Resident Evil 5: Thumbs up or down?

While I ignored the whole racism controversy and was able to ignore the hype/criticism from the graphics whores, I went into the game with an open mind.

I don't see the racial component in the game and the graphics are just really good, not monumental.

The gameplay is what knocks the game down. Run stop, rotate and shoot. That is not my idea of great gameplay. It was okay for RE4 because that was so different from previous RE games, but here it needs to be tweated a little more. As is it leaves RE5 an action title and not the survival horror I was hoping.

It is like a cross between Gears of War and Resident Evil. But leans more towards Gears. I hope next time they rethink that control scheme.

"Horrible to play" is not the kind of horror we want, Capcom. This game is so poor in every component part that I'm baffled by its existence. Were it not for the mighty franchise, no one would think twice about declaring this game the misguided rubbish it is. If you want to give us a scary action game, you do not achieve this by retarding the control scheme to the point where the game is barely playable; you give us a control scheme that is completely intuitive and transparent, so that our minds are not occupied by distracting annoyances. Furthermore, the feel of a control scheme should reflect the character we are controlling, and saddling a supposedly well-trained and experienced action hero with what feel like the controls of a JCB is not only monumentally stupid, it creates a disconnect between player and character - another needless distraction. Proof: Fatal Frame 2 director's cut (FPS version), System Shock 2, Left 4 Dead. These games prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that games can be intuitive to control and even empowering to the player, yet still be utterly terrifying and achieve a feeling of extreme vulnerability. Perhaps those examples are unfair, because even disregarding control issues, they represent a quality of horror many, many leagues ahead of RE's cartoon monster-schlock, clichéd plots and unengaging storytelling.

Instead of fixing the first game's irritating flaws, Capcom promoted them to the status of genre conventions and the series has been plagued by this perverse self-worship ever since. RE5 is truly the most depressing example yet of this bloody minded, negative approach to game design. This is not progress.