Resident Evil 5

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.