After playing:
RE4, RE4R, RE5 (this one), some of RE6, RE7/8/9, RER2 and some of RER1
i can safely say this is quite literally the most irritating, least enjoyable and most meh resident evil ever.
the story isn't even the bad part. it does great at introducing newcomer and one-off partner Sheva Alomar as she accompanies Chris to find his missing partner, Jill Valentine and solving the mystery of the new Uroburos virus as the game plays out and also fleshes out her character and the narrative isn't the worst thing ever, but Jesus Christ, the gameplay ruins any amount of a good story that this game provides.
Sheva/Chris depending on if you're on your second playthrough and opting to play as Sheva are programmed to genuinely just be the dumbest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that you will ever have to tolerate in your entire life, whether it's using healing items when you flat-out do not need them, randomly shooting at you or shooting at you in an attempt to shoot an enemy who might be just barely in front of you or take valuable resources that you, the player can use and nine times out of ten will utilize better than the bot.
Then, the aiming shares the same from RE4's clunky aiming which, albeit, was tolerable and didn't stop me from finishing the game in that regard, it feels substantially worse and clunkier here which is absolutely beyond me. Then, the enemies can be either obnoxious beyond belief or dramatically underwhelming and there somehow is no in-between.
You will either be genuinely having a panic attack with your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clenching because an enemy has ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you up so royally that you're quite literally on the brink of a death both in-game and in reality or you're just going to be fighting the urge to fall asleep because the enemies just doing a whole lot of nothing, the latter being more of an observation rather than a complaint.
Then, the bosses. I will give them props there. Irving's boss fight caught me off-guard, didn't drag on to a needless degree or hit me on some excessive ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and I'm glad it didn't because that probably would've gotten a smooth and swift "I'm done" from me as I leave this game and you NEVER see my face again, but so far (as of chapter 4-2), the bosses have been legitimately well-done, been fairly intimidating and actually kept me on my toes and haven't cheapshotted me to a point where they're the reason that I want to stop playing this game or rip out my urethra.
The graphics really aren't anything to write home about, but then the last thing they are is bad. Sheva and Chris and almost every other character in the game looks great and have stunning models, even for 2009's standards and the environments, especially the water are fairly impressive and something that, if I'd seen while playing this game at launch, I'd have definitely been like "Ooh, damn, way to go, Capcom" so I'm not going to ♥♥♥♥ on it in that regard because the graphics do look good and they aren't really a complaint to be had.
The online functionality is just so ass though. I played online once with a friend and it was okay at best and trying to play with randoms has been ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obnoxious because I can get soft-locked in the item box by them just not doing ♥♥♥♥ and forcing me to sit there unless I ready or, like I did last time, Alt + F4'd. Then, it can feel unjustifiably laggy at times, especially in scenarios where it just flat-out isn't or shouldn't be and it's overall disappointing that one of the core aspects of this RE is just so mediocre.
Overall, Resident Evil 5 has a good story and has decent graphics and some designs for its age, but the horrible online functionality, the poorly done gameplay and aiming and bad level design can make the game just so boring and unentertaining to play for more than fifteen minutes at a time.
