Resident Evil 5

Players : 1 - 2 (online 2 - 4)

Required Space : 5000MB

Supported HD Output : 720p

DLC : Yes

The latest installment of the survival horror franchise that spawned the genre, Resident Evil 5 delivers brilliant, high definition graphics and vicious, fast paced action that will leave your hands sweaty and trembling.

This game is packed with so much unlockable content you'll find yourself revisiting chapters again and again to hunt down every last speck of hidden loot while developing an arsenal of upgradeable weaponry that you can impress your friends with on cooperative online play! That's right- TWO PLAYER! Resident Evil fans have been asking for it for years and now we finally have it! In addition to the regular story mode, you can team up with your friends in other exciting game modes like Mercenaries or (DLC) VS Mode that will test the skills of even the most battle hardened Resident Evil veterans.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoy this game...still. The online VS Mode in particular creates a frantic, competitive environment swarming with enemies that still makes my heart pound with adrenalin even after logging 80+ hours of game play!

Although there are no genuine cheats for this game, there are several game mechanics that can be exploited in order to harvest ammunition, weapons, health items and heals. Here are some quick tips that will help you survive any difficulty setting:

1.) Conserve ammunition. This should be obvious simply because it is limited to begin with. Choose which weapon you equip your partner with carefully as they are liable to use up any of this type of ammunition they find. Leave the AI a pistol most of the time, since that is the most plentiful ammo type. Alternatively, if you are skilled with a pistol, allow the AI to carry an automatic so that you are primarily utilizing the two cheapest forms of ammunition. This way you can save the shotgun rounds, rifle ammunition, and magnum ammo for heavier enemies.

2.) Repeat the levels you have already conquered. You can do this over and over again to collect more items. Once you beat chapter 1-1 you can immediately play it again, so sell your pistols instead of upgrading them right away and play the level again, getting two new pistols. Just by having the left over ammo and health items from a single play will give you that much of an advantage a second time, and a third. Utilizing this tool you can progress through the levels with a significant advantage of fire power and gold.

3.) If you're on the network, you can actually leap frog to levels you have not even reached yet by joining another player's game. The most effective way to take advantage of this exploit is to save up some gold in the early levels, then join a player's game near chapter 6-1 or 6-2. You'll get into the inventory organize queue and you can immediately purchase weapons available up to and including those levels. Even if you die or get booted you'll get an opportunity to overwrite equipment status. I did this to get my hands on the Lightning Hawk Magnum after playing 1-1 and 1-2 a couple of times in order to amass two shotguns, two smgs, and four pistols, sold a couple for some gold and had one of the baddest magnums in the games.

4.) Don't pack your inventory. One of the most common mistakes I see on network play is carrying a full inventory into levels and leaving items lying around everywhere. I can understand if you've unlocked everything there is, but if you need gold for anything, make the most of what little space you have. In any level you can play with a primary weapon, a secondary, a heal, an applicable body armor if necessary. Okay, and one extra slot of the cheaper ammo. You'll find more ammo, you'll find more health, no sense carrying it all around to watch it go to waste.

5.) Utilize your AI's limited commands. Use attack for offensive tactics and cover otherwise to keep them close to heal you. Sometimes when equipped with different weapon combinations they will favor one weapon for cover and another for attack. For instance, if equipped with a smg and the electric rod, Sheva will swap weapons as tactics change. It doesn't work with every combination, but you should experiment with it in order to get the most out of it.

6.) Take advantage of melee attacks whenever possible. They strike the target with a powerful blow and can also knock back other nearby enemies. Target the head or knee cap to set up the opponent for a melee combo, if they do not die, they will at least fall, and you can run up and perform a second melee attack while they are on the ground. Tougher opponents may only get knocked back, but this also provides an opportunity for a partner to step forward to keep the combo going back and forth. There is a trophy related to this skill, so practice maximizing the number of successive attacks the two of you can deliver. Also, another good way to start a combo on a tough foe is to trigger a fall to the knee with a grenade or mine. Flash grenades can become a powerful tool when coupled with an onslaught of melee attacks.

Below I've provided a short walk through of chapter 1-1. This is one of my favorite areas of the game and it also provides you with plenty of ammunition that can easily be harvested on repeated play throughs.

Chapter 1 - 1

The first time through this level will be challenging, but as soon as it is completed you can play it repeatedly to harvest the items and ammo. If you carry a shotgun, rifle, or machine gun into this level you'll find those ammo types appearing in random enemy drops.

