While we're still well over a month away from the official release, the Resident Evil 5 demo debuted yesterday on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It offered plenty to freak out over — literally and figuratively.
1. It ain't going to be easy
If the demo is any indication, this game is going to be tough as nails.
Public Assembly, the first of two playable levels, pits you against the hyper-charged virulence of a revolutionary uprising gone mad.
After a brief run, the level opens with you watching a public beheading fueled by the shouts of bloodthirsty virus-infected guerrilla fighters and carried out by an executioner whose size is dwarfed only by that of his blade.
For the next 15 minutes, you are bombarded by a steady stream of fighters, punctuated by the wild swings of the super-sickle wielding executioner.
Like the excellent Left 4 Dead, you're satisfied to simply survive long enough to be rescued.
For the opening level of a demo, Capcom set the difficulty-bar extremely high.
2. It doesn't set out to reinvent the wheel
The action horror genre has come a long way since Resident Evil 4 defined it. That game remains the genre's masterpiece, and Capcom wisely has chosen to paint with the same brush.
The look, feel and sound of RE5 are all familiar, and it feels good to have them back: the simultaneously brilliant and depressing settings, the precise red-dot sight, the mass havoc caused by a single shotgun round, the ominous music and the blood-curdling buzz of the chainsaw.
Character control remains largely the same, a proposition that worried me slightly until I finally got my hands on the demo.
I was one of many voices to question whether the inability to run and shoot at the same time would feel antiquated and clunky after seamless and fluid shooters like Call of Duty. It doesn't. It's that very feature that allows such rewarding precision and ruthless efficiency.
The four weapons in the demo will be familiar to fans of the series, and Chris Redfield, one of the stars of first Resident Evil game, makes his return to the franchise.
3. Cooperation is a must not a maybe
In both demo levels, Redfield is joined by Sheva Alomar, a BSSA Agent operating out of the West African branch.
Whether in single player or co-op mode, successfully completing a level requires teamwork.
Redfield and Alomar can share ammunition and healing plants, free each other when restrained and call the other over for backup.
In single player mode, Redfield can choose to pick up items or tell Alomar to do so instead.
Additionally, certain tasks require cooperation. In the second playable demo level, Shanty Town, Redfield has to boost Alomar over a rooftop gap. As she descends the adjacent building, he clears her path with a sniper rifle. When she finally reaches the ground level, she has to return to the building Redfield is still in and shoot open an exterior lock to free him.
I played online with a friend, and the experience, although frustratingly difficult at first, proved immensely fun.
4. You're chainsaw-based nightmares are about to return.
Chainsaw-wielding maniacs are back in Resident Evil 5, and they're as freaky as ever.
For weeks after playing Resident Evil 4, something as subtle as the buzz from a silenced cell phone could send shivers down my spine. It doesn't matter if it's a frumpy housewife or a burlap bag-headed madman, stick a chainsaw in their hands and you've got a recipe for instant horror.
The good news for would-be bed-wetters is it appears to be slightly easier to dodge the one-swipe-and-you're-dead weapon.
In RE4, a wrong turn could land you on the wrong end of a random chainsaw swing. In Resident Evil 5, the Chainiacs appear to take time to set themselves before delivering the fatal blow. So long as you're not being restrained, you can generally dodge the chainsaw successfully.
5. African revolutionaries are scarier than Spanish farmers
If a potent virus can do nasty things to the demeanor of a quaint Spanish farmer, imagine what it can do to a group of virulent revolutionaries.
For the record, I don't know that the hordes of pseudo-zombies attacking you in RE5 are revolutionaries, but the opening scene of Public Assembly makes it seem pretty likely.
The troops are whipped into a frenzy by an aviator-glasses wearing, bullhorn-wielding leader. And after seeing the group explode with delight when the executioner beheads the group's prisoner, it's not hard to envision these guys dancing on the graves of babies.
The only calming aspect of the scene is its lack of pitchforks, but something tells me these group thinkers will be replacing the farmer's best friend with something slightly more sinister.
Resident Evil 5 will be released in North America for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 13.
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