Gameplay (Continued)

The inventory grid system from previous games has been scrapped for a simpler one that allows you and your partner to carry 9 items each. You can swap items between the two of you at will, while pretty much everything except for weapons and healing sprays can be stacked – one spot can hold up to 5 grenades or 50 pistol bullets, etc. You access the inventory on-the-fly, meaning you don’t have the protection of pause when you do so. To counter-balance this, you are now allowed to access the items via hotkeys or the D-pad, letting you equip them more quickly and without blocking your view.

The shifty merchant character from RE4 has been replaced with an inventory management interface that you access between stages to maintain your stock of supplies. Through this menu, you can buy and sell things, upgrade weapons, and store what I’m assuming is an unlimited amount of excess items. This system allows you to keep anything you picked up during a partial run-through of a level, which is nice for when you save and quit or die and restart, but I can see it being easily exploited. On top of that, your entire inventory rolls over after you beat the game, so you can start anew with all of your accumulated assets in tow.




A wide variety of weapons are available for your enjoyment, including several variations of each of the basic types, such as handgun, machinegun, shotgun, and rifle. Everything is fully upgradeable in terms of stopping power, reload time, and magazine capacity, with a fourth upgrade like critical headshot chance or piercing ability available on select arms. You cannot buy ammunition, but a neat trick allows you to acquire some: Upgrade your gun’s capacity and its new, larger clip will be refilled. This is especially useful for the magnums, since extra bullets are scarce and each one is capable of dealing massive damage.

As the game’s native control scheme, I found the controller to be better than the improved keyboard/mouse mechanics. Sure, you have a lot easier time aiming with the mouse, and more hotkeys could come in handy, but otherwise it’s a bit awkward. It’s obvious that Capcom has put a lot of effort into making a third-person shooter work on a gamepad, refining the controls introduced in RE4. For example, I use control type D, which isn’t unlike how a console FPS is controlled, allowing you to strafe and use the trigger to fire. A very cool feature is the dynamic switching between a gamepad and keyboard/mouse. Simply using one or the other instantly changes the control scheme and on-screen prompts without having to open the menu.


New to the series is the chance to play through the entire story mode with a friend taking the place of your AI partner. It works either through LAN or online, and either player can come and go as they please, leaving the AI to take over, without interrupting play. I know I’d be interested in playing a new game as Sheva for a fresh perspective on events and to see places only she can go via the assisted jump. Don’t worry if you don’t have someone else to play with; you can unlock the ability to select her by completing the game.

The partner AI is somewhat hit and miss. Sheva will collect items, heal you, give you ammo, but then she’ll run right into a trap. What aggravated me the most, though, is that she’s pretty bad about using range-appropriate weapons. Don’t bother giving her a stun baton as a backup weapon because she’ll just stand there holding it. I would prefer if she used a sniper rifle for long range and switch to the pistol when they come closer, but she tends to choose one or the other and use it all the time. I was pleasantly surprised when she switched from an SMG to a shotgun when they got close, but it was only at point-blank range.