Resident Evil 5 feels a lot like Resident Evil 4 and that isn’t a bad thing. Why fix what isn’t broken? The E3 demo came with two levels to choose from. The first one I played had Chris and Sheva watching an execution in a cabin. Once they were discovered, zombies start climbing up the fences and I had to fend them off. I quickly realized I was stuck with little room to dodge lunging zombies. As I frantically looked for a way to escape Sheva was automatically on offense shooting every zombie in sight with her rifle. My computer controlled partner let out a cry when a zombie grabbed hold of her. If the scream wasn’t enough of a clue the game lets players know when your partner is in trouble with an assist pop up button. You can press B on the Xbox 360 controller to rescue Sheva which makes Chris shove the zombie to the ground. Sheva helps Chris too by handing him spare ammunition, a necessity when the axe wielding executioner scaled the wall. I tried to kill the executioner by switching Chris’ weapons to his grenades, but the overwhelming amount of zombies meant there was no escape to find more ammunition.
The second demo takes place in a shanty town with more immediate exploration. There are still zombies to shoot, but this wasn’t an adrenaline pumping combat demo. The second level has a taste of puzzle solving with Sheva. Chris can call Sheva over with the B button and give boost her up rooftops and help her vault across buildings. The twist is you still control Chris while Sheva unlocks doors and opens paths. Zombies don’t leave her alone either. When Sheva was in another building she shouts for Chris to help her, but you can’t leap to the next building. Rescuing Sheva in the scenario means using the sniper rifle to pick off zombies from a distance. Sheva doesn’t stand around like a damsel in distress either. She attacks and I was tempted to see if she would survive on her own, but the wait to play Resident Evil 5 again was too long to risk dying here.
Once I got better aiming with the second analog stick one headshot revealed the “zombies” in Resident Evil 5 have a similar infection as the Los Ganados. A worm-like parasite leeched out of the body which may or may not be a link to Resident Evil 4.
After mowing down zombies a burlap sack wearing fiend was unleashed carrying a chainsaw. Unlike your run of the mill zombie, this enemy was not a pushover. I quickly ran through my ammo, but utilized the exploding barrels to do extra damage. Then I started lobbing grenades and I thought I was doing a good job. However, when I turned a corner patiently targeting an explosive barrel Sheva got caught with a chainsaw to her neck. As Jeriaska mentioned yesterday if Sheva dies you lose. The AI for Sheva was good when I played Resident Evil 5, but no match for a human playing as Sheva. This is going to be a great co-op game when it comes out on March 13, 2009.
Images courtesy of Capcom.
