I liked 5 as a co op experience. Sheva was awful if you weren't playing alongside a friend, however. Maybe they could have a co op campaign as well as a single player experience. Setting is also a key issue that needs work. Something either akin to the mansion/ castle settings, or the modern scientific areas of the series. I never felt the desert was a good setting for a RE game, and the village levels from 4 were my least favorite of that entry.
Also, make the game longer than 5. I didn't feel as though it was very substantial at all. I rented the game, so I didn't feel as though I was cheated out of anything. If I would have payed any price $20 or over I would have been pissed. Although I do like the unlockable aspects of 4 and 5.
The more eccentricities they go for, the better in my opinion. The best scene in resident evil 4 for me was when the zombie pope guy literally killed a man with a spiked tentacle which then retracted under his robes, implying for me that he literally uses his cock as a weapon (I fully admit that my admiration of that scene is immature) . The african setting of 5 didn't have too many eye catching characters. The whole mega yacht fight with that kraken thing was notable, but I felt like it was a really tasteless big budget hollywood remake of the del lago fight from four, which was one of my favorite sections and all they needed was a rowboat and a harpoon, not all these modern warfareesque chain guns and shit). I liked Wesker though, I thought of him as a cheap version of agent smith. My friend and I called him rent-a-smith. All in all, make it more varied than RE5.
I felt as though most of 4 and 5s encounters demanded that you stand and fight, with no real option to run. The tense moments of the game of course are those when you have a chance to run, especially when running is the more practical, safe option.
Also an equally powerful, yet less convienient shotgun might work better for the horror setting. Like a double barrelled shotgun instead of a spas-12. When I had shotgun ammo, I felt like more of a zombie killing badass than a person faced with any real threat of getting overwhelmed by the infected/undead. In fact, I just kept the bolt action rifle for the entire game in four instead of upgrading to the semiauto. Without the sniper scope or the ability to mash the trigger until everything in front of you fell down, it gave you a good sense of vulnerability and "slowness", and I got to feeling like I was in Night of the living dead instead of Planet Terror. A choice like this could have worked well with the shotgun.
It is probably obvious that I haven't actually played any of the games other than 4 or 5. Because of this, I feel as though their over the shoulder/ psuedo arcade feel is "the" resident evil experience. I have looked into the other games though, and the area where I feel they exceeded 4 and 5 would be the story. Not necessarily the presentation or the quality of the script, but the overall corporate intrigue/ conspiracy theory story is more appealing to me than the global terrorism themes of the latter installments in the series. I would like to see something along these lines in six. Apparently "Raccoon City" actually will have these themes, this is one of the reasons I am looking forward to its release.
The zombie dogs of course are the trademark of the series, but I would prefer that they stop getting thrown at you in an "arena deathmatch" kind of fashion. Me and my friend almost went postal over how frustrating it was to have to unload every bit of remaining ammo into what classifies as a normal enemy, with no obvious option of circumventing the fight. I mean, that is like call of duty level. I expect an "action/survival horror" game, yet there is too much emphasis on the action. Like I said earlier, the frightening parts were the ones which gave you a chance of escape instead of forcing you into fighting.
The chainsaw burlap sack guy is a good example. In 4, he was first presented as some freak who was probably on pcp, and I ended up running terrified from him. Later on in 4, and then 5, he kept showing up as an impassible obstacle. The terror turned to frustration very quickly.
In fact, balancing the action and the survival horror aspects could be one of the main improvements in my opinion.
One last thing would be that they remove the online versus mode. To be honest I couldn't see any reason for that to fit into a survival horror game. Keeping the co op would be beneficial though. But don't take out the splitscreen. That is kind of an improvement that could be made to any game released these days however.
