Review:
Resident Evil 5

It's few and far between that I see split-screen or co-op local play, and Resident Evil 5 is a game that I guarantee will never leave my library for that one simple purpose.

RE5 takes a departure from most Resident Evils, and combines the fast paced action play that came with Resident Evil 4 and mixes it with the ability to have two characters, a la Resident Evil 0. However, unlike 0, you can cooperatively play with a friend, upping the fun.

Set in Africa, Chris Redfield meets up with Sheva Alomar, his new partner and guide, to investigate mysterious happenings in the local villages. Both Chris and Sheva are members of the anti-bioterrorism unit called the BSAA, and both are ready to fight whatever disgusting bioterrors that await them. The game follows the canon of Resident Evil, where Chris is tracking down his thought to be dead partner Jill Valentine's whereabouts, all while looking for Wesker. It seems to me that ever since Code Veronica, where we first see Wesker's insane superhuman powers, Chris has had a grudge with Wesker. There's some unfinished business between the two, and it seems like Chris hopped up onto a nice training regiment of weight lifting and steroids to battle him (seriously, Chris is triple his size/build from Code Veronica).

In Resident Evil 5, the main "virus" or bioweapon that is being sought after is Uroboros. Uroboros is the culmination of research done on the T virus, G virus, T-Veronica Virus, Nemesis Parasite, Las Plagas Parasite, and the Progenitor Virus. Phew, that's a lot of viruses in the RE canon!

The purpose of creating Uroboros? No one knows, but Chris and Sheva suspect that Wesker will somehow use it for his personal gain. And so the two head off, fighting bravely ALONE through hoardes of parasite-ridden citizens. The fun in RE5 comes purely from co-op play. That's not to say you can't have fun solo, but you can clearly tell this game was and is geared for friends to play. If you play solo, you'll find that Sheva tends to waste ammunition, and you'll likely end up using her as portable storage moreso than an actual companion and comrade.