Many people would associate the genius of Resident Evil with exploding heads, shotguns, more exploding heads, and infuriating puzzles. It now seems that Capcom wants to spread the joy even further by adding co-op. To be totally honest, Resident Evil 5 without co-op would be like a computer without its keyboard. There would be no point. If the co-op didn’t exist, Resident Evil 5 would be exactly the same game as its predecessor. Granted Resident Evil 4 was a stunning game and one of the greatest experiences in gaming ever, but the whole point of a sequel is to give gamers something new.

Thank goodness PlayStation 3 supports four controllers.

There are two ways to play Resi 5 co-op - online, or offline. If you want the simple, honest truth, offline is much better, as playing with people over the ‘net can be a bit risky, since they could easily mess up your game any way they wanted to. Best to go with offline play, really.

In Co-op, you can interact with your partner like never before. You can give them ammo, give them health, kick doors down, perform co-op jumps, and resuscitate each other. Ahh…sweet. And it’s a real bonding moment when your partner blows off an infected head just as it’s about to sink it’s recently flossed teeth into your juicy temple. You may think that all this stuff makes Resident Evil 5 sound like a piece of cake, but don’t be fooled. Live inventory screens with limited spaces, and stronger and faster enemies make this in many ways a much more advanced version than 4.

There is something about Resident Evil 5 that just works so well with two people. Maybe it’s the realization that this time, you’re not alone, and somebody has actually got your back, should a raging crow burst through the next window. Of course, some of the earlier games’ dark atmosphere and feel is taken away by the fact that the game is set in Africa (in the brilliantly named village - Kijuju), but that’s not to say that Resi still isn’t capable of delivering some well received scares.

At many points in Resi 5 you’ll be called upon to split from your partner and fend for yourself. This could be to hit a switch, a co-op jump, or because you’ve simply been blocked from each other by mischievous infected (again, a brilliant name - Majini). It is in these parts when the co-op aspect of 5 starts to wind down and become unbalanced. This is because the character, whether it be Chris or Sheva, that is in the middle of the action, both have to save their partner and take down hordes of annoying Majini. And causing you to waste a barrel full of ammo and a bucket full of herbs, necessitating your partner to give up some of their ammo to support you.

These later segments will no doubt get annoying, but then again, this can be overlooked by the simple brilliance of the whole thing. If you can ignore the constant repetitiveness of the whole game, co-op is an amazing experience that is simply too good to miss out on. As stated earlier, if you haven’t played co-op on 5, you must try it, just to get this incredible aspect of the game.

Hopefully Resident Evil 6 (touch wood) will again revitalize co-op and deliver us an all-together better and more fascinating experience. But believe me - this is going to be hard to beat.

• Social Bookmarking
  
  • Subscribe
  • Blinklist
  • Bloglines
  • Blogmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Ma.gnolia
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati