Resident Evil 5

When I first saw the teaser trailer back in aught-who-cares I was excited. Very excited. So much so that I had to restrain myself or I'd go on a zombie-punching spree in the streets. Luckily I have excellent self control...lucky for the innocent citizens on the prowl at that hour, I mean.

I'm a Resident Evil fan through and through; zombie outbreaks make for some of the best horror stories, and often they have a deeper meaning. Look at the Romero films! Those are about society changing into a mindless mob where those who use their minds and so on are the outcasts, left to fend for themselves in a deteriorating world or be torn apart and join the ranks of the "walking dead." Long. Sentence. I'm off-topic, sorry. Resident Evil 5 is awesome, but at the same time a little chunk of my soul was bitten off and gnawed upon forever. Without any spoilers I'll explain my likes and dislikes of the game.

The good: Chris Redfield's return to the series.
Chris is the kind of character you feel proud playing. He's a good man, a staunch defender of those who are wronged, and he's got the skills to handle anything next to a nuclear blast at ten feet. It's been years since we've had a good Chris game, since I don't really like the Code Veronica iterations ...and our boy comes back swinging full force!

The bad: Wesker.
I like Wesker more than basically any villain out there...he's cold and calculating. In fact, he puts those terms to shame. As the villain, Wes has got at least 3 games under his belt where, if he wasn't your antagonist, he played a major part in slowing you down. Thus we hit my dilemma: I love Wesker, but as the primary antagonist of this game...

The ugly: This incarnation of the weapon system.
If you played Resident Evil 4 you're no stranger to purchasing and upgrading your weaponry. It was incredibly fun in RE4, though it didn't feel like it this time around. Between missions you have access to a store and as you progress more junk is available. Sounds good on paper, yet in delivery there's not this overwhelming feeling of buying or upgrading out of necessity since you can just replay chapters and reap the diamonds and other loot from them. What it boils down to is that you can technically buy everything and upgrade it since, along with the store, you've got an infinite capacity storage locker.
New weapons in each of the firearms categories are nothing more than a rock-paper-scissors game: one will have the highest firepower, one will hold more ammo, and the third will reload quickly. What's sad about this is that only one of them will end up being used after you've beaten the game, and that lucky gun is the high damage one. With every level you get points, and with those you can purchase infinite ammo for each of the weapons you fully upgrade. This means that you'll never reload and that giant ammo capacity is useless. See where I'm going with this?

Don't jump to conclusions about my negative review on that, though! I love this game. It's excellent in almost every way, but if you're looking for the "best of the series"...stick with Resident Evil 2-4; they're all pretty evenly matched.
-RE2's story is delivered from two perspectives, giving you an interesting look at Raccoon City from both characters' eyes.
-Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is my favorite because of its sheer size. You see so much of the city, you truly feel helpless when it's namesake appears, forcing you to flee...guns really don't hurt him. Also, its main character is Jill, who is incredibly cool. Maybe my favorite of the core characters.
-Resident Evil 4 sends you back into the role of Leon S. Kennedy, the rookie from 2 who became absolutely hardcore. New controls, new weapon system, and its only problem is that there are no true zombies.

Anyway, I will one day review each of those, so I'll leave it at that. Rent RE5, decide if you want to buy it after the trial period.