With the much under-rated 'Dead Rising' and the more recent 'Left4Dead', there has been a lot of zombie slashing fun to be had on consoles over the last year or two.

You might say there has been a revival, or uprising, of sorts.

But whereas the above mentioned titles have taken the genre (if you can call it that) in interesting new directions, the latest 'Resident Evil' seems stuck with one leg in the world of Gamecubes and PlayStation 2s.

In 'Resident Evil 5' (RE5), the series' first outing on the new generation of consoles, you play as a hardcore American zombie slayer named Chris Redfield who is charged with containing an outbreak of a biotech-gone-wrong infection that is turning people into zombie-like gools complete with flailing limbs and an insatiable blood lust.

It is the absurd, over-the-top action you'd expect from a zombie-slasher, though it has to be said that the storytelling and atmosphere doesn't quite have the B-rated charm and wit that one associates with classics of the genre. Instead, it falls somewhere between made-for-TV run-and-gun action and classic zombie convention.

Before getting into the story though, you'll have to come to terms with the game's rather awkward and clumsy controls. We are certainly not talking 'Gears of War' style responsiveness. You do get used to it after a while, but it is far from as slick and intuitive as one would hope.

Similarly, the camera in the game seems firmly stuck in a previous age. In a generous mood one might argue that the rather narrow and hard to control camera is an attempt to give the game a claustrophobic feeling so as to accentuate the tension. If so, it didn't work. What tension there is has nothing to do with the camera, whereas what substantial frustration the game offers certainly does.

Part of the problem here is that 'RE5' is not survival horror quite as it was in previous 'Resident Evil' games. It revolves much less around tension, opting instead to give you a shooting fest with hordes of slow-witted zombies poring at you as if through jelly. But the camera didn't keep up with these changes. If the gameplay style is to be more action-packed gunplay than cautious sneaking about, then we need a camera and controls on the same level as that of 'Gears of War'.

Yet, for all its obvious faults, 'Resident Evil 5' is not altogether unplayable. The game is structured into relatively small chunks, it is never too hard, it doesn't require any great feats of concentration, and even though the story is all over the place, here and there parts of it are told well.

Somewhere amidst the rubble, some basic aspect of game design holds things together just enough to keep it interesting, and the more you get used to the broken controls and camera, the more fun the game gets.

In many respects then, it is just 'Resident Evil 4' with better graphics and a co-op mode. And when you consider that 'RE4' won a number of game-of-the-year awards that probably cannot be an altogether bad thing — although it should be said that many aspects of the game haven't evolved at all and has since been overtaken by other games.

The most significant advance in 'RE5' is the co-op mode which allows you to play with a friend over Live or using a split screen. In the single player campaign you are joined by an AI partner called Sheba.

On the one hand this renewed focus on teamwork boosts the game's action credentials — battles go on for longer as your partner bails you out in tough situations; on the other hand, the fact that you are not working alone might be partly to blame for the game's loss of tension.

After all, walking down a dark alley with a partner just isn't as scary as doing it alone.

Technically, 'RE5' is a very good looking game with decent frame rates and realistic character models. Even so, the atmosphere isn't quite as claustrophobic as one might have wished. It is all just a bit too well-lit, and too Hollywood to sustain your suspension of disbelief. It is a bit like that ultra big budget action movie that has all the special effects, but just doesn't seem to have any soul.

On the whole then, 'Resident Evil 5's' uninspired storytelling, sluggish controls, and poor camera makes it a broken game in more ways than one. That, despite all these flaws, it still has a good deal of fun to offer is testimony to how tried-and-tested a formula it is built on.

7.6/10

Buy this game: PS3 | Xbox 360

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