My previous post was made when I was about halfway through the game. But now I can talk about it with 100% sure of everything. I'm posting this in my blog because the game hasn't been officially released yet.

Like mentioned previously, the game plays a lot like RE4. If you haven't played it, then go do it right now. =)

The inventory system now is real time, but only has 9 spaces, which you can choose 4 items as to hotkeys to your D-pad. This real time system is a good idea, but it has it's flaws, sometimes it's annoying to get an item when your inventory is full (In RE4 you could automatically use a healing item when you picked it up, now you can't). This is particulary annoying when your inventory is full, and you see a red herb on the ground to combine with your green one... But if you drop an item in order to get it, the item is lost forever, what the hell capcom? In between stages you can buy and upgrade weapons, as the game goes, new weapons are unlocked, and after fully upgrading the first weapon of each category, you unlock new stuff as well. The game has a pretty good weapon variety, despite the fact your starting options are very slim.

The story can be completed in less than 5 hours (doing so unlocks infinite ammo for the RPG), but on your first time through, expect to take 10 or more, depending of your ability and difficulty level played on.

RE5's pretty focused on tight situations, most of the time you'll be attacked by waves of enemies, to the point that you'll have to use some strategy with your equipment to avoid running out of ammo and health. Puzzles take even an even bigger step back, being mostly about pulling levers to open paths, finding multiple objects (exotic keys) to open a door, and aligning mirrors to make the light hit a target (this is probably the only real puzzle in the game, and it's ridiculously easy). And boss fights are very exciting, some of them are even quite long.

Sheva AI isn't bad, but it could have been better. She helps you when you ask her, and sometimes scavenges items on her own, but however she'll also forget picking up some items, which you'll have to tell her to do so. If she gets ammo for a weapon you have and she doesn't, she'll automatically give it to you, and I don't think she can throw grenades, or use her knife. She has a really great aim, however she aims mostly at their torso. Sheva also has 2 comands: Cover and Attack. Cover makes her stay behind you, and use the handgun (or whatever weapon she has in case she runs out of ammo), and Attack makes her stay ahead of you, using stronger guns at her disposal. Some people complain that when you're getting grabbed by an enemy, Sheva doesn't help them at all, but it's their fault mostly, simply tap the "come here button (B or O) and she'll run to your aid.

The sound is great, the songs that play during the battles are among the best I ever heard in a game, they really keep your adrenaline going. I won't comment about voice acting, because it's really a personal preference, it's cheesy, but good. It's kind of annoying hearing Sheva saying "thanks partner" almost every time you give her an item, or help her though.

Content wise, RE5 is loaded. After you finish the game, you can go on a new game +. That means you can finish the game on one difficulty, and carry over your stuff to a higher one. This will be useful to unlock the large amounts of weapons, and if you want to upgrade them all, you'll probably need many playthroughs (there's an achievement/trophy for doing so). There are also treasures to be found, and meddalions to be shot (treasures give you money, and meddalions give you unlockables).

As you play the game, you get points regarding your performance, which can be used to buy more content, like character figures, infinite ammo, and many other goodies.

Chris and Sheva have also 2 bonus clothes.

And there's of course, the amazing "The Mercenaries" mode from RE4. You start with standard Chris and Sheva, and only one stage, but you can unlock 2 more different characters, and some clothes for each character (each outfit comes with a different weapon setup), and several other stages.

That's quite a large replay value huh?

I love the game, it has great graphics, an OK but highly predictable story, and amazing replay value. The core gameplay while is a great fun, seems dated, some extra tweaking (*COUGH*Being able to walk while aiming, improve the real time inventory, and just a liiiitle more the partner AI *COUGH*) would have made this game even better than RE4 was.

My score: 9,0/10,0