Thoughts on the Resident Evil 5 Demo

Well, since I still have a little bit of my hated XBox Live Gold subscription left, I thought it would behoove me to check out the Resident Evil 5 demo that became available for download. After all, I had heard some really good things about it.

I have to admit, the game looks great. The graphics are smooth and well done. Enemies look appropriately menacing, and the environments meet the recently enacted 'grittiness' standards.

Unfortunately, my positive impressions end there. The control scheme is an absolute nightmare. Down the sight aiming is a great feature in games, but it's sadly missing here. Instead, Capcom presents us with a laser sight of dubious value, and the ability to move it at what could generously be referred to as a snail's pace.

The co-op actions feel forced, such as having my partner hit a button to punch the enemy that has me grappled. Haven't we all about grown tired of quick time events, no matter how they're structured? Just give my partner the ability to punch, and allow them to determine if my sorry butt is worth saving or not.

I understand that people feel the need to 'innovate' in the shooter genre. After all, if they don't try, they get to hear critics say "This is the same old thing." Unfortunately, this often leads to change for the sake of change, instead of change for the better. This appears to be the case with Resident Evil 5, and the game suffers for it.

RE5 may turn out to be an excellent game at release, but this demo is a lackluster showing at best. At this point, I can only recommend it to absolute die-hard Resident Evil fans. In good conscience, I can't ask anyone else to subject themselves to it.