So, I just played through the Demo for RE5 (it's available as a free download on the 360 until tomorrow) and I have to say that I'm deeply disappointed. Oh the graphics are nice enough to be sure, but the gameplay seems to be somewhat lacking. The zombies this time around aren't particularly scary at all. For the most part they look like normal humans with an annoying habit of trying to kill you. They don't really move very fast though, so it's just a shooting gallery for the most part.
This time around you get paired up with a partner that is reasonably helpful, but you have to share all ammo and meds with her, which means that every single item you come across you have to decide who picks it up, which gets to be annoying fast. Movement is slow and turning is even slower, the spin move helps a bit there though. Aiming is even slower than that, but since things don't come at you very quickly it's not as much as an issue as it could be.
The areas that you can access are all very small and very cramped, it's alot of hallways, small rooms, and courtyards and such. Hopefully the whole game is made of that sort of thing. The thing that really bothered me though, is that after all these years you still can't move and shoot at the same time. Supposedly you're playing as a highly trained expert, you'd think that someone like that could take a step out of the way of the oncoming zombie horde while still managing to return fire. Then comes the still annoying over the shoulder perspective that manages to block a good half of the screen. I didn't like it at all in 4 and I still don't like it in 5.
I was hoping that Capcom would have changed a few of the more annoying bits this time around, but it seems to be the exact same thing with new textures and languages. Oh well, I suppose it might be worth renting at least.
Edited, Jan 27th 2009 8:08pm by TurinAlexander