If the demo is any indication of this game's quality, it is definitely going to rock. The 2 player co-op looks like it borrowed the Inventory Exchange system from RE: Outbreak but transferred it to a real-time element. No more hiding from the terror in a convenient pause screen. No more catching your breath. Evolve or die, fuckers!!!!
Item management is going to be key for co-op play because if either character dies, the game ends so you can't just bogart everything you see. You gotta share the goods and let the other player pick up stuff you come across, too.
I'm very curious to see how the money gathering aspect will play out as well. Will the money go into a community pool or will each player have to upgrade their own weapons separately? Since weapons/items can be exchanged between players, I'm going to guess that the upgrade system is specific to the weapon/item and not to the player using it. Still, this will require some thought before just grabbing that cash. If you don't ration it properly, you'll have to stop, trade the weapons to the person that has all teh lewtz and let him/her do all the upgrading and purchasing. Would probably be less annoying to just split it evenly. It really says a lot that Capcom has built in all these persistent co-op elements if you want to play the game efficiently with a friend.
For the longest time, ever since the first game on PSX in fact, I've dreamed of an RE game like this. Multiple players cooperating with one another throughout the environments of the game in order to solve puzzles, retrieve items from remote regions, run healing items and ammo to wounded/weaponless alies holed up in safehouses, cooperate on vehicle missions and so forth. Almost like an MMO, where you have all these different zones and people are running all over the place performing various tasks based on character skillsets and gear to complete the game. Imagine Left 4 Dead but with a vastly more robust game engine and a compelling narrative to make the game more than just online fragging.
When I first heard about RE: Outbreak, I was intrigued by the possibilities but was ulimately let down. It wasn't the game's fault-the Outbreak games are remarkable accomplishments given the technology of the time. The shortcomings of the Outbreak games were largely of my own creation because I wanted them to be so much more than they COULD be. Now, with PS3 and 360 here, we're getting closer and closer to what I feel is the ultimate RE experience. Just think of it: a squad based RE game, storyline based, with mutliple players on co-op. I wonder how the RE universe might have turned out had players been able to control the individual members of Alpha Team and Bravo Team, each of them with their own skillset to solve different puzzles, from the very beginning of the series.
March 13, 2009....YOU CAN'T GET HERE SOON ENOUGH!