Resident Evil 5 is a 2009 third-person shooter game developed and published by Capcom. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in March 2009 and for Windows in September 2009. It was rereleased for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2016.
The plot involves an investigation of a terrorist threat by Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar in Kijuju, a fictional region of West Africa. Chris learns that he must confront his past in the form of an old enemy, Albert Wesker, and his former partner, Jill Valentine.
The gameplay is similar to Resident Evil 4 (2005), though it is the first in the series designed for two-player cooperative gameplay. It was considered the first main Resident Evil game to depart from the survival horror genre, with critics saying it bore more resemblance to an action game. Motion capture was used for the cutscenes. Several staff members from the original Resident Evil worked on Resident Evil 5. The Windows version was developed by Mercenary Technology.
Resident Evil 5 received positive reviews, despite some criticism for its control scheme. It received divided opinions on whether aspects of it were racist; an investigation by the British Board of Film Classification found the complaints were unsubstantiated. Resident Evil 5 was the best-selling Capcom game until 2018, when it was outsold by Monster Hunter: World. As of May 2026 it is the best-selling Resident Evil game.
Gameplay
thumb|left|250px|alt=Still from the game with Chris Redfield (back to the player) and Sheva Alomar (facing the player)|The first player controls Chris Redfield, while a second player can control Sheva Alomar. Players are controlled from an over-the-shoulder perspective.
Resident Evil 5 is a third-person shooter with an over-the-shoulder perspective. Many boss battles contain quick time events.
Resident Evil 5 is the first Resident Evil game designed for two-player cooperative gameplay. This minigame places the player in an enclosed environment with a time limit. Customized weapons cannot be used and players must search for weapons, ammunition, and time bonuses while fighting a barrage of enemies, The minigame multiplayer mode was initially offline only; a release-day patch needed to be downloaded to access the online multiplayer modes. Mercenaries is unlocked when the story mode is completed.
Continuing through the marsh, they reunite with Stone and track down Irving's boat with his help. Irving injects himself with a variant of the Las Plagas parasite and mutates into a huge octopus-like beast. Chris and Sheva defeat him, and his dying words lead them to a nearby cave. The cave is the source of a flower used to create viruses previously used by the Umbrella Corporation, as well as a new strain named Uroboros. Chris and Sheva find evidence that Tricell, the company funding the BSAA, took over a former Umbrella underground laboratory and continued Umbrella's research. In the facility, they discover thousands of capsules holding human test subjects. Chris finds Jill's capsule, but it is empty. When they leave, they discover that Tricell CEO Excella Gionne has been plotting with Wesker to launch missiles with the Uroboros virus across the globe; it is eventually revealed that Wesker hopes to take a chosen few from the chaos of infection and rule them, creating a new breed of humanity. Chris and Sheva pursue Gionne but are stopped by Wesker and the hooded figure, who is revealed to be a brainwashed Jill. Gionne and Wesker escape to a Tricell oil tanker; Chris and Sheva fight Jill, subduing her and removing the mind-control device before she urges Chris to follow Wesker. Chris wonders if the world is worth fighting for. Looking at Sheva and Jill, he decides to live in a world without fear. Yasuhiro Anpo, who worked as a programmer on the original Resident Evil, directed Resident Evil 5. He was one of several staff members who worked on the original game to be involved in development. The script was written by Haruo Murata and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, based on a story idea by the concept director Kenichi Ueda. Takeuchi announced that Resident Evil 5 would retain the gameplay model introduced in Resident Evil 4, with "thematic tastes" from both Resident Evil 4 and the original Resident Evil.
While previous Resident Evil games are mainly set at night, the events of Resident Evil 5 occur almost entirely during the day. The decision for this was a combination of the African setting and advances in hardware improvements which allowed increasingly detailed graphics. On the subject of changes to Jill and Chris's appearance, production director Yasuhiro Anpo explained that designers tried "to preserve their image and imagined how they would have changed over the passage of time". Their new designs retained the character's signature colors; green for Chris and blue for Jill. Sheva was redesigned several times during production, though all versions tried to emphasize a combination of "feminine attraction and the strength of a fighting woman". The Majini were designed to be more violent than the "Ganado" enemies in Resident Evil 4.
