Zombie Apocalypse, Bring Friends

Having belabouredly put forth the idea that Resident Evil 5 is as scary as taking an ideally temperate bath, rubber ducky and all, it’s worth going on to say that it is at least quite a good action game. Not great, but good.

The controls for Resident Evil have been the target of much scorn and while we could initially see why people complained that they were more complex than trying to assemble an HTPC if you didn’t have a screwdriver but did have a mouldy Eccles cake, they aren’t all that bad. Not once you get used to them anyway. There’s still a good deal of fumbling when enemies get close, but it’s mostly manageable – chalk that down as a good thing, we suppose.

Huge aspects of the game, which have been ostensibly borrowed/ripped straight out of Resident Evil 4 have been improved too, thankfully. Ordering your partner in anti-crime around is easily done in singleplayer and keeping track of her in co-op is easy thanks to the pop-down map.

The interface has been streamlined to perfection from a GUI perspective too – though that’s possibly the most geeky thing anyone has said, ever. At a glance you can see the health for both characters, as well as what weapons they have and how much ammo they have total and loaded.


In co-op that’s an amazing boon to players, who can co-ordinate ammo expenditure easily. Just like in Resi 4, 5 has several areas where you have to seal yourself in a house and withstand an assault from the parasitic hosts, blocking windows and doors with furniture to buy time. Being able to see if Sheva is low on handgun bullets or will need to reload in a second lets you adjust your tactics to compensate easily.

The inventory system however is a bit of a mixed bag, as it always has been in Resident Evil history. The good news is that you can set items to D-pad directions, which makes switching weapons a breeze. If you want to see more of the screen then you can elect not to show Sheva’s inventory too, which is handy if you want to keep an eye on the action.

The bad news though is that parts of the inventory make little sense, and moving items around is more cumbersome than...well, since I’m not allowed to make any more mum jokes, you’d better finish that sentence yourselves.


Here’s a hypothetical: Chris is standing over some SMG ammo with a full inventory that include an SMG with no ammo in it. He has no other SMG ammo and next to him Sheva is loaded up with first aid sprays and ammo. Chris expects that he should be able to just pick up the SMG ammo and load it straight into his empty gun. Chris cannot and, since everything is fully stacked in both inventories, Chris can’t swap items around to make room for the ammo that’s right there.

Chris is in an annoying position then – he either has to drop a first aid spray or gun in order to pick up the SMG ammo that he plans to use immediately, or he has to continue carrying an empty gun around with him for ages. Oh, and if Chris drops something then it’s made irretrievable and if Chris takes to long to decide then the ammo will disappear anyway, magically.

The insanity of inventorising is made even more problematic by Sheva's attempts to help too. Occasionally you’ll attempt to make room in your own pockets by passing an item to her, to which she’ll sometimes respond by giving you a different item back of her own volition. Other times she’ll run around smashing boxes and grabbing supplies, leaving her laden with supplies you don’t want her to have.

Griping aside though, Sheva is still worth her weight in bullets though, even if it is never explained why she has a totally perfect upper-class accent.