Resident Evil 5 Demo Impressions (Ps3)

There are only 2 stages to choose from when the demo starts off. Both of these levels were playable at E3 but weren't available till now. The first is called public assembly. This level begins in a a village and after a cut scene the "zombies" begin to break through the house that Chris and Sheva are currently in. Right off the bat it the controls were exactly like RE4 (for better or worse). The aiming was a little too slow so I had to go into the control options to make switching between enemies a little faster.

It seems a little hectic especially when you have a limited amount of ammo while "zombies" and that executioner guy are after you. You are pretty much waiting for your helicopter ride for a rescue but until then you are screwed. I found myself running around in circles picking up ammo and picking off a couple of enemies until help had arrived. I felt like I needed a machine gun or something so I could get rid of all the enemies (I guess thats not the point).

After a few minutes the chopper arrives, after a quick cut scene the first level is over.

Shanty town

I'm finding the game to be very linear, not that its a bad thing, but I kinda wanted more choices. Chris and Sheva must investigate a chopper crash after some weird flying creatures attacked the pilot. This sorta thing happened in RE 4 but IMO they shouldn't have put creatures like that back in this game. Anyway, there are more instances to boost Shiva up on rooftops and other areas to add to the co-op feel. Speaking of Shiva, the A.I. seems very competent and does a great job at healing me, picking up items in the environment, taking out enemies that I'm not aiming at and saving my ass when I need it.

Another part that we have seen in demo videos is when Chris throws Sheva across one rooftop while your suppose to snipe enemies to keep her safe. Afterwards she unlocks the door and helps you kill the rest of the enemies. When you pick up all the items and head for the exit, a maniac with a chainsaw starts heading in your direction. Not only that but you have more "zombies" do deal with. They definitely need to add more ammo whether its with the enemy kills or more in the environment because I kept running around scrounging for it. I eventually killed the chainsaw guy by using the exploding barrels, my handgun and my sniper rifle. After that you pick up the gate key from the fallen chainsaw guy and you head for the exit.

Another thing that they added was the real time inventory system. Instead of having to pause the game and go into inventory, you can do it on the spot. It seems harder because there isn't really a lot of time do switch guns or heal (with all the enemies around) unless you run. It was a short demo, some things I liked and some things were meh. This is obviously a demo so I won't say anymore about it other than the controls take some getting used to (some people won't like it at all) and I want to try the co-op.

-Rob