Resident Evil 5 Member Review for the PS3

Why is Resident Evil a better name than Biohazard anyway?

This game was advertised some time ago, and from the start looked awesome. And now, it IS awesome, just maybe not consistently. I'm not sure I can say this game is really represntive of the franchise.

STORY: Chris Redfield, suffering flashbacks of losing his partner is sent to Africa to help stop a spreading biohazard... you get the idea. Here at least RE5 is true to it's roots, in that it feels like a B movie, probably strafing far more into action than horror. This is surprising, as you're foes are now capable of running, jumping and throwing wrenches, machetes and hurtful names.On top of this, you can't run and gun, you can spend ages lining up a headshot that has no guarantee of putting down your aenemy and at times ammunition can be sparse.

However, the game just isn't difficult until you complete it on "hard" and unlock the uber difficulty. Enemies will run up at full speed with weapon pulled back to stop four feet away and glare menacingly. If an unarmed opponent grabs you it's more of an inconvenience as you usually just button mash until they're thrown clear.

I found the most fun part of the whole game really near the start, right after your contact gets killed, where you and yor partner raid the room for weapons, blocking windows and preparing for a siege, eventually having the hordes fall through the ceiling and the executioner crashing through the wall. at the very start, where you're still adjusting to the controls, you have poor weapons and not much ammo for them, this part is the most nerve racking experience of the game, and more parts like that would have been awesome.

The main boss that recurrs in different forms, is a slivery black creature with pulsating yellow/orange boils over it that are weakspots, and with the over the shoulder camera i can't help being reminded of dead space, and the memory of a genuinely scary game like that only made it more clear how lacking the game was in fright. when you consider the original resident evil, with the famous dog coming through the window, bodies lying pretending to be dead andeven later in veronica where you had to surrender every metallic item in your inventory to proceed at one point, this game , while a pretty solid action experience, just doesn't scare at all. When you're a 6 and a half foot bodybuilder armed with a grenade launcher,  a magnum, two machine guns and a machete, it's difficult to feel intimidated.

The multiplayer is fantastic, however. Rather than the drop-in-and-play being a great bonus, the teamwork is a really important aspect of the game. one section where you have to push a crate along  a passageway while your teammate keeps the trademark lickers from removing chunks from your back is almost impossible left in the hands of the AI, but having said that it's funny how long we've said AI can't compete with human gameplay; you should see the way people panic and **** up at the worst moments.

The game looks amazing throughout, although the near end sections on the boat and in the lab, while enviromentally accurate, just aren't as interesting as the shanty town you start off in: more time  here would have been better.

overall, the game is pretty good, if a departure from typical Resident Evil. It's not like one of those long hyped games that couldnt match the publicity like Haze or Assassin's Creed, but it doesn't reach that all-that-was-promised-and-then-some level of Killzone 2 or Guns of the Patriots.