Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5
Cover art of the game, featuring Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar
Developer(s)Capcom
Publisher(s)Capcom
Director(s)
  • Yasuhiro Anpo
  • Kenichi Ueda
Producer(s)
Designer(s)Jiro Taoka
Programmer(s)Soji Seta
Writer(s)
  • Haruo Murata
  • Yoshiaki Hirabayashi
  • Kenichi Ueda
Composer(s)Kota Suzuki
SeriesResident Evil
EngineMT Framework
Platform(s)
Release
March 5, 2009
  • PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
    • JP: March 5, 2009
    • AU: March 12, 2009
    • NA: March 13, 2009
    • EU: March 13, 2009
    Gold Edition
    • JP: February 18, 2010 (PS3)
    • NA: March 9, 2010
    • AU: March 11, 2010
    • EU: March 12, 2010
    Windows
    • JP: September 17, 2009
    • AU: September 17, 2009
    • NA: September 18, 2009
    • EU: September 18, 2009
    Gold Edition
    • WW: March 26, 2015
    Shield Android TV
    • WW: May 19, 2016
    PlayStation 4, Xbox One
    • WW: June 28, 2016
    Nintendo Switch
    • WW: October 29, 2019
Genre(s)Third-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Resident Evil 5 is a 2009 third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. It is a major installment in the Resident Evil series, and was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in March 2009 and for Windows in September 2009. It was re-released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2016. The plot involves an investigation of a terrorist threat by Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance agents 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 of Resident Evil 5 is similar to that of the previous installment, though it is the first in the series designed for two-player cooperative gameplay. It has also been considered the first game in the main series 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, and it was the first video game to use a virtual camera system. 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 a positive reception, despite some criticism for its control scheme. The game received divided opinions on whether aspects of it were racist; an investigation by the British Board of Film Classification found the complaints were unsubstantiated. It is the best-selling game of the Resident Evil franchise when not including remakes, and the original version remained the best-selling individual Capcom release until March 2018, when it was outsold by Monster Hunter: World. A sequel, Resident Evil 6, was released in 2012.