Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5 continues a year of already impressive ports on Nintendo, working in full motion controls and all released DLC to work as the definitive way to play.

It may not be the best game in the series, but Resident Evil 5 is certainly a good game, where action is the key. Along the way it has lost the essence of survival horror and has fewer puzzles than previous titles, but it is still a great shooter with thrilling scenes.

RE5 has lost none of its luster a decade later. On Switch, some of the graphical bells and whistles have been slightly diminished, but that’s offset by a bevy of control options and the ability to play the game anywhere. With plentiful modes and content to tackle, RE5 should keep fans busy for quite a while. What’s more, for series diehards there’s a ton of extra content (including an entire written history of Resident Evil) to parse through. Extra costumes, DLC, Mercenaries Mode— this is a very complete and generous package. It might be more action-focused than what came before it, but RE5 is still very much a game from the classic mold and deserves a play.

Resident Evil 5 returns on Nintendo Switch ten years after its first coming, bringing all its strength and flaws. In the meantime, we've accepted its evolution in a real third person shooter, but its clunkiness remains intact in many aspects.

With technical issues in mind, Capcom delivers a solid Switch conversion of Resident Evil 5 with all DLCs included and also decent motion controls.

Resident Evil 5 takes the RE4 core and adds a fully cooperative campaign and more action… and it works. The Switch version could have been more polished, although these technical hiccups won’t stop you from enjoying the game.

Taken on its own, Resident Evil 5 is a good game even though it isn't as strong as its predecessors. The more action-heavy slant will be a turn-off for those who loved the series for its puzzles, but the survival-horror elements, like limited ammo and the need to share items, retain the spirit of what made the series popular. The addition of co-op is welcome, but the lack of an easier voice chat system hurts the experience if you don't go the split-screen route. Your partner's AI is bad enough to make you hate the game if you're planning to go solo. RE5 is still worth checking out if you're a fan of the series, but you'll need to temper your expectations.

This remains a great action choice even on Switch, and the only version that can be undocked from the TV and taken on the go to be enjoyed anywhere at any time, which makes fitting a full chapter in a gamer's day schedule more practical.

Resident Evil 5 is back. Now you can enjoy with this title and share with your friends old experiences.

Quotation forthcoming.

esident Evil 5 is a product of its time. It is also a product of Resident Evil 4’s time. The generation-defining strength of the latter pushed against the contemporary ideas of the former, creating a surplus of vaguely Resident Evil content masquerading around in 2009’s milieu of cooperative action games. Depending on your expectations, Resident Evil 5 either remains a blissfully cooperative version of Resident Evil 4 or a harbinger of the monstrosity that became Resident Evil 6.

Resident Evil 5 is a natural progression of the gameplay mechanics seen in its predecessor, with classic survival-horror tropes taking a backseat to more over-the-top action. That said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s actually a really fun experience with a story that long-time fans of the franchise will absolutely adore. Performance takes a hit on the Switch, with noticeable frame rate drops and a decrease in texture quality, but it more than makes up for this with the introduction of gyro aiming, which works much better than we could have hoped for. One can only wonder that if Capcom had managed to keep the performance on par with other consoles, the Switch version could have been the definitive way to experience Resident Evil 5. As it is, it’s a perfectly serviceable port that serves as a nice reminder that Resident Evil’s so-called ‘action phase’ really isn’t as bad as some think.

Bone of contention among fans, Resident Evil 5 is unexpectedly the best selling game of the franchise. Regardless of this, the Switch edition of the title is very satisfying, as it's quite as beautiful as the original game but in a portable device this time. It also contains all of the DLC and the multiplayer modes of the Gold Edition released on the other consoles on the market.

The Switch version of Resident Evil 5 is quite a surprise. Indeed, based on the console versions released in 2016, it has nothing to be ashamed in terms of graphics and suffers no slowdown. Very complete, it also comes with the two scripted extensions as well as the Arena and online multiplayer modes. We can however blame it for its very dated gameplay. It's heavy, it's slow and it's not maneuverable. The gyroscopic aim set up by the Day One patch remains fun at first but is really not practical. The local co-op is still as nice as ever, but it needs to be tested on a TV and with two controllers, as the Joy-Con doesn't allow all kinds of movements, especially the camera ones.

The gyro controls are a welcome addition, but Resident Evil 5 on Switch feels inferior to other formats thanks to a sub-par framerate.

Resident Evil 5 isn’t a bad game, it’s just one that was already showing its age on more powerful hardware. This is really one for the Resident Evil fans.