The buildings looking burned out, disgusting, and shabby, as if no one has lived there for years on end. This gives a feeling of insecurity when walking around -- that something can just pop out of nowhere. The fire effects are second to none. I found myself blowing up fuel barrels over and over again just to marvel at the incredible fire effects and how the flames realistically spread across the ground. But we all knew how good the game looks because of screenshots, so the demo didn’t really deliver anything new there. What it did do is tell us how incredibly familiar the gameplay is to Resident Evil 4. What’s that old saying? Ahh yes, don’t break a winning formula, right?

This is where the gaming world is going to be divided in two: one half being the old schoolers who don’t mind playing new games the way they did 5 years ago, and the other being those who are too used to the way third-person games are played now -- with fast-paced, balls-out action where everything is streamlined -- to be able to enjoy it. Resident Evil 5 plays old school -- no more run-and-shoot, no more take-cover-pop-and-shoot, no more shooting freely, and no moving while aiming. I have to admit it took me 10 minutes before once again getting comfortable with the way the game plays, and even then forgetting I couldn’t freely shoot at the horde of zombies mobbing me. The game has stuck to its roots, and doesn’t make the leap from 4 to 5 that many were hoping for. The zombies act and behave like the ones in Resident Evil 4, the locations (apart from this being set in Africa) almost make you think, “I have been here before.”

Has Capcom incorporated anything new into Resident Evil 5, you ask? Well they have, obviously, by adding co-op gameplay, but also in the less-than-exciting, but still important, fact that you can now switch guns or herbs or anything else you have with the touch of the d-pad at any time. This is a nifty little feature that can come in handy when up against multiple enemies, and gives the game a more streamlined feeling than having to go into the tedious equipment screen every 10 minutes.

Other than this though, the whole game reeks of a Resident Evil 4 remake with different characters and locations in pretty HD. But I stress the point that this may not be such a bad thing. People new to the Resident Evil series (where the hell have you been?!) may find it less appealing to play than other current third-person shooters, and with the industry moving along as it is, will RE5 stand the test of time? I will leave it up to you to decide.