Everyone's seen the trailers, but nobody knows the control system - until now. Resident Evil 5, the next gem in Capcom's Biohazard franchise, is set in rural Africa and has had people excited for months. The demo had two choices of level and I had the opportunity to play both. They were both fairly similar anyway and like the small towns you see in the trailers. Significantly, you can select which control system you would like to use. I tried both systems, so I can explain the basics of both.

The default mechanic echoes the Resident Evil 4 controls, which feel a bit uncomfortable for me. Sure, RE4's controls work well and Leon's lack of agility confined the player into corners and created an excellent horror atmosphere. Character movement in RE5 is very similar, so much so that I felt slightly disappointed because I wanted something new. The second control scheme was far easier to use for me, a seasoned FPS player. Combining the classic Resident Evil controls with modern FPS controls, the alternative mechanic was a success in my eyes. Laser-guided aiming is controlled with the left analogue stick and RT fires either the gun when held in conjunction with the LT button or swipes the knife when the LB button is held. The characters feel much more natural with this scheme and give the player more freedom to run and move. The controls don't give you the liberty that say, Halo 3 does and they still invoke that specific Resident Evil feeling of panic but they don't frustrate me as much as the default RE4 setup does. It would be a wise choice if Capcom decide to include the hybrid dual-stick controls in the final version.

In regard to the actual gameplay, it mirrors the gameplay found in RE4. For a demo level however, there sure were a lot of enemies, including the regenerators from RE4. It was a difficult few minutes just trying to survive, but having a partner help you was useful. Sheva and Chris are not interchangeable with the flick of a button (as far as I could work out), but when I died with Chris, I controlled as Sheva briefly before I died with her. The computer-controlled partner is surprisingly competent and the player has the ability to separately equip each character and communicate between them, as well as quick-locating them on the map. You can help your partner if they are in trouble by kicking or shooting the zombies off of them, and teamwork can be organized between them, such as when Chris gives Sheva a leg up to a high ledge. The demo ended when a large enemy welding a massive axe brought his mighty weapon crashing down onto Chris's skull. The brief demo has given me the impression that RE5 will play in a similar way to RE4, but hopefully a new setting and control mechanic can add new thrills into an already stunning game.