in Resident Evil 4 some of the toughest enemies were the guys with chainsaws. They take a ton of damage and can easily kill you if you get too close. Well you have to take one of these guys out to complete the level. There are a good amount of exploding barrels around the level and you will have to use these to your advantage if you are going to take him out. But once you do the level is pretty much over.

Now this game does quite a few things different. First the inventory system is split up between your two characters. At least in the demo you have 8 item slots that each of you can use. You hit the Y button to bring up the inventory and this is done in the fly and doesn't pause the game. But you can either give items to your partner or request things from them like guns, health and ammo. Like in the second level I found that I was better off getting the machine gun from her and giving her the sniper rifle to take on the chainsaw guy. Now at first I was a little annoyed that I couldn't pause the action to access the inventory and that meant that switching weapons in a fight was tough. But each of the four compass points in the inventory matches up with a button on the D-pad. So you can assign a weapon to say the up button and hitting that button on the D-pad will switch. I will say that when it comes to giving ammo be careful because I had 40 rounds for the handgun and it gave her 30.

Another thing that is different are the co-op moves you can do. Like in the 2nd level you will reach a gap between two buildings. You will then see a prompt on the screen for assist jump. You hit the B button and Chris launches his partner over to the other building. In the co-op mode the other person has to walk up to you and hit the B button to make the action happen. These are nice and they don't take you out of the game when they happen.

Now like many other games in the series there is the typical get you out of danger moments. Like if a zombie grabs onto you then you have to move the left stick back and forth to escape them. Either that or your partner can come up to you and shoot them or knock them away to help you out. One of the more interesting thing the game did was to add that your character can enter a state where they are dying. If you take enough damage and get into the red it will say on the screen you are dying and you can't shoot or jump and your character limps around. At this point your partner has to come up to you and hit a button and they will give you a shot and this will keep you alive but if they don't get to you in time you will fall over dead.

I did get a chance to play some local co-op and it handled pretty well. In most games the screen is either split vertically or horizontally. In this case it looks almost like a dual screen thing you'd see on TV. Where each person has a box on the screen and they are arranged so they are diagonal of each other which means there are parts of the screen that are empty. I like this because it helps you more with keep your eyes on your part of the screen but you don't miss out on the action.

The guns handle pretty well. Each one does about as much damage as you'd expect. One complaint I did have was so many times I'd be moving my character around and hit down on the stick that controls the camera and then have to pull out my gun. At this point I find I'm pointing it at the ground so I have to move it up to get a shot on my enemy. This didn't happen too much but when it did it was annoying. Now the knife in this game is a bit better as Chris has a machete so it has a better reach but it doesn't do any more damage the it has in the past. Also if you stun an enemy you can walk up to them and hit a button to punch them. With smaller enemies this can kill them and with the bigger ones it knocks them back. You can also stomp on enemies on the ground to finish them off. I did like how depending on where you are standing you will either do it in the gut or do the head popping it like a watermelon.

As with most games in the series this one does not appear that it's going to be easy. There are lots of enemies and not as much ammo as you'd like. Sure you'll find tons of money but when you really need handgun ammo it'll be nowhere to be found. So you get that sense of urgency where you're running from enemies desperately trying to find some ammo before they rip you apart.

I think the last thing I need to talk about is the graphics. This game looks really good. The environments are a bit drab but that's what you come to expect from some unnamed African village. But where the game shines are the characters. There is a lot of detail on Chris and Sheva and the zombies look great. I don't think it ranks up there with like Gears of War but I think it will probably be in the top 10 for the best looking games on the 360.

I do have to mention the controversy surrounding this game. As I said before the game takes place in Africa. So pretty much all of the enemies you'll face are black. Some people have said this game is racist since you have a white character shooting black people. But what I have to say is he's not shooting them because they are black he's doing it because they are zombies trying to kill him. Also people tend to overlook the fact that your character is African. From what I have seen this game is not racist and people are just picking at one small aspect of the game.

So I would say if you are a fan of Resident Evil and don't want to wait until March to play this then give it a download. You don't need a modified system to play it so you don't have to worry there. But if you don't want to go through the hassle you can wait until March. Now when it does come out I will download it and give my opinion of the online co-op. But this one is definitely worth a play.

My score: 9.0/10