Resident Evil 5 review for PS4, Xbox One

First and foremost, I want to clear up something about this release, as well as Resident Evil 4 and 6. When first announced, a lot of articles, including press direct from Capcom, stated these were ?Remasters?, to which contributed to my less than fair score of Resident Evil 6. Fast forward to the release of Resident Evil 5 and that verbiage is nowhere to be found. The series of games is being titled as ?Re-releases? which makes way more sense given the lack of extras.

With that said, as always, I?m going to be as honest as possible when speaking about Resident Evil 5 for PS4. This game and I share a ton of memories, both good and bad. This entry in the series was the first time we?re given local and online co-op, and it was greeted with a mixed reception. The biggest and most noticeable component of Resident Evil 5 was the gameplay.

Resident Evil 4 was the first in the main entries that took a departure from the traditional tank style controls into a more action game based setup. The game still managed to be great because it instilled many of the traits that make Resident Evil so beloved. Puzzles, monsters, and returning favorites, such as Leon and Ada, helped pave the path for future games.

Then, RE5 came years later and again made changes to the already perfected formula. I can understand the inclusion of co-op since at the time of release, this was a very in demand component on both Xbox Live and PSN. For me, co-op was one of the better additions made to the game. I thoroughly enjoyed my time during the campaign when playing locally with a friend. The inventory swapping was also intuitive and key to keeping teamwork in place.

The biggest drawbacks for Resident Evil 5 were the story, setting and Chris Redfield on steroids. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to make his arms so big?! RE5 had so many things going for and against it, which ended up hurting the franchise because the game has been keyed and the beginning of the downfall of Resident Evil. It?s a bold statement and I can semi-agree.

The real question here is does the game stand the test of time on a new console generation, for existing and newcomers? To be honest, I was a different person playing RE5 back in 2009. I was so appreciative to get my RE fix since we didn?t have a new game in many years, so as a fan boy, I ate it up, issues and all. The really scary part is how many times I completed the campaign. (Seriously, you don?t want to know?)

So after the extensive sessions both on and offline with the original release, is it worth a revisit? I think so. Even with the abundance of Resident Evil games this year, out of all of them, 5 was the one I have had the most fun with 7 years later. I?ve read other people have issues with this release, but I?m happy to report, not having any performance issues with the framerate or the inventory system.

This ?release? includes all the previously released DLC, including the Untold Stories bundle, which includes ?Lost in Nightmares?, a short campaign for Chris and Jill which has some elements of traditional survival horror. Also included is the ?Mercenaries United? add-on which allows you to fight hordes of zombies and other creatures with 8 different characters.

For $20, this release is a great value, giving fans that missed out a chance to play on current consoles. I look forward to Resident Evil 4 despite this being the 20^th or so re-release. The real wait is for the Resident Evil 2 Remaster.