Resident Evil 5 Guide

It's going to be like a dropkick to the face, I assure you.

Resident Evil 5 FAQ by Berserker

It's late, it's late, I know, but as I've said before with another FAQ: Killing slow is the way I conquer. Make sure to check out the intro. I think the last sentence says it all. And it's so very true. I've never anticipated a game so highly. Ever.

The guide is still in incomplete form at the moment. Sure I could label it complete and get more views and attention on GameFAQs but, when it has the full circle, I want it to be more than just a dropkick... I'm going for a shotgun stinger and it's going to dethrone a certain other FAQ of mine as the largest and most in-depth FAQ I've done. It's so close to being bigger than FFXII right now, and it will be in due time. A bunch of things will change before its completion.

Just the walkthrough portion alone took me three weeks. I've spent a total of about 3 - 4 days on the rest of the guide. In a way, I rushed through it to get something up while the game was still new, but now I'll spend time fixing some of the rush job.

Big thanks again to all the people that helped me or provided some type of support. Without it, there's no way I could have come this far with RE5. There were times when I had my doubts, but a friend would eventually show up to give me the extra little push with the slightest words of support, whether that person knew it or not.

Now, I'll spend the rest of my time making the following statement a reality:

...this RE5 guide is going to blow everything else that I've done up until now out of the water.

Hey, you know I always keep my promises.

Update (4/13)

And so it begins. The first in the line of many updates to come. Here's what's new.

Proofread up to chapter 4-1; several error were corrected and I'm sure several still remain. Added quite a bit to the chapter 5-3 boss section including the function of Chris' Entreat command and many other moves and extras for both boss fights. Chris (BSAA) and Wesker (Midnight) sections were filled out under The Mercenaries.

The Chris BSAA melee strategy with his handgun has caused me to get a 320,000 score with a fellow online gamer! I was trying things yesterday and stumbled across the handgun technique with him.

Update (4/14)

Final Fantasy XII FAQ by Berserker= 1444 KB
Resident Evil 5 FAQ by Berserker = 1427 KB

Proofread some of Chapter 4-1... meh, not enough to mention. Added Chris (Safari) and Sheva (Clubbin') sections under The Mercenaries sections. The rest should be done by this week's end.

Update (4/15)

On this day of April 15, 2009, this Resident Evil 5 guide is now my biggest FAQ yet and I couldn't be happier! I never really intended for it to outdo my Final Fantasy XII guide in length when I originally started. That "blowing everything else out of the water" phrase was really only meant to mirror my thoughts toward making it good at that time. This is just... fantastic! :D

Proofread some more of Chapter 4-1. Added a Jill BSAA and Jill Battle Suit section under The Mercenaries section. Updated/Corrected Wesker's dash move with some very interesting finds.

Wesker players should really check out the new details under Wesker's dash. I was performing constant dashes yesterday while playing alongside a fried over PSN, and it was quite a showcase with two players that know how it works since the partner can get a tag team attack off a Majini that has been hit with two dashes.

Here's an example of the way the dash can be controlled for those that don't know how to control it well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dZngR95jGQ

The full controls are now listed (and corrected) in the guide.

Update (4/16)

Added Sheva (BSAA) and Wesker (S.T.A.R.S.) to the Mercenaries section. Some tips for Mercs were added and I also started filling in character partner commands, character assist commands and character responses for each character as well. Sheva (Tribal) will be up tomorrow and I'll get to work on other sections.

Update (4/17)

Sheva (Tribal) is now in the Mercs section, which brings an end to the Mercs character strategies (though I might go back and add some enemy strats for each character at a later date and, of course, I'll add info on new findings). I'm still deciding on the setup for Mercs stages at the moment, so for the next update I'll probably be working on the Weapons or Enemies section. Versus information will come in time.

Character responses for each character were also added to the Mercs section, though I'm still lacking Jill's critical headshot responses at the moment, which will be added over the weekend. A trick for gaining the magnum in chapter 3-1 without setting off the trap is now included in that section as well. Also added a Ruby (Square) location for Chapter 3-2 near the entrance to the oil field refinery after passing the camp with the Tricell tents.

