Chris Redfield, one of the most popular characters in the Resident Evil series, returns for Capcom's latest installment of the long running survival-horror franchise. This time however, the game doesn't take place in the confines of Raccoon City. Chris goes to Africa along with a new partner named Sheva to find out what happened as the African people have been transformed into mindless zombies. While the plot idea is almost like the all the previous Resident Evil storylines, Capcom promises an all new adventure full of action, suspense, and maybe even a few exra surprises (Jill Valentine?)

One of the big differences here is that in some parts of the story, you'll be fighting zombies in broad daylight. This certainly breaks up the theory that zombies only appear at night. Another noticable detail is that the zombies are no longer slow moving and predictable. They'll charge at you head on while also carrying melee weapons ready to beat you down. Also the zombies will come at you in groups instead of by themselves which made them easy targets in the past. While this sounds like you'll be constantly running out of ammo, there will be some exploding barrels in some areas to help you wither down the numbers. When they're finally dead they may drop some precious ammo, or other useful items to progress in the game.

Like Resident Evil 4, the over the shoulder firing system returns making it easier for you to pick off zombies. I like this system because it made aiming less of a chore and kept up with the pace of the game. This is where the similarities of the past end. New to the series is an "action control" system which will make use of the trigger buttons on the Xbox 360 controller. With this new system, you can fire your guns and also use your knife for melee attacks. Punching and kicking will also play a role in this new system as well. This is a great addition especially when ammo becomes scarce and you feel like your going to die.

The boss battles in the Resident Evil series have been some of the creepiest and some of toughest battles you'll ever take part in. Although not much is known about the main bads, we can tell you about one of them. This particular boss looks kind of a like a deformed freak wielding a chainsaw. He had on a mask only partially covering his maligned face. Along with him is an entire army of zombies which makes this battle even harder. If you think that's tough then I hate to see what they throw at us next.

Like in the past Resident Evil games, your sidekick character always plays a key role when your main character gets stuck. Sheva's role will be the same here as well, but with an all new twist. New for Resident Evil 5 is a co-operative system where one player controls Chris and the other controls Sheva. Both characters can now work together to solve various puzzles as well as help each other in combat situations especially against the tough bosses.

Don't worry if you don't have a partner because you can still play the game in single player just like the previous games as the other player is controlled by the AI during the key sequences so you won't miss out on anything. The co-op system can be played either locally or over Xbox Live in a drop-in/drop-out system. You can also play the main game as either character.

So far Resident Evil is shaping up to be one of 2009's hottest titles. The graphics look amazing while the zombies look and feel realistic unlike previous games in the series. Capcom promises many surprises in this one especially if you've seen the trailers (Wesker). Downloadable content is also a strong possibility in the future. The Resident Evil series has always brought players something fresh and new, although at times the story remains the same. You can still expect plenty of gun-slinging action and plenty of scary moments to keep you guessing. From what we've seen so far, Resident Evil 5 looks to keep the ailing survival-horror genre off life support.

Resident Evil 5 infects the Xbox 360 on March 13, 2009.