Resident Evil 5

And we completed it again, too. Are there no lengths to which we will not go for the sake of 300 words? Apparently not. So how do we feel?

Well, we’re going to be honest: we don’t take very well to feeling constrained if there are monsters around. We need to be able quickly shoot and run away, so playing Resident Evil games has always been a struggle. We enjoy their survival horror atmosphere but fume at the restrictive pace and controls. But with Resident Evil 5, Capcom has not only taken the series to an interesting location, with Chris Redfield and his new partner Shiva fighting the zombie infected in the sweltering fictional African country of Kijuju, but evolved the Resident Evil gameplay for the better. Battles with the huge Majini horde are more action-oriented now thanks to better controls, but limited ammo and supplies keep the tension constantly high.

The speed and variety of your zombie enemies mean you really need your new partner, and while the AI isn’t bad you’ll want to play online co-op with a friend over Live to get the best out of the game. While the story is the usual cheesy, convoluted Resident Evil madness, it was good enough to sustain us through the game’s tense action set pieces and horrific boss battles. Unsurprisingly, Resident Evil 5 looks far better on PC than it does on console; though we had to fiddle with settings to get rid of the occasional hitch. It seems Capcom is making a habit of good (if very late) PC conversions, and Resident Evil 5 is well worth playing on PC if you haven’t already done so elsewhere.