Update (4/20)

Added a few notes about the Chainsaw Majini and his berserk mode in Chapter 3-2. A new Jewel Beetle location was added to Chapter 3-2 at the Oil Field - Refinery and two new Jewel Bangle locations were added for Chapter 3-2.

The weapons section is now done for the most part and a good chunk of the enemies section is now done. The "About Me" section was updated a bit as well. I'd say about a good 70+KB was added to this guide over the weekend. Yeah, that feels about right.

Update (4/21)

Proofread Chapter 5-1. Enemies section has been basically finished. Still needs a bit of work though with a few details as does the weapons section.

Update (4/22)

Added the Public Assembly stage to The Mercenaries section. Updated The Mercenaries section a bit as well. Added a quote to both the intro and the About Me section. The quote in the About Me section is actually a quote that I got while playing online with a fellow gamer in the RE5 demo. It still sticks in my mind.

This FAQ is now labeled as complete on GameFAQs since I would most likely never label it as such at the rate that I'm going. I've still got the rest of the Mercs stages and Versus and possibly Professional to cover... and I will probably think of something else after that.

Nothing is too complete for Resident Evil 5. Nothing.

Update (4/23)

Added The Mines stage to The Mercenaries section. Maps for Public Assembly were edited slightly with details on items. Made a few corrections in the Basics section as well; I'm going to reformat and edit the Basics section eventually... too many demo remnants.

Update (4/24)

The Infinite Rocket Launcher and many other unlockables are now listed under the "Unlockables - Main Game" sections under Lists. Added "Sway Backward" up under Wetland Majini exclusive actions in the Enemies section.

The Village stage is now up in the list of Mercenary stages.

Check out my Resident Evil 5 Versus review also!

Update (4/27)

Ancient Ruins is now up in the Mercs section. Proofread Chapter 5-2 over the weekend and made some pretty big adjustments and additions based off a Veteran mode playthrough for that chapter.

Experimental Facility and Missile Area should be arriving within the next few days along with the rest of the Mercs stages.

Update (4/28)

Experimental Facility is up in the Mercs section. Missile Area will be up tomorrow and the rest of the stages will come later in the week. Prison might take a bit longer than the previous.

Update (4/29)

Missile Area is now up in the Mercs section. I also completely redid the intro and moved some of the old intro to the special thanks section.

Update (4/30)

Ship Deck is now up in the Mercs section. There are also ranking tables at the beginning of each chapter in the walkthrough section along with a chapter ranking list in the Lists section.

Update (5/1)

Oh yeah! I didn't think I could do it all in one day, but Prison is now up and the Mercs section is now finished. Where shall we go next? Pro or Versus? I say Pro, myself... and myself agrees with me, so the majority wins and a Professional mode guide is coming next.

Update (5/4)

Professional Mode Walkthrough has now been started. Check below the Mercs section. Chapter 5-3 was proofread and a few things were added here and there... most notably a mention of using flash rounds and flash grenades against one of the Chapter 5-3 bosses.

Update (5/5)

Professional Mode Walkthrough is now up to Chapter 4-1. The Chapter 3-3 boss caused a slight delay. The little bastard...

Update (5/6)

Professional Mode Walkthrough is now up to Chapter 5-1. Proofread all of Chapter 6-1 in the main walkthrough and added a Topaz (Oval) location to Chapter 6-1 as well as corrected a treasure mention for that chapter. I had all of the Topaz's labeled as Topaz (Marquise) when they are in fact Topaz (Oval) for Chapter 6-1. Also added the Topaz (Oval) to the treasure list in both treasure sections.

Update (5/7)

Added a tip about how effective flame rounds are against Uroboros Mkono in Chapter 5-2. The Professional Mode walkthrough is now up to the boss fight in Chapter 5-3.

Update (5/8)

The Professional Mode walkthrough is now up to the first boss fight in Chapter 6-3.

Update (5/11)

The Professional Mode walkthrough is now complete. I SO want to just put at the top of this guide that it is fully complete, but a part of me still says that Versus has to be discussed, so until then...

I'm also thinking up some other kind of section to add at this very moment... Damn. These voices...

