Review by: Dave VanDyk

Taking place in an arid, run-down region of Africa, Capcom's latest addition to its famed zombie-killing Resident Evil series brings forth some of the nuttiest, over-the-top action seen to date.

Sure, you can try to take the game seriously and immerse yourself in what should be an intense battle of wits and survival, but you're a better gamer than I if you can overlook the sheer incompetence of the infamous Umbrella corporation and their subsidiary cohorts so easily. When you have super-villains who will always prefer to engage in long, drawn-out monologues instead of killing you at the first opportunity, mobs of enemies who know how to do little more than drool, and some of the most ridiculous multi-item fetch quests seen in gaming history, it's easy to get turned away from games like this if you're not just in it for the laughs.

But while Resident Evil 5 hasn't really changed much from its predecessors in this department as a single player title, its true marvel is in how it was engineered from the ground-up as a co-operative game. You spend the entire game playing as protagonist Chris Redfield, who is glued to the hip with his new partner, Sheva Alomar. Together they represent an organization sent to Africa to help curtail the sale of Umbrella's evil bio-weapons to terrorists who want to use them to zombify random populaces. Or something.

Frankly, the plot of the game is of little consequence when you find that you're having so much damned fun cracking jokes at every zany little plot twist and scripted event the game throws at you with a friend, which includes things like engaging in a crazy on-a-rails Humvee chase while zombie-African biker gangs assail you from all directions, trying to find a way to explode a gargantuan tentacle-beast onboard a cargo tanker, and fighting your way out of a raging volcano while a mutated megalomaniac tries to toss you into the lava. When you gear up for Resident Evil 5, you should be prepared for a truly nutty experience like no other.