Resident Evil 5 has long been the neglected mainline title in one of Capcom's flagship franchises. Not as beloved as Resident Evil 4 or hated as Resident Evil 6, RE5 is nestled in between as the half step that bridged the claustrophobic action of RE4 and the overblown co-op action romp of RE6. Resident Evil 5 keeps the core philosophies of RE4 while also including co-op and even more chaotic action to compensate for the second player. This half-step leaves RE5 in a weird spot as a historical oddity in the series, a point driven home by Capcom's nearly 10-year neglect of the title.
Resident Evil 5 was released in March 2009, four years after its predecessor. The game was met with a mixed reception upon release. Many found Resident Evil 5 to be a decent but unremarkable follow-up when compared to its groundbreaking predecessor. One thing players did largely enjoy was the focus on co-op action, especially in the post-game score attack Mercenaries mode. In fact, Resident Evil 5's two high points were its co-op and series hero Chris Redfield punching an enormous boulder into an active volcano. With its legacy closely tied to its co-op, Capcom's neglect of the game's PC port left many unable to experience the folly of friendly cooperation for nearly a decade.
Resident Evil 5's Co-op Was Stuck on a Defunct Service
The Steam port of Resident Evil 5 was relegated to Microsoft's Games for Windows Live service. This service was essentially the progenitor to the Xbox app many use on their PCs today. The service was met with a lot of criticism ranging from charging players $50 a year to use or just the overall faulty online infrastructure that led to a petition for several games to be removed from the service entirely.
Because of RE5's integration with Games for Windows Live, co-op could only be experienced when playing online. In fact, the local co-op feature was completely omitted from the Steam release. This didn't just make couch co-op inaccessible; it also meant co-op was completely unplayable when Games for Windows Live shut down in 2013.
Resident Evil 5's PC Port Lost What Made the Game Special
In the ensuing years, Capcom neglected to fix Resident Evil 5's co-op conundrum until the game was knocking on its 14-year anniversary. The developer just recently released an update that re-enabled split-screen co-op, meaning fans playing on PC can finally get the true RE5 experience. While this is good for RE5, a game touted for its cooperative play was still knowingly sold to consumers lacking the feature for 10 years. Capcom had been selling an incomplete game that was missing a core piece of its identity.
On top of that, players who owned the original Steam release of Resident Evil 5 now have to redeem a new copy of the game. While that is a minor inconvenience to many, this decision means many who bought the original game may not have a working copy of it depending on if they knew they had to redeem the new version or not.
Capcom seems to be making amends for neglect of Resident Evil 5, but it may be too little too late. With co-op missing, many aspects of the game were rendered unplayable thanks to the player's increased reliance on an A.I.-controlled partner. The toughest difficulty in the game has players die from a single hit, meaning precise movement and shooting is a necessity. The harder levels of the Mercenary mode were nearly unbeatable as the onslaught of tougher, tanky enemies easily overwhelmed the player. While Resident Evil 5 is far from a fan-favorite entry in the iconic series, it certainly deserved better than to have its legacy damaged by a decade of neglect.