Mmm... Evil

I downloaded the Resident Evil 5 demo today.

First impressions? Well, I have to say that even though the gorgeous pictures of testosterone-laden Chris Redfield have been leaked for more than a year now, I have always had some skepticism about how good this game would be. Now that I have touched the demo? Well, bye-bye skepticism. Hello drooling fanboy! Seriously, I haven't been this excited over a game in a long time.

I can't comment on the single-player content yet, because the moment we downloaded it, my housemate and I have only been playing it on split-screen. Testing the Resident Evil franchise's 'new waters' so to speak. Despite some reservations I have about what the simplified, real-time inventory system will say about the 'feel' of the game, seeing that you might no longer be carrying an entire arsenal of weapons to choose from in your attache case which you have all the time in the world to sift through, the coop experience is otherwise fantastic.

To start with, the game allows you to keep track of your partner's ammunition without having to glance at his screen- his/her ammo count is right beside yours. This avoids situations where you accidentally pick up more handgun ammo than you need while your partner runs out. Yes, yes, you CAN give it to them anyhow, but if the demo is any indication of what the game is going to be like, you will be facing swarms again, and there will be points in the game where you're drowning in zombies/whatever-you-call-them-now and you simply won't have time to calmly hand over the shotgun ammo you accidentally picked up when you don't have one, scoot on over to the other corner of the area where your partner is pinned down, and pass it to him. Far simpler to crack open a box, yell 'SHOTGUN AMMO!' then keep running from the mob that's undoubtedly on your tail. If your partner gets out of his sticky situation or finds an opening, he can get to the ammo himself. Otherwise, sifting through your inventory to find the ammo you want to give away is just too much of a hazard when zombies are abound.

She ain't no Jill Valentine, but Sheva Alomar pulls her weight in this game. Who needs the 'Master of Unlocking' when you can kick doors down most of the time anyway?

In a way, I guess that's a bit of a weakness. That ammo/item swapping is so dangerous to try. The way the inventory in RE5 works is that you have eight slots, arranged in the formation of a phone numpad with the center hollowed out. The items that are put in the top, left, right and down slots are hotkeyed to your D-pad. Meaning you'll want your two guns in two slots, a grenade in the other, and a healing item in the other. Being hotkeyed gives you the luxury of using the item on the fly too, so if you had the extra space, you COULD put the ammo meant for your partner in one of those slots, hotkey it and then you'd be able to swap a lot faster. OTHERWISE, as in the event that the item you want to give is NOT in one of the hotkeyed positions (i.e., top-left, bottom-right, etc. etc.), you'll have to stop, press triangle, hover over it, press X, pick the option 'Give' (and if you rush here you might accidentally pick 'drop' or 'use') and hope your partner is within 'giving' distance, which, logically, isn't that far.

Otherwise, it's mostly the same as Resident Evil 4. Which is good, considering I found nothing wrong with the over-the-head shoulder laser-pointy aiming. Things may get a bit hairy when you're outside in a place too brightly lit (which, surprisingly does happen quite a bit in this game), as the sunlight causes your laser pointer to become less clear sometimes. Again, if you shoot the face or knees, it stuns the enemy, giving you a window of opportunity to run up to it, and, depending on luck as well as position, perform a single-button-press attack, like Straight (punch) for Chris or Somersault for Sheva. And those are just examples. By the time we were done with the demo, we counted at least five different moves for each character, both of whom have a random 'finisher' which guarantees a kill (Throat Slit for Sheva, Neck Breaker for Chris).

Ooh, and the fun part? If the two players are lucky enough to run up to the same helpless stunned zombie and press 'Square' at the same time, you get both attacks stacking. It's not highlighted or anything, but it feels like a comicbook where it is strangely possible for two different people to perform exaggerated melee moves that hit at the same time. One time, while pincering a small group of zombies, as Chris I performed a punch which sent the zombie staggering towards my partner, who, since the zombie was still stunned, got the opportunity to perform a roundhouse kick to send it sprawling back onto the ground before me. Finished off with a headstomp. Glorious! Maybe it's just me being easy to please, but I find all of this more rewarding than if the game had intentionally put in special animations for special circumstances. It makes for better stories to tell your friends, anyway, when you pull them off.

It took him three games, and about ten years, but Chris Redfield has finally learned that SPLITTING UP isn't that great an idea.

Aside from the helpful ammo count, there is a map that constantly tells you where your partner is, which helps in moments where he goes, 'Getting pinned down here!', or 'Dying now!' and you have to helplessly go 'Where are you?' And hey, if you're both familiar enough with the game for him to say 'Beside the house. Where the Green Herb and two shotgun ammo packs are. Right junction from where we split up', and have you not completely lost, then good for you. But for noobs, it's a godsend. Some enemy attack animations have your friends stuck in a position where you'll have the chance to free them to reduce the damage they take. It's helpful to have the R1 button, tapped by itself make you automatically turn to face them. If you're near enough, you can just tap 'Square' and melee the enemy off him (an enemy grappling with your partner is sort of like stunned) or if you're too far, you can always shoot them off. It's gratifying to find that both options are good. In other games where you have a small window of opportunity to save your partner, aiming can get a bit tedious. Good to know that the lazy can just scoot on over close enough if they're willing to take the risk and put a stop to it. No fuss. No muss.

Oh, aside from helping your friends out of tight spots or finding them for ammo swapping, it's important to note that that R1 button will also be needed if you hear your partner shout the specific tone of 'FUCK' reserved for 'I'm DYING'. There's a point in this game where if you lose enough health, the character you control becomes delirious and has his health steadily decrease, at which point the only thing that can stop it is if you limp over to your partner (or have him rush over to you, preferably), get close enough and stabilize you. The dying status is not a joke. It is a source of agony if you find your partner on the other end of a wall of zombies, trapped in a corner of an alley. I don't consider this a fault of the game, however. If you allowed yourself to somehow get pushed into a corner, and didn't bail out before the crowd got too thick, you deserve to die.

Speaking of corners, I'd say this is why RE5 is becoming a bit more of a survival experience again (good in my book). There are more occasions where you will get mob-rushed, so it becomes up to you to continuously be on the move. Picking off choke points where they'll have to come at you from one direction, but having the good sense to move on if things get too hairy so your partner won't have to wade through a pile of undead just to heal you. The constant rush of being chased preventing you from skipping around merrily and picking up everything dropped. It's just brilliant. Resident Evil 4 opened on this note, but then seemed to forget it halfway through. Here's to hoping this game won't make the same mistake.

Graphics are top-notch, as expected. But I think I've raved too much about this game already. I'll save other stuff like music and storyline for the full review when the game drops in March. If Capcom somehow fine-tunes the inventory system between now and then, well that will be great. But seriously, even without? It's shaping up to perhaps be the best gaming experience on the PS3 for me. When a coop game has you and your friend continuously shouting at each other without the game being frustrating (i.e. 'HELP ME!' 'WHERE ARE YOU?'), chuckling simultaneously when you beat up a helpless zombie with synchronized punching, and whooping together when you beat a scary-ass zombie with a chainsaw that killed you five times before, then you know it's doing something right.