Update (5/12)

Started on the basics for Slayers for Versus mode. Survivors is coming soon. The Survivors portion will be much more detailed since Slayers is basically a four player Mercenaries.

Update (5/13)

Survivors basics added under Versus mode. More Survivors info to come later.

Update (5/14)

All Survivor weapons are now listed in full detail in the Versus section.

Update (5/15)

Added a few extra (and very interesting) bits to the Survivors sections under weapons. It turns out that all handguns and machine guns take off the same damage in Survivors when used against enemy players among other nice finds. Thanks so much silent_man if you're reading this!

Update (5/18)

A characters section is now up in the Versus section. This includes a character description for both Slayers and Survivors. Since I started playing the Xbox 360 version more this weekend, the walkthrough received a bit of updating such as trophy/achievement details being mentioned here and there for easier methods that I found to gain each accomplishment. There is more to come on this in a following update. Maps for Public Assembly were updated also. One (very obvious) spawn point was added to the list of spawn points for Public Assembly.

Also for anyone that happens to actually read all the updates that I place in this post, here's a very sweet pic from a friend that I have met online:


Thanks to Haoran for emailing me the pic and Dot50Cal from The Horror for the screen capture.

If you've bought the Resident Evil theme online, then you'll see ^that pic on your "Games Library" menu once you pull it up.

Update (5/20)

The Versus section is now complete for the most part. I'll go back and add a few things at a later date, but the overall framework for the way that I envisioned the section is now up. I've also started redoing and touching up the Basics section since the majority of it is basically from the RE5 demo FAQ, so it needs some more work to go along with the full game better.

Really the guide is now complete in a way, but there are still a few things that I'd like to add before deeming it as such at the top of this guide.

Resident Evil 5 Versus - Review

This review originally posted on Gamers' Temple.

Player(s): 1-4
Extra Features: Online play through PSN or Xbox LIVE, Leaderboards

Resident Evil 5 was the first game in the main Resident Evil series to bring in online play and it did so quite well with its online partner feature for co-op play. Even this single player purist was floored at the results of the online portion in Resident Evil 5. Now that new aspect has been expanded greatly with the new downloadable mode known as "Versus" that is up on both the PlayStation Store and Xbox LIVE marketplace for $5.00 or 400 MS points right now. I never have once considered the idea of a Resident Evil deathmatch to be much fun, but Versus has caused me to change that anti-online play attitude once again now that I have given it a shot.

Versus comes complete with four modes of play. The two main modes are Slayers and Survivors. Each of them can be played with four players that are all individually against each other or they can be played as a team game with two players on each team battling it out. So the complete list of modes is Slayers, Survivors, Team Slayers and Team Survivors. Players can choose from the same characters that are in the normal Mercenaries mode, though some have to be unlocked through the Bonus Features menu. All stages are taken directly from the Mercenaries mode.

Slayers is basically a four player version of The Mercenaries. Players battle it out individually to see which one can get the highest score based on chaining enemy kills and fighting off big boss enemies for a high score. All time extenders and combo bonuses are still in place like in the normal Mercenaries mini game. As a twist to the normal Mercenaries mode, players can now kill off each other. Killing off another player will award 1,000 points to the victor and subtract 1,000 points from the player killed.

Unlike avoiding attacks in The Mercenaries mode, in normal Slayers, there is no way to seek invincibility from another player's attacks. For instance, climbing a ladder or reaching down to pick up an item does not grant a player invincibility from another player's gunshot, but it does grant invincibility from a normal enemy's attack just like it did in the Mercenaries.

The hits from player to player affect the characters much like having the attack reaction in the main game of RE5 turned on. The players don't stagger unless they are about to enter dying status. Once a player enters dying status, that player can be finished by approaching the player and pressing the action button for a melee attack. The opposing player can be finished off with a gunshot also but the sheer power of these melee attacks can take out surrounding enemies and even send another unlucky nearby player into instant dying status, so is quite helpful to finish off a player with a melee attack as opposed to a normal gunshot.

