Based on the demo...
IMO, resident 5 feels too much like resident evil 4 and not enough like resident evil. Paradoxical? You bet. But seriously. Controls, movement, enemy behavior are all very similar (read as practically identical) to what we've seen before, right up to the zombies charging up within two feet and then stopping dead in their tracks to engage you in a staring contest as you blow their ugly parasite-infested heads off.
With that said, the tense, gritty, frightening atmosphere of resident evil 4 is conspicuously absent. The game supposedly falls into the survival horror genre, but the horror seems to have gone on a vacation and neglected to come back. (It did send a postcard though.) This was one of the fanbase's objections to resident evil 4 as well, but resident evil 5 takes it several steps further, to the point where the game feels just another action oriented third person shooter. Except you can't move while shooting. Not that you need to. Chris is even more of a badass than Leon. But this time around, you also have a partner who heals you up every time you have a life-threatening boo-boo and who can roundhouse kick so many zombies that Chuck Norris would be jealous. The fact that she's easier on the eyes is just salt in the wound.
Sure, the graphics are stunning, and the first time I saw a wooden stall shatter into pieces from one of those steroid-shooting zombie guys swinging his big-ass semi-blunt weapon into it, my jaw dropped.
But that stuff is just eye candy, really. Impressive for a little while. Then it fades into the background.
Prospective buyers, don't get me wrong. The game's not bad. I'll probably buy it myself, eventually, but nothing that I've seen has put me in any particular rush to do so.
Then again, I'm the guy who...
Never finished The Ocarina of Time, or Final Fantasy 7 or Resident Evil 4 or either Gears game. I'm also the guy who complains about how Bioshock and fallout 3 and fable 2 (oh lord, don't get me started on fable 2) could've been so much better than they were. Oh yeah, and Oblivion? Beat the main quest and all the guilds, and came to the following profound conclusion: wow. That sucked.