Resident Evil 5

[senjuro]

I'm curious, did they CHANGE anything since the demo? I was excited for the game and all, but after I played the demo it seemed like half-way through the real game I would have a gun between my teeth. Is the AI still a hybrid of a vacuum-cleaner and a mentally challenged rabbit? That's what really drove me away from the game, the fact that it has become a giant escort mission.

The partner AI is actually pretty solid, though it has very little situational awareness. If the AI has a healing item, it will run up to you and use it the second you drop below half health, making it difficult to manage healing items. You can't tell your AI what weapon to use, and their attack modes consist of stand back and plink away with your pistol despite having a shotgun handy (Cover) or run up and get yourself killed (Attack). They'll use the gun with the most common ammo first and work their way up. This cuts both ways: you get the good ammo for yourself and can save a lot of it by meleeing the enemies the AI stuns for you with their handgun (for which ammo is extremely common), but their ability to help out in boss fights is limited since killing bosses quickly requires environmental interaction and the AI is not so much about that. They do, however, seem to react appropriately to every quick-time event (ie. dodging enemy attacks, counterattacking), and tend to take far less damage than you will.

HOWEVER!!! Their accuracy with all weapons nears on 100% (albeit on torso shots) and they tend to be pretty good at keeping you alive. They tend not to grab items unless you tell them to or if it appears to them that you're going to leave it behind. If it's ammo for a weapon you're carrying, they'll hand it over right away.

He has a point, they always say that the new AI will be better, yes it is but it still doesn't seem to realise that walking infront of a dude with an axe as big as you are, is a bad idea.

But as shooters go the gameplay was great in the demo, a little close call with the laser sight because you can't always see where your aiming but it makes it more realistic than a floating crosshair.

During boss fights and mob scenes, the AI sticks pretty close to you on Cover mode. Even if they're shooting at something, they'll go to follow you if you start to run. I went through essentially the whole game with Sheva on Cover, since I discovered early on that Attack makes her run around like an idiot, spraying machine gun ammo everywhere and getting hit by every sharp object the 360 can render.

The laser sight, if you were good with it in RE4, will be little to no adjustment. What IS a huge adjustment is that Sheva is left-handed, so when you play as her, you're looking over her left shoulder. Definitely a challenge, and I don't recall that from the demo...

Keep in mind, RE5 isn't a shooter. It's a 3rd person action-adventure title. Don't expect circle strafing or other FPS maneuvres; they aren't possible.

Also, RE5's achievements are very easy. Most of them just require multiple playthroughs or reading FAQs. Very few require a high level of skill, and even then, deflecting a crossbow bolt with your knife is a lot easier than it sounds. An easy 1000G.