Try before you die

We just can't seem to get away from zombies these days. They've been popping up in all sorts of games, from Grand Theft Auto to World of Warcraft, not to mention 2008's fantastic Left 4 Dead. We mustn't forget the Granddaddy of them all, though - Resident Evil. As you may know, the next title in the survival horror franchise is due out in March, but Capcom were nice enough to deliver a demo to the Xbox Live Marketplace a couple of days ago, which shows off a couple of the levels. Now, I'm not exactly the biggest Resident Evil fan, but couldn't resist trying it out.

The demo takes place in some African or South American location, and should be familiar to fans of RE4. The over-the-shoulder camera view remains from that title, but the controls have been tweaked to make them a little more shooter-like, with movement on the left stick and aiming on the right. Apart from this, though, control seems very familiar, and players must still plant their feet before aiming their laser-sighted gun. Obviously, the graphics have been improved over it's last-gen counterpart, but this is something we've become used to after three years of high-def visuals on Xbox 360.

The first of the two levels starts you inside a building, as you hold off the advances of the undead hordes. Much as in RE4, the best tactic is to shoot a zombie in the head then rush in for a kick while they're stunned. However, you no longer always kick; you may throw a punch or uppercut instead, depending on which way the zombie is facing, which may not have the desired effect of knocking down all the approaching enemies. After a few minutes of this, the ceiling caves in and it becomes apparent that staying inside might not be the best idea. Plus, there's now a huge dude with an axe heading your way.

Running out into the surrounding village will give you some room to think, and also provide you with some much needed ammo. However, this is where your ultimate goal becomes unclear. I spent quite a while trying to kill axe-guy, but he can sure take a lot of punishment without going down. Fall victim to his giant weapon and you'll find yourself at the game over screen, which then requires you to start all over again, so I found it best to just avoid him. If he does catch you with his massive blade, or if you just take too much damage from zombies, you'll be 'dying', which means you limp around slowly until your partner can come and revive you.

This highlights biggest change from RE4 - You now have a partner helping you out. This second character can be controlled either by the AI or a second player. However, the first level doesn't really showcase any of the co-op sections. Instead, you must simply stay alive long enough for the rescue chopper to come; a familiar scenario for anyone who's played Left 4 Dead. It's only in the second demo level that you start to see some real team-up points. Although this section also takes place in some remote village, it provides a little more variety from the first one. There are a few points where you must throw your partner across a gap, then provide cover with a sniper rifle while they clean up with a submachine gun.

This second level quickly reaches a point like the first one, though, in which you are simply in a village with a big guy coming for you; this time it's a bag-on-head chainsaw guy like in RE4. Unfortunately, this guy can take you out in one hit, so he's best tacked from a distance if you don't like the idea of starting the demo all over again. However, after enough sniper shots to the head he will go down, at which point the demo ends.

So, how was it then? Well, I didn't really like it, to be honest. I understand that Capcom made real advances between RE3 and RE4, but none of that creativity seems to have been applied this time. It ends up feeling like a prettier version of their last game, but with a 2-player option now. But is this really a bad thing? I mean, shouldn't a 2-player RE4 be awesome? Unfortunately, the bar has been raised in the last few years, making RE5 seem a little out-dated already. First of all, there's the Wii version of RE4. Now, I don't usually like Wii ports with tacked-on motion controls, but this is one instance where the control scheme was perfect. After having had much more fast and accurate aiming, it's tough to go back to the older, less precise analog stick.

The second reason it doesn't seem too impressive is because of Left 4 Dead. This game really showed how co-op survival horror should work, and RE5 seems pretty basic in comparison. In fact, it takes many of the aspects of Left 4 Dead, such as helping your partner escape from a zombie's clutches, and reviving them when they take too much damage, but doesn't seem to handle them quite as well. Your inventory, although streamlined from the last game, still requires a number of button presses to do things like hand ammo to your partner, which can be a pain when surrounded by undead.

Ultimately though, the reason why Resident Evil 5 seems out-dated is because we've seen horror portrayed in many interesting ways over the last few years, from creepy and atmospheric games like Bioshock and Dead Space, to the fast, panic-inducing Left 4 Dead. Compared to these, RE5 seems very old-school, because the only ways it scares you is to give you less-than-ideal controls and low supplies of ammunition. This was the tactic Capcom employed back in the first Resident Evil, but one would hope that over the years they'd developed new methods of inducing fear. Apparently not, though, as the demo relies very much on these two mechanics to keep you on the edge of your seat.

So in the end, I'm less than impressed with the demo for Resident Evil 5. It's too familiar feeling, which isn't a good thing when other developers are creating brand new, original IPs. The last few years have seen some real advancements to horror video games and this feels like a step backward. I know it's unrealistic to expect companies to re-invent franchises with every new instalment, but simply upgrading the graphics and tweaking the controls doesn't seem to cut it anymore. To me, RE5 sort of feels like RE2: A definite improvement over the last one, but without much of a leap gameplay-wise. We may have to wait another few years before Capcom decide to mix things up again.

Resident Evil 5 is due out on March 13th in N. America and Europe, for Xbox 360 and PS3. The demo is available now on XBLM and Feburary 2nd on PSN.