Team Slayers works much like normal Slayers except that the game is played with two teams of two players. The objective still stands the same: defeat the enemies and chain kills. The main difference here is that one player can help out the other in obtaining enemy kills or while fighting against the other team. When a team member enters dying status the other player on that team can resuscitate or heal the player much like in duo Mercenaries, but when the player resuscitates the other player on that team, both player are completely invincible to all attacks during that resuscitation sequence. I have seen several games where a resuscitation can be triggered around 7 times in a row before one team finally kills off a player.

Both Slayer games are quite fun, but I can't help but feel that there should be an option to turn off player kills for Slayers. The game is so much fun with simply killing off normal enemies while four players are on the screen. Why can't we just kill them off without the need to battle amongst other players? I have seen several games where players simply ignore each other while chaining enemy kills and only attack other players when attacked.

Having a good knowledge of The Mercenaries mode can be extremely rewarding in Slayers since players can easily camp near enemy spawn points and kill off enemies as they appear. Sometimes there is an overall lack of enemies in an area however and sometimes the enemies seem to focus on one player more than another and seem to follow that player, which allows that certain player the ability to rack up kills rather easily.

Enemy bosses are worth the most points and finding them and then disposing of them can easily drive up a player's score, which is kind of unfair in a way. For instance, the Red Executioner is worth a whopping 15,000 point by himself, which can easily put a player in the lead if that player manages to defeat two of the Red Executioners. A lot of the point totals can be based on luck rather than skill at chaining kills. A character with a high chain total could easily fall to another player that luckily finds several bosses in a row and manages to kill them off. To even-out the scores a bit, a score multiplier of two times the normal score per enemy is put in place for the person in last place to help that person keep up with the other players, which is a rather nice touch for any player that is barely holding on.

In both Slayer modes, some of the characters have way too good weapons for boss disposal, while some have only weapons that are mainly good for support purposes. Try comparing Wesker STARS to Jill BSAA and you'll find that Wesker STARS seems a bit overpowered when it comes to fighting off a boss enemy. He can literally make mincemeat out of any boss with his Hydra shotgun.

Survivors mode pits four player against each other with a limited weapon variety for each character. A character comes equipped with a standard weapon such as a handgun or machine gun along with a healing item and some type of grenades. The players must scout the area for extra weapons. Extra gun weapons consist of rocket launchers, rifles, shotguns, magnums, and grenade launchers, all of which are high-powered and of course a player can pick up grenade and proximity bombs along the way. All stages now have random items and weapons lying around and the enemies are still present as well. Killing off an enemy in this mode has little significance other than getting it out of your way. Boss enemies tend to drop weapons and items, however.

A player can easily crowd an inventory full of high-powered weapons then fight off the opposing players with a big arsenal. A big arsenal doesn't immediately win the game though since several tactics can be used to trick another player. Any type of weapon that stuns a player for a set amount of seconds can be greatly taken advantage of. When a player stuns another player with an incendiary grenade, the attacker can quickly bring out a high-powered weapon such as magnum and shoot the staggering character until that character falls.

Traps can also be set with Proximity Bombs, which can be placed strategically over a map. For instance, a proximity bomb can be placed around an immediate corner or on the other side of a door or bottom of a ladder to get another player to accidentally step on it. It's quite fun to have a look at all the options available to players through the various items and weapons that one can gain.

Team Survivors is basically a team deathmatch. Unlike normal Survivors, a team member can rush in to help another player when that player reaches dying status. The same amount of invincibility that was present in Team Slayers during a resuscitation is present in Survivors as well, allowing players to stay right next to each other for support. Even though this may seem too helpful at first, a player with good timing can still kill off a character in dying status with rapid shots from a machine gun and handgun no matter if the partner sticks near that character or not. Someone will soon mess up on the timing somewhere.

Some of the stages in all modes have a tendency for slowdown on both the Xbox 360 version and the PS3 version. The slowdown isn't all that common but whenever the game does hit a drop in framerate, the onscreen action can became pretty choppy as the game struggles to maintain the overwhelming amount of movement on the screen. Like I said, it's not a very common issue, but it is more common on certain stages such as Public Assembly and the Prison. The Xbox 360 version has an extra system link option and the match can be set to player or ranked match. The PS3 version has only one match type by default. Both versions have leaderboards where scores can be posted up once gained. Even though the modes are usually four player games, they can be toned down to two or three players as well.

