All too often I find people pointing the same "issues" with Resident Evil 5 without putting much thought into it. Something akin to “It wasn’t scary enough and not like the old games.” Although I do say in my opinion RE5 wasn't too great also, it’s for more thoughtful reasons and at the same time I can say what RE5 did right. Here is my thoughts one what made RE5 such a dislikable title. I make a lot of comparisons to RE4 because they were built around the same game play, and RE4 is known for being such a great title.
Difficulty - Compared to all other RE's, (and many other Capcom games) RE5 is noticeably easier. I did enjoy the melee moves but the combos and instant kills seemed a bit much. Also you could expect enemies to drop ammo and health when you were low on it. Although that is true for RE4, in 4 there was much more danger in not having an immediate supply of health items because your partner couldn't simply heal you and your knife wasn't as powerful nor could you easily melee kill enemies, and enemies had more instant kill moves on you anyway.
Replaying Stages - This is possibly the biggest problem. Part of the challenge of RE was conserving ammo and searching for hidden items and in RE4 it was searching for treasure and choosing what weapons you specifically wanted to upgrade. RE5's option to replay chapters made it all too easy to gather ammo, money and weapons before continuing their run of the game. While people point out there little survival in RE5, few point out the problem was replaying chapters.
The Weapons - The weapons themselves were fine, the problem was there's no level markings like in RE4 to see how far upgraded they are. In my first run of RE5 I found I just poured money into upgrading firepower of a single weapon. Not really planning out which ones would be more important. Especially in multiplayer when my partner used his own money to upgrade the weapons I didn't use. (Meaning in a fresh Co-op run you get twice as much money to spend, either meaning co-op is easier or single play is harder.) Another issue is the weapons become insanely powerful which made the game even easier. The first set of weapons could carry WAYY too much ammo. Also by-pass reloading via item menu also made the game extra easier, especially in the mercenaries minigame. (which almost seemed to be a must use in order to do well and get S ranks.)
Weapons Aesthetics - These are small small issues, but certainly ticked off a few people. A weird issue I found when starting the game was your handgun's firepower is 150. This made it awkward to calculate how much stronger other weapons were, unlike in RE4 where the starting handguns’ firepower is 1. Also the stats for the weapons are shown in those green bars, which are shown in relation to all other weapons. So you would observe the machine guns and handguns firepower were these very small bars, so you couldn't even visually compare the strength of these guns. Same with capacity which was horribly offsite by the first machine gun going up to 300 ammo. If they simply showed these bars in relation to other weapons of its class, then they would be useful.
Professional Mode – You can tell they didn’t think this through. It’s just more annoying than challenging once you get to the enemies with guns and the Wekser and Jill fight. There was no point to playing it fair, how many of you took infinite ammo weapons to do this mostly for the unlockables?
The Unlockables – If you’re a serious gamer and tried to get a 100% complete file, you probably found this was one of the easiest games to get all the achievements or trophies. You also probably spent a long time replaying chapter to get points to buy all those super expensive infinite ammo upgrades. Then you found the first set of extra costumes (Safari and Clubbin’) to be too ridiculous to play in, and the screen filters just annoying.
You fought and killed Wesker - First off, the whole concept of hiding from Wesker around corners and in the dark to catch him off guard is ridiculous. I think we also agree if Wesker were to die, it should have been mysterious and not by the player. Albeit it took making him OD, fall out of a plane, stabbed in the heart (or some kind of weak spot) from front and back, fall into lava, and getting shot by rockets, but was anyone really satisfied by that?
The Plot - Only real issue with the plot was Wesker didn't do anything with all those viruses he stole. I am indifferent to the Alex and the Wesker children plot. I know of few people who argue the Wekser children gave Wesker a background which made him less mysterious which made him less likeable as a character. On the opposite side of my argument, I am pleased RE5 had a plot during game play unlike most all the other REs.
The Mini-game - RE has a good set of pretty difficult mini games which let you unlock some goodies in the main game. RE5's mercenaries was easy and didn't unlock anything. Seemed to just be supplementary multiplayer fun.
Comments on other things
The “It wasn’t scary” thing – When RE5 was announced, I didn’t formulate in my head “If it isn’t scary then I won’t like it.” I don’t see why this is an issue, all the other RE games loose their scare factor after their first play through and become more for the challenge. Also general comments about the series going downhill; it’s worth mentioning RE4 which was before it was pleasingly scary, the first game after RE5 was Darkside Chronicles, which was an attempt to be creepy, and the next canon RE game Revelations is meant to be scary (and appears so by the trailers.) So I don’t see what concern and hate is for
The “I like the classic games better” thing – RE4 was a milestone and redefined some mechanics in 3rd person shooters. It’s fine to say you love the classic control setup, but to say you want another game like that is a bit unreasonable. From RE1 in 1996 to Outbreak 2 in 2005, you had those plus Directors Cut, 2, 3, Code Veronica, CV X, Remake of RE1, and Outbreak 1. I also like to say Dino Crises 1 was basically another RE title due to how similar it is. (Try it, I recommend it)
If you’re a fan of the series, then you should like what the series puts out. If you dislike a single installment, at least use constructive criticism to explain why you dislike it rather than some made up standard such as “It wasn’t scary enough.”