The beginning of this level is very simple; follow the path to the butcher shop and enter a door on the right side to speak with your contact. You'll be presented with an attache case containing two pistols, and once you have equipped a weapon a cut scene is triggered, after which you're free to move. You are now facing a breakable crate containing some gold. There is a similar barrel outside to the left. Head down the stairs to get a nasty closeup of some carrion and turn right into a small house containing a few more crates and some herbs.

Once you exit the house you'll hear a scream from up ahead. Run forward down the path and up a few stairs to another house that when entered will trigger another cut scene. Dispatch the lone zombie easily by actually letting it grab you. Sheva is right there to help, and more often than not the melee hit she delivers will set you up to deliver a second. If not, just knife the unarmed zombie to death. Afterwards head into the next room, grab some ammo, and leap through the window to the alley below.

In the alley you'll get attacked by a mob of zombies. Just turn around after the cut scene and run around the corner into a house. Once you're both inside the last one through will block the door and you'll be safe. If you're returning with unlimited ammo, or have enough to waste, you can alternatively blast away the entire mob to find a rare gem dropped by one of the last zombies that appears from the right fork in the alley. There will also be a few items in the first room of the house, and after a co-op kick through the door you'll find some more ammo and gold in the second room.

Descend through a hole in the floor into a tunnel and follow it out. Grab some ammo and herbs in the house you reach then head through the door. Outside you'll follow a path around and drop down to the rear of another house where you'll find some more herb and ammo. Once you enter the house a cut scene begins.

There are many different strategies that work well in this battle, but whether this is your first time through, or a repeated attempt to gather more items, this path works very efficiently with the limited amount of time you are provided with:

First, block the door by pushing the book case. Leave the window clear, you have time to run around and collect all the ammo, making sure to grab the hand grenade hidden in the pile of fruit near the window. By this time they will be breaking the window. Stand right in front of the window and slash with the knife at their legs as they come through. Keep hacking and you can probably kill enough to unlock the knife related trophy before the next cut scene appears. Jump out the window, turn left and get your back to the wall. This way enemies will only come from the front and through the window on the right.

Around this time the executioner will bust down the gate so be ready with that grenade, aiming a little low. A grenade blast will take him down to one knee providing you with an opportunity to run forward and perform a melee attack. Run by him and all the way down the center path of the village and hang a right after the fruit stands, just before the stack of flammable drums. Grab a machine gun from the attache case. Run back to the center path and the executioner, along with a handful of ghouls should be about halfway to your position now, providing a perfect opportunity for you to shoot a transformer above them. Whip out the machine gun and empty it into the executioner if you need to, there's more ammo to be had in this area.

The two buildings on either side of the path where the transformer fell can be entered and blockaded with book cases just like the first house. I advise that you destroy the executioner first because he can smash through certain walls here. Collect all the ammo and grenades in each house. There are also more grenades and a random drop on the top of the initial building that can be accessed via a ladder around the side.

This area is great to revisit to get multiple trophies due to the abundance of destructible items like flammable drums, transformers, and oil canisters. The knifing opportunity at the window can also be used to easily unlock the stun rod trophy. The sheer abundance of enemies in this area can be used to unlock several other trophies. One in particular, lead aspirin, I found very difficult to achieve but finally accomplished it here using the top of the buildings near the fence by luring them to jump across the gaps. Lots of fun.

My only complaint (if you consider it a complaint) would be that the Ndesu boss battle in Chapter 2-3 on Professional Mode was just too challenging. I had completed the entire game on each difficulty level several times over before finally vanquishing Ndesu on Professional after 6+ hours of the psychological torture of failed contextual action prompts while shouting profanity at my innocent television. My best advice, if you find yourself stuck at this section, is to partner up online with a skilled player and be patient while playing. Focus only on Ndesu, the other enemies in this area do so little damage that you can survive the entire section while absorbing their attacks, so long as you avoid every attack by Ndesu. If you have time in between animations you can certainly blast the few majini that show up, but the real problem is nailing every contextual prompt that appears onscreen. Only shoot the red barrels to force Ndesu to drop a picked up weapon. Otherwise leave these alone. Igniting one when Ndesu is moving to pick up a boulder will cause a contextual action prompt that disappears so quickly it is near impossible to register. Also, Ndesu's attacks aren't scripted the same every reload, so it may take you several reloads to experience a survivable sequence of attacks. Don't give up. Ndesu has killed me 80 times. Watch for a pattern heavy with Ndesu punching, this I believe is the most favorable attack to avoid not only because it is so clearly coming at you before the prompt appears, but this animation also affords a second to cool down your guns in between point blank shooting. Also, if you didn't notice, the mounted weapons during this fight can zoom slightly with the left analog like the rifles do. It only is a slight zoom, but it can help when shooting at the small parasites that appear on the chest and arms.

