Apple Danish rocks my socks. Sometimes you can get apple Danish that have sultanas in them. I despise this practice because I don’t like the texture of shriveled up bits of fruit swirling around my mouth ruining the delightful taste of apple, custard and pastry. To me, sultanas are no better than a piece of mandarin that you would find under the cushion of your lounge. This, however, doesn’t stop me from buying apple Danish and I put up with it because it’s really that good. Resident Evil 5 is like apple Danish.

Resident Evil is a massive franchise for Capcom, spawning around twenty games and a slew movies including a live-action trilogy starring the lovely Milla Jovovich. Beginning its long career as a strict survival horror title, 2005 saw the Resident Evil franchise evolve into the brilliant and critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4 that took the series from survival horror to survival action horror.

This time around Capcom chose not to reinvent the wheel and it’s quickly obvious that Resident Evil 5 is Resident Evil 4 with a flash new coat of paint and a story continuation worthy of its predecessors. This is a good thing for fans of the previous game, but it’s fair to say that some elements of Resident Evil should’ve been left in the past.

Resident Evil 5 sees Chris Redfield deployed to Kijuju, Africa and teaming up with the very hot Sheva Alomar. After some cut-scene back-story regarding your ex-partner Jill Valentine and some familiar faces from the Resident Evil series, you find your task is to track down and apprehend Ricardo Irving who is attempting to sell viruses on the black market. Quickly though, it’s apparent that something’s not quite right with the residents of this African town and it’s not long until they’re all trying to disembowel you. The story itself twists and turns in true Resident Evil fashion and if you’re not paying attention it can be difficult to keep up. Having not played all of the original games, I found the plot a little underwhelming at points where fans of the series would be salivating over its mythology.

Undoubtedly though, Resident Evil 5 is a gorgeous looking game. From the way the cut scenes and story are presented to the immaculate in-game textures, environments and character models this game stands confidently at the urinal besides graphical pythons like Killzone and Gears of War. Its incredible lighting is used cleverly to somehow make a brightly lit street terrifying and at one particular point early in the game you’ll find yourself underground where the only source of light comes from the torch your partner is carrying. It’s a chilling scenario that requires teamwork and trust but it's chilling atmosphere owes it all to the lighting department. "Hold the fucking light up!"

This scenario brings me to the best and most disappointing aspect of Resident Evil 5. The atmosphere of a Resident Evil game is best experienced by yourself, with the lights down low and the potential for your girlfriend to sneak up behind you and scare the bejesus out of you. While this is still true with Resident Evil 5 the fact that you're constantly accompanied by a partner, albeit a computer controlled one, helps move this game away from that 'edge your way forward' style of gameplay that its predecessors were so well known for into action game territory. Initially the computer controlled Sheva feels like she just gets in the way, often blocking doorways, not keeping up with you and generally getting herself into trouble. But once you start playing the harder difficulty levels you realise that she's probably more adept than any of your mates, instantly dodging melee attacks and spraying hordes of Zombies with her automatic weapon so you have enough time to reload. Eventually Sheva proves to be quite handy to have around. But ultimately, playing Resident Evil 5 through by yourself with only computer controlled player assisting you just feels all wrong.

Where this game truly shines is in its cooperatively play, constantly dishing out memorable moments and further solidifying coop's place at the top of the ' videogame fun bits' bin. At one point a mate and I were playing through a particularly difficult part of Resident Evil 5 against one of the games many mini-bosses. Killing this particular son of a bitch depleted all of our ammo save for a single handgun that one of us still had. Thinking we were home free we completed the rest of the puzzle only to hear the buzz of yet another chainsaw maniac. You could practically hear the blood draining from our faces and we instantly started strategizing and didn't skip a beat. What ensued was one of the most incredible videogame moments of my life. We spent nearly 20 minutes playing a game of cat and mouse with this hedge-trimming son of a bitch, leaping from platform to platform under the direction of my partner. I acted as bait while he systematically and methodically popped shot after seemingly useless shot into this beast. The instant old fugly dropped to his knees and finally keeled over brought to my face a smile from ear to ear and the realisation that this would never have translated if I were playing by myself with the digitally directed Sheva.

The coop is not without its faults though. Constant drop-outs brought frustration after frustration and simply getting into a game with a mate (including the game's Mercenaries mode) feel clumsy and tacked on. But it's that good that it's worth putting up with.

Resident Evil 5 is all about epic moments. Over the top boss battles where gargantuan and seemingly unbeatable behemoths face off with you in environments that will either make you gasp in awe or send chills down your spine are a trademark for the Resident Evil series. Through pitch-black caves, tribal marshlands, and jewel filled temples you'll edge your way towards the inevitable boss battles and they are a fitting reward for all your hard work. Well placed and frequent enough to help break up the sometimes monotonous drone zombie attacks, these battles squeeze "HOOOLY SHIT" out of your gaping mouth vibrating gently as they pass by the nervous laughter on the tip of your tongue. Just wait until you encounter the U8, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Let's get the really bad parts of Resident Evil 5 off our chests. Much has been said about the game's archaic control style and quite frankly, it should've evolved for this edition of the franchise. This is further highlighted by the success and finesse of Dead Space's controls and a direct comparison is sure to put off the newcomers. I urge you to look past it. I honestly missed more than a couple of aspects to RE5's control scheme when playing some of my other games.

The other shit covered feather in Resident Evil 5's cap is the gratuitous use of Quicktime events. Granted, I played this game through for the first time on the second hardest level so it's expected to be a tad difficult, but come on! It is nearly impossible to get through a quicktime sequence with your human co-op partner the first, second or even third time. On more than a few occasions we were playing these button mashing gauntlets over and over again and failing miserably to the point of frustration. Getting through a particularly difficult part in Resident Evil is satisfying. You die, you understand why, you correct and you proceed. Maybe you die again, buit you learn and correct. The quicktime events in this game are random and it's pure luck as to whether you'll get through it or not. At one point I was literally tapping X for 45 seconds. I'm not joking. Consider this a warning rather than a spoiler, the final level has a stupid amount of quicktime events and if you and your partner miss one, it’s all the way back to the beginning. They’re not fun, they’re not skillful.

There's a lot to do after you finish Resident Evil 5 for the first time. For starters there are achievements that require you to collect and level up all your weapons and rewards for finishing the game in a certain time. But beyond that there's Capcom's answer to Gears of War's incredible Horde mode. A timed mode where zombie killing combos are the name of the game and scoring the most points will assure you a place on the podium. It's not terrible, but Mercenaries just doesn't have the replay value of Horde and feels more like World at War's zombie mode - a mode that's fun with your mates for a couple of nights, but you'll never touch it again. The game's credit system that allows you to purchase new characters, figurines and infinite ammo is best exploited in this mode though, so if you're a completionist expect to spend a lot of time either replaying the campaign or racking up your kill count in Mercenaries.

For those of you looking for a well-rounded experience, including a game that you can enjoy by yourself and with a friend, RE5 gets four stars; For those of you that live for co-op and can’t play a game without your buddy, stick around after class and maybe I’ll give you that extra star.

Bonus Review: Resident Evil 5 Versus Mode

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