The decision for cooperative gameplay was made part-way through development, for a new experience in a Resident Evil game. The decision to retain wide-screen proportions in two-player mode was made to avoid having the first player's screen directly on top of the second, which might be distracting, and the restriction on simultaneously moving and shooting was retained to increase player tension by not allowing them to maneuver freely. Takeuchi cited the film Black Hawk Down as an influence on the setting of Resident Evil 5 and his experience working on Lost Planet: Extreme Condition as an influence on its development. Asked why it was not being released on the Wii, the most popular gaming console at that time, Takeuchi responded that although that may have been a good decision "from a business perspective", the Wii was not the best choice in terms of power and visual quality. and scenes were recorded by motion capture. It used custom-built virtual cameras, which allowed the developers to see character movements in real time as the motion-capture actors recorded. Actors Reuben Langdon, Karen Dyer and Ken Lally portrayed Chris Redfield, Sheva Alomar and Albert Wesker respectively. Dyer also voiced Sheva, while Chris's voice was performed by Roger Craig Smith. Dyer's background training in circus skills helped her win the role of Sheva, as Capcom were searching for someone who could handle the physical skills her motion capture required. She performed her own stunts, and worked in production for over a year, sometimes working 14 hours a day. Capcom recorded in Los Angeles because they wanted a Hollywood-style soundtrack to increase the cinematic value and global interest. Resident Evil 5 soundtrack features an original theme song, "Pray",
Marketing and release
Capcom announced Resident Evil 5 on July 20, 2005, and showed a brief trailer at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in July 2007. The full E3 trailer became available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store that same month. A new trailer debuted on Spike TV's GameTrailers TV in May 2008, and on the GameTrailers website. A game demo was released in Japan on December 5, 2008, for the Xbox 360, Worldwide downloads of the demo exceeded four million for the two consoles; over 1.8 million were downloaded between January 26 and January 29.
In January 2009, D+PAD Magazine reported that Resident Evil 5 would be released with limited-edition Xbox 360 box art; pictures of the limited-edition box claimed that it would allow two to sixteen players to play offline via System Link. Although Capcom said that their "box art isn't lying", the company did not provide details. Capcom soon issued another statement that the box-art information was incorrect, and System Link could support only two players. and a download voucher for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix from Xbox Live.
Resident Evil 5 was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March 2009, alongside a dedicated Game Space on PlayStation Home. The space, Resident Evil 5 "Studio Lot" (Biohazard 5 "Film Studio" in Japan), had as its theme the in-game location of Kijuju. Its lounge offered Resident Evil 5-related items for sale, events and full game-launching support. Some areas of the space were available only to owners of Resident Evil 5. A Windows version was released in September 2009. This version, using Nvidia's 3D Vision technology through DirectX 10, includes more costumes and a new mode in the Mercenaries minigame. Resident Evil 5 was re-released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2016, with a physical disc copy following in America that July. It was also released for Nintendo Switch on October 29, 2019.
Additional content
Shortly before the release of Resident Evil 5, Capcom announced that a competitive multiplayer mode called Versus would be available for download in several weeks. Versus became available for download in Europe and North America on April 7, 2009, through the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store. Versus has two online game types: "Slayers", a point-based game challenging players to kill Majini, and "Survivors", where players hunt each other while dodging and attacking Majini. Both modes can be played by two-player teams.
During Sony's press conference at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show Capcom announced that a special edition, Biohazard 5: Alternative Edition, would be released in Japan for the PlayStation 3 in the spring of 2010. This edition supports the PlayStation Move accessory and includes a new scenario, "Lost in Nightmares", where Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine infiltrate one of Umbrella Corporation co-founder Oswell E. Spencer's estates in 2006. Another special edition, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America and Europe. Gold Edition includes "Lost in Nightmares" and another campaign-expansion episode, "Desperate Escape", where players control Josh Stone and Jill Valentine as they assist Chris and Sheva. The edition also includes the previously released Versus mode, four new costumes and an alternate Mercenaries mode with eight new playable characters, new items and maps. Like Alternative Edition, Gold Edition supports the PlayStation Move accessory with a patch released on September 14, 2010. On November 5, 2012, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition was placed on the PlayStation Network as a free download for PlayStation Plus users during that month.
As part of the conversion to Steamworks, Gold Edition was released for Windows on March 26, 2015. Owners of Resident Evil 5 from Steam or as a boxed retail Games for Windows – Live can acquire a free Steamworks copy of the base game and purchase the new Gold Edition content. The Steamworks version did not allow the use of Nvidia's 3D Vision technology or fan modifications, though Capcom later confirmed a way to work around these issues. In 2023, an update was released for the Windows version that removed Games for Windows – Live, thus restoring the split screen co-op feature to the game.
Reception
Resident Evil 5 received generally favourable reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. It was praised by Joe Juba and Matt Miller of Game Informer, who said that it had the best graphics of any game to date and that the music and voice acting helped bring the characters to life, and Brian Crecente of Kotaku said it was one of the most visually stunning games he had ever played. For IGN, Ryan Geddes wrote that the game had a surprisingly high replay value, and GameZone Louis Bedigian said it was "worth playing through twice in one weekend".