Overall an excellent game deserving of only my highest review. Detailed graphics, compelling plot, and tons of unlockable extras make this a must have for serious gamers.

I felt compelled to revisit this post after downloading the two new expansions "Lost in Nightmares" and "Desperate Escape". The six dollar pack also includes a special Mercenaries reunion mode, as well as two new costumes for Chris and Sheva. I must say, of all the expansions I've ever downloaded, I really feel like I got a bargain with this one.

Mercenaries Reunion is not much different than the original Mercenaries mode, but there are several new characters to experiment with including Barry and Rebbecca from the original Resident Evil. My favorite part of this mode is definitely "Heavy Metal Chris" armed with the unlimited gatling gun. My only complaint is that while you have to unlock the levels on this mode by scoring well, all the characters are immediately available, so if you've already grown bored with the original Mercenaries mode, chances are you'll grow bored with this mode quickly since there really isn't anything else to unlock.

Desperate Escape is a great new addition to this game. Play as Josh and Jill in a story that runs parallel and occurs within the original Resident Evil 5 story mode. It picks up right after you pulled the mind controlling parasite from Jill's chest. Although this mode can be completed within 30 - 40 minutes, it's also possible to take your time to draw out every last enemy in which case it will take between one and two hours. The map area is impressively designed with many places where players will be able to experiment with different cooperative strategies. Random weapon placement makes it even more interesting and provides for some variety on repeated playthroughs. Unfortunately, the random placement doesn't always work in your favor. For example, I played a game the other night and couldn't find a magnum where I had found it on previous games. Sadly, I reached the end of the game with two slots of magnum ammo and no weapon to fire them. Alternatively, on another game I found a shotgun in the first section, conserved the ammo throughout most of the mission, and was able to face the final battle with over a hundred shotgun rounds. I actually threw away my pistol and rifle near the end to gather more shotgun ammo.

There is one trophy on this mode that is a little tricky- defeat all three agitator majini in a single play through. If you look online you'll find several different methods to pull this off, but the real trick is just being patient. This will also virtually guarantee that you'll receive the 150 enemies killed trophy at the same time. There are a couple of specific areas where you'll want to draw as many enemies to as possible. If you exit these areas before the agitators appear you'll miss your opportunity to destroy them. Unfortunately, the music does not stop when an area is cleared like it does in the normal game, so you have to be patient and attentive, sometimes waiting an extra minute in an area just to make sure no more enemies show up.(The agitators are the blue shirted ones carrying the megaphone by the way.)

The very first area you come to (the one with the dish shaped platform with the ladder in the center) is the first area you need to spend some time in. No matter what difficulty level you are on you'll find lots of enemies here. Make sure to explore this area thoroughly and vanquish every enemy before going near the doorway to the next area. This includes waiting for all the enemies in the next area to climb over the fence to come to your position. It may take ten minutes depending on the difficulty, but whatever you do, do not touch the next door until you've climbed up a ladder and surveyed the area completely, waiting a full minute with no activity to make sure you have killed every last one of them. Once you are satisfied, unlock the door, go between the fences and look for a ladder to the right where an assist jump button appears. If you've pulled off the first section correctly, as soon as Jill is boosted up a video will begin and you'll see the first of the three agitators appear back in the first area that you have just left. Run back there and you'll probably find the megaphone wielding agitator halfway up the ladder in the center of the big dish shaped platform. Kill this bastard quickly because he has a tendency to flee once you blow off his noggin and expose a plaga. He'll run away and climb over a fence to an area you cannot reach, so if you have a flash grenade, here's a good spot use it. If he gets away, reload, there are no second chances.

The second agitator appears several sections later. You'll come to a section with mounted grenade launchers on towers. You'll have to make your way through this area using the grenade launchers to blow out orange doors arranged diagonally from one another. Once you've blown out the last doorway, situated in the rear center of this area, you'll be able to see an area ahead where there are two mounted grenade launchers right next to each other. They will be firing at you as soon as you start walking through the rear center door. Make your way up to these two mounted grenade launchers and use them to fire across at majini situated on the top of the wall you came through when you blew out the last orange door. Once you've killed all the enemies in this area a video will start and you'll see the second agitator appear on top of this wall. Dust him with the grenade launchers and you should see 1000 point bonus get added to your star score once he's dead.

The third and final agitator appears in the last area you come to. You don't need to kill any specific amount of enemies to make him appear, instead, this one shows up at a specific time, about 25 seconds before your time runs out. He appears in the elevator with two big man majini and this one also has a plaga to expose with a head shot so you'll want to target him as soon as he appears and hit him with everything you have left. Even with powerful weapons, timing is critical here because if you fail to kill him before time runs out you'll have to do the entire mission over, and remember, you must get all three in a single play through. The best strategy I can recommend for dealing with this last bastard is to save a launcher, mines, or grenades (especially flash) and situate yourself on the upper platform opposite the elevator door so that you have a clear shot once those doors open. There is also an explosive barrel near the elevator door that can be helpful if you haven't blown it up by this point, but don't rely on it. To give you an idea of how short 25 seconds can actually be in the midst of battle, playing on amateur, and targeting only the head of the agitator with the shotgun, took me 19 seconds to end this foe with several head shots to the exposed plaga. Focus on him and only him during these last precious seconds or you'll surely regret it.

Finally, "Lost in Nightmares" is definitely my favorite part of this expansion pack. You play as Chris and Jill in the historic mission where Jill falls into the abyss with Wesker, not to be seen again until Resident Evil 5. Fans of the original Resident Evil will find this mission a nostalgic delight chock full of references to the original game, from the basic map layout reminiscent of the original mansion, to puzzles similar to those found in the first installment of the Resident Evil franchise. The game play itself redefines the survival horror genre by bringing it back to its roots to a time when ammo conservation and dodging actually mattered.

If you choose amateur or normal, chances are that you'll find just enough weapons and ammo to vanquish every enemy providing that you're reasonably accurate and take advantage of melee combos as often as possible. By making use of grenades and mines to provide melee opportunities early on, you can conserve your bullets and probably have a few extra rounds to afford a few missed shots along the way.

If you choose veteran or professional you've probably already realized that you're just not going to have enough fire power to destroy every last enemy. On these more difficult modes you'll encounter additional enemies in areas that previously had none and if you try to kill them you'll definitely run out of ammo quickly. Random weapon drops complicate this further since sometimes you'll find flash grenades or pistol bullets in areas where you may have previously found a magnum or shotgun. The trick is to rely on running and dodging enemies, and for that, the flash grenades are more valuable than a shotgun or magnum. The only enemies that you actually need to kill are the ones in the sewer area that you kill by raising and dropping the spiked platforms, and by that point, you've lost your entire inventories during the fall. Once you've realized that the weapons you're carrying only provide a false sense of security you'll have an easier time with this mission.

Here are some tips to help you to survive a play through on professional:

1.) Discard your weapons once you begin. This will keep your AI partner from squaring off with enemies and it will also remind you what you should be doing- running like hell.

2.) Use the enemies' attacks to provide you with opportunities to run by them. Go close enough to make them swing their weapon, take a step back so the attack misses, and then run by while they are recovering. You'll find many of the enemies will be situated just around corners, and by approaching corners slowly you can often provoke the attack before the enemy is even seen.

3.) Rely on the shortest distances between areas and keep moving. Try not to run circles around obstacles to confuse the enemies because once a couple of them are on your tail they'll be more likely to corner you in these areas. Instead, just ignore the creepy music and sound effects and run to the next goal. Be patient because it may take you a few tries to determine the optimal path.

4.) Once you're in the sewer area, although your map is still your best friend, it does not show the location of enemies on professional mode. On previous games on easier modes your eyes seldom need to leave the map. Professional mode will force you to rely more on direct line of sight to spot the enemies. In addition, you'll have to find all four pieces of crest to unlock the gate.

5.) Pick up only one crank at a time. Each time you pick up a crank another enemy appears, making it very difficult to manage the trap without the partner cranking getting grabbed. To compound this, the player cranking will not be able to see the enemies on their map, and cannot change their view while cranking so they are going to be depending on you to lure the enemies away or alert them if one is coming near.

6.) After grabbing each piece of crest, make sure to run back to the gate and place each piece as soon as you acquire them. Each time you do this it creates a checkpoint and you'll avoid having to repeat your work.

7.) Grab every flash grenade you can find in this area and make sure to have them equipped. Occasionally an enemy will wedge its weapon in the falling spiked floor and you'll need to toss a grenade at them to upset their balance to allow the platform to crush them. This seems to happen very often in professional mode, but rarely in easier modes so be ready for it if you haven't experienced it yet. Don't waste your flash grenades on anything else, you may need each one you find.

8.) During the final battle with Wesker there are a couple of strategies that seem to work well. If you are good at hitting those split second contextual action prompts, then by all means, draw his fire as much as possible by firing at him, dodge his attacks and hit back while he recovers. If these prompts are just too fast for you, allow Jill to draw his fire, but stay close to her so that when he moves it to attack you can step forward before he attacks and press "o" to help partner and deliver a melee attack each time an opportunity is provided. You may end up having to heal her several times if you choose this strategy, but either way, the fight ends after a set amount of time and you've successfully completed "Lost in Nightmares".