A solid rehash that cannot be put down.
Resident Evil 4 was my first play into the series. I've watched my bro beat the earlier games in the series, but I personally couldn't tolerate the controls prior to that game. Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely love the lore of this series from the very beginning. When I found out that Wesker was in RE5, I had to buy it. However it took me over a year to get through and finally beat the game. You may ask why I struggled with this game and yet still rate it so high. I'll try to make you understand.
I was obsessed with RE4 to the point that I could run through it and know exactly what enemies were where and maxed out everything on the highest difficulty. If you have done the same recently, I'd advise that you also take a year off from the series before diving into RE5. My reasoning is because most of the enemies/bosses in this game are derivative of those in RE4. The controls are also nearly identical. Some of the encounters have gameplay style twists, but for the most part, you know what you are getting into at one glance. This urked the crap out of me at first and caused me to stop playing. I slowly started playing the game again after some time and got addicted once the story picked up around chapter 4.
However despite my differences with the game, there is little about it that can lower my rating for the game. The controls are solid except for some inconsistencies that occur once covering is a mechanic in the game. The cut scenes are phenomenal. The time taken to capture motion shows highly. I never expected them to spend so much time in polishing the game. The story comes full circle and ties a lot of loose ends abandoned by the plot of RE4. They even go out of their way to include a library of the past events of the series so those that are new or forgot can get caught up. It gives a brief summary of the history of RE 1-3, Code: Veronica, and RE4. After finishing the game, you have the ability to replay any specific chapter, play Versus? (sorry, I have the gold edition now. I forgot if that was DLC), Mercenary Mode, and small additional chapters are available via DLC.
Overall it is a great package that is overshadowed in significance by RE4. Despite that, it is one that fans of the series must play.