Resident Evil 5: Co-op silliness, series changes tone

While many of us are preoccupied with zombies in Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 5 is right around the Spring time corner with even more zombie action and co-op to boot. 

1UP has a great interview with a couple of the producers and staff on the upcoming 5th (plus many odds and ends) edition of the franchise.  One of the few things that grabs me about this game is the co-op.  A part of me questions why it is necessary.

They discuss how random n00bs online can be your co-op partner, people just off of your friends list, or the A.I.  Apparently this function will operate seamlessly.  If your friends have to bounce and take off the A.I. will instantly take over and keep the game flowing smooth.



One of the keys to the RE series besides the obvious horror is tension.  Having someone at your side almost the whole game is really going to interfere with that whether it is A.I. or your buddy across town.  The feeling of you versus the world heightens the overall game experience.  And you can't really compare this something of the Left 4 Dead forte which is a shooter first, co-op second and horror last.

Resident Evil 4 started down this path divergent from the series' roots.  It was an amazing game, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't fully a Resident Evil game.  It was more action/shooter based than of the previous titles.  The "oh ****" moments we had come to expect in the game were fewer and the few in the game were more spectacle than "that scared the piss out of me". 

A part of me loves the new direction and I do get a kick out of playing it.  But I am also missing the RE of old where random arms grabbed you through boarded up windows and Lickers smashed through windows attacking you. 

Check out the interview though, it is about five pages long and gives a bunch of info on the upcoming game.