Overall, Versus is a good step in the right direction for a Resident Evil deathmatch-type mode. Slayers is my personal pick of the modes, even if I do deem it as problematic at times. Playing with a friend while playing either team game is a total blast and adds a new competitive feeling to the usual Mercenaries gameplay. Versus is very much worth the asking price of $5.00 or 400 MS points for any player that wants to extend the life of Resident Evil 5 more than it already can be with the included Mercenaries mode. It will have you coming back for more!


The Good:

+ Good value that is easily worth the asking price
+ Four player deathmatches in Resident Evil style!


The Bad:

- Framerate issues on both versions that can get rather choppy at times
- No option to turn off the killing of other players in Slayers or Team Slayers
- Slayers can feel unfair and based on luck at times


8.0/10

Ready for a Resident Evil style deathmatch, partner? Are you locked and loaded?

Resident Evil 5 - Review

This review originally posted on Gamers' Temple.

Player(s): 1-2
Extra Features: Online play through PSN or Xbox LIVE, Leaderboards, Download Content

Ever since the trailer shown at E3 2005, Resident Evil 5 has been the center of attention for many hardcore Resident Evil fans. E3 2006 basically set the standards for what to expect from this new Resident Evil and the following gaming conventions added the introduction of a new lead character along with the main character and co-op play. A vast majority of new trailers and gameplay videos have been surfacing for the past few months along with some very clever marketing schemes by Capcom dealing with building up hype for Resident Evil 5's release.

The trailers do not lie one bit about this Resident Evil having a story suited for hardcore fans of the series. There are some things you will find out about the series' past that will completely blow you away while answering some of the more elusive story aspects that were only hinted upon in the older games. Resident Evil 5 does a very good job of pulling together aspects from Resident Evil 4 and the more classic Resident Evil games. Las Plagas (Resident Evil 4) and the Progenitor virus (pre-Resident Evil) are the main focus of the story along with a few new additions.

It also showcases the return of a few older fan favorite characters such as Albert Wesker and another very popular character that has been missing from the Resident Evil storyline for far too long. One of the most elusive Resident Evil characters of all time is actually given a face and a voice in Resident Evil 5 as well. The reoccurring theme of "partner" is one of the major story elements in Resident Evil 5's narrative and it succeeds in bringing in some pleasing emotional depth to the overall story. I've always deemed Resident Evil: Code Veronica X as my personal favorite Resident Evil because of its overall story and characters, but Resident Evil 5 comes close in dethroning it from a story aspect.

The first major change one will definitely notice about Resident Evil 5 when compared to its predecessor is the impressive overall leap in graphics. This game is overflowing with high production value in many ways but the high resolution appearance is quite a sight to behold. The character models are all life-like and detailed. Even though we all know Chris Redfield has near perfect genes, you can see minor skin imperfections such as freckles if you look closely at his arm while controlling him. Character outfits are detailed enough to show stitching in the fabric from close range.

Backgrounds showcase some impressive lighting effects throughout the game as well. There is one sewer area in particular that gradually gets darker as your character moves toward the middle of the tunnel then slowly gets a bit brighter as an opening is reached. Shadow effects are lifelike as well such as seeing realistic character shadows as they move by an area with sunlight peaking or simply seeing the shadow of a crow that is flying overhead.

Resident Evil 4 had some pretty impressive battles, but Resident Evil 5's boss battles blow them out of the water. The boss battles about midway through the game onward are quite a sight to behold. Some of them are more shooter-based than normal but all of them feel unique and left me really excited throughout the battle. Being a hardcore Resident Evil fan, there is one boss fight in particular that left me extremely giddy throughout the whole battle since I couldn't believe what I was seeing unravel before my eyes.

The overall game plays much like Resident Evil 4 for the most part. It has plenty of newly added melee attacks that can be performed on an enemy by shooting and stunning it in a certain way. Resident Evil 5 even changes some of the melee attacks depending on the side of the enemy that your character is facing. There are even some tag team melees that require teamwork and these can be fun to try for while playing with a partner.

