Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360, 2009)

Resident Evil 5 on Xbox 360 is the point where the series said, “What if survival horror, but also a full-on action movie and your partner keeps wasting ammo?”
Released in 2009 and developed by Capcom, this co-op-heavy third-person shooter sends Chris Redfield to Kijuju, Africa, to investigate a bioterror outbreak,
team up with newcomer Sheva Alomar, and once again prove that corporations plus science equals absolute disaster.

Gameplay is classic over-the-shoulder Resident Evil 4 style, but bulked up with co-op muscles. You move through sun-blasted towns, labs, and ruins while dealing with
infected Majini who sprint, flank, and bring toys like shields, stun batons, and crossbows. Shooting still locks you in place when you aim, so every shot feels deliberate…
and every missed headshot feels like a financial mistake as your ammo pile shrinks. Inventory is now a tight 9-slot grid per character, forcing you to constantly trade,
toss, and panic-manage items while something with too many teeth runs at you.

The big hook is co-op. You can play solo with AI Sheva (who is… fine on a good day), but the game really comes alive in two-player. Split-screen or online,
you’ll be sharing ammo, covering flanks, coordinating crowd control, and screaming at each other during quick time events and boss phases. Puzzles, lever pulls,
and set pieces are designed around two people working together, so this feels less like a traditional horror game and more like a messed-up couples therapy exercise involving rocket launchers.

On top of the main campaign, Resident Evil 5 includes the Mercenaries mode on Xbox 360 — a score-attack arcade mode where you mow down waves of enemies against a timer,
chaining kills for bonuses and unlocking extra characters and stages. The 360 disc is the original release, so extra story episodes like “Lost in Nightmares” and “Desperate Escape”
were sold as DLC instead of being on the disc, but the core campaign and Mercenaries are fully playable right away. Online co-op still runs through Xbox Live on supported hardware,
and offline split-screen works fine if you’d rather keep the chaos confined to your own couch.

1. Built around co-op from the ground up: almost every major encounter, puzzle, and set piece is tuned for two players, whether you’re sniping from a rooftop while your partner holds ground
   or frantically passing herbs and ammo mid-fight.
2. Ditches the traditional zombies for faster, more aggressive Majini who use weapons, vehicles, and swarm tactics, making encounters feel closer to full-on firefights than slow, shambling horror.
3. Inventory is real-time and brutally limited, forcing you to think about who carries what — one player might stack healing items while the other becomes the walking ammo cabinet.
4. Mercenaries mode turns the combat into a high-score arcade challenge, rewarding efficient routes, enemy knowledge, and stylish crowd control instead of just barely surviving.
5. While it leans way more into action than classic fixed-camera Resident Evil, the game still keeps those tense resource-management vibes and “this boss has way too many phases” energy
   that the series is famous for.

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