The Resident Evil series has been around for years now and they have been the absolute gold standard of the survival horror genre. The predecessors to RE5 were incredibly tense, clever and frightening - you really got a kick from playing them. Sadly, the newest installment to the series is more style over substance, taking something great and churning it out for profit, like they did to poor Indiana Jones.

Graphically speaking this game is beautiful, one of the best looking games currently available. If you enjoy gratuitous gore, then there's plenty of that too! Unfortunately that's about all the positive I can think of. The gameplay, sadly, is essentially a third person over the shoulder view of Chris Redfield (from the old games) shoot-em up. It's more an action game now with little of the originals signature thriller feel.

Originally the format was refreshing and the first hour I truly enjoyed watching zombie's heads pop off. Then I realised that this was how the next 15 hours were going to be. Go from zone to zone, with different looking zombies and minibosses and kill them, gradually getting better weapons. The originals had great stories but writing this review now it's really difficult to recall what it was all really about. In short, Chris goes to Africa to make some weapon deal and meets Sheva (she'll be dealt with soon) and the deal goes bad, zombies come and you start killing them. Then a meaty guy with an axe jumps into the fight. Honestly, it's done so crudely that I don't feel like dressing it up.

The biggest downfall by far is your women partner, Sheva. She's pretty attractive but that's it really (is it still wrong to think computer characters are attractive?). Her purpose is to support you in the fight against all these brain eating zombified africans, but most of the time she's an incredible annoyance. The AI could not have made her any more irritating and idiotic, often getting stuck or using up vital resources when you really don't want them used! Additionally she has to be with you when you leave each area, which brings back terrible memories of trying to progress from a zone (by walking through a door) but couldn't because she had got stuck behind a crate.... It took half an hour! I came to play a game not babysit a bot through it.

In conclusion, I am a resident evil fanboy so this game was a huge let down for me as I'm sure it was for the other keen players of the series. However, for the more casual gamer who has never heard of any of it's predecessors, you'll probably love it because it's the sort of pickup and play game that works well co-operative play with a mate and some beer. Sadly that's all it is really, so pick it up cheaply rather than paying full retail price. For me however, I've chosen to completely deny the existence of this game, much like the fourth installment to Indiana Jones (that doesn't exist), but if it did, it's about as unecessary as this game is.