With melee attacks and many other actions, Resident Evil 5 still uses Resident Evil 4's button prompt command system where a button will appear in order to perform a certain action depending on the object, obstacle or enemy in front of your character. This works pretty well for the most part but there were still times where I'd accidentally perform a command that I didn't want to because my character stepped out of a certain detection area for a button prompt command. This is still only a minor issue though, just as it was in Resident Evil 4.

Slightly early in the game, a button prompt cover system is introduced where a character can stick to a wall with a tap of the action button. The cover system plays out much like it was in a certain part of Resident Evil 4 where Leon could take cover from enemies that tossed dynamite at him. Resident Evil 5 greatly intensifies the need to take cover as the game progressed however and the slight cover feature in Resident Evil 4 is given much more emphasis making its flaws more showcased. When your character takes cover behind a wall, that character cannot move along that wall at all, which can be a slight annoyance when you just want to simply move to the other side of the wall to get better aim. With that said, the button prompt cover feature matches the gameplay setup that Resident Evil 5 still maintains from its predecessor but a slight bit of enhancement over the old feature would have made it feel much better.

The game still uses the classic Resident Evil tank controls but loosens them just as much as Resident Evil 4 and provides the player with the same over-the-shoulder view perspective that we are now familiar with. Resident Evil 5 has four different control setups. It uses the classic Resident Evil 4 control style and a new style with a sidestep, a shoulder firing button, and the use of the right analog for turning. The two other control types blend these two together for a mix of the two controls. If you're starting this game right after having played Dead Space then Control Type D is most likely going to be the one for you, but if you're entering the game after having just played Resident Evil 4 then you'll most likely want to continue on using Control Type A's more traditional setup.

In Resident Evil 5, you play the main game with one completely controllable character and a partner. The AI partner in single player is both a blessing and a curse. My main gripe with the partner system in single player is the limited amount of control you have over your partner. Only two commands can be issued to a partner - Attack and Cover. Under the "Cover" command, your AI partner sticks close to your main character and equips the least powerful weapon in the partner's current inventory. When in "Attack" mode, the partner will equip the most damaging weapon in the character's arsenal and the AI will be more aggressive and go off on its own to do battle with enemies or find items. Thankfully, whether online or offline, you can keep track of your partner through a mini map which can be displayed on the side of the screen.

The only way to stop your AI partner from attacking is to request all firearms from your partner, but even then your partner will still try to attack enemies with the knife. There really should have been some sort of "Wait" command for the single player mode to keep your partner from acting at all. This would have been such a nice feature for the single player mode especially in some areas where the partner blows your cover by taking a shot at some unsuspecting enemies. There were also plenty of times where I would fire at an enemy's head for a head stun then rush toward the enemy to perform a melee attack that would knock him down along with the crowd that surrounds him, but the AI partner would mess up this chance by shooting the stunned enemy which immediately brought the enemy out of the stun and made it where I got assaulted by the whole crowd thanks to the lack of the melee command that I could have gotten if the AI partner didn't "help out".

Even with the complaints about the AI partner however, the single player game still gave me the feel of playing with a team. Your AI partner will conveniently help out quite often by healing your main character or giving your main character ammo when needed. Despite the slight flaws in the partner AI, it really is a lot more helpful than annoying. Experimenting with the partner AI and leaning how it works is quite a fun challenge. If only there had been some sort of "Wait" command to cancel all partner actions, the partner AI would have been a lot more memorable to me.

Playing the main story online or in split screen with an actual human player breathes new life into the team experience. The game gives you a set of partner commands that can be issued to your partner by holding down the assist button and tapping a direction with the d-pad - Go, Come On, Thanks, and Wait. The "Thanks" and "Wait" command are exclusive to co-op gameplay. There are also partner responses that can be activated after specific actions have been performed. For instance, whenever a partner heals your character or gives your character an item, you can tap the assist button to have your partner respond to the character to show gratitude.

It's amazing how such a simple communication system can so easily remedy the need for voice chat. You can request an item or ammo from your partner by pulling up their inventory and selecting request. All the other person has to do is equip the item then walk toward the partner for a "Give" command to appear. I use voice chat over Xbox LIVE to play alongside a few friends and we still use this partner communication system even then. It's a very simple yet effective communication system that fits in very well with the team aspect of Resident Evil 5.

