The Resident Evil 5 demo hit Xbox Live yesterday, much to the delight of thousands of Resident Evil fans. However, before going in one question remained on many people’s minds; is it just Resident Evil 4 HD?Let’s take a look.

Public Assembly - one of the two levels included in the demo - was my first destination.I was immediately greeted by gorgeous visuals, although there was some noticeable screen tear. While the colours may not be the brightest ones in the rainbow the washed out appearance does transfer that grim sort of feel that Resident Evil 4 gave to an African setting. The character models also look pretty good, and Chris himself seems to have been spending a lot of time in the gym since we last saw him. The new co-op character, Sheva, stood by Chris; and for the moment I remained sceptical of her intrusion into the Resident Evil universe.After a short test of the controls I ran a short distance to a hut (with Sheva following) and was greeted by a cut scene. You may have seen part of this scene in pre-release trailers, but the short version of it is; guy with megaphone, raging crowd, massive dude with axe, someone gets their head chopped off, megaphone guy see’s you. After this has ended you are attacked by the people from the crowd. These are largely the same as the people from Resident Evil 4, and spout the same creature from the stump of their neck when their head is blown off. They immediately begin to smash through the windows and pour through the doors, prompting you to test out the ‘new’ control system.

The first thing I noticed was that you, again, can’t move while aiming and shooting. It could be argued that this adds to the tension and may help drum up some fear, but it also feels like you’re playing a game from years ago. The cramped conditions of the two levels in the demo mean that you can’t get many shots off before the horde is on you, and being able to strafe (EDIT: I’ve since noticied that you can strafe, but my complaints about limited movement while aiming still remain) while shooting would have somewhat helped matters. Instead you find yourself quickly running out of the room and into a more open area, but not – as it happens – by much.

After a short while axe guy makes his appearance, or rather slowly walks towards you while you go and make a cup of tea. Ok, so this is not as bad as it sounds as, again, the cramped conditions mean that you can’t really hope to outrun him much anyway. If you do find a place to hide he’ll just come and smash the wall of wherever you may be hiding down. This was one area that somewhat impressed me, but not by much. It’s also worth noting that Chris can now gradually destroy doors by shooting at them. In any case you have to keep running as axe guy seems impossible to kill.If you run out of ammo then you can collect those dropped by dead enemies, or find some lying around. Eventually though you’ll have your first experience with the inventory system, whether your changing weapon, healing yourself or – god forbid – giving and swapping items with Sheva (Sheva has an inventory to, meaning that she often has to pick up more ammo just like you. In reality this means that she often grabs items before you have the chance, but at least you can easily get them back off her). The inventory is in real-time, meaning that you have to quickly find what item you want when you’re facing a horde. Running out of ammo when you’re surrounded is slightly frustrating, as you have to bring up the inventory and switch to another weapon, all the while losing valuable seconds to the attacking horde. The best thing to do is to simply run off and often directly through enemies. The AI seems so slow and dumb that they often won’t even try to hit you when you run past, something I discovered more on the next level.

Shanty Town is bigger than the previous “survive constant waves of enemies” level, but it still suffers from the tight passageways with hardly anywhere to run. You’ll come across the first point of Sheva being around on this level. Chris can give her a boost up to a rooftop, where she is supposed to provide cover. In reality she barely seems to shoot, and her laser sight can often get in the way of your own. Later instances only confirmed my beliefs that Sheva is as thick as a brick. For example, sometimes she’ll walk in front of you while you’re trying to kill enemies and simply stare at you. Other times she’ll stand behind you and barely get a shot off, leaving you wondering just what the hell she is there for. Later on in the level she has to split up with you, which largely means she screams for help while you try to shoot enemies from across the street. All this can be solved by simply playing with a friend instead, but there is not always a time when you can play with others. So, what used to be single-player experience that left you feeling incredibly isolated is no longer the case. Instead you have to play with AI dimmer than a broken lightbulb.

The final part of the second level see’s you facing off against a chainsaw wielding maniac. What should have been a thrilling encounter actually bored me to tears. Again it was largely shoot-run-shoot-run, but even if stood next to him he didn’t seem to want to cut you apart. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it after discovering he was in such a poor demo. Anyway, at first I couldn’t figure out how to kill him, so spent most of the time shooting at enemies (he is joined by constant reinforcements of other enemies) and running away. Finally I discovered that you’re supposed to shoot him in the head a few times, and then give him a right hook with Chris’ fists of steel. What? A high powered rifle won’t kill him but a simple punch will? You have to repeat this a number of times, until he finally dies and you can pick up the key to end the level. This feels like something out of a Megadrive game rather than a HD 2009 video game. I’m not saying that bosses shouldn’t be hard to kill, but are really supposed to expect that a fist can beat bullets? Haven’t games like Dead Space already changed the boss formula for the better?

Resident Evil 5 doesn’t add much more to the formula than what Resident Evil 4 had already accomplished. In fact the only thing distancing it from its predecessor is the co-op mode, and this only seems like it will be fun with a friend. Is it really too much to ask to be able to move just a little when aiming a weapon? Instead I have to constantly run in circles while stopping to shoot every so often. Of course, it’s only a demo and the rest of the game may change my mind, but I can’t honestly see myself buying this (at least not straight away) unless I always have a friend to play it with. Even then it’s really nothing special, and I’d take Left 4 Dead over this any day.