Going out on a limb, with over 36 million copies of the series being sold to this date, I can guarantee almost everyone reading this has played Resident Evil at least once in their lives. With a new story that will make the die hard fans go crazy, an interesting look on survival horror gameplay, and some interesting twists to add to the fun, is the horror filled fun of Resident Evil back? In many ways yes Capcom has done it again, but in other ways Resident Evil 5 just isn't Resident Evil.

I have personally always loved the story of Resident Evil, rather it be the movies or the games, and was really interested to see how Resident Evil 5 would play out after the previous incidents. Let me start off by saying this game will definitely surprise the fans a lot by linking the previous games to its own mysterious story in ways you can't imagine. Capcom has a strict policy on things we can include in our review for the game, and I completely understood why only after completing the game, so I'm not really going in depth as I don't want to spoil anything. Plus I don't want them to send the Majini monster after me.

The story takes place in a small western town of Africa called Kijuju. The area happens to be thriving with money due to the influx of new companies and includes a vast majority of tribes along with different types of environments. Umbrella's main research facilities were located in the area, but due to the incidents at Racoon city the corporation was shut down permanently and all their goods leaked into the black market around the area. The black market then destroyed the area by selling the biochemical goods to people and corrupting the lower ends of government causing chaos to run through the small town.

The story focuses for the most part on our returning character Chris Redfield and his partner Sheva Alomar. Many people are probably left wondering, what ever happen to Chris' old partner Jill? Well that is one of the questions lingering throughout the game and as you play you will find out. Both Chris and Sheva are part of the B.S.A.A. Which is a further adapted S.T.A.R.S. Unit sent out to destroy what Umbrella has created. The story starts off as your basic Resident Evil story, they are here to stop the zombies and get rid of the virus. Instead of sticking with that story however, mid way through the game Chris finds some intel laying around that leads him to a certain suspicion which changes the entire goal of the story. Although I cannot describe this goal in this review, it seemed that at that point the game was no longer Resident Evil.

The story isn't the only thing that felt different either. The full co-op gameplay was also a first for Resident Evil. Chris and Sheva are both playable and have unique abilities that must be used together in order to survive every level. Sheva is the more aerobic character that can reach complicated areas with the help of the strength of Chris. Together you can reach hidden areas and form a more tactical advantage when you split up. The AI of Sheva is excellent as she always knows the best way to go, how to kill enemies coming at you, and is always there to save you when you need help no matter what the situation is. I did run into a few problems with the co-op however. The first being Sheva doesn't know how to conserve things she is given. If an enemy pops out and your about ready to kill it, she will still take a few shots wasting ammo and then heal you when you have plenty of health in your meter already. The other problem is she isn't very tactical and will take shots as soon as the zombies appears, even if you’re standing in the way.

The coolest part about Resident Evil 5 is that you can have a friend jump in at anytime during the game to kick some zombie butt. The game isn't nearly as fun alone as it is when you finally jump online and play with a buddy. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the game offers co-op offline, I'm sure most of you will be excited about that, but I highly suggest you play it online. The only problem with co-op is how Capcom somehow managed to hide the feature within the game, I won't be surprised if people can't even find it. For example, invitations can only be accepted through the XMB, I would have preferred something from the in game menu. However when you figure it out, you’re in for one hell of a ride as it is probably the most fun I have ever had with a game's campaign mode.

Teamwork in RE5 has a lot of little features that make it so great. One person can take a few shots at a rushing zombie while the other runs up and uses a “Context Sensitive,” which triggers when the baddie is hurt. The moves are similar to “Quick Time” events where you must press a button quickly to do a special move within a certain area and time period. The system is also used a lot in order to save your partner when injured or to do team objectives when advancing to the next area. Capcom also found an absolutely amazing way to use quick time events by implementing them into the cutscenes. This surprised me at first and then I was astonished at the idea of playing along with the cut scenes, really fun.