I’m willing to bet that if Resident Evil 5 had been around during the 70’s (not taking into account the notable downfall of there being insufficient technology available for this to happen at that time) there would almost certainly have been some sort of Blaxpolitation film satirising it. How does “Zombie Negroes With Chainsaws” sound to you?

There was a series of complaints surrounding the release of this new instalment of the Resident Evil series in which brave, tough (and best of all Caucasian) Chris Redfield – together with his equally feisty and American female counterpart – take on a town of crazed zombie black fellows who wield primitive items.

Let us not forget that in the previous game it was a case of the protagonist versus a town of Spanish folk who were of equal zombie craziness. However, not much was said in terms of its bigotry but one can’t help wondering whether that was a mere case of whites versus whites. But whites against blacks? Capcom better hope the plot of this new one leaves the player with no doubt that wiping out an African village of black zombies is justifiable

Racist undertones aside I went for the demo none-the-less, assuming that all this was going to be was a nice wholesome zombie survival horror.

The demo itself gives you the option of two levels as well the opportunity to play co-op with someone offline. Which is a nice little enticing gift. If you’re into all that.

The game starts off with the two protagonists ending up in the thick of it in the middle of a shanty town village being chased and hounded by zombies. Much like how Resident Evil 2 started you off in the thick of it, Resident Evil 5 seems to go about it the same way. A neat subversion, I always find, to those games that gradually introduce you to all the elements.

What was a major disappointment for me was the controls. Although customisable, the default settings seem a little tricky to get to grips with. Even for a third-person survival horror some of the buttons just didn’t seem to sit right.

The aim function is the most horrible and downright awkward aspect to this whole game. Having altered the settings to “fastest” I experienced no discernible difference. Aiming is slow and painful, making fight sequences sluggish and unnecessarily hard. By the time you’ve spun around to clear a horde coming at you, several attackers are already wiping their mouths with napkins having removed several chunks of your American idealistic flesh. Aiming being quite important in a game of this magnitude, you’d think some form of auto-lock or quick-aim would be an obvious solution to a slow analogue stick style of shooting.

Also, feeding from the same bowl as Kane & Lynch and Army Of Two, Resident Evil 5 has gone down the teamwork road of gameplay in which the players work together to make their inevitable demise postpone itself indefinitely. It doesn’t seem to be able to pull it off here though largely because I felt cramped finding myself mainly in small derelict rooms or down a narrow alleyway with my partner, only able only to assist by punching zombies off her and leaving myself somewhat exposed. I can only assume that later levels will accommodate for a more team-like aesthetic.

Generally I’m not holding out for this one. Taking one look at the game made me want to adjust the colour settings on my TV: grey, brown, dark red and a combination of the three dominate the spectrum of colouring that’s been popularised in recent games (Fallout 3 for example). Putting all other aspects aside the gameplay is where the main problem lies. If the controls are awkward and fight sequences are appallingly sludgy then there are issues at stake that no amount of fancy graphics and negro-bashing can rectify.