The inventory system can only be pulled up in real time now, just like in the Resident Evil: Outbreak games. Press the Triangle (PS3) or Y (Xbox 360) button to display the menu during gameplay. Even though cycling through the inventory while action occurs on the screen takes some getting used to at first, it brings a whole new level of depth and strategy to the usual pause in gameplay to select from the inventory. For those willing enough to explore advanced techniques, the inventory menu can be brought up during the middle of a melee attack or many other character animations while your character is invincible. You can literally arrange your inventory while climbing a ladder. Yes, the game still gets that tense.

Resident Evil 4 introduced reloading animations to increase the tension. Leon could only reload in real time. RE5 brings back reloading through the inventory menu by combining the ammo with the gun. If you can master when to pull up the inventory during gameplay to take advantage of inventory reloading then you'll never have to witness another reload animation again and this will improve your play-throughs significantly. The real time inventory system really opens the door to a whole new level of planning while experiencing the usual tension of Resident Evil 4 style gameplay for those willing to experiment and tinker with it.

The Mercenaries mode is back once again. It is unlocked after the main story is finished on any difficulty. Just like in Resident Evil 4, you can select a character with a predetermined weapon list and your character will enter a stage full of enemies where your goal is to get as many kills as possible before the time runs out. Players can collect time bonuses to extend the timer for more killing time and chaining kills all within a certain amount of seconds can raise the overall score.

Everything about the Mercenaries mode is bigger and better this time. More stages can be played and there are more unlockable characters. But that isn't even the best part. The most fantastic part about this mode is that it can now be played with two players, so you can join up with a friend locally or online and work together to get a high score. It's absolutely amazing how addicting this mode can be with two people and really shows off how the overall Resident Evil 4 style gameplay still holds up.

When comparing the Xbox 360 version and the PS3 version there are some slightly noticeable differences once they are placed side by side. The Xbox 360 version suffers from some noticeable screen tearing at times and its darker areas tend to lack as much of a realistic appearance as the PS3 version. In contrast, the PS3 version's jagged edges on the characters are more noticeable than on the Xbox 360 version, the framerate doesn't always move as smoothly on PS3 (it's only slight) and some environmental effects are watered-down on PS3.

Regarding environmental effects, there is one part of Resident Evil 5 where a truck falls over and slides while still moving toward the characters. The Xbox 360 version has more noticeable sparking effects during the slide and has a thick layer of smoke protruding from the bottom of the truck after it comes to a complete stop. The PS3 has the same effects but they are much less noticeable. Environmental effects such as the dust at the Pubic Assembly are not as noticeable on PS3 either. All of these issues are rather minor, but they are still noticeable when playing both versions.

The Xbox 360 version still has the usual achievements and the PS3 has its trophies. The PS3 version has some unlockable features for PlayStation Home as well. The PlayStation Home Kijuju portion also has some unlockable features that can only be accessed by those that have a copy of Resident Evil 5.

If you're a hardcore Resident Evil fan then you'll be able to overlook the minor flaws in Resident Evil 5. The game is every bit what this hardcore Resident Evil fan was hoping for and then some. The new co-op gameplay greatly intensifies the replay value with providing a new experience each time the game is played. You won't be putting this one down for months to come. The differences between the two versions can be a slight factor when deciding between them but, overall, I think the controller that you are most comfortable with and the available friends that will play alongside you on each console should be the major concern.



The Good:

+ Overflowing with high production value
+ Blends Resident Evil 4 style gameplay with a story and characters that will likely please hardcore Resident Evil fans
+ The entire main story can be played solo with an AI partner or with a friend through split screen or online play
+ Good overall enemy variety along with some extremely good bosses
+ Online Mercenaries mode!
+ A bunch of replay value through the harder difficulty levels and The Mercenaries mode is back once again


The Bad:

- More control over the AI partner's actions would have been appreciated
- The cover system feels mediocre


9.5/10

Resident Evil 5 digs deep into the series' origins with its overall story and slightly enhances the overall addicting gameplay that left its mark with Resident Evil 4.