Several reviewers considered it to be a departure from the survival horror genre, a decision they lamented. Chris Hudak of GameRevolution considered Resident Evil 5 a "full-on action blockbuster", and Brian Crecente said that about halfway through it "dropp[ed] all pretense of being a survival horror title and unmask[ed] itself as an action shooter title". Kristan Reed of Eurogamer said it "morphs what was a survival horror adventure into a survival horror shooter", and believed that this attempt to appeal to action gamers would upset some of the series' fans. Kristan Reed also had criticism of some controls, such as the speed at which 180-degree turns were performed and difficulty accessing inventory. Joe Juba said that the inability to move and shoot at the same time seemed more "like a cheap and artificial way to increase difficulty than a technique to enhance tension." Samuel Claiborn of IGN rated the "Desperate Escape" DLC seven out of ten: "Despite Desperate Escape's well-crafted action sequences, I actually found myself missing the unique vibe of Lost in Nightmares. The dynamic between Jill and Josh isn't particularly thrilling, and the one-liners, banter and endearing kitsch are kept to a minimum."
Allegations of racism
Resident Evil 5s 2007 E3 trailer was criticized for depicting a white protagonist killing black enemies in a small African village. According to Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal, "There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery", although he acknowledged that only the preview had been released. Takeuchi said the producers were completely surprised by the complaints. who assists the protagonist. Critics felt that Sheva's character was added to address the issue of racism, though Karen Dyer said the character had been in development before the first trailer was released. He acknowledged that different cultures may have had differing opinions about the trailer, though said he did not expect there to be further complaints once the game was released and people were able to play it. In a Computer and Video Games interview, producer Masachika Kawata said: "We can't please everyone. We're in the entertainment business—we're not here to state our political opinion or anything like that. It's unfortunate that some people felt that way."
In Eurogamer February 2009 preview of Resident Evil 5, Dan Whitehead expressed concern it might become a video game controversy, stating: "It plays so blatantly into the old clichés of the dangerous 'dark continent' and the primitive lust of its inhabitants that you'd swear the game was written in the 1920s". Whitehead said that these issues became more "outrageous and outdated" as the game progressed and that the addition of the "light-skinned" Sheva just made the overall issue worse. Hilary Goldstein from IGN believed Resident Evil 5 was not deliberately racist, and though he did not personally find it offensive, he felt that others would due to the subjective nature of offensiveness. Chris Hudak dismissed any allegations of racism as "stupid". It was reported that one cutscene showed "black men" dragging off a screaming white woman;
Writing for The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference in 2015, Harrer and Pichlmair considered Resident Evil 5 "yet another moment in the history of commodity racism, which from the late 19th century onwards allowed popular depictions of racial stereotypes to enter the most intimate spaces of European homes". The authors state that Africa is presented from a Western gaze; "what is presented as 'authentic' blackness conforms to the projected fantasy of predominantly white gaming audience". In 2016, Paul Martin from Games and Culture said that the game's theme could be described as "dark continent", stating it drew on imagery of European colonialism and depictions of "blackness" reminiscent of 19th-century European theories on race.
Sales
The PlayStation 3 version of Resident Evil 5 was the top-selling game in Japan in the two weeks following its release, with 319,590 copies sold. In March 2009, it became the fastest-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom, and the biggest Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game release in the country. By September 2025, Resident Evil 5 had sold 9.9 million units worldwide on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with its original release. The Gold Edition had sold an additional 2.4 million units on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions sold another 3.8 million units combined, bringing the total sales to 16.1 million units.
The original release of Resident Evil 5 was Capcom's best-selling individual edition of a game until March 2018, when Monster Hunter: Worlds sales reached 7.5 million units, compared to 7.3 million for Resident Evil 5 at the time. It was the best-selling Resident Evil game in 2018 with 10.6 million sales across all its editions; the second position at the time was held by Resident Evil 6 with 8.4 million. In May 2025, sales of Resident Evil 5 were at 15.5 million copies, though it was expected to be soon overtaken by the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, which had 15.4 million sales at the time. In May 2026, Capcom's financial release reported that Resident Evil 5 had sold 19.01 million copies, compared to 18.32 million for Resident Evil 2.
Awards
Resident Evil 5 won the "Award of Excellence" at the 2009 Japan Game Awards. It was nominated for both Best Action/Adventure Game and Best Console Game at the 2008 Game Critics Awards, Best Action Game at the 2009 IGN Game of the Year Awards, and Best Sound Editing in Computer Entertainment at the 2010 Golden Reel Awards. It received five nominations at the 2010 Game Audio Network Guild Awards: Audio of the Year, Best Cinematic/Cut-Scene Audio, Best Dialogue, Best Original Vocal Song – Pop (for the theme song "Pray") and Best Use of Multi-Channel Surround in a Game. At the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Resident Evil 5 was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Dyer was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance.